Have you been watching Loki on Disney+? I have! My husband and daughter are big, big Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) fans… although she’s only 8, they’ve watched all of the movies together (except Deadpool and Venom, which we thought was a bit age inappropriate), as well as Wandavision and the Falcon and the Winter Solider. …
Thought I’d pop in a quick mid-week post today. One of the best parts of making jewellery is getting new stones or beads to work with (probably, somewhere after seeing something you imagine come into being after lots of tries, mistakes and hard work, and having a something new and unique to wear, but definitely …
Well… it’s the first day that I’ve been home since the Christmas holidays. I’m feeling very excited and raring to go! I’ve spent some time designing a 12 piece collection and pricing up the items, mainly out of curiosity. I’m not sure whether I’m capable of making all the pieces, as I let my imagination …
Woo! My hubby gave me an early Christmas present, on the grounds that I can use it over Christmas! I readied my “I’m really surprised face”, unwrapped my present and found: …one, very cool, Tatty Devine jewellery tool roll bag! I didn’t even need to prepare my “surprised” face, because I was completely blown away. …
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 …
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!
Feels like I haven’t made any jewellery for a really long time (when in reality it has only been 1 weekend)! But I’m really excited to be making a ring for my sister’s birthday present. I still have the lapis lazuli cabochons I bought a few weeks ago. So my plan is to make a …
I decided to have a go at setting a stone into a piece (probably not one of my better ideas, since I can barely control my soldering, but try I did!). So, here’s an overview of my first time setting stones in a bezel setting! I got a lovely 12x16mm oval turquoise cabochon from Bellore. …
I now have a total of six rings under my belt, so I thought I’d take a look back at my handmade rings. I probably need at least another 20 more to iron out all the kinks! That said, it’s been an invaluable experience and I thought I’d share what I learnt each time… 1. …
Just a short post today and purely because I can’t contain my excitement! I’ve just received these semi-precious stones, which I ordered from Bellore. These are lapis lazuli cabochons and are totally beautiful! I thought the turquoise cabochon I previously ordered was nice, but check these out! I’m thinking that these will work really well …
