Playing with Sterling again!!

I started silversmithing about 15 or so years ago, then got sidetracked with life and a lack of money. I started making jewellery again about 4 yearsa ago, beaded, and used bali silver etc, then moved onto precious metal clay. I just recently found my old boxes of sterling and thought this afternoon I'd have another go. I have all the equipment I need now, funny, I couldn't afford it years ago and now I have it, but bought for something else!

So first, I dug out the feather that I started. It has 9ct gold rolled onto sterling, that was then textured and cut into. I then realised I had no idea what I actually wanted to do with it. I polished it up today in the tumbler, and still have no idea what to do with it!! Its about 3 inches long, so it could be a chunky pendant or a brooch.

Then I fancied making some stacker rings. I soldered them and hammered them and then tumbled them and am just delighted with them, I can see what I am going to be making in the next few weeks!

Mind you I have 300 grammes of precious metal clay on its way and my funds have been totally exhausted paying for a masterclass I'm going to next weekend. So, once my dusty old supplies of yore have run out, I'll have to wait till the funds top up a bit!

Will write about the materclass after next weekend.

So into doing earrings now

I have so gotten addicted to making earrings now I have the posts sorted out. I was trying to solder them on with such a crap torch which was quite frankly, dangerous! One minute shooting out a 6 inch flame, the next dying, and no way of regulating it, but now I have a decent torch.

This was made worse with the Chinese lodger, who doesn't really speak any English, I would lock the cats up in the bathroom to keep them out of the way, he would wander through, make noises when he saw what I was doing and promptly let the cats out the bathroom, with a laugh, thinking they had gotten caught there by accident. No way of explaining. Imagine, 6 inch flame and two cats bouncing around on surfaces, it's a wonder the house is still standing! (mind they are totally bald now ;-) (but no split ends in future lol)

I love hammering silver and have to stop myself over doing it, but it is just so satisfying. I am going to make some hammered circle dome earrings, nothing particularly unique about that I know, but I do know I will get a lot of satisfaction out of them. Roll on the weekend!

Gotta get the hallmark sorted!!

Here's another little beast. However, I think, trying to decide, that this one I am keeping for myself. The problem is that these are coming out quite the weight little beasts, and in the UK you can't sell silver if weighs over 7.8 grams if it hasn't been hallmakred by the assay office. I am in the process of organising this, however it is expensive and annoying ;-) and so at the moment I can only sell my heavy bits outside UK. Perfect excuse me thinks for not selling this at all! (It also fits me perfectly - mm - wonder how that happened)

Recreating nature???

I love geodes, and decided to try my hand at making one in silver. This was made with cork clay and then inset with amethyst crystal zirconia. It's not huge but quite unusual, as it looks like a silver egg straight on although there is a glint of lovely mauve crystal at the top, when you look in it glistens with mauve and purple crystals. Devils own job to polish the outside to make it so smooth.

The midnight daisy collection

So here is part of the Midnight Daisy collection. A round box pendant, which has holes in the side to let the central flower catch the light, a couple of different rings and simple flower post earrings, in a few sizes. It's all quite chunky, but I can see this is what I'll be making for this month at least. Not quite sure which one I'm keeping ;-)

And here are a few of them

So, finally I've gotten some of them photographed and uploaded, it's just all such a time consuming business. I loved making these. They are part of a collection which I'll show in the next post.

So excited - rings are firing!!

I'm just so excited. I have rings finishing off now - can't wait!!

I also have AAPD ( artist attention Project Disorder!!)
A fellow team member from the metalclayheads team on Etsy) has just helped me diagnose myself!! Laura from Zoewyn on Etsy (amazing creations) says:

Quote: it is commonly mis-diagnosed as ADD or ADHD, since it is a "special" disorder, being not common in the general public, but it is in epidemic proportions within the artistic community.

It is best treated with caffeine, chocolate, and some rocking music, and lots and lots of alone studio time

It flairs during times of stress when the artist can only visit a work table for short spurts of time. Unquote
Thank You Laura - I was quite worried!!

New FBML Welcome page on Facebook.

Ove the weekend I updated my welcome page on my facebook page. There is an option of using FBML to have a stand alone page that new visitor see when they visit your page. To see it in its full size either click on the link here or go the fine silver tab above. It's really nice to be able to personalise it instead of just a whole pile of comment afer comment. However, this is the second time I have done it and each time I forget how I did it last time!!! I have made notes so I can remember for next time but not sure I'll understand them. There are some great tutorials around, however, they have mostly been written by very computer savvy people, who just don't get that an awful lot of us aren't really much good with html. Anyway, love the cut and paste function. (Don't you just wish it was available in your life!!). That's all for tonight - I was jolly pleased with it, hence me posting it here!!

The Lazy Week and the ruddy back with a vengeance!

I am now on the last day of my week off, that turned out to be one of the laziest weeks I've had for ages. I had so many plans for 'making' but in fact ended up doing so little. I have ordered a gadzillion pounds worth of supplies however, but as for making ???? I wanted to keep with a theme of very simple, so once I had the orders out of the way I made the two above. I wanted to create something that was sparkly yet very plain, and I think the spoon handle crystal pendant worked, I just wish mauve would be a little more accomodating when it comes to being photographed (it just seems such a shy colour to capture). And wanting to move a little away from the traditional peapods, which just keep on and on and on, I made this 3D moon catching falling stars. Again I love the simplicity and the 3D ness.
And to top it all off, my back has now come back with a vengeance! At least it stayed away mostly during the week, but AGH!

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So lazy. It was my birthday yesterday, and I did just about a huge pile of nothing, which was amazing! This morning I have found my energy again, and have all sorts of ideas, but no time! Last day, but it has been a great week, new ideas and directions with things. And some kind soul has added me to a feature in their blog. The4inONE. Very grateful.