making traditional filigree jewellery

Filigree pendant with heart and teardrop shaped links

When I started my apprenticeship I enjoyed making filigree jewellery.  I was shortsighted and was very happy to work with tiny links, putting them together to make a substantial yet delicate piece.  The methods I was taught were used in Victorian filigree.  It was a long process.  I started with a length of wire, usually silver but sometimes gold and once, platinum.  I annealed (heated then cooled it to make it easy to mainipulate) the wire and pulled it down through a draw plate till it was fine enough.  Then I annealed it again and twisted two strands together by hand using a hand drill.  I rolled the resulting twist flat giving a wire which looks rectangular but has a beaded edge.

Then I used the twisted rolled wire to make links, tear drop shaped, round, heart shaped.  A design is built up with these tiny links.  One tear drop soldered inside another.  Another link used in traditional filigree is the beehive where a strip of round wire is rolled then wrapped around a round wire.  Another link was made by rolling fine round wire on a spit as if you were making jump rings but instead of cutting off each link we would clip off sections of six loops then pull the two cut ends around so they touched each other and then solder the ends together.  We called these spiders because that is exactly what they looked like before they were polished.  This link could then be threaded like a bead or linked into the other links with a jump ring.

Silver jewellery with pearls and 'spiders'

Filigree earrings with pearls