How Sterling Silver Pierced Work is Done
The proceedure involved in making Sterling Silver jewelry is not at all complicated but it does require certain tools, some of which are specialized. It also requires tremendous patience and a steady hand. Source information for specialized tools follows this article.
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Basic Tools Required for Pierced Work in Sterling Silver
Our shop is equipped with a 26" scroll saw from RB Industries. This saw will reciprocate at very slow speeds - a characteristic which helps to prevent breaking the very fine metal piercing scroll saw blades. We also have a drill press which can be adjusted to turn at very slow rpm. The slow speed of the drill press helps to prevent breaking of the very fine drill bits used in "piercing" the Sterling Silver. These are the two major pieces of equipment in our shop that are used for this type of work.
Other tools needed include very fine saw blades for the scroll saw. Blades range in size from 2/0 to 8/0. With practice and the proper tension adjustment on the scroll saw it is possible to wear out even the finest blade before it actually breaks. Even so, broken blades are commonplace. Micro (numbered) high speed steel or cobalt twist drill bits are also necessary. These might range in size from .041" to .018". (41/1000 -18/1000 inches.) We use bits ranging in number from 50 to 80. One must be very careful when drilling holes in Sterling Silver. The finest bit breaks very easily and, if it becomes embedded in the Sterling, it will be very difficult to remove. It will be necessary to drill another hole alongside the broken off piece. Unfortunately, because we were using the very fine bit because there was very little room in which to drill the hole, there will now be even less room to drill a second hole alongside the first hole. What to do? It's hard to say. The best way to prevent the problem is to use the largest bit you can use. If it's necessary to use a bit under .024" try to drill your hole in a place such that another hole can be drilled alongside - just in case the bit breaks.
It is very handy to have a digital or dial caliper to measure the diameter of your drill bits. This greatly helps when placing bits back in their appropriate place after use. You will need a special chuck for holding your micro bits, too. Most drill presses will not hold these very small bits, their chucks being too large and not able to close tightly enough to hold such a tiny diameter bit. (Don't scrimp on spending for one of these adapter chucks. Cheap adapter chucks will not hold the drill bit correctly and the bit will wobble. This can be very annoying.)
You'll want a center punch with a fine point on it. I couldn't find one that was fine enough for my taste, so I made one out of a nail set. It works really well!.
You'll need one or two fine jewelers files of different coarseness.
You will need some drawing supplies for rendering your designs. Tracing paper is a must for making your patterns. It's useful to have good straightedges. (We like our plexi triangles.) Graph paper is very handy. (I use paper with 1/4" squares.) A set of French curves is good to have. A very fine pencil and a separate fine eraser will be very handy. If you want to draw circles, purchase a good compass. A very fine pen with black ink that will dry quickly without smearing is absolutely necessary for drawing nice dark lines that can be copied easily by a copy machine. (All your stationary supplies can be found at the local, well equipped, office supply store. And it may be where you do your copying, too. (That's what we did at first.) Get a circle template while you're there. If the store has 3M Spray Mount, get a can. If not, get a bottle of rubber cement. While you're in town, pick up some 1/4" FoamCore at an art supply store. You'll use this for backing when you cut out your Sterling Silver piece. Sometimes art supply stores have quantities of scrap 1/4" FoamCore that they will give you for nothing.
You will need a variety of tape for finishing. Pick up a role of "carpet tape" at a home improvement store. (This is otherwise known as "double face tape.") Also get a roll of the lighter blue "painter's tape." (This is a type of masking tape that has a very light tack - lighter than the darker blue "painters' tape" and a much lighter tack than the usual light colored "masking tape." These tapes will be used to hold your work in place while you finish your work and bring it to a high polish. If the stickiness (tack) of the tape is too heavy it is difficult to remove very finely cut pieces from the tape without bending them.
