Hi everyone, welcome to our new Studio Saturday blog series, where we’ll be sharing scenes from the studio and photos in the making as we’re crafting our latest bk&leo piece!
First up is the making of the Andare bangle bracelet! We decided to use hard wax to create this bracelet as opposed to drip wax or sheet wax, which are both easier to work with but harder to make perfectly uniform and ensure the needed dimensions and precision for stone setting. The most challenging thing about working with hard wax is that it means a lot of muscle & sweat and hours and hours of sawing, filing and carving.
First we started with a bracelet block of wax and cut it in half with a saw. (We didn’t bring the camera for that part, no cameras around heavy saws or extreme heat for obvious reasons!)
Next up we hollowed out the center.
As they say, THE STRUGGLE IS REAL. It might look like a hot mess now (it always does mid-project) but we left lots of extra wax to file, since filing gives you better control.
Next we alternated filing the inside and outside to smooth and even it out.
We also sawed the bangle edges so they leave about an inch from the center line and started rounding them out.
Next, to create the infinity pattern, we drilled a hole through the wax and sawed out the negative space.
Here it is next to its “little sibling,” the Andare infinity ring in rose gold and diamonds!
We also started to carve the central and raised section, where the stones are set. This line down the middle will be roughly 3mm across to accommodate 2mm stones.
Here’s where we left off! Stay tuned for the coming weeks for Part 2. Thanks for reading! xoxo – bk&leo
