David Morgan’s silver jewelry is made using one of two methods: stamping or lost wax casting.  Both methods have their advantages, and each piece is designed with those advantages in mind.

Most of our Northwest Native-American jewelry is made by stamping the metal.  First, a steel die with the piece’s reverse image is made.  The die stamps down onto a pre-cut piece of silver and impresses the die’s image into the metal.  This method also has the advantage of work hardening the metal.  A work hardened metal is stronger and more resistant to wear.  Once the piece is stamped, the recessed areas are antiqued.  An oxidizing solution is applied to the metal which turns it dark.  Since tarnish is an oxidized surface, antiquing metal is really just high-speed tarnishing.  Finally the piece is polished.

While stamping provides crisp detail and relief, it does not allow for deeper  three dimensional work and intricate detail.  For that, lost wax casting is necessary.

Lost wax casting begins by covering a model of the desired piece with a mold.  A tube is inserted with the model so that a passage into the mold is created.  This is called a sprue.  When the mold is hard, it is cut in half.  This mold can be reused multiple times. 

Next, wax is poured into the mold through the sprue.  After it cools, the mold is opened and the jeweler now has a wax replica of the original piece.  The replica is coated with a slurry of silica and dried.  Once dry, it is heated until the slurry coating is hardened and the melted wax runs out or is burned away.  The result is a mold capable of withstanding the heat of molten metal.  For greater efficiency, the wax replicas are often joined together into a ‘tree’.

The slurry mold is placed in a bed of heated sand into which the metal is poured.  Once cooled, the mold is broken off or dissolved in water and a metal replica, complete with spruing is the result.  If the replicas were joined together into a tree, the individual pieces are cut away and the sprues are removed to be used in another process.

A tree of Everlasting Love pendants after casting.

The final steps are to remove oxidation and any signs of casting via sand blasting and hand polishing.  

LEARN MORE ABOUT:

Pacific Northwest Indian Jewelry

Celtic Jewelry

Jewelry FAQs

The application of braiding soap helps to make a tight whip, chinstrap or lanyard.  Meagan, our resident whipmaker, has a few suggestions:

Coat the entire length of all the strands with braiding soap prior to braiding.  Saturate the strands, particularly near the top, on heavy work.  You do not need to wait any time at all to begin braiding, though if you do it won’t hurt.  Occasionally if a skin is on the dry side it will seem to drink up the soap and may benefit from a resoaping.  This would especially be true if you leave it for a long time between braiding.  Usually this is not necessary.  It also is not necessary to resoap before rolling.  The braiding soap just allows the strands to pull in more tightly when braided, which in turn makes for a smoother, rounder surface after rolling.  It does not help in the rolling.

Meagan also recommends that when applying soap to each strand, it is more effective to pull the strand through the soap-filled hand rather than sliding your hand along the strand.  This also allows you to hold your thumb on the top part of the strand to control the amount of soap that is applied.

And remember to lay the strands in order before soaping.  You don’t want your soapy hands to have to untangle anything!

LEARN MORE ABOUT:

Indiana Jones Bullwhips

How to Make Whips

Braiding Fine Leather

The Celtic symbol of everlasting love – in Welsh, serch bythol - is formed from two triskeles. The triskele, a three cornered knot, denotes body, mind and spirit. When two triskeles are joined together, they form an everlasting circle of eternity. Thus the figure represents two people, joined in body, mind, and spirit in everlasting love.

Everlasting Love Bracelet: The three symbols entwined denote past, present, and future. Devolved length is 6-1/4 inches, width at the center is 3/4 inch.

Everlasting Love Earrings: These sterling silver fishhook earrings are double sided, about 1-3/16" long.

Everlasting Love Necklet: This sterling silver necklet is double sided, about 1-3/16" long. An 18" sterling silver chain is included.

LEARN MORE ABOUT:

Everlasting Love Jewelry 

Valentine’s Day Gifts

Braiding soap is an emulsion of fat in a soap-and-water solution.  The water in the solution conditions the lace for a greater stretch while the fat permits the leather strands to slip more tightly into place.  This allows the braid to be rolled more smoothly.

The following recipe for braiding soap has been used here at David Morgan for years. We usually make the braiding soap in a recycled 2 pound coffee can where the mixture can be prepared and stored in the same can.

Ingredients

1 3.5 ounce bar of Ivory soap
12 ounces (1-1/2 cups) water
1 pound (2 cups) lard

Directions

1. Coarsely grate soap into a coffee can or pot suitable for stovetop use.

2. Add water and mix.

3. Heat the mixture almost to boiling, stirring occasionally. Take care not to overheat causing the mixture to boil over.

4. Add the lard to the hot soap mixture, continuing to heat until the lard is melted. Again, take care not to overheat causing the mixture to boil over.

5. Remove the mixture from the heat. Beat at high speed with an electric hand mixer to emulsify the fat. Take care not to splatter or spill the hot mixture.

6. Allow the mixture to cool, then mix thoroughly once more with the mixer. Transfer the mixture to a storage container at this time if you are not storing in the container used during preparation.

7. Cool completely. Store, covered, at room temperature.

Makes about 2 pounds. The braiding soap will have a light, creamy consistency.

Note: Ivory soap is recommended as a commonly available pure soap. Do not use a facial soap or detergent.

LEARN MORE ABOUT:

Braiding Fine Leather

Kangaroo Lace

How to Make Whips