Forging a gold bracelet

Melting gold.

Yes it’s true … spring is coming, starlings are already building their nest under our roof tiles, great tits  are inspecting the nesting boxes and the wood pigeons wake me up every morning with their cooing. I planned all kinds of garden and outdoor jobs for coming sunday. But first another working day in the studio!

A customer ordered a gold bracelet. She wanted to wear it next to her gold ring with a blue diamond. So the bracelet had to be in the same sort of style as the ring.

Gold is still very expensive. Therefore, the client brought her own gold along in the form of all sorts of old gold jewelry that she wore no more. The weight of the old gold proved more than enough to make a beautiful luxurious bracelet.

The”old” gold is weighed first and then melted in the biggest flame that we have. Thereafter, the molten gold is poured into an ingot mold and comes out in the form of a rod.

Gouden armband smeden Edelsmid Jan Kerkstra

The gold rod deforms by hammering. In this photo you see that after a few hours of forging , the gold already shows the shape of the bracelet.

Gouden armband smeden Jan Kerkstra Edelsmid 2

And here you really see the shape coming.

Gouden armband smeden Jan Kerkstra 3

The bracelet gets its shape on a special stake.

Gouden armband smeden Jan Kerkstra 4

And here the bracelet is almost ready. The marks made by the hammer are already sanded off the bracelet.
The next step is to make a tiny gold round bezel for the blue diamond, after that the bezel gets soldered on and then finally the bracelet is polished. The lady gets a bracelet made of her own gold, isn’t this a beautiful way of recycling?

Next week I will show you the finished bracelet.  That is if the photo succeeds. Because the bracelet is very shiny thats going to be a tough job. Have a nice weekend!