Fine Jewellery Techniques (JEW4035)

09/03/2018 - Rivets & Pivots

I love rivets.  Not needing solder to join materials together means that those materials can be ANYTHING. We’ve done blind tube rivets before where one end is soldered onto something so only one end needs flaring out.
Our hinged ring also used wire rivets and the more recent spinner pendant had tube rivets.
I’ve never done a pivot before, which is basically just a slightly looser rivet with a jump ring or washer in between the moving surfaces.
I was not actually on site for this lesson as I'd had a car accident the previous day. But I did the sample at home which was simply a piece of sheet, with a square tube riveted to it at one end, and a long rectangle pivoted at the other end.
My pivot ended up a bit too tight so it's rather stiff to turn.  Tools suitable for flaring tube rivets include:
  • Scriber
  • Centre punch
  • Conical collet punch
  • Doming punch
  • Old builders plumb line weight (which is what I use at home)
We then had to rivet a shape onto our bar brooch.
I've had a blackbird design floating round my head for months now, so decided to do that.