Last but not least, you'll need some sheet Sterling Silver. The thickness of the metal is given in guage size. 22 guage is good for earrings. 18 or 16 guage is good for pendants, which take more abuse than earrings. 14 or 12 guage is good for heavier items. We use 14 guage for our Clerical items.
Making a Pattern
The origin of your pattern is up to you. You can draw one yourself from your imagination, or you can trace one from something you find in a book of designs. (If you use a pattern that is not your own and is not public domain, be sure you give the originator credit.) When I make patterns, I make them "super size" so that I can work on them easily. Then I reduce them on my printer. Before I had a printer that was capable of reducing my drawings, I had to go to the office supply place.
Let me verbally illustrate how to make a pattern. Place a piece of tracing paper on a piece of graph paper you bought. Lightly tape the tracing paper in place and mark a point on the tracing paper at the intersecion of two of the lines. Now use your circle template, or a compass, to draw a circle that is 2" in diameter. If you're using a template, use the little registration marks on the template to make sure that the circle is centered on the designated point. Now do the same thing, using the same center point, with a 1 1/2" circle. You now have concentric circles spaced 1/4" apart. You can use this as a very basic pattern for a loop earring. We will reduce this pattern in size to 1". When we do so, the measurement between the two circles will be reduced to 1/8". But before you reduce the size of your pattern, let's think about the point from which the earring will hang. Think about putting a hole somewhere between these concentric circles. Let's say that you will drill a hole, ultimately, of 1/16" diamater to accommodate an ear wire. (That would be a little large for most ear wires, but please follow this illustration.) Use your circle template to draw a 1/8" circle between the two concentric circles. If you should be so lucky as to get your hole exactly between those two circles, you will have 1/16" to spare on either side of the hole you just drew. When the pattern is reduced, the space will be reduced to 1/32". That's not enough. You need to figure out some other way to hang the earring. Instead of hanging it from a hole in the middle of the two concentric circles, consider adding a "bump" at the top of the outer of the two circles. Make the bump look like a semi-circle 1/2" diameter. Now draw your 1/8" hole somewhere in that bump. It should be at least 1/8" from the top of the bump. Then when you reduce your pattern to one inch, you will have 1/16" of metal left. That will be plenty when you cut your piece out.
The point I'm trying to make is that you must be aware, when making a pattern, of what it will look like when it's reduced to the proper size. It will sometimes be necessary to work with very fine dimensions. Nevertheless, dimensions can sometimes be too fine. Plan to have plenty of support around the earwire or bail ring. It's better to think about this in advance than to find that you've cut out an earring or pendant that will bend or break too easily.
There is another way to solve the problem. You can alter the pattern so that the space between the concentric circles is greater - maybe 5/8". If that's alright with you then go ahead. Or you might decide that you'd like to have a 2" loop rather than a 1" loop. Then a 1/16" hole will work just fine. In fact, you will want to move the hole up closer to the outer circle. Just make sure that you leave enough metal.
Reducing, Mounting and Rough Cutting the Pattern
You can now reduce your full-sized pattern to the size you wish. When you do so, check to be sure that, in the reduced version, you can clearly see all the lines along which you are going to cut. (You'll be glad you purchased a nice, black, fine line pen.) If at this point you know that you will be making more than one or two images from your design, this is a good time to use the copy machine to make multiple copies. I do this by making 
five or six copies of the design, cutting them out and mounting them next to each other on a separate sheet of paper and then copying my line of designs. When a couple of those lines come out of the machine, I cut out each line and mount them on yet another sheet of paper. I do this until I have a full sheet of designs. I keep a master copy of this full sheet so that I can duplicate sheets of the pattern instead of just one pattern at a time.
