by Emma Guy
May 2012
“When a person takes honey out of the honey pot with a spoon,” says May Lapidary of the Month Emma Guy, of Summerland, British Columbia, “they usually dip it into the honey and twist the spoon whilst taking it to the cup. From this practice, the honey spinner was born. Mine are made of solid sterling with a decorative cab on the end of the handle, and are the length of an ordinary teaspoon.
“To make the handles, I twisted two or three round or square wires and cut them to the correct lengths. On one of the handles, I used one copper wire with sterling wire. I then hard-soldered a disk and bezel on one end to mount the cabochon in later. Some of the disk edges were decorated by upsetting them with the ball end of the chasing hammer or by patterning the flat part that extends beyond the bezel.
“The other end was made by hard soldering 16 or 18 gauge, ¾ inch or larger diameter jump rings closed. These were then bent so that they looked like a double capital D without the straight part. These were set up on a soldering block with the points touching, but the spokes not touching. If you use three units, there will be six spokes; if four are used, there will be eight spokes. I used iron binding wire to hold the units together whilst soldering.
“These rounded units were then soldered to the handles with medium solder. On the very bottom, I soldered a small disk with the sterling stamp and my logo on it. Some of the rounded units were made by cutting disks and bending and soldering them. It is such fun, and I believe that imagination is the limit!
“I did not pickle between soldering because I discovered that the oxidation localizes the solder flow to the parts that have been cleaned and fluxed. I left all the spinners in the acid overnight, and the next morning I rinsed them well in baking soda water and set the gemstones in the bezels. Then I tumbled them in an ultrasonic tumbler with steel shot and soap.”
