The first step in making the hairpins is to find and dry ivy leaves. You can't use fresh ones as they contain too much moisture, which explodes in 'blisters' and ruins the finish of the leaf during firing. I used to collect ivy leaves (and odd looks) on my walk to work from the train station. One of the things that pleased me about my new flat is the large ivy plant that grows on the backyard dividing wall. Easy access! They take about 3 - 4 weeks to dry properly, so you have to think in advance about collecting.

The second step is to either 1) make moulds of the leaves and use these to create leaves from PMC, or 2) paint the now-dried leaves with PMC (Precious Metal Clay), a combination of ground silver and binder, the latter of which burns off during firing, leaving only pure (called 'fine') silver. This step is tricky and takes a while, as you need between 4 to 8 coats on each leaf, each of which must dry between coats (usually I'd use a hairdryer to dry the PMC, but with leaves that can get a bit dodgy). You don't want to use too many coats or the veins on the leaves will lose definition, which is a major part of their charm. However you need enough coats that the leaf is not paper thin but thick and tough enough to be usable in jewellery. Another reason to be cautious about the thickness is that PMC tends to be more brittle than normal fine silver, as the process 'bakes' the silver as it is, rather than working and hardening it (I could go into a molecular explanation for the brittleness but maybe that's going a bit far!). This means PMC items snap or break a lot easier.

Leaves painted with PMC and the dried ivy leaves I start with

The leaves are then fired in my kiln. Because I use PMC+ (which shrinks 10% from the leaves' original size) for this job, it takes 10 minutes to fire, at 900°C / 1650°F. Putting the leaves in at first is always 'exciting' - the plant matter gives a PUFF! as it explodes from the heat. I leave the kiln door open for the first 30 seconds to let all the black smoke fumes escape. This is my kiln, in the process of ramping up to temperature. It's a Paragon Sentry, an American brand made in Mexico and an elegantly simple design. It reaches 999°C/1800°F (unfortunately not really hot enough for me to do ceramics). The scribble on the top is a reminder to me of the interior dimensions. I use it in my kitchen (which in England usually contains the laundry machine, as you can tell) which is only just wide enough to give it the 1+ foot of clear space it needs around it. No cooking gets done whilst I'm firing jewellery!

My Paragon kiln

I don't quench (douse in water) the leaves when they come out of the kiln as although it's a good method for hardening silver, it also makes it more brittle, which is something these definitely don't need. When the leaves have cooled down naturally, I weed out (bad pun!) the rejects. There's always a number of leaves which have broken apart in the kiln or which just don't look good enough. By the end of the entire process, the attrition rate for leaves is usually 2 in 5, quite a large number. As you can see from the below photo, when they come out of the kiln, the leaves are adhered to by a layer of fine white crystal. This is actually silver, and is what it looks like in its natural state. Then comes my most hated job - polishing!

Leaves just out of the kiln

Because the leaves are too delicate and brittle to be thrown in the polishing barrel, they have to be done by hand. Bummer. This involves a Dremmel multitool and a couple of different wire polishing brushes. Firstly I remove the crystallized silver and then give the leaves a preliminary shine 'n polish. You can see the start of this process in the above photo on the bottom left leaf. There tend to be a few casualties at this stage also - leaves too brittle to withstand polishing, which means they wouldn't be tough enough for hairpins anyway. Next the leaves are attached with more PMC onto their 'stems'. Again I use fine silver, .6mm wire this time. Although sterling silver is harder and has more of a 'mirror-polish' shine because of the 7.5% copper content, I prefer fine silver for several reasons; firstly, the malleability - it's an easier (and I think more pleasurable and tactile) metal to work with; secondly, I like the soft glowing shine of fine silver - often sterling silver looks too much like steel, rather than silver, so fine silver seems more feminine to me; and last, but certainly not least, it doesn't get firescale (aka firestain) from being heated and thus require pickling and yet more polishing to achieve a clear, stain-free finish. The leaves are attached to the stems with more PMC+ and refired for 10 minutes. I do this, rather than soldering them, as the heat from the torch has a tendency to melt the leaves into a little molten lump, they are that thin. This is another point of attrition for the leaves, although sometimes previously-split leaves can be fixed together onto the stem at this stage.

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Stemmed Leaves: front view, back view, group of finished leaves

I now make the hairpins. Not much rocket science to this - take 1mm fine silver wire, cut into lengths, melt the ends into round balls, then user pliers to bend each arm into zigzags so the pin won't fall out of your hair, then bend in half. Fiddly and time-consuming, but not rocket science.

The hairpins, all bent and ready to go

Next the leaf plus an extra wire are attached to the hairpin. This time, I solder the wires together. Often this doesn't 'take' as it's a very fine line between soldering the different thicknesses of fine silver wire together and just melting them into a little puddle of uselessness. Not a job for the easily frustrated! The leaf is attached at the halfway point. This means there are 3 free wires - one for the pearl, one for the semi-precious gem, and one to create a curly 'plant tendril'. If the soldering is ineffective I wrap the top half of the hairpin above the zigzag with more wire, so it forms a coil. I've actually come to the decision I prefer this method, as it allows the wires more freedom to move. The wires should be loose enough that hopefully the leafs and gems will move slightly when in the hair, and the leaf and all three wires can be arranged into whatever configuration the wearer wants.

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Hairpins, with wires and leaf

The next step is to add the pearls and semi-precious gems (in this case, citrine chips) to the wires and melt the tips of the wires into little balls. This can be rather delicate, as the occasionally exploding pearl or cracking citrine attested to! The wires are then kinked with pliers into zigzag shapes, so the pearl or gem resides at the top of the wire. The 'plant tendril' wires are tip-balled and kinked into zigzags also. The leaves then receive a final polish and buff with the Dremmel and a soft buffing head, and the wires are all given a cleaning with a silver polish cloth. Finished!

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The finished Citrine, Pearl and Ivyleaf Silver Hairpins