Making Lily Earrings: A Silversmithing Tutorial

This video tutorial shows me making earrings with a lily motif from sterling silver. The materials I used were: 26 gauge sterling silver sheet, 18 gauge sterling round wire, and 20 gauge sterling round wire. As always I am using exclusively hard silver solder, and I use My-T-Flux from Rio Grande. I would rate this one as an beginner project. This video is a bit longer, but is a detailed tutorial, so I think it is worth the watch time. I enjoy sharing my knowledge with others, as I've taught people for most of my life. This hobby turned into a fun side gig for me for years while I taught public school. I love suggestions and hearing about others' experiences. What is your favorite project? What kind of tutorials would you find useful?
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#silver
Make Floral Earrings
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#jewelrymaking #silversmithing #jewelry #jewelryhandmade #jewelrytutorial #jewelrydesign #jewellery #jewellerydesign #handmade #maker #crafts #jewelryartist #bespoke #artist #flowers #earrings #contemporaryart
Making Silver Jewelry
Making Jewelry

[@puresas]

This is a soldering test if I've ever seen one...., Great challenge :)

[@chadssilversmithing]

Did you try it Chris? I thought the most challenging part was soldering in the Pistils.

[@janetholben]

Thanks

[@chadssilversmithing]

Thank you for your generosity Jan!

[@andreamarkovic6314]

Love these, running off to make a pair! Thanks again Chad!

[@chadssilversmithing]

Glad you like them Andrea! Make sure to post pics on Patreon so we can heap praise on you:)

[@BlooStorm1]

Love these! I’m def a ‘babysmith’, but this would b3 a great project to try! Thank you.

[@chadssilversmithing]

You’re welcome Robin! I’m glad you like these. Thank you for the nice comment!

[@bees5461]

These are really nice. I bet some gold on the tips of the stamens would be pretty, too.

[@chadssilversmithing]

I don’t do gold, but I thought of using brass or copper for the center pieces for contrast. Probably would look good:)

[@Gazz_R]

Fantastic work as always Chad. They look like a nightmare to polish, especially the inside. Thanks for sharing and see you in the next one.

[@chadssilversmithing]

You are correct:). Difficult to polish the insides, although you can get little bits with felt cylinders that get up in there pretty well.

[@CherylAnn2222]

Those are Beautiful!

[@chadssilversmithing]

Well thanks Ms.C2222!

[@tammiehonican76]

Gorgeous little earings! I'm going to try to make something that at least resembles those!🤗

[@chadssilversmithing]

Send me a pic to my Instagram if you can when you are done:)

[@woodgemdave]

Man! My soldering skills have improved exponentially, fun. Thanks Chad

[@chadssilversmithing]

That's awesome Dave! Keep Practicing; it gets easier and easier:)

[@carolshuey1972]

Beautiful! Cannot wait to get on these earrings! I’m on vacation in Ireland and didn’t want to miss an episode!! I should be watching something relaxing before bed rather than getting excited to get home to make jewelry!😂. Thanks for your great instruction and talent!!

[@chadssilversmithing]

Aww, thanks Carol! Sounds like a fun vacation. Someday I’d like to see Europe:)

[@karrywright9359]

They are beautiful, thanks so much for sharing 🤩

[@chadssilversmithing]

You're welcome Karry! Thanks for the nice comment:)

[@MARIETTAGILWAY]

Wow, those turned out really pretty, thank you

[@chadssilversmithing]

Thanks Marietta! Glad you liked them:)

[@paulinemegson8519]

Oh that’s pretty. You remind me of something I did that was similar years back…..a bit smaller I think from memory, and with a bit of flare on the cone tip with balled tips on the stamens. I think I also attached the earwire with a loop, soldered to the interior of the cone, that fed thru from the inside of the cone with the stamens attached by loops so they had a fair bit of movement. I liked them but the stamens did have a tendency to tangle…. I might do more and see if I can fix that when I finally have a workstation set back up and all my tools unpacked(and located, more to the point lol) I’ve had to move due to the cyclone that hit nz about a month ago, and the place I’ve moved to is MUCH smaller so trying to locate places to put stuff and just trying to FIND things is a bit of a mission right now especially with my back issues. Oh well, I’ll get there, and by the time I do I’ll have a nice set of new ideas to work on, so thank you Chad :)