Now you're ready to mount your patterns on a sheet of Sterling Silver (or copper, or wood, or gold). Cut the pattern out very close to the exterior line of the design. That way you will use the least amount of material. (If you are too generous with the borders around the design you will be wasting material.) Mount the pattern face down on some sort of backing surface to catch over spray, a large piece of corregated cardboard, for example, and spray it with a spray adhesive. (I use 3M Spray Mount but rubber cement works well also. Some of the stickier adhesives, like stuff found at building supply places, make a real mess and will cause problems. 3M Spray Mount is designed to be used in this sort of application.) Wait a minute or so and mount the pattern, face side up, on the Sterling Silver.
At this point consider using a center punch to mark where you want the earwire hole to go. See piercing below.
It's time to move your project over to the scroll saw. Mount a 2/0 or 3/0 metal piercing saw blade in your scroll saw. Adjust the tension so that you barely take a strain on the blade. Turn the speed to as slow as it will go. Too many rpm results in broken blades. So does too much tension. When tensioned correctly, 2/0 and 3/0 blades are quite sturdy and will cut quite rapidly. But they do leave a fairly rough edge. (When you have your rough cut piece mounted on the FoamCore, (that's the next step), that's the time to use your greatest skill, steadiest hand and finest blade.) If you are breaking too many blades, adjust either rpm or tension or both downward. The only way to really get it right is to keep adjusting until you're satisfied. Some scrollsaws will not adjust to slow rpm. One cannot do this sort of work with equipment that is not fully adjustable.
Because I am usually working with eight or ten patterns all mounted on the same sheet, I like to separate one pattern from another so that I'm working with individual patterns when I pierce and make my final cuts. So at this stage I saw outside of the patterns. (That's what rough cutting is, after all.)
Sawing outside the patterns leaves a little more metal around the pattern. This is desirable. You will find that, when making very fine pieces, more metal helps to spread the pressure from drilling the small holes. When you have applied your rough cut piece to the FoamCore backing, (which you have not yet done), the foamcore backing will not compress too badly, thereby causing inaccuracies, because of this small amount of extra metal. For example, if you are cutting out the loop which we designed at the beginning of this article, you might be using a 1/16" bit to drill the hole for the ear wire. Leaving a little more metal around the design will be helpful in this case because using a bit even as small as 1/16" will create enough pressure on the FoamCore to cause the metal on the FoamCore to tip slightly. (That's because FoamCore compresses very easily.) This could result in the drill bit skittering away from where you intend the hole to be. In general, the more metal you have surrounding the pattern the more accurately you can pierce your work.
Mounting the Rough Cut Pattern on FoamCore
Did you remember to get some FoamCore while you were out getting supplies? Good! Using a razor knife, cut out a 2" X 2" piece. Use the Spray Mount or rubber cement to mount your rough cut design on this 2X2 piece of FoamCore. I use FoamCore because it cuts very easily. This is important since the blades you will be using are very fine and don't need the additional strain caused by cutting something more substantial than the combined metal and FoamCore backing. There may be something better for backing material, but I don't know what it is. Corregated cardboard was my original choice but I found that it was not of uniform consistancy and my saw blade would cut better or worse as I cut through the corregations. This created unwanted inaccuracies in the final cut.
Piercing
Now it's time to begin piercing your rough cut piece. Piercing is really very straight forward. Supposing you are using your loop design, just select a drill bit of an appropriate size and drill a whole within the inside circle of your design. It will save you time if you drill the whole near to the line along which you wish to cut. While you are at the drill press, drill the hole for the ear wire. Note how the foam core depresses and the bit tends to wander. Find some way to collect the metal shavings that are removed from the material by piercing it. They will accumulate over a period of time and be worth sending back to your supplier for credit. (Make a habit of collecting your waste material. It can become quite a sizeable pile.) After you have pierced your design, sand the back of the metal to remove burrs. 400 grit paper will work well.
If it turns out that you enjoy this sort of work, you will probably be challenged in the future to make finer and finer designs. There will be times when you will have to use a very fine bit, say .020", (20/1000"), to place a hole very close to the edge of your design. It is in such a case that you will appreciate having a little extra metal around your design to add additional support to the metal.
