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Sharon, Call United Plastics Corp and ask for their free cataloug. 1 800
537 9724 RED
<< I was wondering where you could get plastics. >>
Sharon, Try these folks, they have a lot of different types of plastics,
and they are willing to help you get it if they don’t have it. Very
helpful. Outwater Plastics Ind.
Metalsmth
Wendy, sorry I was late to find this. I think my dowel is about
two inches in diameter. I confess that it is simply a dowel from
a craft store and I have now idea what kind of wood it is. If I
were to make another one, I would go to a store that stocked
hard wood and see what they carry. Idealy, it would be a fine
grained wood that didn’t splinter easily. The diameter can vary
according to the project. It should be small enough that a
curved object such as a bracelet can slide on and be easily
rotated. Marilyn Smith
Hi Steve
Charles’ suggestions are right on the money as usual. I’ve
always avoided hand making domed bangles because you can buy them
so inexpensively, and the work entailed in making one is so
extreme.
I believe the process used by the manufacturers is somewhat
automated, using large and heavy forming equipment. The nicer
hinged hollow bangles even have a formed inner sleeve, comfort
fit as it were.
The main problem I’ve encountered in forming objects like this
is comformity of curve. To smooth out all the bumps and other
irregularities and form an extremely evenly curved oval domed
band can be excruciating. If you had access to a hydraulic press
such as that from BonneyDoone Engineering, the project would be
simplified. There are attachments designed for work of this sort.
However, you might need to make some of your own forming tools to
generate the oval rather than a round bangle.
To add to your miseries, you may also encounter warpage as you
solder, pulling the seams apart, or twisting the edges. The
warping can be avoided by frequent annealing during and after the
forming process.
I wonder if the bracelet could be made by an electroforming
process? You’d need to make a core. There might be a company that
would do this for you, anyone have any suggestions? All you’d
need to do then is make your cuts and install the hinge and
clasp. Hmmm… I’ll do a search… Maybe the MJSA can advise us
here… I’m getting some ideas… hmmm 
And of course, anti-clastic raising as mentioned earlier by
Marilyn Smith is an alternative. Ettienne in Maine (I forget the
artists name) produces exceptional hollow forms. I’ve had the
opportunity to work with some of his creations, amazing jewelry!
Once again, the difficulty I perceive with this technique lies in
achieving a perfectly regular surface and oval curve. I believe
it could be done, but might require extensive experience with
the process. I’ve never tried it, so you can take my advice here
with a grain of salt.
Good luck, making a hollow domed, oval, hinged bangle bracelet
would be a valuable learning experience.
Jeffrey Everett
At 05:33 PM 6/12/97 -0500, you wrote:
And of course, anti-clastic raising as mentioned earlier by
Marilyn Smith is an alternative. Ettienne in Maine (I forget the
artists name) produces exceptional hollow forms. I’ve had the
opportunity to work with some of his creations, amazing jewelry!
Michael Good is the artist’s name. He is no longer with Etienne.
Myron Tobak in NYC has a large collection of tubing in round and fancy
cross-sections including coils of various diameters that could be useful in
constructing a hollow bracelet.
Rick Hamilton
Richard D. Hamilton
Fabricated 14k, 18k, and platinum Jewelry
wax carving, modelmaking, jewelry photography
Rick,
How about Myron Tobak’s address in New York it is a very big
city.
Hi Jeffrey,
Reading your post an idea struck me: What about spinning a flat
band soldered to a ring on the lathe. The method of spinning is
used by silversmiths for small production runs of beakers, vases
and other vessels. You turn a wooden former/mandrel onto which
the metal is laid down by means of a giant burnisher. I think it
could be adapted for bracelets, you’d have to drill a former
lengthwise to fit onto a steel mandrel, turn to the shape of the
domed profile with two stops at the right and left side,
crosscut it in the middle of the cove, take it apart, slip the
silver band over one half, both onto the mandrel, then the
second half against the first. The whole assembly should be
fastened to the mandrel so the two halves cannot come apart. You
could then burnish the middle of the band down into the cove,
getting a domed band for the inner half of the bracelet. I think
there would not be too much deformation in forming it to an oval
from the round band produced on the lathe. Just an idea, Markus
Was: Twining a cylinder
OK, so I finally figured out what exactly I want to do, now just
need to figure out how. I want to make a round, hollow core bangle
bracelet by twining or weaving silver wire. So the piece needs to be
three dimensional, a cylinder. I tried making a flat form and then
rolling it into a cylinder, but the metal gets deformed so that
doesn’t work.
