As I bask in my accomplishment....

[lillian13]

cufflinks final 2
Originally uploaded by LillianB

They're DONE!

I spent almost 4 hours grinding and polishing and swearing at these, and they're finally done! I think they turned out spiffy. There are a couple more pictures on flickr. I'm definitely adding these into the portfolio.

To recap:

1) I flattened an ingot to make the 16 ga silver for the bases.
2) I soldered, using a very hard (high-temp) solder, without destroying anything, including the initials and bezels.
3) Laid a pattern on the background, domed the main pieces (with the bezel and initials on already).
4) Assembled, with more soldering.
5) Three layers of enamel, with four firings in the kiln (which has no window, so I was guessing on the time).
6) Grinding and polishing.
7) Careful bending of the stem.

DONE.

Comments

[dremiel.livejournal.com]

Lovely! These came out really great. Is the new space working out?

[lillian13.livejournal.com]

I'll move the table from David over on Saturday, and I'll bring in O2 and propane in a couple of weeks and set up the torch. I think it's going to work out great.