9th January 2021… I kind of missed the New Year’s resolution boat… but I’m making another attempt at resurrecting my old passion for jewellery craft. Looking at my last post date, it’s been about 3 years since I thought I was going to restart my blog again. I have no excuses… time got away from me. What have I been doing, you ask?
Well, let’s see… 2 children, 2 job changes, various life changes, and not to mention the current Covid pandemic (yep, it had to have a mention) have all kept me busy. Who knew that children would take up so much time?!
Creative Outlets
That said, I haven’t completely abandoned any creative outlets or time for myself, which is what making jewellery used to mean to me. I just decided not to set-up the workshop after we moved house. I was a bit afraid that small toddlers would consume things like pickle or solder, or cut themselves on tools. Not that I was planning to leave them out everywhere, but if you have children, you know how curious they can be. And how amazing children are at doing the opposite of what we tell them! So in the meantime, I turned my attention to other crafts… good old baking (like so many of us did during the first Covid lockdowns in 2020), knitting, crochet and, more recently, origami.
But, now that my children are a little bit older and more able to understand “no means no” (whether they follow through or not is a completely different question entirely), I feel more able to turn my attention back to learning more about silver smithing and hopefully, widen my knowledge around making jewellery.
But where to start?
I feel like a beginner again, and in a very weird way, that’s quite exciting! I get to learn things again, but with the benefit of hindsight! Having mulled on where to start for a few days, I decided to start right back at the beginning – with making a simple silver sterling ring from wire. It actually took me weeks to draw that conclusion. I’m very good at procrastinating and blaming the children for my procrastination.
Starting with a simple silver sterling ring from wire seems like a very good idea to me. I’ll be able to re-learn what all my tools are called (and do), a bit of practice with soldering, figuring out how to make the pickle…
But now, I hit an obstacle… after living here 8 years… my workshop still looks like this:
I mean, let’s be honest, it’s a bit of a disaster zone! Full of baby stuff and kids’ toys and who knows what else?! But my lovely husband has offered to turn this into a workshop space for me. We’re using the UK lockdown as an opportunity to sort out our belongings, re-home the pram and get our living space organised! So the workshop is a bit of a work in progress…
In the meantime, I decided I wouldn’t wait to get started again. So I set about looking for other beginner projects to try and dip my toe back in the water… I found some great stuff on the internet and it looks like jewellery making has come leaps and bounds since the last time I played about in this space.
Choosing a First Project
Having looked around a bit, I came across the Cookson Gold website, which has loads of great projects! In particular, this article from 2018 caught my eye: “Our Top 5 Beginner Jewellery Making Projects“. What I really liked about this article was that it didn’t focus on just one type of jewellery making!
My first love was (and always will be!) silversmithing. But I’m open to trying lots of types of jewellery making. Perhaps it’s time to start thinking about how to incorporate my other crafts into my jewellery. I’ve been intrigued about how to incorporate origami into metal work for a long time now.
So after mulling on it for another few days, I’ve settled on making the first project on the Cookson Gold list – the “Sterling Silver and Swavorski pearl bunny necklace. (I’m nothing if not thorough… and also had to make a few family lunches and dinners, in the meantime). This pendant is really cute and I think that maybe my daughter will like it. It looks like it’s made using a technique like wire wrapping, which I’ve not done before. It also doesn’t require any soldering and largely, I have most of the tools to get going. I don’t actually need the workbench to get started and so, for me, it seems a good starting point.
Hunting Down the Tools
In my excitement, I’ve been out today to hunt down my tools. I’m very pleased that aside from the wire snips, my lack of attention and care of my tools has not caused any material damage to them. Yes, I need a big slap on the wrists. But on the whole, they’re looking ready to go!
Don’t they seem like they’re itching to get started?! So I’ve also just ordered some materials, which look like they’ll take a couple of weeks to arrive, but once they’ll do, I’ll be back to share my step-by-step progress, as I venture back into the world of making jewellery.
Before I sign off, I just wanted to say “thank you” to everyone who took the time to write comments and message me on this blog. It was actually a recent comment that got me thinking again about taking up one of my favourite hobbies again, so thank you for the big kick I needed! Thanks for bearing with me, and if you’ve any suggestions for new projects for me, please do leave a comment and share!
SJG
HEY!! Glad you are going at it again. Ive been to busy to do much but i almost have a necklace done. Kind of inspired by one you did and posted photos of. The Geometrics type. Could i post my Necklace here just to show you what ive done and how you inspired me??? I will be watching for your next project.
Antonio22
Gemmin’ Gemman.lol
Hello,
Thank you for your lovely comment! I’m still waiting for my materials to arrive to try my 1st new project in about 7 years!
I would love to see your necklace. I can’t quite believe that you could find inspiration in something random that I made, but would really love to see it!
Best Wishes,
SJG
It was just accidental that I saw your necklace. I browse and search Jewellery. Making every chance I get. It’s the best way to find stuff that’s unique and not being made by everyone. I’ve got a lot better with my soldering. I had to , the necklace bad so many solder joints, I admit I messed up a few links but all in all not bad. I did buy a Pen torch for this project. Love it too. It will not do a ring band very well, doesn’t get a even temperature far enough around the solder join.
Anyway I took some photos but need to get on computer to upload them. I will post photos soon. I just noticed, doesn’t look like I can post a photo in the comments. If not I have Twitter and Facebook. Is there a way to post a photo here?
Antonio we
Gemmin Gemman
Looking forward to seeing your photos! I’m afraid you can’t post on my blog (limitation of WordPress, not my own design!). But I am on Twitter (@silverjewelgirl), Facebook (@silverjewellerygirl) and Instagram (@silverjewellerygirl), if you’d like to share with me there!
Yep, I found out i couldnt post any images here. i posted 3 photos and info about the necklace on my twitter . If you would like to see im at @22antonio2277. I hope you check it out. Ive had my twitter account for a long time but hardly ever used it. After i posted the photos it did not take long before i couldnt find them. finally after scrolling forever i found them and the only thing i knew to do was save or pin to my profile. I dont know if the public can see them. if you cant let me know and ill figure out how to get them to you. I am going to follow you at twitter if you dont mind, otherwise ill never find you again. BTW, did you get your materiials yet? I hope you did, i can tell you are ready to get busy making your jewelry.
@22antonio2277
Hi,
Thank you for sharing your Twitter account with me! I have looked at your necklace and it’s lovely! Well done and keep going! I especially liked your links to pull it all together!
Yes, I have received my materials and done a few attempts at wire jewellery findings. I’ve just written about my first attempt and will hopefully get time later in the week to write about the other bits and pieces that I’ve been trying out recently. Keep in touch!