If I make a straight hollow cylinder and then try to bend it into a
bracelet, the wire will become deformed as well. So I think what I
need is to learn how to twine (weave) a hollow, U-shaped tube. The
problem is, if I use a circular core to form the cylinder around,
how would I remove the core after the form is finished. Would some
sort of wax do the job, that then could be melted out??? Or would
the core stay in???
I hope the description is clear enough. Anyway for anyone who has
the book Textile Techniques in Metal by Arline Fisch, a hollow core
bracelet by Mary Lee Hu is on page 151. I don’t aspire to create
work like hers (amazing), but would enjoy the challenge of trying. I
am just a novice at all this stuff, am retired as a Nurse
Practitioner and totally enjoying my retirement. There just has to
be a solution to this.
Thanks for hanging in there with me!
Karen
Hi
So I think what I need is to learn how to twine (weave) a hollow, U-shaped tube. The problem is, if I use a circular core to form the cylinder around, how would I remove the core after the form is finished. Would some sort of wax do the job, that then could be melted out??? Or would the core stay in???
There is an art of Japan that has been around for a long, long time
called Kumihimo (Japanese braiding). It is done on an oak (usually)
loom which costs about 65 dollars. There is a wealth of info on
It is a fun and relaxing craft, with many possibilities for metal
work. The braiding you are talking about would be done with a soft
rope core (my opinion) which could be pulled out after the braid is
taken down. There is a link to the discussion group for Kumihimo on
the Braidershand site. If you find it interesting and have any
questions, please feel free to email me.
Kim
Kim Starbard
http://www.kimstarbarddesigns.com
I think you could weave it on a bangle shape made from a material
which is flexible enough to bend open at a slit, and slide the
weaving off when done. I mean, like an unsoldered jump ring, but
bigger. Maybe you could use plastic or rubber tubing, stiffened with
a wire inside.
M’lou
am retired as a Nurse Practitioner and totally enjoying my retirement. There just has to be a solution to this.
Karen, I have good news and bad news. When I was in elementary
school, we did a weaving thing with yarn and a spool. We put four
tacks around the hole of a spool - like from thread - and then the
teacher set it up and you just wrapped the yarn around and pulled
over a loop. The point being that what we got was a hollow tube of
yarn, and that could be coiled around for potholders or whatever.
The bad news is that I don’t actually remember how to do it in
detail, but if you can figure it out, or if someone else knows how,
it’s just what you ask.
If I understand you correctly, what you want to do is build a wire
structure on a core made from a round rod bent into a circle, and
then remove the core.
Could you not make a part of a core? I’m thinking of using the rod
bent into, say, a quarter circle. Start the weaving on the core and
when you reach a suitable point, slide the core out a bit. Continue
building and extracting the rod until the circle is complete. The end
result should be a hollow bracelet rather like one coil of a spring.
The small offset of the end from the start of the bracelet should be
easily corrected.
Regards, Gary Wooding
Hi Karen,
I have used a hollow core-type of chain that was woven by another
jeweler. The piece was made of rings that were linked together–as
opposed to a weaving type of thing where you have long and
continuous metal threads to contend with. The links were joined in a
kind of chain mail sort of way, flat, and then the last rings joined
the sides to make a tube. The bracelet could be joined to make a
bangle using the same technique. It was very flexible so hinging and
a clasp were not imperative tho they could be added.
