My first Metal-smithing project!

I have completed my first project for my metal-smithing class.

They are NOT perfect, and I'll look at them in a year and want to make tons of changes. But right now, I'm feeling very satisfied.

First, I drew a flower shape on paper, kind of like a daisy or a sunflower. Then I drew the cut-outs inside the petals.

Then, I taped the flower drawing onto metal and cut it out using a jeweler's saw....














Which sounds so simple when I write it, but is torture. I've now been told two pieces of helpful advice for using a jeweler's saw. The first is, "Better learn to enjoy the process, 'cuz you'll be doing it a lot." The second bit of advice was to treat the saw like a baby bird... Gently, and with very little pressure.

The third step was to file and sand the sharp edges and make them pretty. Which took forever.... and ever.... Then I pickled them in an acid to clean them.

Next, I annealed the flowers. Which means I heated them with a torch to soften the metal so that I could work with it. After that, I was able to gently shape them into lovely little flower buds.







Finally, I used all my other jewelry designer skills, and turned them into pearl earrings.