If you are making a very fine piece with many piercings of differing sizes, you are encouraged to take the time to change drill bits, increasing the diameter of the bit as your design allows. A .020" drill bit will not take much abuse and will not drill very many holes. Because you have a design on top of the metal, you won't be using coolant to cool the bit. (Heat is the great destroyer of drill bits. The faster the bit turns, the higher the heat. Keep the bit moving slowly.) The only way to keep the bit cool is by using very slow speeds and using very slight pressure to drill the hole. It's a good practice to raise the bit out of your hole from time to time, too, in order to clear away shavings. (Shavings which result from drilling do not always come clear of th hole and tend to get stuck. This may cause a fine bit to break.) Larger bits take more abuse. When you get up to .040" you're pretty much out of danger of breaking a bit.
If you take my advice and change to ever larger bits as your design will allow, you will benefit from having three or more chuck adapters to hold three or more different size bits. Having numerous adapters makes changing bits much faster. Not having them means you won't want to stop to change bits and you'll break a bit off in the metal and you'll have to change bits anyway. Go ahead and get more adapters. Get a half dozen. You'll be happy you did.
Two suggestions might help you to increase your accuracy when piercing your work. First, consider wearing either magnifying glasses or a low power loop. Tie your hair back, if it is long, so that it does not get caught by the drill press. If you wear a loop, your head will be within inches of the pattern you are trying to drill. So don't take a chance on getting hurt.
Sometimes, as in the case of drilling the earwire hole, it will help to use a very sharp center punch to mark the exact spot where you want the center of the hole to be. Doing so will help to keep the bit from wandering. Using magnification to make sure you mark this spot correctly will help. Use only a very light tap on the punch to make a mark. Hitting it too hard will deform the metal. If you have already mounted your design on foamcore your attempts at marking your hole with a center punch will be fruitless.
I made my own center punch by grinding down a nail set to a very fine point. It's worthless as a nail set now, but it's a great center punch and, when it dulls, it's easily resharpened."
Finish Cutting
Your design has been mounted on the Sterling Silver sheet. The Sterling has been mounted on the foamcore and your design has been pierced where necessary. You are now ready to start finish cutting your piece. This, too, is a very straight forward operation. But there are some things you should be aware of.
First, if you are cutting out the loop design you made, be aware that a perfect circle is not easy to cut. Go very slowly. Use magnification. Saw either on the line or to the left or right of the line, but try to be consistent. Slow down! Don't look away. Keep your eyes on the blade and where you want the cut to go. If your cut strays, bring it back slowly until the cut is again where you want it to be. If you correct your cut gradually enough your momentary lapse will perhaps not be noticed.
It is inevitable that your cut will stray every now and again. Tell yourself to slow down. It pays to be patient. But also keep in mind that you are the only person who will know exactly where your cut has strayed. Most people will not notice small errors. But that's not reason to do less than your very best on every cut. It is the sum of many really good cuts that makes an outstanding piece of pierced work. The more one strays from the desired line, the less outstanding the piece will be.
I like to use a 6/0 or 7/0 blade for most of my regular cutting. I like to cut directly on the line. I make my designs so that cutting directly on the line will result in an end product that I will like. If I don't like the end product the design goes back to the drawing table. Maintaining the cut on the line means that I can say with conviction that my pierced work falls within plus or minus .005". That's a very small tolerance for anything that is manipulated by hand, but it's something that anybody who has some dexterity and patience can achieve.
My very finest pieces are cut with the finest blade, 8/0, that will get into the smallest corners and angles. Plus, it's the only blade that will fit through a ".018" piercing. It's a very fragile blade and one must move very slowly and carefully, but the result is worth the effort.
I advised you above that you should take care to collect your shavings when doing your piercing. So it is with your cutting. The metal dust and cutout pieces will accumulate with time. If you collect your dust and cutouts you will be many dollars ahead by the end of the month. Put a piece of plastic under your saw, or perhaps simply sweep the dust off the saw table from time to time into an aluminum pie plate. Saving all of your scrap is a good practice to get into.
