I hope you had a lovely bank holiday weekend and enjoyed the chance to spend more time outside in the sunshine.

We took the opportunity to visit our beloved beach hut on the south coast for the first time since lockdown. It’s all pebbles and shells and at this time of year lots of cuttlefish ‘bones’ wash up on the beach. For years (maybe too many!) I’ve told Alison how you can use them for casting jewellery.

So when a customer asked me to make a very organic ring for him I thought this was the perfect time to try out the technique (and show I wasn’t all talk!)
I thought I would capture the process and share it with you; it is simple low impact making at its best.

Initially I sawed the cuttlebone in half and pressed in a ring shape between the two halves to create the mold for the ring. I put in a channel to pour down the molten silver and bound the two halves together.

I collected some old silver items that needed recycling, melted them and poured the metal into the mold.

After letting it cool I opened the mold to reveal the organic ring shape.

I filed and cleaned up the rough casting.

And then a final polish.

The finished piece: hand cast recycled silver ring, made with love in London.

Jos
X

 

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE

Cuttlefish bone casting. from EC One on Vimeo.

P.S. If you enjoyed seeing behind the scenes do let me know and I’ll be sure to show some more
projects.