A Drop In The Ocean

I had some time to play last weekend, so I picked up my hammer and some heavy gauge sterling silver wire and created wire dangles that I textured with my ball pin hammer. Initially I made a more simple necklace by looping the dangles over a snake chain. Then I decided to develop the design further by adding a teardrop frame and a beautiful blue mystic quartz briolette.

A DROP IN THE OCEAN

Blue Mystic Quartz Sterling Silver Teardrop Pendant

This pendant is now available in my online shops. Please click on the photos for more details.

Icy Leaves - a texture experiment

I have been experimenting with texture on sterling silver wire and the finish on these wire leaf earrings reminds me of ice and frost.

ICY LEAVES

Moss Aquamarine Sterling Silver Hammered Wire Leaf Earrings

... and here's another pair of earrings with a silky smooth finish...

GOLDEN LEAVES

Champagne Citrine Sterling Silver Hammered Wire Leaf Earrings

Both of these earrings are now available to buy from my online shops: Folksy and Etsy.

BUGS - Fine Silver Charms and Earrings

Before Christmas a customer of mine challenged me to make his wife some fine silver textured disc earrings with a butterfly pattern. This took me on a little journey into making more discs with other insects and began my new line of 'Bug' charms and jewellery.

In my Etsy and Folksy shops you can buy any of the following charms for your own jewellery creations ...

... or I have also made some earrings using the charms.

Click on the photos for more details.

I had lots of fun with my new camera today, not only trying out a new very shiny surface to display my jewellery on ...

... but also trying to capture the winter background of my garden in the snow. It has been a beautiful sunny day here - very bright and VERY cold!

The Collective Charity Auction

This week I donated a pair of my 'Fine Silver Flower Textured Disc Earrings' to The Collective charity auction. Every penny bid will go directly to the 2 chosen charities Headway and Royal Free Hospital Kidney Patients Association.

There are some amazing auction lots available with jewellery from Beady Pool, Beverley Hicklin, Kookie Designs, Ray Skene, KS Jewellery Designs, Flame and Glass and Kebo Jewellery, as well as beads from: Laura Sparling, Tina Scott, Emma Ralph, Moogin, Cheeky Cherubs and Pixie Willow Designs. There are also 2 sets of Mini Moo business card that the lovely Moo people have donated.

Please do take a look at the Charity Auction page to see the details of each lot to bid on. The auction closes on Monday November 2nd at 8:30pm GMT.

Fine Silver Textured Charms and Discs – custom orders welcome

Recently I was contacted by another jewellery designer about my Fine Silver Leaves Textured Disc Earrings and asked whether I would consider making the discs in different sizes to be used in her own jewellery designs.


I welcomed this new direction to my jewellery business and have decided to offer this to any other jewellery designer who might be interested in some handmade charms or discs. They can be used in all sorts of projects such as earrings, bracelets or necklaces. I can make them to pretty much any size you want and pre-drill as many holes as you need.

If this sounds interesting to you, here are some of the textures I can make: leaves, hammered, pebbles, water, triangles, flowers, drain cover, puddles, diamonds and circles.

Please feel free to contact me via my Etsy or Folksy shop to discuss any custom requirements.

Battling the elements

I found an hour this afternoon to photograph my latest Flower Earrings. Although it was very chilly outside, the sun was shining so I decided to venture outside, as ever looking around my garden for new backgrounds and textures for my photos. To start with I was getting frustrated because the sun was just too bright, so I moved under the gentle shade of my willow tree which is just starting to shoot. Here I discovered some moss mottled paving stones. They have a great rustic feel to them.




I then looked at the tree trunk and wondered how that would look as a background. I decided I wanted my earrings to be hanging off a twig so had to construct something for the twig to be supported on. I created a very temporary structure with a vase and a box and was able to take these 2 photos just before the cold wind blew, the twig slipped and the earrings fell off!





I tried a few more times but the weather was having none of it and kept blowing my earrings around so I couldn't get a clear focus. Shivering and stiff from lying on the ground, I gave in and went inside to download my photos and have hot drink.

Fine Silver Texture Disc Earrings - which is your favourite?

Here are my latest Fine Silver Texture Disc Earrings made from Art Clay Silver. Described in order as: Water, Triangles, Diamonds, Lines, Flower, Leaves, Drain Cover (!), Puddles and Circles.

Which is your favourite design?

Sometimes life just takes over!

It's been a while since my last post. I've been meaning to blog but sometimes life just takes over.

First the positives - last week a very nice lady in Candlewick Green (a gift shop in Reigate, Surrey) has agreed to display some of my Fine Silver Texture Disc Earrings in her shop. Fingers crossed for some sales. As I had given her all my stock of my disc earrings and wanted to take my jewellery to show at another shop later that week, I spent the next few days creating some more. I had quite a production line going and, boy, did my fingers and thumbs ache afterwards from all the filing, brushing and burnishing. But as the saying goes... no pain no gain! As well as texture, I have also been experimenting with spirals wrapped over beads.

Then things took a turn on Saturday afternoon when my son broke a bone in his ankle and I spent 3 hours in casualty with him on Saturday night and a further 3 hours today at the fracture clinic. This is all quite depressing because he hurt his ankle last summer and spent over 3 weeks in plaster and now it's happened again but even worse. It looks like his lower leg will be in plaster for at least 4 weeks this time, poor lad.

As a result, I haven't really had any time to photograph my latest texture discs. I took a few photos this morning but have a lot more to take - hopefully tomorrow will bring some good light.

More flowers

Finally a bit of peace and quiet in my house now the kids are back at school and my husband back at work. To be honest, I actually miss them. However, the solitude meant I could concentrate on photographing my latest flowers.

This time I hammered the petals and experimented with adding extra beads around the main gemstone. I was going to put them in my tumbler but, as recently I had some problems tumbling fluorite (too soft), I decided to use my burnisher I got with my Art Clay Silver starter kit and had a WOW! moment when the petals came up really shiny. Sometimes I like my hammered pieces to show the texture of the hammer but this time I really like the mirror shine effect.

I made some earrings and a couple of pendants. I think my favourite are the Crystal Quartz Flower Earrings (shown below). I like the simplicity and sparkle of these and the way the hammering changed the shape of some of the petals.

Now all I have to decide is which to keep, to give or to sell!