Silver jewellery making – Everything you need to know

Silver jewellery making is understandably a very popular form of jewellery making, as the possibilities are almost endless and it’s always in high demand. Here we’ve put together a guide on all things Silver jewellery making to help you along your journey.

Definition

Silver jewellery making (AKA Silversmithing) is the process of making jewellery out of Silver. It is closely related to making jewellery out of other precious metals such as Gold, although the metals do need to be treated and worked with differently.

5 steps to Silver jewellery making

There are five basic steps to working with Silver:

1. Saw the metal into the shape you desire
2. File the metal
3. Work the metal (by forging, hammering, texturing, dapping and/or doming it) to further shape it
4. Solder the metal (join the precious and semi-precious metals such as Silver, Gold, brass, and copper)
5. Finish the metal (by texturing, burnishing, buffing, polishing and patinating it)

What you need for Silver jewellery making

• A hand torch

• A soldering probe/pick

• A soldering board

• A ring mandrel

• A rawhide mallet

• Metal files: Half-round files, flat files and needle files

• Copper tongs/tweezers

• Pickle

• A ceramic or glass pot for your pickle

• Flush cutters

• Needle nose pliers

• Round nose pliers

• Parallel jaw pliers

• Flux

• Silver solder

• Silver wire/sheet/chips/paste

• Polishing cloths or a mechanical tumbler

• A mask

Silver jewellery making projects to get you started

We hope you’ve enjoyed our article about all things Silver jewellery making. If you have any questions or want to know more, get in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Or click here to view our full Beginner’s Guide To Working With Silver. We’d also love to see what you’ve been making so please share pictures of your creations with us too, tagging Cooksongold!

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