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While feeding my historical jewelry book acquiring/reading obsession, I came across the notion of acrostic jewelry, a style that is based on the idea that words can be spelled using the first letter of a gemstone's name. Sentiments such as "Regard” could be expressed in a piece like the ca. 1879 ring at left featuring Ruby, Emerald, Garnet, Amethyst, Ruby, and Diamond.
For more background on acrostic jewelry, check out Shadow Dogs Design's post on the subject.
I decided to make a piece of acrostic jewelry for my wife which spelled out her name.
For more background on acrostic jewelry, check out Shadow Dogs Design's post on the subject.
I decided to make a piece of acrostic jewelry for my wife which spelled out her name.
First, the piece for my wife.
I decided to go with an industrial/steampunk theme since she's sort of into that. The concept for the setting was one of copper and brass, with all cold connections using mechanical fasteners - no soldering allowed!
Reminiscent, perhaps, of riveted machines from a bygone age or one still to come?.
I decided to go with an industrial/steampunk theme since she's sort of into that. The concept for the setting was one of copper and brass, with all cold connections using mechanical fasteners - no soldering allowed!
Reminiscent, perhaps, of riveted machines from a bygone age or one still to come?.
I used amethyst, tourmaline, rhodolite garnet, iolite, sapphire, and peridot. The pictures below are only examples of the type of gemstone. It's really hard to take good pictures of gemstones, so I didn't try to photograph the actual stones I used.
Through a combination of orders from Rio Grande, various eBay suppliers (quality was a bit sketchy), and previous purchases at the Tucson Gem Shows over the years, I managed to assemble the necessary 3mm round faceted stones for the project. I was trying for as much purple and green as possible.
Through a combination of orders from Rio Grande, various eBay suppliers (quality was a bit sketchy), and previous purchases at the Tucson Gem Shows over the years, I managed to assemble the necessary 3mm round faceted stones for the project. I was trying for as much purple and green as possible.
Because of the relatively well defined shape of a round faceted stone, I wanted to try to trap or clamp the stones in the setting rather than using prongs or bezels as in a more traditional setting. This idea is very loosely related to tension setting, as shown in the ring above. The idea worked, but I did have to sort through all of the stones to find the most closely matched set. |
For the final design, I settled on a line of stones sandwiched between two plates that were "bolted" together. I made a little cartoon in Adobe Illustrator to figure out the dimensions. Note that it never occurred to me that the design looked like a traffic light...until the piece was finished and my friend Greg suggested it. Thanks a lot, Greg. Now all I can see when I look at it is a traffic light... |
Now that I had a design, I needed very, very small fasteners. Google came through as usual and I found Scale Hardware of Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Scale Hardware is run by Bob Breslauer and he makes most of the products he sells right there in his own shop in FL. You've got to love a world where you can buy a package of 0.5mm diameter (0.020") hex bolts for a few bucks.
Bob is a very helpful guy and when you order something apparently stupid (say a bunch of nuts and bolts and a wrench that fits none of them...), Bob will take the time to drop you a note to either have you confirm that you are indeed an idiot or to help you change your order to what you wanted all along.
Bob is a very helpful guy and when you order something apparently stupid (say a bunch of nuts and bolts and a wrench that fits none of them...), Bob will take the time to drop you a note to either have you confirm that you are indeed an idiot or to help you change your order to what you wanted all along.
My first order to Scale Hardware was for some 1.2mm x 8mm brass hex bolts, 1.2mm brass hex nuts to match, and eventually (see above re: I'm an idiot) the proper tiny 2mm socket wrench to use with them.
The hex heads on the 1.2mm bolts turned out to be far too huge (?!?) in proportion to the 3mm stones. |
The wrench for the 0.6mm hex nuts may no longer available from Scale Hardware. I'm not completely surprised as it was somewhat difficult to use (see below). |
I ordered some 0.6mm brass hex nuts and 0.6mm x 6mm brass hex bolts and managed to get the right wrench on the first try. The heads on the 0.6mm bolts looked good in relation to the size of the stones and one 1.2mm bolt looked like a good choice for the bail from which to suspend the pendant on a chain.
All images at left from scalehardware.com |
Time for some fabrication.
First, I cut two 6mm x 32mm rectangles from XXX mm thick copper sheet. The through holes for the bolts need to be precisely aligned between the top and bottom plate and the only way I know to do that is to drill both plates at the same time. I sandwiched the plates together with white glue and a piece of copy paper (a trick from Alan Revere's trove of such things).
To make it easier to see the layout lines, I coated the top surface with blue Sharpie (lazy man's Dykem) and laid out the holes using dividers:
First, I cut two 6mm x 32mm rectangles from XXX mm thick copper sheet. The through holes for the bolts need to be precisely aligned between the top and bottom plate and the only way I know to do that is to drill both plates at the same time. I sandwiched the plates together with white glue and a piece of copy paper (a trick from Alan Revere's trove of such things).
To make it easier to see the layout lines, I coated the top surface with blue Sharpie (lazy man's Dykem) and laid out the holes using dividers:
- two rows of eight 0.7mm holes about 1.1mm from the long edges of the plates
- one 1.3mm hole for the larger bolt up at the top on the centerline of the plate.
- a centerline row of holes through which the tables of the stones would be visible in the top plate and into which the culets of the stones would be trapped in the bottom plate. These obviously can't be drilled to their final diameter until I separate the two plates.
