| One summer, between foundation college and | | | | the silver flux. Wearing an apron to protect your |
| university I worked for an independent jeweller making | | | | clothes, you lay out the raw silver rings onto a heat |
| silver rings by hand for sale in National Trust centres | | | | proof asbestos board in rows of ten and add the flux |
| and small gift shops. Now I thought each ring would | | | | to the join of each ring. Moving carefully along each |
| take ages to make, and you'd start and completely | | | | ring, you heat the silver ring up using a circular motion |
| finish one ring before beginning another, how wrong I | | | | until its molten hot but not melting, once you see a |
| was. The silver ring making process was a lot more | | | | silver flash the flux has melted and bonded with the |
| organised than that to make sure output was | | | | silver. After the two ends are fused together using |
| profitable and the stocks were kept high enough for | | | | tongs you drop the ring into boric acid to pickle and |
| unexpected demand. | | | | clean away the flux. Rinse them in water afterwards. |
| The first part of the process is turning the basic silver | | | | The next step with your batch of silver rings is to |
| wire bought in large rolls of different weights into ring | | | | reshape them using a soft hammer and mandrel, sand |
| shapes. This is done using a special steel rod shaped | | | | away any rough edges then polish them up in barrels |
| like a very long taper. The raw silver wire is secured | | | | full of ball bearings over night. Needless to say the |
| tightly at both ends and then using a twisting handle at | | | | whole process is absolutely fascinating but needs a lot |
| the other end of the vice it is turned and wrapped | | | | of patience, dexterity, attention to detail and time. Each |
| tightly into a spiral until each turn of the spiral is as | | | | silver ring was only worth 2 or 3 pence in reality and |
| close to a ring shape as possible. The tapering is to | | | | sold for between £1.75 and £3.50 in the shops, but |
| make sure you end up with several rings of different | | | | as a trainee silversmith you were only paid 10 pence a |
| sizes to cater for a variety of finger sizes. | | | | ring for all the effort. Churning out 200 rings a day only |
| Once the spiral of silver is cut down the middle leaving | | | | paid £20 but the faster you worked the more you |
| several un-joined silver loops you next need to learn | | | | could earn. |
| how to hold a jeweller's solder safely, and how to use | | | | |