Every piece has to touch its neighbours

Filigree is a frame of heavier wire filled with fine twisted wire bent into scrolls and spirals. It is soldered all at once, so every piece has to lie against its neighbours – a piece that touches nothing falls out, and a gap the solder cannot jump leaves a weak spot.

Filigreemaker is a drawing board for laying it out. Put pieces down, shape them, and let the symmetry repeat them round the design. It shows every solder point, marks pieces that touch nothing and gaps that nearly meet, and works out how much wire to buy.

What it does

• The pieces – frames (circle, oval, drop, leaf, heart), spirals, S-scrolls, C-scrolls, hearts, drops, tight coils, and wire you draw freehand, each with its own turns, radii and bends.
• Symmetry – mirrored one way or both, or repeated round in a circle up to sixteen times, with or without a mirror.
• On the board – drag to move, turn with the handle, duplicate, mirror, undo and redo, with keyboard shortcuts.
• Checks – solder points, pieces that touch nothing, gaps, and curls too tight to bend.
• The wire – frame wire and fill wire, twisted and rolled or plain, what goes into the design and what to buy with extra for waste, and the weight.
• Templates, 1:1 – a laying template of the whole design with the solder points, a bending template of every piece with where to start, and a 50 mm ruler to check that the print is true.
• Files – SVG to print, STL for 3D printing, and your design saved as a file to open again later.

Beta

Filigreemaker is new. Check the first print against a ruler before you bend.

Made for makers

Filigreemaker is part of Silversalen's tools for silversmiths and hobby makers, next to Bezelmaker, Linkmaker, Boxmaker, Conemaker, Signetmaker, Ringmaker, Chainmaker and Bench Mandrel.