Giveaway from K S Jewellery Designs

I'm have a giveaway on my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/KSJewelleryDesigns/photos/a.199556913454417.49815.128806170529492/705042899572480/?type=1&theater

 

 

THERE ARE 4 VARIATIONS TO CHOOSE FROM:

1.       Rustic Flower #1 Earrings

2.       Rustic Flower #1 Studs

3.       Rustic Flower #2 Earrings

4.       Rustic Flower #2 Studs

 

Giveaway terms and conditions:

·    Please ‘Like’ my Facebook page (or be an existing ‘liker’)

·    Please comment below my Facebook post and tell me which is your favourite pair of earrings (‘share’ with your friends if you would be kind to but this is NOT part of the terms of this giveaway)

·    This giveaway is open to all my Facebook ‘likers’ – worldwide

·     I will put all entrants’ names into a hat and draw one winner on MONDAY 6TH OCTOBER 2014 – check back on my Facebook page to see if you have been lucky to win your favourite

Peeping Flowers

Those who know my jewellery designs well will know I have a flower obsession and I can't seem to stay away from them when creating jewellery.  Last week I had a pause from custom orders and started sketching and doodling.  I picked up some wire and some off cuts of flowers and created these earrings which I've named 'Peeping Flowers' as it looks to me as if the flowers are peeping through the frame!

Sterling Silver Peeping Flowers Earrings

 

Of course, once I created these, I started thinking about further Peeping Flower designs.... What if I changed the shape of the frame?... What if I changed the position of the flower?... I tried a circular frame... 

 

Sterling Silver Peeping Flowers Circle Earrings

 

Next I wondered how I could incorporate a gemstone within a Peeping Flower design and also changing the flower to a wire flower...

Rhodolite Garnet Sterling Silver Peeping Flower Earrings

 

Although this version was quite fiddly to create, and I had to be patient and careful with the heat of my torch,  I am really happy with it and am planning more of the same with different gemstones.  I kept changing my mind on which gemstone to set in these earrings and ended up going with these dark pink rhodolite garnet but I am also imagining this design in blue and purple and green and orange.....

*** BARGAIN OFFER FOR TEN CUSTOMERS ONLY ***

*** BARGAIN OFFER FOR TEN CUSTOMERS ONLY ***

To celebrate having a wirework tutorial published in Making Jewellery magazine this month, I am offering 10 customers the chance to buy all 12 of my wirework tutorials at a BARGAIN PRICE of only £12 (normal price of a tutorial is £3 each which means a huge saving of £24 if you were to buy them individually!).

Follow this link for the offer... http://ksjewellerydesigns.co.uk/ourshop/prod_3480887--BARGAIN-10-customers-only-ALL-12-TUTORIALS-FOR-12-save-24.html

I've been published!

I've been published.... in Making Jewellery magazine (September issue 71).  I've written a short tutorial entitled 'Falling Leaves' which shows you how to make leaf themed jewellery (earrings, necklace and pendant).

It was a lovely thing to be asked to do this but I did worry about being limited to only 9 photos!  For those of you who know my wirework tutorials, I like to include lots of photos as I think 'learning by seeing' goes a long way to helping 'learning by doing'. 

As a side note... I personally am not very good at just 'learning by listening or reading'... my mind just wanders away and I find I've missed some of the facts. Like when someone gives you directions.  After they've said 'Take the first left and go right at the lights', I've already forgotten the first instruction.  However, give me a map or a drawing and I'm a happy girl!

Anyway, back to my tutorial, I spent a long time selecting the 9 photos I thought would help the reader understand how to make the designs.  I was also restricted to a word limit per step which was also a challenge.

Here's the final pieces I made whilst creating the tutorial.  I used sterling silver wire and beautiful green kyanite beads:

N.B. Check out page 44 too as the very talented Tracy Smith of Cinnamon Jewellery has written a fab tutorial on how to torch enamel copper.  You can read her blog post about it here: http://cinnamonjewellery.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/my-first-torch-enamel-project-in-making.html

Pebble Framed Jewellery

I have been working on a new flower design and co-ordinating rings by framing gemstones in little silver balls.  This has certainly been a technique that I found needed practice but I think I'm getting there!

