Silversmithing

Making a Silver Box

I have just completed a weeks worth of Silversmithing at Central Saint Martins College under the guidance of Linda Robertson who is a practicing Silversmith.

Our project was to make a silver box. Here are some pictures to show you how the box developed from sheet silver to fully functioning box!

After lots of cutting pieces of silver to size the first step was to form the shape of the box on a mandrel.

The back is soldered to the form

After each Soldering the piece is put into a 'Pickle Bath' to clean it up

The base is soldered in place. A hole is pierced in the side before soldering the lid to the top and then another trip to the Pickle Bath.

Then the really scary part - the cutting of the lid!!!

Of course all these steps also required a lot of preparation such as measuring, marking, filing and preparing the silver for soldering.

Next the bezel which holds the lid in place was made using the same method as the box and soldered in place

Now the really labourious part! Lots of piercing with a saw blade! I lost count of the amount of blades I broke! Some time later I managed to get rid of all the excess silver

all the edges of the box had to be smoothed and blended so that they appeared seemless.

Files, emery and sanding papers and lots of elbow grease later,  my box started to emerge as something half decent! I still have a tiny bit of sanding and finishing left to do but I'm very pleased with what I produced! 

Now I think my arms need a good rest!