Making jewelry from vintage spoons, forks, etc

Jewelry Discussion
1

I just found some spoons at a flea market that may make some
interesting jewelry: 1930’s Betty Lou spoons given out by Quaker in
the 1930’s. Other than the obvious of bending into a band, can
anyone suggest another more interesting way to make a piece with a
vintage spoon? thank you

2

Is it made of sterling?
You could always melt it down…

3

What a coincidence. A client recently brought me some sterling spoons
and wanted me to make some jewelry for her to give to her 3
daughters. She was not interested in rings, nor was I, so I designed
a pendant using the part of the spoon with the design, set each with
the birthstone of the daughters, I attached a bail to the back as
the handle of the spoon was too thick to bend over to serve as a
bail. I then made a hand made chain and the customer was delighted.
Of course these spoons were sterling, so regular soldering posed no
problem. Don’t know about plated spoons. You might be able to work
out a cold connection.

Alma

4

There are a lot of these on etsy - they make beautiful rings. I have
also seen groups turned into mobiles by a company called something
about tempest in a teapot

Carina

5

I have seen sterling baby spoons, with the spoon part flattened,
with a bezel soldered on and the handle made into a bail.

Dave Leininger
The Swanky Stone

6

You can make leaves from the bowl portion of sterling spoons. After
annealing, just cut a few kerfs then bend and file to form the
points (maple and oak leaves are my favorite subjects, but with a
little creativity you can make pretty much any leaf design), add a
little engraving and presto, a very cool, three dimensional leaf
pendant from the leftovers from ring making. If you cut the shank of
the spoon so there’s a bit leftover (12mm or so) still on the bowl,
file it to the shape of a stem and it will easily bend into a very
nice bail.

Yeah Karl. I’m still making spoon rings. Time has no hold on me. I
did finally give up on the hemp jewelry though…

Dave Phelps

7

Brenda

I have been making jewelry with sterling silver vintage spoons since
1976. Look at my site for Ideas or email me off line [ beans2you at
localnet dot com ] and I will send you more pictures

Robin

8

Hello,

I’m writing from BC, Canada. I teach jewelry smithing at our
highschool. After Xmas Im starting a very basic art metal class for
8th graders, and would like to teach them forming using cutlery. I
would like to purchase a bulk of cutlery from thrift shops, etc to
make it affordable. I’m sure I won’t be able to find silverware at
the rate I need it… Is it possible to use ordinary cutlery that is
common out there? Not sure what it would be… plated? and for sure,
stainless? Have you ever been able to anneal and bend that stuff? Any
help/advice you can offer is very much appreciated!

Thanks, Linda from Lake Country, BC
Linda M

9

Linda- Most of the" Ordinary" flatware out there is stainless. Its
workable but not ideal. It’d be really hard on your tools and hands.

Have fun and make lots of jewelry.
Jo Haemer
timothywgreen.com

10

Linda, my friends and I have made quite a few fork and spoon
bracelets. We don’t use sterling cutlery. We have found that for the
usual old silverplate one finds laying around, the silver actually
has to be burned off first (if you are going to do any soldering,
etc.) Haven’t tried stainless.

Margaret

11

Margaret,

Please tell me more about burning off the silver of old cuttlery to
solder to it. If it is silver plated, what is under the silver? And
why can’t you solder to the silver plating?

thx,
brenda

12

Brenda,

Please tell me more about burning off the silver of old cuttlery
to solder to it. If it is silver plated, what is under the silver?
And why can't you solder to the silver plating?

Mostly because by the time you get it all soldered (and bent) the
(usually very thin) silver plating is burned off (or mostly so) in
the areas that have been soldered or heated very hot. And, if the
silverware is fairly old (as it probably will be, given the advent
of stainless steel quite a few years ago), it usually has been used
enough that the silver has already been worn off in some places. I
can’t remember just now what the metal underneath is, but it is
silver-colored; and the piece ends up looking very nice.

Margaret

13

Brenda

I am going to chime in on this discussion. I use silver plate trays
quite often. I saw them up, and put patina on them with a torch.
Sometimes there is brass, copper, pot metal, and who knows what under
the thin layer of silver. Sometimes the silver just burns off,
sometimes it mottles up into a beautiful patina. But every time you
put the torch onto it, it will change. I solder with silver wire when
I need to solder it. Silver will fill in the gaps, it doesn’t care if
the metal is “dirty”

But if you want to use a fork, and have it look like a fork, and
stay shiny, you will have to go with cold connections. If you google
my name you will see some of the things I have done, I don’t have a
web site. I am in Indiana.

Roxy Lentz

14

Rory, I did google your name to see your work, but found very few
pictures. Mostly the sites that came up were of where you were
showing your work or articles about you. Do you have a website
yourself

thx. brenda