Heart Shaped Brass Locket From Scratch

i wanted to make some handmade jewelry for my girlfriend and so spend about two months figuring out how for her. I used brass as a metal theat can be soldered and it suitable for jewelry. Above is the peice after months of use and tarnishing, though you can seal your metal tarnish gives a vintage look that is hard to buy.

Brass Sheet Metal 1/16th inch (I used 4x6 inches, you can go smaller depending on your design)

Caliper or ruler

3D printer (optional)

hammer or rubber mallet

Mini Brass jewelry box hinge

Silver Solder

Flux

Blowtorch

Jewelry Jump ring

Metal laser cutter (I used a Fablight) can possibly done with tin snips

Hydrogen Peroxide

Dremel with buffing bits

First, design the shape of your locket. Oval and circle shapes are possible with this process, and likely easier. I will be going through the process for a heart shape.

Use your favorite CAD software, Fusion, Inventor, Solidworks, Rhino, etc. I will be using fusion but any Cad program can do the job.

First, outline the shape of your locket. This will be the outside covers of the piece. remember to add an area with a small hole to insert a jump ring. The piece may end up too small to drill a hole into, so this step is important. Also remember to fillet or round the edges if you have any. Copy and paste your final outer design and offset the outline by at least an eighth of an inch, wider the better. the center will be where your image will be in the final locket. The offset outline will not need a jump ring hole so adjust the design accordingly, though you may keep it as well. Lastly, rememeber to scale your sketch to be an appropriate size. Mine is about the size of a quarter.

Now than you have your design, make a .dxf file of at least 2 of the outline shapes serving as the front and back, and one offset inside piece. I cut out a lot of extras to practice though you only need those three pieces.

You can use a metal laser cutter such as the Fablight to cut out the shapes from your metal, or for a less complex shape, tin snips may do the trick.

I wanted to curve the heart pieces for a less flat shape. I used the sketch i already had of the locket, offset by .1 mm, then drew a square around it and extruded it. I curved the indent in the extruded shape and printed the .stl with 80% infill. This is a custom dappling block, a technique used to curve flat circles to a dome shape.

to curve your pieces, place the metal pieces one at a time into the dappling block. I used a metal piece I found around to concentrate the blows, but anything can work for this. using a mallet on the metal piece, moving it around evenly around to curve uniformly, The pieces will slowly conform to the new shape. This takes a while, at least 30 minutes but go slow and steady. When you are done, it should look curved like the photo

Now prep your metal to be soldered together. Use sandpaper or metal file to get the black edges and burrs off the sides of the metal the laser cutter left, and sand the the back face of your back cover piece and offset frame piece to ensure adhesion. You may also use hydrogen peroxide to clean the metal before this step.

Apply flux with a q tip along the backside of the frame piece, where you sanded it, as well as where it will be adhered onto on the back piece. Place the pieces together aligned, using the flux to keep them in place. The curve of the outer piece compared the the flat frame will have created a small divot.

Using a small brass hinge, insert one side into the divot, making sure it is oriented correctly. It should stick well with the flux. Be careful to not get flux near the actual hinge mechanism. Take your time aligning the pieces and solder.

Using pliers, cut tiny portions of your silver solder and use tweezers to place the pieces along the insides of your connection pints, between the frame and cover. use more near the hinge, though just a little can do plenty.

Now, take your blowtorch and use even strokes around the entire piece until your solder pools into the cracks between the cover and frame. Heat the entire piece, and do not stop until the solder has melted and reformed into the cracks. This step is by far the most difficult, and may take some time.

Now to attach the top, add flux onto the other hinge connection where the next cover will be attached. Place a small piece of solder onto the hinge and place the cover piece on top, aligned with the rest of the piece. Here you can solder it again with your blowtorch, the solder will spread and attach almost instantly.

Your locket is now assembled, but its covered in some ugly stuff. Not to mention the blowtorch gave it a coppery color instead of the beautiful brass. This can all be fixed with dremel polishing bits and buffing

Your locket should now be functional, aligned and beautiful!. This took a long time to figure out process wise, and finding ways to create jewelry from scratch with minimal tools. Outside a laser cutter, if you have the pieces, this can be assembled anywhere.