Wow, I’ve just looked at the last time I wrote in my blog, and around 18 months. I only really have one excuse – I was busy having a baby. It’s amazing how much time these little ones take up! But I haven’t been completely quiet on the jewellery front. In particular, I decided to do …
I’m feeling ecstatic, today, as I’ve just finished the first piece of my jewellery collection. If you’re interested in how I made the pendant, take a look at my earlier post on this topic: Starting Out with My Very Own Jewellery Collection. It didn’t quite go as planned, admittedly – I wanted to add twisted …
My sister asked me to make her a new ring – very simple silver ring band. One solder join, no complications. Sounds like a nice easy way to get back into making jewellery, after my last disheartening disaster into mokume gane! I guess I should have learned to walk before trying to run! And it …
I’ve been meaning to learn how to make jump rings for quite a while. The turquoise pendant I made sometime ago, is in need of a chain. Do you remember this one? What I’ve learnt this week is that there is much skill, patience and practice needed in the art of hand-making jump rings. Getting …
I finally started to make my husband’s Christmas present. He’s my biggest fan (aah!), but he’s also a big Tottenham Hotspurs fan! So it seems only fitting that I make some Spurs-inspired cufflinks! Come On You Spurs! I’ve planned to use the Spurs logo, setting copper onto a sterling silver backing. Luckily, I have an …
Had a slight spanner in the works and had to deviate from the original plan to make a silver ring for my sister’s birthday present. But I think I’ve managed to make something better and that she’ll really love. To set the scene, my sister is a massive, and I mean massive, Phantom of the …
I recently bought a Groupon voucher for a jewellery class at Claire Aristides Jewellery School – it was for a half-day beginners class, based in Covent Garden. I arrived bright and early as the class starts at 10.30am. There were around 30 other girls (and one dad!) in the room. The class was led by 4 …
My mum’s birthday is coming up and even though she doesn’t wear jewellery, I don’t want her to feel left out. So I’ve decided to make her a special silver brooch. I’ve opted for a fairly simple design, featuring a small round turquoise cabochon (ordered from Bellore) in a shamrock. I would have made a …
Ah, Christmas… the most wonderful time of the year, and definitely one of my favourite times of year! I love the colours, the food and spending time with my family. Oh and presents! Both giving and receiving! Every year, my family has a tradition of asking each other what they’d like as a gift, and …
After a short hiatus from jewellery making, I finished the twins’ birthday pendants over the weekend (only a month late!). Filing the edges smooth in all the little gaps took a long time, but completely worth it! Check them out, pre-finished:
I added the bails (pre-bought from Cookson Gold) – sounds silly, but it didn’t occur to me that there were different sized pins on pinch bails. These bails were originally too long for my 1mm thick silver pendants. I found it was easily fixed, simply by cutting with flush cutters to get a perfect fit! All-in-all, I’m fairly pleased with the outcome – the two pendants look reasonably similar given that a) they are handmade and b) I am a complete beginner!
I took quite a long time finishing these off as I wanted a high-polish shine. For now, I have temporarily abandoned my Dremel, after making a bit of a mess with my sister’s ring. I will need to do some more reading on how to finish jewellery. In any case, I hand-finished with three grades of sand paper (150, 180 and 1200) – I have to admit, I think the 150 is a bit too coarse for what I’m doing.
I then took a burnisher to each of the pendants to get a really high shine. I’m not 100% with the finish, because I can still see marks and the shine doesn’t seem to be even – but it’s as good as I’m going to get for now, I think. I might invest in a barrelling machine to see if that helps with the finish.
So here they are, the final necklaces:
And here is what they look like on:
I’ve sent pictures to the in-laws, and they seem pretty pleased. I’ll have to wait and see what the twins think!
