Ouch!

It's been a little while since I made jewellery and I'd forgotten how much polishing it takes to get silver looking good.  I actually have a friction burn on one of my fingers after working on this double pendant.   The smaller one has children's fingerprints on it, and the larger one is patterned.  I'm really pleased how this one has turned out and hope the recipient likes it too!

Little silver beads….

Last weekend I spent another day at a silver clay workshop.  This time it was making beads and findings and I learnt so many new techniques.  My sketch book is filling up fast with projects now.

So here are some of the beads I made on the day. 

First up, my favourite of the day, a small lentil bead.  I just love lentil beads, and this one is tiny at 10mm in diameter.  

This textured tube is now on a snake chain as I think it makes a wonderful focal bead at just under 30mm long.

 

Lastly, my etched pillow bead. Two brilliant techniques, although I do need to refine this one but it’s not bad for a first attempt.

As always, now all I need is time!  Bit tricky with the school holidays in full flow as I won’t be getting my usual me time each week.

Oh the stress….

  I don’t know about you, but when I’m making something and it starts to go wrong, everything gets worse.  I mentally put myself into a place of failure and struggle to pull myself back out of it.  This is what happened to me a few days ago after trying to make this ring.  Oh the frustration!! I got there in the end, and as this is the first ring I’ve made, it’s not too bad, although it could be better. 

The stone is made from dichroic glass, with a snake of silver wrapped around it, finished with a tiny silver ball.

And here’s the band – the bane of my life!  There were moment where I wasn’t sure who was going to survive, me or it. Luckily we both did in the end.  Rings are definitely something I need to practice.

Ring number two, far less trouble than the last one.

I just love how delicate this one is with the flower balanced on top of the band and the way the leaves drape around it.

I have some more silver jewellery to share with you, but I’ll leave that for another post. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Caterpillars, fingerprints and hearts….

Life seems to be throwing some interesting turns at us at the moment and that means that I’ve had an abandoned blog, again.  It’s about time I shared a few things with you, don’t you think.

This wee beastie, along with a few of his pals, has taken up residence in a “bush” outside my front door.  Absolutely beautiful to look at and has a liking for the flowers, as you can see from the photo, he’s quite happily munching them away. It’s become a ritual with Rosie to look for them whenever we go out.  After searching around I’ve discovered that he doesn’t stay so exotic looking….   Such a waste don’t you think, all that finery and you get a plain brown Vapourer Moth at the end. 

In a total change of direction now, silver jewellery.  I’ve had no where near as much time to work making more jewellery as I would like, but here are two pieces to share with you.  

This one has Jamie’s fingerprint on it, with his name and date the fingerprint was taken inscribed on the reverse.  I just love to touch it.   I have one with Rosie’s fingerprint on still waiting to be finished.  I will get to it.  If you’re interested in me doing one for you, drop me an email and I can let you have the details.

And here is a pendant that I have made.  I wear this such a lot.

  I’m off in a couple of weeks learning some new techniques and hopefully, if all goes well will have a couple of rings to share with you.

As for scrapping, I’ll be back again when I get a mo to take some more photo’s. I recently completed another week in the life project.  This time I thought about it much more and did loads of prep first.  I’ve also got a couple of layouts to share from up coming SBK kits.

Santa's little helper and some prep

Ah, the school Christmas Fayre. This week the school is having a "Santa's Little Helper" Day where the children can go into school in their own clothes in exchange for a little something for the Christmas Fayre. Now what sort of a Mother would I be if I let my kid potentially be the only one in uniform all for the sake of a tombola prize? Is this the ultimate guilt trip? Cunning, very cunning. I've given in and made these earrings rather than see my little lad walk dejectedly through the school gates because his Mum was mean. I hope whoever wins them likes them. Maybe I should go and get myself a ticket and see if I can win them back. Then again, I may just make up a second pair for myself as I rather like them.

This is the other crafty thing I have done today. Lovingly and patiently, whilst Rosie was making me "cups of tea" I sat and cut up a sheet of American Crafts paper to make some embellishments for my JYC album. I can't wait to get started this year, less than 24 hours to go!

An old flame...

At last, the lurgy is finally feeling like my body is kicking it in to touch! Hurrah! These last few weeks have been a nightmare, just hoping half term is kind to me.

As a result I treated myself to a trip to the Bead Fair this weekend in Harrogate. At first I didn't think I was going to spend much... that didn't last long. Jewellery making is an old hobby of mine, one for which I used to get a lot of commissions from people. So, here are the first pair of earrings I have made in about, oooh, ten years! Eeek! Kept them nice and simple though and used my favourite metal for them - Stirling Silver.

Thanks for looking!