Time and Energy

My jewellery has been very much neglected of late. I rarely have the time to work on jewellery, and if I do have some time, I NEVER have the energy.

Today is one of those rare days where all the elements aligned...

I had some inspiration, I have been working on the designs for these two pieces for a while so I knew exactly what I wanted to achieve and how I planned on doing it. Having a plan is great as no time is wasted, and by tag teaming two pieces I can spend every moment being productive.




More uncommonly, I had time! Fridays are normally a flurry of activity with play dates and errands, however today was a free day. Miss 10 months had a nice long sleep in mum and dad's bed (I don't know why but this little lady has the best sleeps in a queen sized bed). And my hubby had the day off too so he was about to keep Mr 3 busy.


And most rare of all, I had some energy! Just some mind you, once the afternoon heat really kicked in I had to call it a day, which is why these are works in progress rather than completed pieces. But I think seeing them come together will give me the energy to continue on.




I have a whole stash of stones ready and waiting, I hope this momentum continues ;)

Chase the sun

Last week I showed you my new frangipani earrings which were a precursor to a special order.

Today I am happy to be able to show you the main event so to speak.


I still find it incredibly difficult to capture the true beauty of such stones, I think they are much more fabulous in real life.


These frangipani earrings with claw set peony pink topaz are already on their way to a good home. But if you are interested in a custom creation of your own don't hesitate to contact me.

Taste of the tropics

I have a custom order for a pair of earrings. The brief was very broad, the customer chose the stones and said "make whatever you think will suit the stones". This sort of free reign is pretty rare, but I guess the reason she asked me to do this in the first place is because she likes my style of jewellery.

The stones in question are two beautiful vibrant peony pink topaz. The colours are warm and summery and made me think of my favourite flowers, the frangipani. So out came the sketch pad, and after a few scribbles a design began to emerge.


I transcribed my frangipani template onto the silver and started to pierce them out by hand. As you can see I am cutting out four frangipanis, two for my custom order and two as a pair of plain frangipanis to list in my store.

I left the 4 joined together at first as a larger piece is easier to work with. I punched guides which I would use for the drill holes, the guide marks guide the drill and stop it from skipping on the surface. As you can see from the photo where I am drilling, having the larger piece to work with is a much safer option, a small individual flower may come loose in my hand and spin up the drill bit or get thrown somewhere.


After drilling the holes I have to insert the saw blade individually into each hole of the template to cut out the inner sections. I am then ready to finish cutting each flower. Some imagination is still required here to envisage the finished earrings. I showed my son and asked if they looked like flowers and he said "nup!"

After smoothing up the edges and giving the surface an emery I stamped each earring 925 for sterling silver. At this point is was also important to invert two of the flowers in order to pair them up. Then I shaped the flowers by forging with a hammer and also tweaking with some tapered round pliers.


Finally it was time to insert the posts, which I had balled up the ends of and solder them in place. The the earrings were carefully cleanned up and annealed and rubbed back lightly with pumice a number of times to achieve a soft pearly white fine silver finish.


The frangipani studs are now available in my Etsy store.

Don't forget to come back next week to see the completed custom order frangipani earrings. And for my customer, I hope you enjoyed your sneak peak!

My creative space

I gave my creative space (aka the workshop) an "I wish it was Spring" clean today. It is so much nicer to have my tools tidy and sorted, and much more efficient.


I also got a bit of work done on some copper earrings. The copper has been shaped in a swage block. I then marked out where I would cut and countersunk holes for the earring posts. Each earring was then cut using my hand saw and the sterling silver earring posts soldered in place.


I have then cleaned up the earrings and annealed 3 times as I intended to enamel them and wanted to ensure there was no movement left in the metal.

As I have three pairs I have decided on hunter green (which is a nice rich Kermit the Frog sort of green), grape (which is the same as the purple colour on my black forest ring)
and black.


I have started to enamel them, next weekend is cleanup time.

The peppermint crisp journey

It was all the way back in October 2009 that I first started work on the peppermint crisp ring.

It took me a long time to decide how I wanted to make the setting. I had in my head how I wanted it to look from above, but how to achieve that...?


So I went ahead and make the ring and the first half of the setting with the V shaped base. Then I tinkered, and I filed, and I uhmed and ahhed. I put it away and worked on other pieces. Then I'd take it out, look at it, and put it away again.


Then some time a few months ago I started to formulate an idea. I decided to drill through either side of the ring shank beside the V setting and push two pieces of wire through, these would support the stone from either side. I contemplated this idea for some time.


Last weekend I started work on a new piece. I was in such a hurry to finish something, anything! I rushed ahead without fully thinking through my design and the setting collapsed while I was soldering it. It was then I decided I had thought about the peppermint crisp for long enough. It was time for action!



The peppermint crisp ring is finished! And it is available now in my Etsy store.

New in store - Rain Drop Ring

Just finished today, my Rain Drop ring is sterling silver with a tear drop shaped sapphire blue cubic zirconia.



Break the drought with the Rain Drop available now in my Etsy store.

While you were sleeping

I made a rookie mistake today. I put Mr2 to bed, waited for silence to fall, and assumed he was asleep! By assumed I mean I listened at the door on more than one occasion, but I didn't pop my head in to check.

