Hinged Locket

This is the final project from Stage 5 of the Silver program at Jewellery Training Solutions. Woohoo! I’m half way done with the program! Next stages are mostly rings, which will be fun. I had so much fun making this locket! I decided I really like it and need to keep it for myself, after putting a picture of my kids in it.

What were the challenges?

I had the most difficult time with getting the hinge soldered on when making this. Took me several times to get it right.

Where could I improve?

I thought I had a nice polish on the piece, but then when I started photographing I realized that there were still very fine scratch marks. I had some solder overflow on the inside as well. While I cleaned it up as much as I could, it’s still visible. I have yet to figure out the best way to clean up excess solder in hard to reach locations. Also, there are a couple of gaps between the twisted wire and the locket body.

What did I learn?

I learned how to make the catch for the locket, got great hinge practice, and got better at making tubing. I learned how to reduce the width of a thin strip of metal in the rolling mill. Also, I learned how to dome an oval and get the edges flat to solder to a backpate - I’ve always had issues with that in the past.