Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 March 1877 — How Pebble Jewelry is Made. [ARTICLE]

How Pebble Jewelry is Made.

The gold used by jewelers Is -always alloyed with certain proportions of pure silver and the finest copper, according to the quality desired. The jeweler "melts his metals in a crucible and casts/them into ingots about two inches broad;- three inches Tong, and ohe-eighth of an inch thick. The.ingots are reduced to any r gree of thinness by being passed between steel rollers. The sheets or plates of metal thus produced are intrusted tp a workman, who, guided by drawings or models, clips oat the pieeflb required for the various articles to, be pieces are given, along with the designs, to other workmen, who put them together. These men are seated at large .tables, round the sides of which are a series' of semi-circular recesses, each recess being occupied by a workman. After the pieces are brought to the exact size required, they are soldered together by means of a blow-pipe. Articles of an ornate character, such as brooches and bracelets Covered wjth designs in, filigree work op inlaid with pebbles, require great nicety of manipulation,' and the number of parts which go to compose some of thqfp ia immense. Pebble bracelets of a finelyworked geometrical pattern are made,- in which there are. qo fewer than 160 nieces of stone. In making an article which is to be inlaid With pebbles, > the jeireler forms a back or foundation, to which ,a plate pierced with apertured for the pebble is fixed, a convenient space bqing left between the two plates. At, this stage the work is passed to the lapidary, who cuts and fixes the pebbles. The stones are fl ret cut with a revolving disk of iron charged with diamond dust and oil'and roughly.shaped with a, pair of pincers, Each piece is then taken in succession and attached ! to a 5,1 cement fltick” —a small piece of wood with a quantity of strong cement on oqe end. Held in that way the stonb is ground to the required shape on p revolving disk of .lead charged With emery and water. When all the pieces are brought to the shape of the apertures designed for .them they are set in shellac. The outer surface has up to this lime been left rough, byt after.' the cement has h ardened the takes the brooch in his hand and manipulates it on the grinding disk? lintil the-Stone is reduced to the level es the. metal which surrounds it. The surface is next polished on a disk of tin charged with rotten ptone and.water, and the brooch is returnea to the jeweler. Usually pdbble brooches have in the center a “cairngorm,” or what is supposed to be one. The cairngorms are nor" s&’* Until the wdik on the other part of. the brooch is all,but completed. Thq exposed surface of the metal on the face of the brooch is usually relieved by (Scroll- wqriq. 7 Enameled jewelry has recently come into fashion to some extent, and fine spedi mens have been prodfccedjbthe Runic patterns especially being ,yety