Gold Bug

Since my first foray into goldsmithing, I have been coming back again, eager to improve my skills. Much work needs to be done, but at the moment, I can manage from pretty standard pieces, up to a mediocre level of expertise.

Different skills are required for this noble art: the first one is crafts.smithing.gold (or crafts.smithing.silver if you will be forging stuff out of other noble metals: silver, bronze, copper...). The former should not be a problem for you if you are a caster of Wonker's Wicked Wobble; the second one is crafts.arts.sculpture. Finally, it seems that crafts.arts.design is also somehow relevant. For at least the first step -forging-, you need to be in a smithy that has a goldsmithing workbench. My place-to-go is the Sto Lat Artificer's Guild. You will also need some metal bars, a pattern book and some tools, which usually can be purchased in the same place. Let's start with the tools:

This soft canvas roll contains a dozen tiny, delicate files made from hardened Gebra steel and a sturdy oak handle for them.  Used in goldsmithing and similar work, the variety means that any surface or corner - even the most complex or arcane - can be smoothed or rounded to the smith's desire.  It also has a handy pocket for a polishing cloth.

It is in excellent condition.

The roll of jeweller's files is about half full with a jeweller's polishing cloth.

It is open.

get cloth from files

You get a jeweller's polishing cloth from a roll of jeweller's files.

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l cloth

This soft cloth can be used to polish jewellery and gemstones to a lustrous shine, removing every last vestige of roughness.

It is in excellent condition.

Bars come in many materials, shapes and sizes. Just an example:

This is a bar of red gold, about five inches long.  Stamped into the top surface, the staff and crossed hammers of the Sto Lat Academy of Artificers indicate its purity.

Finally, you need some pattern book from where you take inspiration and guidance. The basic one, which you can purchase from Master Weestone, is Finesmithing for Artificers, a goldsmith's pattern book whose description goes like this:

This hefty leather-bound tome has been tooled with images of forge and anvil, and decorated with gold leaf.

Now you are ready to get going! This book  contains six workpieces, which in order (from least to most difficult) are: a cabbage brooch, an oak leaf ring, a tankard, a chain of stars, a wise owl ink well and a fountain pen nib. I have tried my hand at all of those.

Your first step is forging the item, and for this you will need the workbench, as stated, the book and the bar. After working, you should get a rough version of the workpiece that then needs to be filed (depending on the difficulty level, quite a few times might be required). Finally, you polish the piece, first with your files, then with the cloth. As with the production of other works of art, your skills determine one of approximately eight different outcomes for each piece.

I have already shown you in yesterday's entry what the oak leaf ring looks like. Let's go through the others:

Cabbage brooch

An elegant circle of gold bears a pattern of cabbage fronds in low relief, recalling the tasty and loyal denizens of the Sto Plains.  From beneath a frond at the centre of the disc, a pair of eyes peek shyly out with an affectionate gaze. 

Tankard

This red gold tankard is quite tall and slender, with a neatly rounded rim and a solid base.

Chain of stars

A slim, delicate black gold necklace supports a dozen shimmering, twinkling stars, each the size of a child's fingernail.

Wise owl ink well

Simple and elegant, with a wise, affectionate look in her wide round eyes, this decorative gold owl statuette has a deep well in her head for ink.

Fountain pen nib

This is a very well-made gold italic nib.

 Results are a bit middling. I have also made a short trip to Slippery Hollow and got myself another pattern book to try out: 

l book

This slim little book has been bound in sturdy light green book-cloth, and stamped with a title in silver ink.

It appears to have something written on it.

It is closed.

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read book

You read the cover of the closed light green cloth-bound pattern book:

Written in silver letters:

Jewellery from the Hedge-Wizard's Life

This book only has 4 patterns, and I have managed to try them all as well:

Crescent moon ring

This slim, pretty ring consists of a delicate band of gold, wrought in the form of a dozen crescent moons overlapping around its length.  Lovingly detailed as they are, the moons could have fallen from an autumn sky.

Country cottage ink well

This prettily made white gold cottage has a deep well for ink where the chimney-pot would normally be, and every detail of the thatch has been lovingly engraved.

Sleeping cat pendant

This rose gold pendant has been lovingly shaped into a cute, whimsical cat, curled up as though fast asleep between the wearer's collarbones where it hangs from its ribbon.

Dinner plate

This gold plate, solid and sturdy, won't shame any dinner table.  The beading around the edge is elegantly simple, done with a deft hand.

There is nothing on the elegant gold plate.

Except for the plate, most results were middling too, so I definitely have to improve my sculpting skills. Besides, there is a whole world to explore in which you set jewels into metal pieces, and in which you engrave these pieces with writing and symbols. But let's go one step at a time.