How to Make Your Own Metal Jewelry Holder

Metal jewelry holders, sometimes referred to as jewelry boxes or jewelry tins, are containers designed to keep your jewelry hidden or just to hold jewelry. A metal jewelry holder can be made in any shape or style, and you can make it as big or small as you want. Crafting this kind of container is often done by beginner metalworkers or jewelry-makers as a foray into the basic techniques of working with metal. To learn some simple forming and soldering skills and to create your own cylindrical metal jewelry holder, follow the instructions for this project.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Sheet metal Jeweler's saw and blades Workbench Jewelry files and sandpaper Blowtorch Pickle pot Tongs Fire bricks Anvil forms Mallet Small paintbrush Flux Solder pieces Soldering clamps Safety goggles Polishing cloth

The Body

1. Choose the type of metal you would like to work with. Silver and brass are best for this type of project. Also determine the length and circumference of the cylinder you are going to make. A jewelry holder can be as long or wide as you like, as long as the jewelry you wish to put in it will fit.

2. Draw rectangular cutting guides directly onto the sheet metal with a pencil. Use your length and circumference measurements for the guides. Cut the metal with a jeweler's saw, making a steady angled vertical motion. File and sand the cut edges until they are smooth. You will want the straightest possible edges for soldering.

3. Anneal the rectangular piece with the blowtorch and drop it into the pickle pot with the tongs. When cool, remove the rectangle and dry it off. Place the rectangle on a curved or rounded anvil and shape it into a cylinder by banging it with the mallet. Make sure that the cylinder is perfectly rounded and that the edges meet snugly.

4. Solder the edges of the cylinder together. Paint a small amount of flux in the "seam" of the 2 edges and place small solder pieces all the way down the seam, on the outside. Secure the cylinder in the clamps and apply a small blowtorch flame to the seam, melting the solder. When the solder has flowed into the seam, remove the torch. Using the tongs, place the cylinder into the pickle pot to cool. File and sand away excess solder.

5. Trace the top and bottom of the cylinder by placing it onto the sheet metal and drawing around the outside with a pencil. Cut one of these circles to use as the bottom. Solder the bottom piece to the bottom of the cylinder, the same as before. Saw, file and sand off the excess metal so that you have a clean edge between cylinder and bottom.

The Lid

6. Cut a small 1/2 inch wide rectangular piece of metal almost as long as the circumference of the top of the cylinder. It should be only almost as long so that it can fit inside the cylinder later. Anneal and bend the rectangle into a circular shape. Solder the seam. Make sure it fits inside the cylinder fairly snugly, but not tightly. This will be used for the inside lid.

7. Take the second circle traced in Step 5 of "The Body" and draw it slightly bigger. Cut the circle out.

8. Center the inside lid on one side of the lid. Solder them together.

9. File and sand off excess solder, and cut, file and sand away extra metal on the lid top at your preference.

10. Polish the whole metal jewelry holder with a polishing cloth.

Tips & Warnings

• Cutting sheet metal is easiest at a jeweler's workbench, which has specially-designed spots to rest the metal on as it is being cut. When sanding, work your way down to fine-grained paper. Annealing is heating a piece of metal so that it becomes more pliable. The pickle pot is a heated crockpot that is filled with a chemical solution called "pickle."
• Wear safety goggles when sawing. Do not get chemicals in your eyes.

Resources

• Jewelry Soldering
• Soldering for Jewelry Purposes
• Basic Metalworking Tools