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 …
To give myself a bit more structure, I’ve decided to start building a jewellery collection, using geometry for inspiration. I’ve actually been working on it for a little while – I travel a lot for work, so it’s the perfect time to get the sketchbook out and put some ideas on paper. Some are completely …
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 …
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 …
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!
Today, I’m starting a special project. My Father-in-Law has asked me to make two birthday pendants for his nieces’ 21st birthday present – they’re twins (in case, you’re wondering). First thing’s first, I need to choose the best design! My Father-in-Law is a massive Leonard Cohen fan. So he asked me to make two pendants …
Today, I’m experimenting with how to make a pendant. I’ve never done this before, so I’m doing a practice run with a piece of copper, rather than straight into silver. Copper is significantly less expensive and harder than silver. For these reasons, many books and websites suggest mastering copper before moving onto silver. First Attempt …
