Stork Cufflinks

By Lynn Durie

My latest commission was cufflinks for an Obstetrician (baby doctor!)

I went through a whole load of ideas for what I could do including sperm and egg which I think would have been the best. I really liked my design but unfortunately the gift giver wasn’t so enthused!! So we agreed on the safer ‘Stork’ option. (boo hoo! Going to do that sperm and egg thing anyway some other day, too good to be forgotten!)

So I thought it was going to be relatively straight forward (ha! ha! ever the optimist) which it was until I got to the soldering part…Lets just say I underestimated how difficult it is to solder two pieces of flat silver together. I actually hadn’t ever done it before; never the need I suppose. I realise now that I should have practised a little more before endeavouring. To cut a VERY long story short, at one stage unfortunately I lost one cufflink and had to start all over again from scratch. (‘kill-me-now’ scenario)  Soldering is such a tedious business. I liken it to whipping cream with an electric beater. You have to be very careful… a millisecond too long and you have butter or a melted ball of silver in my case. Oh well, you live and learn.

 So after all that trauma the inside of the image was oxidised (blackened) with a hideously poisonous solution which I loath using, ‘et voila’ cufflinks complete! AND it reaffirmed to me that I have definitely found the thing I love to do as even though I was crawling the walls with frustration, oddly I still loved every minute of it!

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Comments

[cliodhna]

they are gorgeous!! I adore them..
post the other design will you? so we can see it

[cliodhna]

just thought, could you not try using tiny nails or rivets? and making them part of the design and then you wouldn't have to solder them... ?? this is coming from someone who knows nothing whatsoever about silver working so if its completely implausible please ignore :)

[Lynn]

Oh the sperm and egg thing! I'll scan it in sometime.
As regards the rivets and nails... It is possible to do a rivet type jobby on it but I think it would be too much on the front of the little cufflinks, also I think it would end up a bigger job than the soldering in my little workshop!!!
Thanks for the input and suggestions though, always welcome. :0)