This behind-the-scenes look covers creation of the rivetted bails for the abalone shell pendants.
I started with pieces of Argentium silver wire--both round and square. I clamped one end of two wires in my vice and the other in my Black and Decker drill and twisted them. Then I used a butane torch to melt the ends of each twisted length together and make beads there. These beads were needed to make a place for the rivets. This also shortened the lengths of wire.
I added flux to the bails and got them hot enough with a torch to fuse the wires in the twisted sections (1050-1150°F). When Argentium silver reaches fusing temperature, the flame turns pink, except for the hotter blue section by the nozzle of the torch, and the surface of the silver looks wet, like mercury.
The flux and copper oxides raised by the flame make a crusty layer on the silver. This must be removed in an hot acidic bath known as "pickle." I really should have pickled the bails at this point, but I went ahead and flattened them with a jeweler's hammer. This caused me more filing and finishing later because the surfaces were pitted by the crust on them. Obviously, skipping this step was a big mistake.
Hammering made the metal hard again, so I annealed the bails by bringing the metal to a dull pink. This relaxed the molecules in the metal, making it flexible again.
Annealing the bails
When the bails were cool, I put them in the hot pickle.
Crusty-looking bails
Immersing bails in the hot pickle
Lid replaced on pickle pot
Once the oxides and flux are removed, the silver is a dull white and a bit rough. I used water with Blue Dawn detergent and a soft brass brush to shine them up.
Bails removed from pickle pot
After rinsing and drying the bails, I made a felt pen reference point in the middle of each end of the bails, then used a center punch to make small divots there.
Center punch on stainless steel block
Using my drill press, I drilled a guide hole with a tiny drill bit in each of the divots. (Without the divots, the bit would skitter around on the metal.) I used increasingly large bits until the hole was just the right size to pass 16-gauge round wire through.
Drill press (without a bit and obviously not plugged in)
Once the holes were all drilled, I used a round burr to drill out a cavity at the top of each hole--on what would be the outside ("right") side of the bails. Wire would be hammered into these cavities so it couldn't be pulled through. At the same time, this allowed for a smooth, even surface, rather than a typical rivet bump.
Using a ball burr to scoop out cavities at the tops of rivet holes
I decided to bring out the texture of the bails by oxidizing them. After I scrubbed them with a patina prep solution, I painted on an acid patina (instead of soaking them a liver-of-sulfur solution). Once the metal had darkened, I neutralized and rinsed the bails, then rubbed them with very fine (0000) steel wool to bring out highlights. After this, I tumbled them with stainless steel shot for several hours to harden the bails and bring out a nice shine.
Rinsed and dried bails after tumbling
The next step was to bend the bails into shape for the abalone shells they were to go on, making sure the holes on each side aligned. The distance between sides depended on the shell thicknesses.
Shaping a bail; note the scooped-out space at the top of the hole...and that the pliers are rounded on one side
Bails shaped and ready to be adjusted to fit individual pendants
In progress - The wire ends of the pendant on the left haven't been trimmed and hammered into the recessed holes; the rivetted ends on the other two pendants still need filing, sanding, and polishing
Note: The process of rivetting the bails onto the shells was shared privately with my VIP group in a recent email.