[@chadssilversmithing]

Oh wow, you had to move because of the storm? I hope your new place is comfy and safe! You're welcome for the ideas:)

[@patredden4557]

Beautiful earrings, thanks so much for sharing. It’s nice to make earrings for different occasions.

[@chadssilversmithing]

Thanks Pat!

[@flyingcheff]

These are beautiful Chad! I tried something similar a while back; they were a pair of Portuguese Man-of-War earrings; they were kinda cool and kinda creepy. 😅 I balled up the ends of the various length wires (tentacles?) to make them bulbous, but I really like what you did with the twisted wire tips- really nice! They'd be really fun to hammer form the flower too: texture! Love this! 👏 🌺

[@chadssilversmithing]

Thanks Flying Chef! I bet those Man-of-War earrings were cool!

[@danhoyt9961]

Nice work. I'd be interested in finding out what kind of shears you are using to cut the sheet. Thanks for the demonstration.

[@chadssilversmithing]

Thanks Dan! Those are just Fiskars craft shears. You can usually find them at craft stores or places like Target.

[@danhoyt9961]

My aviation shears can be a little unwieldy.

[@flyingcheff]

One more question 😅: Chad, is there a specific reason that you don't pickle, clean, and evaluate a piece earlier than it's complete? After watching your channel for many months, I've come to wonder about this. I know that flux is a protection from oxidation, but have you ever found that pickling and having a good, close, CLEAN look would be helpful? Do you think there is a deficit created by pickling more than once in the fabrication process? Your technique is SO different from other fabrication sequences I've seen. I always want to know the "why" of choices made by metalsmith fabricators. Thanks for digging into this query. I imagine others wonder this, too. 🌺🌺🌺 * what brought this question to the forefront is the issue you had with the coneflower ring. I wondered if you had had the opportunity to try the parts out- really clean - to see any issues, it might have helped. Your thoughts on this are much appreciated. 🌺

[@chadssilversmithing]

That's a good question with a kind of long answer, so I'll give you the truncated one. I do sometimes pickle things for a while to be able to inspect them better, but generally I can tell whether things went well or not without having to do that. I think many people use very precise application of flux to control where their solder flow goes, followed by clean up and new careful application of flux for the next solder joint. While this practice is fine and works great for many, as you can see from the way I do it, it isn't the only way to do things. I design pieces so that reflow generally isn't a problem. As far as the coneflower is concerned, I think I just didn't have things immobilized well enough/kept the heat on slightly too long and things shifted. Hope this answers your question:)

[@jimbartley9125]

Nice. Looked like the cleanup was time consuming. Cheers. Jim

[@chadssilversmithing]

Thanks Jim. The only hard part was extracting accumulated polishing compound from inside the flower shape.

[@irmasuassodelimadeprado3632]

So beautiful. How did you polish the inside of the lily?

[@chadssilversmithing]

Definitely a hard spot to polish. I used skinny felt buffs with white diamond polishing compound. Thanks for the nice comment!

[@catherinemartina6469]

When you sell your book does it include the projects you are teaching?

[@chadssilversmithing]

Hello Catherine! It has a page with information about each project I did in 2023 and includes a link to each tutorial video. If you go to Apple Books, you can see a sample of it:)

[@lindahamlik6023]

The cone or pedal of the lily can we get a measurement in mm?

[@chadssilversmithing]

Hello Linda! the diameter of the circle is about 22mm while the height including the point is about 30mm.

[@user-saeedsilver1348]

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@chadssilversmithing]

Thank you!