Not sure if this helps…
Janet
The bad news is that I don't actually remember how to do it in detail, but if you can figure it out, or if someone else knows how, it's just what you ask.
You can still buy these spools:
at craft stores
at Waldorf toy stores and catalogs
Elaine
Metalsmith, Certified PMC instructor
http://www.CreativeTextureTools.com ™
Hard to Find Tools for Metal Clay
The piece was made of rings that were linked together--as opposed to a weaving type of thing where you have
What you’re looking at there is chainmail. Here’s a few links for
that:
All About Printing Chainmaille Tutorials Free - CGMAILLE
http://www.chainmailbasket.com/tutorials.php
http://www.mailleartisans.org/articles/subcat.cgi?key=5
Martial Arts | 4 Underrated Reasons to Take Up Martial Arts
There’s a few more, but many of these guys are linked to each other,
too. It’s interesting if you don’t mind stringing 10,000 rings
together ;
I am not looking at making a bracelet made of jump rings nor of the
finger knitting kind that uses the little 4 pronged device. I want
to actually weave (twining) as used in making baskets, but out of
wire, into a cylinder that bends into a bracelet. It is called
Hollow Core because there is space inside the woven cylinder. The
trick is not in making the cylinder, but in making one in bracelet
form because if it is made straight and then bent, it will be
deformed. Hope this is a little clearer.
The bad news is that I don't actually remember how to do it in detail, but if you can figure it out, or if someone else knows how, it's just what you ask. You can still buy these spools:
I didn’t jump in straight away as I thought there would be a hundred
replies to this - anyway, its called French Knitting and there’s all
the info you need here http://tinyurl.com/jfcjb
I’m not sure that the technique is relevant to the original query
though…
Best wishes,
Ian
Ian W. Wright
Sheffield UK
Hi Karen,
I am not looking at making a bracelet made of jump rings nor of the finger knitting kind that uses the little 4 pronged device. I want to actually weave (twining) as used in making baskets, but out of wire, into a cylinder that bends into a bracelet. It is called Hollow Core because there is space inside the woven cylinder. The trick is not in making the cylinder, but in making one in bracelet form because if it is made straight and then bent, it will be deformed. Hope this is a little clearer.
So do you perhaps need some kind of alternative weaving technique
whereby you have more “threads” on the outside of the bracelet tube
and less on the inside? Such that eg. if the seam was on the inside,
the actual open, flat shape would not be a parallelogram or
rectangle, but have shorter edges and be longer down the middle? Does
that make sense? Another example might be knitting (although I know
you’re NOT knitting, but imagine a piece of knitting where as you
knit more rows, you increase the number of stitches at regular
intervals so that you have edges that are getting bigger? Can you see
what I’m getting at and then when you get to the half way point,
decrease at the same regular interval? Would this be possible in a
weaving technique.
It might sound daft, but I once knitted a trilby for one of my
daughter’s teddy bears when she was little and I made the brim in
exactly the shape I’m talking about but the seam was on the outside.
It worked out perfectly but being the brim of a hat it was flat as
opposed to rounded.
Does this help in any way?
Helen
Preston, UK
Karen,
.....but in making one in bracelet form because if it is made straight and then bent, it will be deformed.
I just had a thought - what if you made a “core” using Jett Set to
create it, and before it hardened, cut a big chunk out of it so you
have maybe a 2/3 circle left. Let it harden. Then as you “twine”
around it you keep shifting it and when you need to, you can simply
dip the end of the form in hot water and cut it off and continue
working. Each time you get closer to your finished “ring” you can
soften the jet set and cut it and ultimately you would pull the final
small end piece out and then connect the ends of your hollow form.
Maybe it’s a crazy solution, but hey, sometimes crazy solutions
work.
Kay
There is also Viking Knitting which is done on a wood dowel. The
mesh is removed from the dowel and pulled through a drawplate until
the desired length or diameter is reached. It’s easy to do, portable,
and makes a flexible hollow tube.
marilyn