Putting words into practice

Last week, I blogged about refining metal and why I feel that using every piece of scrap is important. This week, I want to share a piece that was made with this exact philosophy.

I had an awkwardly shaped piece of scrap that had been hanging around the bench for some time. It had been cut out between two oval bezels, so it had long, thin arms and a narrow central part. I thought I could use it for the backplate on a small pendant, but that would leave all the arms as scrap. I didn't like that idea.

Then, it spoke to me (yes, all metalworkers are nutjobs who listen not only to metal but stones as well). It said "I want to fly!" I could see the vague outline of wings, but it was still not enough for me. Then, as I was looking through my photo archives, I came across this image:

Perfect! I could see exactly how my little piece of scrap would fit. Of course, I altered the shape considerably (it is called artistic license, you know), but it all started here.

After refining the shape somewhat, soldering the hair pick and giving it a nice matte finish and burnished edges, my little butterfly was ready to fly off:

Jewelry making the green way

One of the hypes for ecofriendly jewelry today is recycled silver. Some suppliers even sell 100% recycled silver at a premium. I think it is overhyped.

First of all, nearly all jewelers carefully save scrap and send it in to be refined. Industry does this as well. With the price of silver, this is simple good sense. All this silver is refined and resold. Buying 100% recycled silver will not lead to more silver being recycled, simply because most of it already is. The difference between scrap bought and refined silver sold is newly mined silver. If more people buy 100% recycled, then the "ordinary" silver will have a higher percentage of newly mined. But the total mined won't change because of this.

While most people are aware of the environmental impact of metal mining, not everyone realizes that recycling old metal is hardly a walk in the park, as Hans Meevis describes in his blog. Refining silver is similar, although different acids are used. Yup - a lot of chemicals are used, a lot of byproducts and a lot of energy are used. And check out how much copper is necessary - that copper is mined as well. Even though it is a lot cheaper than gold or silver, getting the copper out of the ground is still very high impact.

Fused pieces using scrap

So what is a jeweler who wants to minimize environmental impact to do? In my view, the most responsible approach is to reduce metal waste as much as possible. This has become a mantra in my work. Like patterning for sewing, I fit all the metal pieces I need to cut so that the least waste is generate. I carefully save scraps, which can be used for a small bezel, a bail, a decoration or for making shot. The pieces that are too weirdly shaped, I save for fusing projects.

The granules in this pendant were made from scraps of fine silver

I even use the fine metal filings from shaping and finishing metal to create lovely and interesting textures. To do this, I must make sure the filings are very clean, so that is another bench practice I have made a part of my routine. All surfaces are cleaned, small bits of charcoal and sandpaper are always removed and the small piles of filings are saved at the end of each day or if I start working with a different material.

These textures are created with filings that would, usually, be sent as scrap

Finishing is probably the great hidden way of wasting metal. I have been told that as much as 10% of the total weight of metal in a piece is removed during sanding and polishing. This is also the hardest metal to recycle, since it is very, very fine dust that will usually just disperse around the studio (which reminds me: people, wear a breathing mask while polishing!). The best way is to avoid adding marks and dents to the metal which will require filing, sanding and polishing metal away. I also explore a lot of matte and textured finishes which, while more labor intensive, also don't require removing a lot of metal.

Cheers!

Making soup

I don't think I have done a food post before. But I do, on occasion, head over to the kitchen side of the shared kitchen/studio. Since I am in the middle of a Southern hemisphere winter, a nice pot of soup would be just perfect. Looking around, I had arracacha roots, plenty of carrots and a gorgeous yellow bell pepper, which would make a lovely golden soup. Good, hearty and nice to look at.

First, arracacha roots. They are a delicious, low calorie, high fiber tuber. After they are cooked, they have an almost creamy consistency and a sweet, nutty taste. And, yes, they are bright yellow. Try them.

Back to the soup. All the veggies were roughly chopped and spread out on a roasting pan. Fortunately, I had an extra carrot, since raw carrot slices are my favourite healthy snack (I won't go into the unhealthy snacks just now).

Then, a drizzle of olive oil, plenty of garlic chunks, rosemary, thyme, sage, ground black pepper and a little salt were sprinkled. I just walk over to the herb planter and see which ones need a quick pruning. Since my rosemary bush is intent on taking over the world, I eat a lot of rosemary.

Into the preheated oven it goes!

Then, when everything is soft and ready, into the stock pan it went, along with chicken stock. Everything was pureed and minor adjustments were made, adding a little more stock if necessary and correcting salt and pepper. Perfect!

I love the bright, sunny colour. My last soup adventure had both broccoli and carrots, so, while very tasty, it looked like brownish, greenish sludge.

Enjoy!