Smiles and bean casting

Jewelry Discussion
1

Thanks for you imput and the smiles. The first thing I teach my
students is to always be dumb enough not to know how to do every
thing. The second thing I teach is that my way is just that, “My
Way”. I think it is the best way or I would do it another way.
Then I teach them every way that I know of, or heard of, and
explain why I like “My Way” and why I think it is the best way
for “My Way”.

By the way, some one asked me off the list “What is bean
casting?” It is a really silly way of just pour silver in to a
can of dry pinto beans. You get a some very unusual free form
shapes. A little heavy, but fun to do some time with your silver
scrap. No need for even a flask flying aroung.

You know as I typed this I got a crazy idea for beginners that
want to start silversmithing and/or casting. I mean real
beginners. I will send one (1) once of silver shot to the first
ten people that join the new list for beginners at
Jewelrymaking@listbot.com and ask for the bean casting “start a
business” kit. The deal will be that I will send them one ounce
of silver casting grain, some beans, and a can with instructions
on how to bean cast. All for FREE! No shipping, no cost at all.
No catches, no sales, nothing, just the cost of an email. (Each
person would have to have a torch. If you do not have one a
$10.00 torch from Ace Hardware will do just fine.)

Then I will have those ten beginners bean cast the silver, mail
it back to me. I will solder on rings for pendents, polish them,
take photos of them for my web. Then mail them back with sterling
silver chains and instructions on how to sell them. Yes, they
must sell them and use the profits to start a silver jewelry
business. We will track their progrss on
Jewelrymaking@listbot.com and my web site for one year and see
what happens.

This could be fun, real fun, or real embarassing, real
embarassing. So beginners spend an email (and maybe $10.00 for a
torch) and lets have some fun for a year.

Don Norris
@Donald_Norris
PO Box 2433 Estes Park, CO 80517

2

Donal Norris:

Hi I enjoyed your idea about bean casting. Here is another
thought of how to control the weight of the finished piece.
This was done at a recent workshop held by our Guild.

Glue the beans on to a suitable size of 2x4 or some other small
piece of wood that will take the heat. Melt the silver casting
grains and pour over the beans fastened to the block of wood.

(This should be done in an open area because of the smoke
created when the molten silver is poured on the block.

3

Greetings:

I’d like to be one your candidates. I have a torch and I am
willing to use it. I may not qualify though because I a little
over the starter age (72+), but willing to try. I have even
started fossil hunting a couple years ago.

Best regards,

Joe Bokor
@Joe_Bokor

4

Don, I have the casting grain already and the beans so I am going
to try this out just to come up with something new to sell the
cowboys here in Texas. Thanks for the idea. I’ll send jpgs of
the results.

Lynn Bell