Time for texture

Recently most of the jewellery that has been made at my work bench has featured smooth shiny sterling silver. I do love the result of hammering, sanding and polishing. However, I was very pleased last week to receive a commissioned order for one of my 'hammered circle bracelets' with a textured finish.

Green Aventurine Sterling Silver Hammered Circle Bracelet

And here's what the same design looks like with a smooth silky finish...

Carnelian Sterling Silver Hammered Circle Bracelet

Back to the norm

Finally I am feeling normal again (with regards to my jewellery anyway!). My mojo has returned and at last I am creating again. I am going to bed thinking about my jewellery and waking up thinking about my jewellery. Last weekend I completed 4 commission pieces and as soon as I had finished the last one I got straight on to making some new pieces. Then today (when I should have be packing for our family holiday!) I thought 'I'll just make a quick bracelet first'.

'Quick' was not really what happened as I fiddled around for a long while. I had wanted a 6 petal flower so thought I could follow my Wire Flower tutorial and just add in an extra petal. That didn't work out so I had to make do with a 5 petal flower.

I had difficulties again coiling around 2 pieces of wire which kept slipping over each other. I think next time I will use thinner wire for the coiling. The swirl glass beads and purple glass disc bead came from Jenn at Kanna Glass Studios.

Designer challenge - Tuscan Bead Coiled Bangle Bracelet

At the beginning of this month I blogged about the Tuscan Bead Set I won from Jenn at Kanna Glass. She challenged me and another lucky winner to design something from a similar set of beads. The beads said 'bracelet' to me and here is my Tuscan Bead Coiled Bangle Bracelet.

This is the first kind of coiled bangle I have ever made and I have to say my coiling is not perfect. This technique will certainly take practice. I did make a trial version with silver plated wire but with finer wire for the coiling. I used thicker sterling silver wire for the final piece which has certainly made it more sturdy (and more expensive!). The best thing about this kind of bangle bracelet is that it sits nicely on your wrist and doesn't swivel round.

Thank you to Jenn for the lovely beads and the challenge. It was great fun and certainly helped my inspiration to come back.

Thank you

I am really touched by all the comments I received on my last post 'Where is my inspiration?' . Thank you so much to everyone for your support and suggestions. I have certainly not been myself recently with regards to jewellery making but your comments have reassured me that losing one's inspiration or 'mojo' as some call it, is not uncommon.

Yesterday I finally made something (the first thing in over 2 weeks) - a bracelet as a 40th birthday present for a friend. This Blue Agate bracelet follows a very basic design (as suggested in some of the comments) and it was good to have a purpose for my work.

I have decided not to worry about this 'break from the norm' and have turned to other outlets for a while until I feel ready. Now my hands ache not from hammering and burnishing... but from a day weeding in the garden and putting in new plants I have grown from seed. This was a passion of mine from before I took up jewellery design and it has taken a back seat for a couple of years.

Matching bracelet

Here is the bracelet that I made to go with the Fluorite necklace. It has a handmade silver spiral charm at the end of an extender chain. Both bracelet and necklace are now listed in my Etsy, Folksy and eBay shops.