Now that you've cut out all the piercings of your design, (and there was only one piercing in the case of the loop design), make the final cut around the perimeter. This should not present a problem. Be especially cautions when arriving at the end of the cut - where your cut meets the place where you began. Hold the design down firmly as the blade will have a tendency to "grab" and lift the design off the saw table. Just be prepared. Go slowly. Allow the blade to do the work and all will be well.
Removing the Backing and Paper Pattern
Having finished cutting your piece out, place the piece, with the FoamCore backing still in place, in a shallow bath of mineral spirits. This will loosen the glue which is holding the pattern and the backing, (what's left of it), in place. You are now ready to polish and finish.
Sometimes, if the design is not too intricate, the backing, which is released by the mineral spirits bath, is really very nice. Cut accurately and of a pleasing design, I let the foamcore backing dry for several days and set it aside. It can be used as a very pleasant Christmas tree decoration. Of course, larger designs make more visible ornaments. One can also give them away. Children are thrilled with them and make amazing uses of them. In any case, it's a shame to simply toss a nicely cut piece out.
Likewise with the paper pattern that has been released from the metal. If you have done a nice job of cutting, you will be astonished at how fine a design has been cut out of paper. These patterns might be made into a collage. But, frankly, I don't know exactly what to do with them. Since they take up hardly any space, I keep them in a ziplock bag to keep them flat and fresh. I have thousands of them. I just hate the idea of throwing them out. If you have an idea of what to do with them contact me. You'll find contact information on the home page.
Finishing
Finishing these small pieces is done by sanding them. I start with a small piece of 400 grit sandpaper wrapped tightly around a small flat piece of wood. I use 400 grit to do the initial deburring and remove any large scratches that might be on the piece.
Thereafter I switch to a series of "sand papers" known as MicroMesh. This product comes in grits of 1500, 1800, 2400, 3200, 3600, 4000, 6000, 8000, and 12000. According to information received from the manufacturer of MicroMesh, the 1500 grit is equivalent to the 600 grit of ordinary sandpaper. So, after sanding with 400 grit, I switch to the 1500 Micro Mesh and then proceed all the way through the series to 12,000 grit. The finish on the Sterling Silver will become brighter and brighter as you approach the 12000 grit which, according to the manufacturer, is about 1 micron in size. After I have finished one side of the piece, I turn it over and finish the other side.
Micro Mesh provides a 3" X 3" piece of foam with its 9-pack of 3" X 6" Micro Mesh abrasive cloth. I wrap the paper around this piece of foam. I find that doing so results in very slightly rounded edges on the Sterling piece. The rounded surfaces catch and reflect light nicely and feel much better than the square edges that would result from continuing to use a flat wood block. Also, if your piece happens to be not absolutely flat, wrapping the abrasive paper around the foam piece will help to rid such an area of any scratches. The biggest problem I initially had in finishing was holding the piece in place so that I could sand it. It was impossible to sand my pieces by holding them in my hand or trying to hold them down to a table with my fingers. I solved this problem by using various tapes.
First, cut a piece of wood that's about a foot long and equal to the small dimension of the piece you wish to polish. Make sure that it's smooth so that tape will adhere to it. Hold it securely in a vise so that the smooth side is up. Apply a piece of double faced tape to this side, cutting away any tape that extends over the edges. Peel away the wax paper on the top of the double face tape. Now apply a piece of painters' tape, sticky side up, to the double face tape. Again, cut away any excess. Apply the piece you wish to sand to the sticky side of the painters' tape.
This will hold it relatively securely while you sand your piece with a back and forth motion. While your piece is held in place this way, sand it all the way through to 12,000 grit using all of your grits in succession. Inspect the piece after using each grit to be sure you have removed all the scratches of the previous grit. Notice how the piece begins to shine as you proceed through each grit. When you have finished sanding one side, carefully remove your piece being careful not to bend it. (I find that it works best to push the piece from side to side rather than lifting it off the tape.) Now sand the other side in the same manner. It may be necessary to replace the old pieces of tape with new tape.
