Interview with BB

The following is a little extract from an interview with BB. A bunch of questions were answered but decided to focus on the first one to give you guys a better glimpse into the actual process of making these pieces. Enjoy!

1. Can you explain a little how the different parts of the process of making jewerlry go for you?

It’s kinda changed as I’ve gone along. And each thing I want to make is so different from the last that I’m often having to rethink the process all over again. But usually I start with an idea of something classical. Like a signet ring, or a skull ring, a precious stone holder, a family crest, etc - something we’ve all seen before. Something we all know. Then I try to figure out how I can make it unique. How I can make it the coolest or most original version of that. What’s going to be the thing about it that makes it stand out from other rings? Like I want each thing I make to be unlike anything I could just buy off the shelf. Unlike anything I’m completely used to seeing.

Then I think of why? For each part of it. I.E - why do I want a signet ring? What’s the actual function of a signet ring? Or a skull? What does it symbolize? What does it symbolize for me? What’s it going to mean to me when I look down at it on my finger? What’s it going to remind me of? When am I going to want to wear it? Etc… And hopefully by answering those questions, I start to find the individualism in it.

Then I find a baseline shape to mold, either by shaping it in wax if it’s meant to be very organic or by 3D printing it if it requires more detail.

Whatever it is, my through line is that it has to contain human error. It HAS to look like it was shaped by hand. Because perfect jewellery bores the fuck out of me. I’ve seen it too often. Everyone has a perfect piece. You can buy perfect machine pieces anywhere. The stuff that stands out is the imperfect. The self aware. The pieces that contains humanity. Humanity is quintessentially full of errors and imperfections.

Once Im happy with the shape. Then I put it in sand clay, to mold it for the silver pouring. Now the sand has a mind and character of it’s own that has to be taken into account too, because it all depends on how the wax/plastic prototype is able to go in and out of the sand. What parts imprint, which parts don’t. What breaks off or blurs, where the silver entry is built in to be poured from later, etc…

Then I heat the silver a pour it. And… hahah hope for the best init. Cause there’s always a moment. Like once the silver cools and solidifies, it’s nerveracking to pull it out and see what the final casting came out as. Sometimes very weird inexplicable things can happen that are magical and awesome and unreplicatable. Sometimes it’s not awesome and basically means I have to start over from scratch.

If it’s good. I saw the excess off. File down the spool mark and detail it with a Dremel tool.

Then even with the polishing (which I never used to be very excited about, to be honest) there’s a whole world that can be done… Because there’s also a choice to be made about what the finish says about the piece and how it rounds off the whole thing to be cohesive and intentional. I can blacken it with silver oxidizer to have contrast and shading or sand it down fine to be shiny. I can paint it with resin or cover it in tiny stones, etc

At this point I think it’s much more about rolling with all the little mistakes that have happened over the course if each process and trying to make the sum of all imperfections equal success. And I guess my gage for success is simply do I want to look at it? Or do I not want to look at it. Because if I want to look at it, stare at it and analize it, then it’s a success.

Bunny Bunny (;