Ever wondered what the process of recycling metal looks like? Here at Jewel Envy we can take your old jewellery and turn it into something new by melting it down and reusing the metal to create new pieces! Take a look at the photo process captured by of one of our resident goldsmiths Jamie Rosario pouring a wire ingot from her scrap silver to make a ring.
Approximately 25 grams of scrap silver is cleaned and cut up into small pieces and melted in a crucible. The steel mould is prepped and ready for molten silver to be poured into. The metal is heated until glowing red and must be poured in one swift motion into the wire mould!
This is what the metal looks like immediately after it has been poured into the mould and cooled in water.
The ingot is then reduced in size and squared off with a hammer before is gets rolled through a wire mill by hand, where it can be reduced to your desired thickness.
The wire must be annealed (heated) every so often while being rolled through the mill so that the metal does not crack and stays pliable during the reduction process.
Making two different thicknesses of wire.
Here, the wire has been flattened and texture has been added with a ball pein hammer for a custom ring order.