Articles that I have read in books and magazines indicate that, when finishing in this way, one ought to use each finer grit at 90 degrees to the previous grit. I have not found such a procedure to work for me. First, it leaves the piece with minute cross scratches which I found difficult to get rid of. (I realize that continued cross-sanding would finally get rid of them, but sanding in the same direction got rid of them, too.) Secondly, I found it necessary to remount my pieces on new tape as I proceeded to the next finer grit. Doing so became too labor intensive for me, especially when always sanding in the same direction worked very well.
At my local home improvement store I found two types of painters' tape. (Painters' tape is blue in color, unlike masking tape, which is sort of off white/brownish.) One of these painter' tapes is of a darker color than the other. The darker one has a greater tack (stickiness) than the lighter tape. Too much tack makes it difficult to remove the piece from the tape without bending it. So, for the most part, I use the lighter color tape. For heavier pieces I use the darker blue painters' tape.
Let me anticipate a couple of questions you might have. I cut the wood to the smallest dimension of the piece I want to polish because a wood surface that is too wide will also get polished - just like your piece of jewelry. That's not bad, really, except that Micro Mesh is not cheap and it's a shame to wear away the abrasive surface of the Micro Mesh on something that you do not intend to polish. The less often you must replace the Micro Mesh, the better. The same is true about cutting away excess tape. If your piece of wood upon which you mounted your piece is too wide, the tape surface will be wider than the piece you wish to polish. This will expose tape gum to your sanding grit and tape gum will adhere to the Micro Mesh. This will clog your Micro Mesh with tape gum and render that area of the Micro Mesh so exposed unsuitable for further sanding. Exposing only that surface that you wish to polish is good practice. Another note: It is very rarely that I finish only one piece at a time. I'm usually doing twenty or so. In such a case, the wooden piece that I cut might be over a foot long. I select all the pieces that I wish to polish that are roughly equal in their narrow dimension and prepare them for finishing on a bed of tape of an appropriate width and length. After I have finished them, I select another group of pieces that might be of a wider dimension and apply them to a tape bed which is laid on a wider piece of wood, and so forth. I store my various pieces of dimensioned wood for use on another occasion. 
Following sanding, I drop the pieces in a bath of mineral spirits. This will remove any tape gum residue. It helps to use a fine paint brush to brush the pieces. This will help to remove any tiny metal pieces stuck in corners and cuts. Holding the pieces up to the light to inspect them will help to identify where you might need to jab them with the paint brush to remove such specks of metal. Make sure your pieces are free of any residual metal specks and tape gum before you dry them with a paper towel.
Take the time to inspect the perimeter edges of your piece. If they are not smooth and clean, file them with a very fine metal file.
Because I do this sort of thing (make pierced Sterling Silver jewelry) for income, I purchased a small tumbler in which I tumble the pieces after sanding. Doing so makes them sparkle to a greater degree than leaving them with a Micro Mesh sanded surface. If you intend to continue to do this sort of work, I would recommend the purchase of a tumbler.
Your piece is now done and ready for attaching a pendant bail or ear wires. I hope you are pleased with your efforts.
Reflections on Doing Pierced Work for a Living
Now you know how this sort of work is done. As I stated at the beginning of this article, it's a really straight forward sort of thing. There is no great mystery.
