This is how I (melt and) roll….. gold, that is.

10 Sep This is how I (melt and) roll….. gold, that is.

I never tire of people bringing me little handfuls of gold.

A lovely little pile of gold.

Broken chains. Old rings. Some even have their names in script lettering (yes, the 1970s happened).

That amazing warm metal from the earth can be melted, rolled, and finessed into a completely different form. Sometimes we do this to make use of what my clients already have and keep material costs down, and sometimes we do it for sentimental reasons.

Just starting to warm up.

The process is one of extremes. The metal must be cleaned, sorted, evaluated for quality, and extracted from any spring mechanisms or other alloys. Then, fire and force are used to convert it from its old form into something I can work with to fabricate or cast toward the new design.

It always reminds me of how we change ourselves. Sometimes we have to walk through fire, but that’s how we get to something new and better.

Ready for the heat.

I recently melted down a set of wedding rings for clients approaching their wedding anniversary. Any long-term relationship is a series of seasons, and for them, the evolution of their relationship warranted new rings. But somehow it didn’t seem appropriate to not honor those first rings, to not honor those first seasons of their marriage. So, we melted down those first rings, and they literally became something new.

My client Amy said it well: Everything that it was is in there. The ring that I wore all through my teen years is in there. The necklace that I wore at my graduation is in there. It’s all in there.

Got gold? Contact me to inquire about creating something new.