Hi all,

Toying with the idea of making my girlfriend a cuff bangle. I am quite happy making stuff, but never done any actual jewellery before.

Terrible idea? Can a half decent job be done with standard workshop tools (saws, files, buffing wheel etc)?

I’m looking to just start with something like this;

And shape it a little, maybe a simple design on the face, pretty minimal design.

Where is best to buy a decent silver blank from?

Ta, Duane.

It should be easy to make such a thing, you can buy silver from Cooksonsgold dot com in the shape you want and then smooth the edges etc.

Silver is lovely to work with, very forgiving and not overly expensive.

Good luck !

I have made a few rings from old coins, using general workshop tools.

If you count glueing a stone of some sort into a holder on a chain in Doc Rock’s Geology lessons, then yes.

I’ve got a friend who makes Snap-On spanner bracelets, and it’s a lot more involved than I imagined it to be.

hey you what would be a good idea….. ok maybe not 😉

Yes, straightforward. If you want it to remain in shape it would need to be reasonably thick silver e.g above 1.2 mm, preferably above 1.5mm.

The sheet usually arrives fully annealed (soft) so the act of shaping it should work harden sufficiently for it to have some ‘spring’ to stay on the wrist

Interesting thread… I’ve not done any jewelry making before but it’s inspired me to look into it a bit further

thanks

The hardest thing is probably getting the flowing, smooth curve without any shaping mandrels.
Have to be inventive.

Thanks for the replies all. Had a quick look on cooksongold, couldn’t see any wide bracelets like the above pic? Any other suggestions on places to look?

Ta,
Duane

An old colleague of mine starting making jewellery as a hobby. Turned out he was quite good at it and it became this:
When hobbies start paying

Phwoar! Fab website!

I helped a friend design and make a range of Guys jewellery and a funkier Womens stuff.
Check out Charlie Smith Bespoke Jewellery

HERE

Yeah, sort of, but nothing that amazing. A cuff bracelet like that one in the photo shouldn’t be too difficult to make, it’s just getting hold of a strip of silver of the right dimensions and bending it, which isn’t that hard to do. Rounding the corners off only needs a fine file, a cheap set of needle files would do the job, or even a quality nail-file; I’ve got a diamond-coated one that I bought from Boots many years ago, that gets used for all sorts of filing and smoothing duties.
They don’t do diamond ones any more, but you can get sapphire ones. Needle files would be better, much stiffer, then if you want a ‘brushed’ finish, just use a green pot-scourer.
These are my only efforts, and it’s the shark-tooth in each case:

The top one was a bit ambitious, I bought the necklace many years ago, then found the tiger shark tooth on a stall somewhere, got a foot or so of 1mm silver wire from a mate who’s a goldsmith, and bent a piece with flat and round-nosed pliers, until I got the shape I wanted around the tooth, so that it hangs down from around the centre bead.
The other two teeth are 35 million-yo fossil teeth, clearly ancestors to modern tiger sharks, I just carefully bent some wire around the gum-line then epoxied it in place.
The bottom one is hung from a silver watch chain I bought from an antique shop in Bath in the 70’s, originally it had an ivory heart hung from it, ‘cos Phil Lynott wore one much the same, but as I got older, it got too tight to wear, and I couldn’t find any chain to match, or get any made to extend it. Then I found an old thin silver ring, bent it into a sort of triangle, got some thick silver jump-rings from my mate to attach it to the ends of the chain, and hung the shark tooth from the triangle. It’s worn continually now, I hardly ever take it off.
Fun to do with very limited facilities, the bracelet would actually be dead simple compared to the phaff that top tooth turned out to be.
Good luck, it’s nice to be able to make something yourself, even if it’s simple, just makes it that bit more special.

Yep, loads, thousands of rings, bracelets, earrings, cufflinks and everything else in between.
I was a jeweller and model maker for 25 years, didn’t realise until i left for pastures new that it was the best job in the world.
Well, apart from being Jessica Ennis Hills Physio.