A Riveting Story

 Jewelry riveting that is.  Metal, it's all about the metal.  They call it cold connections.  

I read up on the history of riveting and it seems it dates back as far as 3000 to 5000 BC!!  Who knew?  Of course the Egyptians would be in on it too, the master builders, then the Vikings and on through to the present day where riveting is done as hot and cold connections in all kind of structures, airplanes, you name it.

I have always been fascinated by the knight's armor, the metal, the color, the connections and rivets!  Someone made those by hand!  Can you believe it?

I want to learn how to do this - the old fashioned way, by cutting small bits of wire and shaping it into a rivet head.  I've done it with fine silver wire so far - but have yet to grasp the complexity on copper wire. 
On the silver wire I drew a bead first (the ball end that forms in the flame of the torch) and pounded that out in my rivet anvil, that seems the easiest way to start a rivet.  But more complex connections are going to take a lot of practice!

Here are some of the tools used for this task.

Riveting anvil.

Steel block.

I found some images online of jewelry made with rivets too.

Courtesy of the Internet.

Courtesy of the Internet.

I'll be doing something like this soon enough as well.  Remember, it's all about practice and patience!