On the other hand, doing this kind of work is really labor intensive. I do not pretend that I could make a living doing this work. But I am retired and have a steady income. My wife still works and we can get along quite nicely on our present income. So I do this sort of thing to challenge myself to get something going, to keep me alert and functioning in my retirement. I find this work very satisfying. I often see pieces in jewelry stores that are very, very delicate - almost like lace. Some of them are very pretty and they are certainly inexpensive. Often the pieces are "base metal." Sometimes they are gold filled. I sometimes wonder whether or not I could do these sorts of things by casting. (I doubt that I could do them by hand with a scroll saw, but, then again, I have not tried.) But I regard casting as getting more into the "production" side of things and I don't think I would be honest in referring to cast pieces as "handmade." So I have stayed away from casting. I have not eliminated the thought entirely from my mind, but, I think, if I want to have pieces that are cast, I'll do the designing and get someone else to do the casting for me - if I can do so at a reasonable cost. Finally, when compared to other pieces that I see in jewelry stores, I wonder how my own pieces stack up against the competition. It's certainly true that a person who wants some nice earrings or a nice pendant can purchase something quite inexpensively. Why would they buy something that I make, (or something that you would make)? My pieces would be comparatively more expensive, I think, and possibly not quite as delicate. Here's why.
First, my pieces are made by hand and are of my own design. (Even the designs that I get from public domain are altered in such a way that I can arguably call them "original" because using designs "as is" will usually result in failure.) So, people can't get my handmade original designs anywhere else. This adds to their value.
Second, it's doubtful that this sort of work is done by very many other people. Handmade, very fine pierced work, if it's out there at all, is a rare item. My opinion is that actually doing this type of work would not be of interest to many people because it's too labor intensive. This, I believe, also adds to the value of mywork.
Third, I cannot make many peices by hand. It's simply too labor intensive. It would be nice if I could move along more rapidly, but doing so would not greatly increase the number of pieces available and on the market relative to the size of the market. This adds to the rarity of my product and, once more, to its value.
Fourth, I will not be around forever. I'm of retirement age right now. How many more pieces can I make?
Fifth, because my pieces are made by hand, and because I make them myself, I sign them. Even if there is someone else out there who is making similar pieces of pierced work, I can identify my pieces as my very own because they carry my mark. In my judgment, this again adds to their value. If it should happen that I gain some notoriety by doing this sort of work, being able to identify a piece as an authentic piece of mine might be important. I'll admit that this is a dream. Still, I fanasize that it might become true, even if only locally.
Sixth, certain of what I consider to be my finest work will be both signed and numbered. Once again my imagination is working. I don't want fame. But I would like for my work to be valued. I would like to think that a mother might hand down a pair of earrings to her daughter with the words, "Your Daddy gave these to me for our Silver Wedding Anniversary. Now they are yours - to pass on to your own daughter." If something simple like signing and numbering can add value to my work and help that dream come true, I think it's worth it.
So those are six reasons why I think people will buy my work - if the price is right. Pricing is something else again. I don't want to be a slave to this work, but I would like for it to be profitablable, if only marginally so. Priced too high, people will not purchase my work. Priced too low, I won't be able to keep up with demand. Priced just right, things work out. Good Deal!
Concluding Remarks
I hope you have enjoyed learning how I do this work. It's probably not the only way to do it, but it's a way I learned by trial and error. I wish you every success while you do your own version of pierced work.
I would like to hear from you if you have any thoughts about my method of doing this work, or if you have any comments about any section of this web site. For information on how to contact me, click here.
Source Information
For small tools related to the jewelry trade, contact Rio Grande, Inc.. You may call them at 1-800-545-6566. They are a source for the metal piercing blades required for this work. They can also provide Sterling Silver sheet material.
Micro size drill bits can be ordered from Wholesale Tool, Inc. They have a number of warehouses around the country. They will be an inexpensive source for many tools that are not strictly related to the jewelry business.
A good source of sheet Sterling Silver is T.B. Hagstoz & Son. Inc. They can be reached at 1-800-922-1006.
MicroMesh sanding/finishing cloth can be purchased from Woodcraft, Inc. Phone: 1-800-535-4482 for Customer Service.
Another source for MicroMesh is Klingspor's Woodworking shop. Phone: 1-800-228-0000.
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