brooch the hawk2
welding steel embossed-heat oxidized-copper plated, brazed brass, silver, silver solder, brass, copper, lapis lazuli crushed, gold flakes, iridescent glitter, epoxy

brooch "the hawk"

 

brooch "the Hawk"
welding steel, brazed brass, silver, silver solder, brass, copper, garnet, carnelian, lapis lazuli crushed, epoxy

"...There’s a hawk high in the heavens
A truly magnificent bird
He waits on wings of silver
To bring the glorious word
And he flies, he flies alone
Yes he flies, he flies alone"

 

 

brazed brass inlay brooch, copper plated

I tried new things on this brooch. The brass stripes on the right side are brazed inlays. I carved out the oxidized steel , fluxed it and brazed brass onto it. The oxide layer prevents to a certain grade that everything around the hollow space is brazed also.
But anyway the piece has to be grinded and sanded down after brazing, until everything is even. Then it has to be oxidized again.
On the left side I plated the sanded steel with copper plating solution. Works very good on steel.

This brooch has to be changed a little bit tomorrow. Some things I realized only when I looked close at the photo.

New version:

brazed steel ring with Spinel

steel and brass brazed and soldered, spinel synth. 3mm

To avoid rusting of the steel on the skin I had to think about a method. I choose brass as an inside ring for the steel outside. Brass tarnishes the skin only a little bit, and after a while it doesn`t do it almost no more at all (strange phenomenon, which is not only observed by myself. Other people describe it too.
I couldn`t find a good explanation for this up to now. It is about the same with copper. When you are sick it starts tarnishing again. This might come from sweating and higher body temperature.)

It would be too expensive in the long run to use medium or hard silver solder for joining such relatively large pieces. But the cheaper soft silver bearing solder would flow away when you try to heat-oxidize the steel later. So I came to the idea to use brass (brazing). This has the additional advantage of having the same color as the brass inside ring. It works with common brass wire and soldering flux, but a high temperature is necessary. I can reach it with a MAP gas hand torch. [combustion temperature of MAP gas 2,020 °C (3,670 °F). The surface of the sun is 5505 °C (9932° F).]


rectangular pieces of welding steel and brass were brazed together with brass wire. The resulting piece was cut in the middle, and the 2 pieces were soldered together again at one point with medium silver solder. The steel and brass were grinded and shaped with various cutting discs and grinding stones, a silver bezel was set into a drilled hole in the steel and soldered on. the steel was blackened and polished repeatedly. Then it was hammered with two different sized hammers. The brass was treated with diamond discs (ripping up the surface, producing a sparkling surface) and polished to different grades at different places. A part of the reddish oxidized brass (copper oxide) was not removed completely. The stone was set with an agate burnisher and polishing wheels. The whole ring was polished repeatedly at different times with polishing wheels, Tripoli, Red Rouge and Fabulustre.

brooch nickelsilver, nickedlsilver and steel darkened, copper plated nickelsilver, brass bezel, Sterling and fine silver silver parts, nugold, epoxy, enamel powder, Swarovski crystals,wax and varnish coated

brooch with ebony

pendant with blackened welding steel

necklace silver embossed, steel oxidized and pen painted, Swarovski, nugold, amber10mm, silver solder, brass, enamel, epoxy, silver plated chain18in

brooch and pendant "New York"

 

brooch and pendant "New York"
nickelsilver, brass, acrylic, oxidized steel, fine silver, Swarovski, emerald synth5mm, onyx10mm, gold flakes, epoxy, pen, acrylic paint, Sterling silver chain, pin on back

heat colored steel bracelet

welding steel, copper, brass, silver solder

inside oxidized, surface additionally sealed with renaissance wax to prevent rusting
the copper parts are embossed, heat colored and riveted to the steel body

steel, acrylic and ebony

ring "summertime"

hand cut and polished acrylic, stainless steel, nickelsilver, Swarovski crystals, gold flakes, glitter, holographic foil, epoxy, copper

ring size 7.5 approx.

 brooch "ancient mirror"

steel, brass, ebony, Sardonyx 6mm, Swarovski crystals

oxidized steel, brass, silver solder, Swarovski crystals 3mm

ring size 11.5

steel jewelry

 my first steel ring. The inside was oxidized to avoid rust. 

welding steel, Onyx 3mm

 

bracelet welding steel, nugold, lapis lazuli10mm, Onyx7mm,Jade4mm,Garnet4mm

the steel was heat colored
the inside is blackened (oxidized by heat) to avoid the red rust
the black oxide is hematite, a form of Iron Oxide (rust)

cuff bracelet copper and nugold

 

bracelet copper nugold silver solder brass amber10mm Swarovski epoxy glitter transparency film enamel