I was in and out of the house, making jewellery, cleaning jewellery, washing my hands, photgraphing jewellery... all the while silence from Mr2's room.

It was on one of my trips to wash my hands, coming from the ensuite in the master bedroom I noticed the strong scent of taboo perfume coming from Mr2's room across the hall. Pushing open the door this is what I found!



There was a gift pack of Taboo on the spare bed in his room, silly place for it of course, but it was waiting for Granny who will be down in Feb to help while I'm having bubba2. Having emptied the whole tube of body lotion over himself and the spare bed (silently!!!) all jewellery making activities had to stop and the cleanup had to begin.



On the upside, before discovering Mr2's mischief I did get one of the pieces I was working on completed.



The Lunar Pendant is now available in my Etsy store. Made from reticulated and fused sterling silver it is one of a kind, and very hard to photograph!

Mr2 is now bathed and in bed asleep - yes I am sure of it this time! Sounds like the washing machine has finished - I had better go hang out the doona cover.

Upsy Daisy

As promised I have been busy working on some new daisy pieces and have three pretty new pairs of earrings to show you. All sterling silver with torch fired enamel.

Daisy Drop Earrings in buttercup yellow



Daisy Drop Earrings in flame red



Daisy Chain Earrings in white and transparent rose purple



I have many other enamel colours so if you would like similar errings in a different colour combination just drop me a line via my Etsy store.

Art Deco Inspired

It has been on the backburner for a little while, but I have finally had the time (and the silver) to continue on with my Art Deco starburst/snowflake inspired Topaz pendant. I first introduced you to this pendant in September when I made the bezel setting.

I have now transferred the design which my hubby tidied up for me to the silver and saw pierced the design.



As much as hubby would like me to have stopped at this point, a sterling silver 'ninja star', I had other ideas!



The following image shows the components layered together and the scale, as you can see this is a pretty sizable piece, it will be a real statement piece of jewellery when completed.



After cutting down the bezel to the correct height it was time to place and solder it.



Due to the volume of silver in the piece it took a considerable amount of time to solder. If any part of the piece is allowed to cool the heat quickly dissipates preventing the solder from running.



Now it needs to be tidied up and the bail attached...

At last, a finished piece!

Finally, after weeks and weeks of work in progress, I have actually got a finished piece to show. And it is not one of the works in progress I have previously shown you!



I would like to introduce the Serpent Bracelet.



In 2006 while studying I did some snake scale inspired press forming. The pieces were put together in a glo-mesh style configuration. While I loved the look, the overall construction was flimsy. I decided to put my 'snake skin' into the partial box for later use.



The sample has been given new life as often happens. They sit in the 'partials' box waiting for inspiration to strike. The tabs have been removed and each scale is now joined with a jump ring.



The surface of the soldered bracelet has been brushed with a brass brush to give a soft finish. Then the whole piece has been very lightly oxidised, just enough to give the fabulous range of colour you can see pictured.



The Serpent Bracelet is available now in my Etsy store.

Peppermint Crisp - A new work in progress

I had a couple of setbacks this weekend which has resulted in me putting aside the pieces I was currently working on and starting a brand new one. I generally like to have a few pieces on the go, but hopefully I may get to finish something before I start anything else!

The topaz pendant I had planned to work on this weekend will hopefully get back in motion next weekend, after I pick up some more silver. The piece I had planned to use was not quite big enough. Sadly the sqaure cut amethyst that was to go in the knife edge ring met an unfortunate end, I will need to put that one on hold until I order some new stones.

So on to the new piece! This one had a name from the moment I started, inspired by the gorgeous octagon cut 1 carat green tourmaline I am using.



It reminds me of those crispy mint pieces you get in some chocolate bars, mmm chocolate...



This one will be paired with a nice solid sterling silver ring with champhered edges reflecting the cut of the stone.



It will be set in a nice little basket which I am yet to make.

Taking shape

My mission for this weekend was to make two bezel settings, one for a round blue topaz which will go on a pendant and one for a square amethyst to go on a ring.



I started with the 'easy' round one, first bending up the bezel wire to the approximate diameter of the stone.



Once cut to the approximate size and shape I used my bezel mandrel to get a nice round form.



The bezel was not quite snug enough (you can see a gap at the left of the photo below), so I used my saw to carefully shave off 1-2mm at the join.



Ready to solder I used flambe (a mix of borax, boracic and methylated spirits) which gives the bezel the crusty white appearance and then some flux at the join. These will help keep away fire scale meaning less filing later.



Once soldered and into the pickel I began the square setting. To get nice crisp corners it is necessary to score the inner corner. This is done by first creating a shallow cut with the saw, then using a square needle file to make a 45 degree channel.



All bent into shape and soldered the square bezel was ready to go into the pickel for cleaning.



Back to the round bezel it was time to make the inner sleeve which the stone will sit on. The process is pretty much as per the outer sleeve, once it fit snugly I soldered it in.



The square bezel now clean from being pickeled can now have a light file.



At the moment it is a little tight for the stone to 'drop in', but I will use a burr later to help it in.



The square bezel is going onto a knife edged ring which I made earlier. I filed a groove so the bezel could drop down onto the ring for soldering.



Happy with todays progress, and developing a headache, it was time to call it a day. With any luck I may be able to complete both pieces, we'll see.....