Rainbow Moonstone Pebble Blossom Pendant

My first couple of attempts were really frustrating, as when I placed the little silver balls (handmade from scraps of silver wire and sheet) around the bezel soldered onto a circle of silver sheet, I would get to a certain amount of balls and couldn't seem to place any more without others falling off.  I felt a bit like a rubbish sheep herder whose sheep keep running around the place instead of in the pen!

I also discovered that it is important not to have the balls too big or it's really difficult to set the stone... you can imagine at what point I found that out!  Oh well, 'you live and learn' is my motto at the moment and I am loving this journey and can't expect to get everything right first time.

Next time I tried sanding the bottom of all the little balls to make them have a flat area to sit on and to make them a little shorter around the bezel.  This was very fiddly and time consuming.  However, this didn't really make any difference to the little balls slipping off as more got added around the bezel.  Grrrrr......

I then discovered if I fluxed around the bezel before placing the balls, that the flux held the balls in place.  Yay!  The only downside to this is that when I heated up the bezel and balls, the flux bubbled and expanded and I spent quite a lot of time replacing and repositioning the balls.

Rainbow Moonstone Pebble Frame Ring

This final method has been the most reliable and, with some patience and careful handling of the heat of my torch, I have had success.

I have been pondering variations of this design and here is another Pebble Blossom pendant I made today where I filed and sanded down the little balls for a 'flattened' finish.  I really like this effect.

Amethyst Pebble Blossom Pendant

Textured Earrings Giveaway

Time for another giveaway!

Follow this link to my latest Facebook giveaway: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=665007290242708&set=a.199556913454417.49815.128806170529492&type=1&theatre

 

THERE ARE 4 VARIATIONS TO CHOOSE FROM:

1.       Textured Flower Stud Earrings

2.       Textured Heart Hoop Earrings

3.       Textured Heart Earwire Earrings

4.       Textured Star Stud Earrings

 

Giveaway terms and conditions:

·         Please ‘Like’ my Facebook page (or be an existing ‘liker’)

·         Please comment below my Facebook post and tell me which is your favourite pair of earrings (‘share’ with your friends if you would be kind to but this is NOT part of the terms of this giveaway)

·         This giveaway is open to all my Facebook ‘likers’ – worldwide

·         I will put all entrants’ names into a hat and draw one winner on SUNDAY 20^TH JULY 2014 – check back on my Facebook page to see if you have been lucky to win your favourite

Pebbles and balls

Recently I have been exploring the technique of adding balls (or as I like to call them 'pebbles'!) to my jewellery designs.

I started by adding little silver balls to wire as in these Ethnic Heart Earrings:

The process of soldering the balls to the hammered wire was quite a challenge and in the end they became fixed by a mixture of soldering and fusing.  I do like the final look but realised that controlling the heat of my torch was very important to whether the balls or the wire ending up fusing together.  This technique will need more practice!

Following on from the soldering/fusing idea, I then added pebbles to a ring as in these Pebble Trio Ring:

 

And more pebbles added to this Labradorite Pendant (love this gemstone!):

 

 

On to the next challenge... I wanted to create a frame of pebbles around a gemstone.  Using labradorite again, I created this Pebble Frame Ring.  NB. The cabochon in the photo is not yet set as I decided to wait until I know the final size of the ring:

 

 

And my most recent 'pebble' adventure was to hammer the balls before adding them to a jewellery piece.  In this Aqua Chalcedony Pebble Framed Bangle, I used two different sized pebbles to create the frame around the bead:

 

 



Textured silver

I love bright smooth shiny silver ... however ... I also love textured silver which changes the way the light catches the metal. When I started learning metalworking techniques, my husband produced an old set of stamps and punches that were handmade by his grandfather...

Using one of these stamps, I can create the random pattern of my Rustic Disc collection of jewellery...

And recently I have been using another of the stamps to create the light texture on my Mini Flower jewellery...

... and my Textured Drop pendant and earrings..

Thank you Grandpa for adding a new dimension to my jewellery making!