Last year, I attempted to make a pair of pressed and stamped earrings. The process goes something like this: Anneal the sheet, cut the sheet, place it on the die, put the die in the hydraulic press and push with all your might and squeeze sterling silver into a pretty shape. Sounds simple right? Well, it should be but it is also easy to screw it up. And, since you need to make 2 similar shapes for earrings, you need to repeat the steps carefully. With a hydraulic press, it usually takes 2-4 attempts to get a really, nice impression. So, I stamped the sheet and on the 2nd attempt, it moved slightly in the die and I got a double impression (or a ghosting effect). Crap, there goes that piece of
sterling silver and I have to start over!
In my frustration, I took that ghostly, double-stamped earring and threw it (literally) on my workbench where it sat there in its shame and abandonment for about a year (except when my cat, Pearl knocked it on the floor).
Fast forward to this week, and I decide to make earrings. Repeating the process above, I double stamped again! What the heck? Am I a moron jeweler or what? I start to throw it onto my workbench and then I remembered the lonely earring on my bench and guess what? THEY MATCHED! <insert happy dance here>
So I finished them up, added a really pretty little spiny oyster cab and I love them! Love them so much, I’m keeping them! So, what’s the point of this blog? Don’t give up on your mistakes in jewelry making. Learn from them, keep them around and make them into masterpieces!