Layout complete, I got out my sharpest center punch and a light hammer and located all the holes for drilling. I drilled the two rows of eight 0.7mm holes and the one 1.3mm hole to final diameter. Then I drilled 1mm pilot holes down the centerline. I then split the two plates apart with a bench knife, and cleaned off the paper and glue with a sanding stick. Finally, I widened the centerline holes in the top plate to 2.75mm with a succession of larger drills and a setting burr of the exact 2.75mm diameter.
All the holes now drilled, I realized I had a problem. The problem was that I was working on a very small scale project that relied on geometrical precision for part of its appeal. So, center punching almost on the intersection of the layout lines isn't good enough. You must center punch on the intersection. Otherwise, the spacing is wonky and the piece looks awful.
All the holes now drilled, I realized I had a problem. The problem was that I was working on a very small scale project that relied on geometrical precision for part of its appeal. So, center punching almost on the intersection of the layout lines isn't good enough. You must center punch on the intersection. Otherwise, the spacing is wonky and the piece looks awful.
What to do? First I tried just using better magnification (higher power Optivisor) and redoing the layout. But that didn't help enough to get exactly on the marks. Maybe it's not just about being able to see what you are doing. Maybe it's also placing the punch properly.
I searched the various machining forums like PracticalMachinist.com, HomeShopMachinist.net, etc. for ideas and learned about a tool called an optical center punch. Jackpot!
I searched the various machining forums like PracticalMachinist.com, HomeShopMachinist.net, etc. for ideas and learned about a tool called an optical center punch. Jackpot!
Optical center punches use an acrylic magnifying rod (with crosshairs or a center spot on the end) that is placed in a holder over the spot you want to punch. Looking straight down through the rod you see a magnified image that allows you to precisely line up on the intersection of your layout lines. After you get lined up, you withdraw the magnifying rod, replace it with a center punch that is also a close fit in the holder, and tap the punch to make your mark. This sounded like exactly what I wanted so I ordered one made by Flexbar from Amazon. The tool arrived a few days later and after a few tries to get the hang of it, it worked like a charm.
A side note on customer service at Flexbar. My punch set came with a defective center spot magnifier. It only took a single three minute phone call to Flexbar for a new one to make its way to me free of charge. It's not easy getting it right every time in manufacturing. What sets suppliers apart is how they act after something goes wrong.
Optical center punch in hand, I started over on the project and quickly got back having all the holes drilled, this time in the right places.
I put small chamfers on the underside of the top plate holes to help locate and retain the stones.
A side note on customer service at Flexbar. My punch set came with a defective center spot magnifier. It only took a single three minute phone call to Flexbar for a new one to make its way to me free of charge. It's not easy getting it right every time in manufacturing. What sets suppliers apart is how they act after something goes wrong.
Optical center punch in hand, I started over on the project and quickly got back having all the holes drilled, this time in the right places.
I put small chamfers on the underside of the top plate holes to help locate and retain the stones.
Now comes the tricky part. I needed to get 7 stones properly lined up and captured between the two plates and then get 16 tiny bolts into their holes and drawn up tight to hold it all together. This is one of those situations that my wife likes to tell me are "opportunities to practice your patience." You might infer from this that at times I am not great at patience...I felt like I was playing the longest game of reverse Pick-Up Sticks ever.
Anyway, after much fiddling and fussing, I got it all together. Handling the bolts was actually pretty easy, compared to the hex nuts. The 0.6mm nuts are so tiny that the opening in the hex wrench is not all that easy to distinguish from a circle. Many times I had to coax a cockeyed, wedged hex nut out of the end of the wrench. It's lucky that none ever became stuck permanently. I prefer not to think about the amount of time I spent trying to find dropped hex nuts that are only slightly larger than grains of sand.
Anyway, after much fiddling and fussing, I got it all together. Handling the bolts was actually pretty easy, compared to the hex nuts. The 0.6mm nuts are so tiny that the opening in the hex wrench is not all that easy to distinguish from a circle. Many times I had to coax a cockeyed, wedged hex nut out of the end of the wrench. It's lucky that none ever became stuck permanently. I prefer not to think about the amount of time I spent trying to find dropped hex nuts that are only slightly larger than grains of sand.
Before I assembled the piece for the last time, I put the final finish on the plates with 3M polishing papers.
Then I gave them a coat of Renaissance Wax. If you are not using Renaissance Wax to protect metal surfaces from tarnishing, you are missing out. |
An image of the back of the finished piece will go here....as soon as I figure out a way to take decent pictures of small shiny stuff.
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One the piece was fully assembly, I cut the bolts (nearly) flush with the hex nuts and put a dot of CA glue on each one to retain it and to soften the feel of the back of the piece. I'm not super happy with the way this came out. Maybe some day I'll go back and file the bolts closer to flush than they are now.
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I had to thread the piece on the chain and then install the 1.2mm bolt as there is just barely enough clearance for even a very small diameter chain. Since the predominant metal in the design is copper, I decided a rose gold-filled chain from Rio Grande would look cool.
An image of the finished piece will go here....as soon as I figure out a way to take decent pictures of small shiny stuff.
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And that's one acrostic traffic light pendant complete.
In hindsight, if I had it to do over again I would use thicker plates. Thicker plates would make the pendant more durable, which is a real concern for this design. The stones aren't that secure. Also, the XX mm copper sheet was easy to distort by over tightening the bolts. I never would have thought that brass 0.6mm bolts with 0.1mm pitch threads would be that strong. |