July 27th 2013: Making a Pendant in Boston

This morning after waking up, I decided to use whatever time I had to finish the Charlestown portion of the Harborwalk,  exploring Constellation Wharf,

the Shipyard Quarters Marina area on Pier 8 at the end of 13th Street,

The Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, where there are intersting sea animal statues in the park behind,

the Charlestown High School which has views of the Tobin Bridge from the soccer fields,

the Ryan Playground, which had wood carvings of foxes/wolves on the baseball field

and nice views of Everett across the Mystic River,

After finishing up the Harborwalk visits, I decided to head for breakfast nearby at Grasshopper Cafe, a small but seemingly popular brunch place.

I got the Annie Goat Omelet (3 eggs, goat cheese, tomato, spinach, with home fries and toast), which was the only interesting looking dish on the menu, but the weird taste of the goat cheese just turned me off my meal, and I barely finished anything.

From here, I headed into the South Boston area to check out Thomas Park at Thomas Park and National Street, which had a beautiful historic watchtower

and amazing views all around of the Boston skyline.

My friend called me to tell me she wanted to have brunch before doing food truck stuff, so I went to pick her up, going for a second breakfast meal at the Doo Wop Diner, another nondescript diner in the city of Malden.

I decided to get something small this time, getting the Apple Pecan Waffle,

while my friend got the Ted Williams Breakfast, consisting of 2 pancakes, raisin toast, 2 eggs, 2 pieces of bacon and 2 sausage links.

The waffle was actually pretty good, without me having to use maple syrup at all, while my friend's breakfast was just typical.

After doing food truck stuff for a few hours, I had time to myself again. I wanted to resume my sightseeing in the South Boston area, but happened to pass by Amrhein's, a pretty decent looking bar restaurant in the area, where I happened to have a Groupon for lunch, so I decided to stop by for my 3rd meal of the day.

For food, I got the Summer Vegetable Risotto (Italian rice with sautéed asparagus, leeks, garden carrots and sweet peas),

and the Lobster and Crab Cake (Pan-fried cake, baby greens, and lemon-caper dressing, with pan seared scallop on top).

Both dishes were pretty good, especially the crab cake, with it being cooked to the right amount of crispiness, with the scallop completing the picture. A definite recommend for this place from me.

From here, I headed for a small hike at Savin Hill Park, the path to the top of the hill located at ~102 Grampian Way. Unfortunately, there is no trail map of the area, but it was easy to get to the top of the hill, where there were pretty good views of the Dorchester area.

Malibu Beach was next, although it was more of a boat launch area than a beach.

Finally, it was time to head for my appointment at Stonybrook Fine Arts in the Jamaica Plain area, where I was to learn how to make a pendant.

There were interesting metal sculptures in front of this junkyard like looking place, located right next to the Samuel Adams Brewery.

Inside the workshop itself, there were interesting clay models of people in various poses as well.

After everyone finally arrived for the lesson, it was time to start. Our instructor first gave us a demonstration of what to do before we started making our own pendants, the final product hopefully looking like the one shown below.

The first step was picking out a stone I liked, which technically is made of plastic/glass.

Next, it was making a suitably size base for the stone, preferrably of the same base area or larger.

To do this, a small hole is first made with a drill appropriately on a sheet of metal in the area where the base is to be cut out of.

A punch with various sized circular holes is then used to punch out the base from the sheet of metal, using a mallet with force to hit out the base from the sheet.

Next, it was measuring out the exact length of bezel needed

by wrapping it around the stone,

having rounded out the starting edge with an interesting looking set of pliers.

To demarcate the point in the strip to cut so that the bezel is of the right length to go around the stone, a sharp pointed object like a mathematical compass is used to score the bezel strip.

The strip is then cut with a pair of metal shears.

Next, the two ends of the bezel have to be bent to ease the soldering process to join the ends together.

The two ends have to meet up exactly with each other with no gaps at all, and if the ends cannot meet up because of irregularities in shape, the irregularities have to be sanded off.

The soldering process itself involves several custom designed equipment, a blowtorch, and soldering metal pieces.

There is also a need to use flux, a gooey like substance that evaporates upon heating to prevent contaminants from inhibiting the soldering process.

After clamping the bezel in place with the soldering side facing up,

the bezel is coated in a layer of flux 

that is subsequently burnt off.

A piece of hard solder, which has the highest melting temperature of the solder metals used today,

is then placed directly above the soldering site using a thin rod dipped in flux.

Soldering the bezel involves using the blowtorch and waving it back and forth over the soldering site until the solder melts into the site, then the blowtorch needs to be turned off immediately to allow the solder to fix itself, joining the two ends together.

After the soldering, the bezel is taken out and placed into a pot of mild sulfuric acid for a few minutes to rid it of any dirt or other contaminants.

Upon taking out the bezel, it is then dipped in a bowl of water to remove the acid.

The slightly flattened bezel has to be rounded out again, and of course they have the equipment for it, using a mallet of a softer material so as not to damage the bezel, the bezel being put on a cylindrical tool.

The next step is to doublecheck that the stone can still fit inside the bezel ring,and if not, it can still be widened to fit using the same cylindrical tool shown above.

The next part of the process is to solder the base and the bezel together. In order to be successful, the base of the bezel has to be flush against the surface of the base, with no light shining through indicating the presence of gaps, that can be removed by sanding down the bezel.

Once again, the setup is used to set the bezel and base in position for them to be soldered together, brushing it with flux,

burning it off,

then placing pieces of medium solder (used to prevent the earlier solder from melting as it has a lower melting point then hard solder) on the soldering sites inside the bezel ring.

After the soldering process is done, it is time to sand down the bezel and the base to the desired heights and diameters to just cover the stone. I wanted my base flush with the bezel, so that required some work to sand down the base to the right diameter, although I ended up going overboard on one side of the piece.

After sanding down the metal, it is time to attach the bale, cut out from another strip of metal and bent into shape.

For the soldering at this point to work, the ends of the bale have to be straight flush up against the bezel with no gaps, having to be sanded down if it is not the case.

The soldering setup for this step is pretty tricky, having to use two stands to position the bezel and the bale correctly.

Easy solder, which has a lower melting point then both hard and medium solder, is then used to join the two pieces together. Unfortunately, my first solder came off after a while, so it delayed the completion of my piece for a while, keeping my instructor behind later than the postulated completion time.

Thankfully, with help from my instructor, I was successful the second time.

The next part involved polishing the metal using a polishing machine.

Next, after fitting the stone within the bezel, it is time to lock it in place by curving the bezel to cover the stone.

And wah lah, a pendant.

It was definitely a fun experience learning how to make a pendant, although I felt bad for making my instructor wait.

I think I might want to go back again to learn how to make a ring.

Anyway, it was late by the time I got out from class, so I decided to go to a bar in town where I had a Groupon, settling for the Stadium Bar and Grill in South Boston. There was a live band playing here tonight while the Red Sox were winning their baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles. After looking at the typical bar menu, I decided to go with the Korean BBQ Chicken Wings (deep fried and tossed in sauce)

and the Steak Tips (Marinated Steak Tips, charbroiled, served with Chef's Vegetables and Mashed Potato),

both just average I guess.

To round out my groupon, I got the Chocolate Chip Cookie Sundae (ice cream served with 2 giant chocolate chip cookies, topped with whipped cream), which wasn't too bad, if I wsn't too full to finish everything.

With that, I called it a night, heading to my friend's place to rest before another day of food truck stuff tomorrow.