Bling it on!

My second piece of jewelry is now complete. I have finished my silver bracelet! This was most definitely a challenge. It was a labor of love, filled with plenty of my own blood sweat and tears. But now, it is all finished, and well worth all the effort.

It is full of mistakes, but fortunately, I have disguised them pretty well. I took an extra class to finish it last night, and someone from this class commented on it, saying how he really liked the uneven lightning bolts. I thanked him and laughed, and told him they were purely unintentional. It was just poor sawing skills. But he reiterated how much he really liked it. My instructors liked it a lot too.

Here is the process of the bracelet, from start to finish.

First, I had to mark the design with the scribe, then cut it out.

Then the sawing process began. This was definitely the MOST challenging part. I broke so many saw blades. But after talking to others who have made this same bracelet (all of us who take the beginning class make this bracelet), I learned I was NOT alone. We all broke a ton of blades on this one. The rest was pretty easy.

We had to cut the zigzag piece in half then solder it on to the back piece.

It was in its UGLY phase right after the soldering. I put it in the pickle (cleaning solution) after, and then cleaned it and polished it.

Once it was cleaned up a bit, I cut off all the excess pieces, and sanded and polished, sanded and polished and sanded and polished again.

I could have easily finished it on Friday, but the lead instructor asked if I would wait until our Tuesday class, to use it as a demo for the rest of the class. But we never got to it on Tuesday night. I was very disappointed, but one of the other instructors told me to come back last night and he would help me finish it, and finish it we did too. 🙂 I am the only one in our class who has finished two pieces. Most people are still working on completing their first piece, and I have now finished two.

And Voila! The finished piece. I think it came out very nice indeed. 🙂

Two pieces down, one to go. I have already started on my third piece for this class session. It is my ring. I am in the crunch zone now. We leave to go to Portugal on the 17th, and I am pushing very hard to get my ring finished before we leave, even though I will miss the last official class for this session. But thank goodness for the workshops. I will be going in again tomorrow to work on it some more. I think I will get it done before we leave. I hope, I hope, I hope. 🙂

I chose a red slab stone to go with the red jasper in my pendant.

See, you are NEVER too old to learn new things. I am living proof of that. 🙂

Have a great day and make everyday great. Learn something new everyday too. It keeps life interesting and fun. May 2026 be filled with happiness, good health and prosperity for all. ‘Til next time.