{"id":9529,"date":"2015-03-10T05:00:23","date_gmt":"2015-03-10T12:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michellejolin.com\/wordpress\/?p=9529"},"modified":"2015-03-09T21:45:37","modified_gmt":"2015-03-10T04:45:37","slug":"new-thing-to-do-3479","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=9529","title":{"rendered":"New thing to do #3,479"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tonight I started a class on turning silver into jewelry. Fabrication, to be specific. There will be very little casting, and a lot of welding, cutting, milling and whatever goes into putting hunks of precious metal together.<\/p>\n

Last night I did several things for the first time–I used a propane torch and an acetyline torch. I melted silver and poured it into a mold. I quenched it. I squished it into wire and I annealed it.<\/p>\n

I neither screamed, fainted or flinched while lighting and using the torches. The propane torch made a nifty noise like a jet engine when I turned it way up. Kinda liked it.  Some of you might be wondering about that, because having experienced being on fire in the past you might assume that I have a very rational fear of it. It’s true. I am very uncomfortable with fire. So much so that I need to challenge myself now and then. Push the boundaries.<\/p>\n

It was fine, which is good because in the next six weeks I’ll be using the torches quite a bit.<\/p>\n

This is what I ended up with tonight:<\/p>\n

Edit<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"\"\ufeff<\/p>\n

Yes. It’s a hunk of sterling silver. About 18 grams of it. Pretty exciting, right? Next week I’m going to make it into a longer, skinnier hunk of sterling silver. Maybe learn how to weld. This might be a good time to think about what I want the silver to become.<\/p>\n

A bracelet, perhaps….<\/p>\n

Four out of ten students in the class are left-handed.  Do you suppose that’s meaningful?  Are lefties more apt to be into creative endeavors?  Is it a big coincidence? I dunno. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tonight I started a class on turning silver into jewelry. Fabrication, to be specific. There will be very little casting, and a lot of welding, cutting, milling and whatever goes into putting hunks of precious metal together. Last night I did several things for the first time–I used a propane torch and an acetyline torch. … Continue reading New thing to do #3,479<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-words"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7lr3R-2tH","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9599,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=9599","url_meta":{"origin":9529,"position":0},"title":"Too distracted for writing…","author":"Michelle","date":"March 18, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Why am I distracted?Oh, for several reasons.\u00a0I have a new mattress. I really want to go to bed and try it out. It may be that I am in bed at a very unreasonably early hour doing just that. \u00a0Clean sheets and a new mattress are pretty hard to beat.\u00a0Maybe\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Words"","block_context":{"text":"Words","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10294,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=10294","url_meta":{"origin":9529,"position":1},"title":"Where there’s fire, there’s..wait, how does that go?","author":"Michelle","date":"July 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Metal smithing, lesson four: playing with fire. Soldering with big scary torches. Acetylene. Yes, they still scare me even after the other class I took. Don't get me wrong--I can use one, but I need a seriously Big Brave Facade in place to do it. Instructor: I thought you said\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Random thoughts"","block_context":{"text":"Random thoughts","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=20"},"img":{"alt_text":"image","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/michellejolin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/image-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10488,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=10488","url_meta":{"origin":9529,"position":2},"title":"Metalsmithing summary","author":"Michelle","date":"October 6, 2015","format":"gallery","excerpt":"Here are the things I learned to make this Spring and Summer. Bear in mind that some of these are just learning exercises. And yes, that is a Sea Monkey. It was an exercise in using a jeweler's saw. I think he is very fetching.\u00a0 Techniques? Simple soldering\/braze welding, bezel\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Random thoughts"","block_context":{"text":"Random thoughts","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=20"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/michellejolin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/image10-e1440381838257.jpg?fit=500%2C616&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9814,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=9814","url_meta":{"origin":9529,"position":3},"title":"How to make a bracelet","author":"Michelle","date":"April 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"First, get some silver. Apply fire. A lot of fire. Then, when it's all nice and melty, pour it into a mold. It will look something like this: \u00a0 \u00a0 Then stretch it out. It will take a lot of pressure and some more fire. Eventually, you will have something\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Words"","block_context":{"text":"Words","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"IMG_2711.JPG","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/michellejolin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/IMG_2711-300x224.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10400,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=10400","url_meta":{"origin":9529,"position":4},"title":"In which I make a circle","author":"Michelle","date":"August 5, 2015","format":"gallery","excerpt":"So, you take this flat piece of silver with a design sawed into it. Then you bend it into a not all that circular shape, making sure the ends are flush. Then you apply fire and solder to make it into a continuous circle-ish shape. You are not overly concerned\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Random thoughts"","block_context":{"text":"Random thoughts","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=20"},"img":{"alt_text":"IMG_0303.JPG","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/michellejolin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/IMG_0303-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10359,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=10359","url_meta":{"origin":9529,"position":5},"title":"How to make a silver ring with a pierced design","author":"Michelle","date":"July 22, 2015","format":"image","excerpt":"Two words: drawing and tracing. Then a couple more: drilling and sawing. \u00a0The holes you see in the picture are how you thread the saw blade through. Two more words: filing and sanding. Two more: bending and soldering. Then, yes. Sanding and polishing. \u00a0A lot of sanding. A lot of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Random thoughts"","block_context":{"text":"Random thoughts","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=20"},"img":{"alt_text":"How to make a ring","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/michellejolin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/image7-e1437542657846.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9529\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}