One of the very first pieces of metalsmith jewellery I made was this Roman chain in sterling silver. I created it when I was a full time student way back in the early ’90s.
It was a project given to my me (and my fellow students) by my first jewellery lecturer, Albert van Dyk, when I commenced my journey as a metalwork jewellery maker.
At the time it seemed like a tortuous project! It was an immense amount of work – especially given how Albert had us go about it by starting without ready-made materials – and it’s not even a piece of jewellery that I would actually wear!
But in spite of that I owe the Roman chain a huge amount as it gave me such a solid grounding in key skills – especially soldering – that I use to this day. Plus I’m sure it taught me an awful lot about the patience needed to be a jewellery maker!
As for how the piece was made, well first we had to learn how to make our own wire for the project and draw it down to the required thickness. And a lot of wire was needed!
Then the wire was formed into many circles (Dozens? Hundreds? I’m not sure, but it was a lot!) of a particular size and each one had to be individually soldered – something I had very little experience with at this early stage of my career. This was back before paste solder was available (as far as I know), so we had to use tiny flat pieces of metal solder … which would frequently be blown away by the torch.
Once the loops were soldered, they needed to be stretched to a narrow oval shape and then bent up into a U, which would very quickly show how strong the solder join was – many loops had to be remade! Then the ovals were all woven together to form a big and open piece of chain.
To get it to the compact shape seen in the photos the chain had to be repeatedly annealed (heated until red to soften the metal) and pulled through an increasingly small set of holes in a wooden draw plate, while the chain was regularly worked between drawings to keep it supple – any still-dodgy solder joins would quickly become apparent during this process, causing a big step backwards for some unlucky students.
And then finally it was the right thickness … but we still weren’t done!
No, Albert had us make the tubing used to secure the chain to the shepherd’s hook clasps (also handmade of course) by starting with a flat piece of silver.
This was the part of the process I found most frustrating – even more than all of the failed solder joins I had experienced! I had so much trouble soldering up my tubing properly without any gaps and so it would survive being drawn down to size. I made many attempts at making it before it was finally done.
These days I never make my own tubing, but having been forced to do so long ago was an excellent way to perfect my soldering skills and learn even more patience. Plus of course it means that if I really need to make tubing, I do know how to do it – provided I have access to the right equipment.
In the end the tubing was made, the clasps were soldered in place and after many, many hours of work I had a finished chain!
The sense of achievement I felt when the Roman chain was finally completed was so great that I promptly turned around and made another one!
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