I've been fusing!

I had a go at fusing fine silver wire last night. It went surprising well, apart from when my husband said 'What happens if you keep heating the wire up?' I held the butane torch over the wire and we watched it get hotter and hotter and then bubble, turn into little balls and then pretty much disappear! That was quite an expensive experiment - I hate wasting valuable materials.

Anyway, here are my first pieces of jewellery made from fusing silver wire. Firstly I made some Super Shiny Hammered Ring Earrings. They are light and delicate but surprisingly strong (an hour in my tumbler helped to polish and strengthen the rings).


Then I made a larger ring from 14 gauge wire. I found fusing thicker wire easier than thinner wire. I used the ring to make a matching Super Shiny Hammered Ring Pendant.

Please click on the photos for more details.

All in all, I found fusing very satisfying. I had a very late night last night as I went straight on to fuse some slightly smaller rings from the 14 gauge wire which I intend to use in a bracelet design.

Smooth Hammered Circle Earrings

Currently I am very busy creating jewellery for a charity table sale I am doing on Sunday 20th September at Denbies Vineyard in Dorking. My range of 'Hammered Circles' jewellery always seems popular so I've had a bit of a production line going. The gemstones here are amethyst, kyanite, amazonite, turquoise, green aventurine and carnelian.

Please click on the photo for a more detailed view

These hammered circles are silky smooth thanks to my sanding and polishing pads. Although I've made these earrings for the table sale they are also up for grabs in my Folksy shop including some moonstone earrings not shown here.

Sitting Pretty

I've been busy busy busy, creating for the table sale on Sunday. Have I got enough stock? Will I sell anything? Will anyone turn up? Will I even make enough to pay for the cost of the table? So many unknowns... I shall just have to see.

Anyway, here are some of my latest jewellery pieces starting with the first pair of earrings I am calling 'Sitting Pretty' (fine silver hammered rings with little silver clay flowers 'sitting pretty' at the bottom). Next are three of my 'Blooms' earrings (patterned, crystal and shiny), little flowers all made from silver clay and sitting on integral earwires.

If you're a jewellery fiddler like me (in other words, if you can't resist touching and fiddling with the jewellery you wear), then these are the earrings for you as the little flowers spin around.

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.

Coiled Jewel Pendants and Earrings - A Holiday Project

Regular readers of my blog will recall my recent frustration at losing my motivation and inspiration for jewellery design last time I went on holiday. It took weeks before I felt I was back 'in the zone'. So as I was packing for our 2 week family holiday to Brittany, I decided to take my sketchbook and a few tools and materials. I felt a bit guilty at first as I was 'on holiday' but a few days into the holiday I put down my reading book and picked up my tools.

Inspired by the beautiful coastline we were staying at and feeling nicely relaxed, I really enjoying creating these Coiled Jewel Pendants and co-ordinating Coiled Jewel Earrings.

I will be listing some of these pieces in my Etsy and Folksy shops over the next day or so.

New Listings on Etsy and Folksy

As promised, I have listed some of my recent jewellery pieces in my Etsy and Folksy shop including these pieces:

Purple Swirl Glass Bead & Sterling Silver Flower Pendant - featuring a lovely bead from Kanna Glass Studios and using my Wire Flower design

(NOW SOLD as I was writing this blog post!)

Fluorite Spiral Adorned Sterling Silver Earrings - these are like my Dive In earrings but this time the fluorite has a delicate purple and green colour and is adorned with a hammered spiral.

Blue Swirl Glass Bead & Sterling Silver Teardrop Pendant and Earrings - a repeated design based on my Green Swirl Bead & Sterling Silver Teardrop Pendant and Earrings and featuring more swirl beads from Kanna Glass Studios

Coiled Jewel Bangle - The First

Following on from my Coiled Jewel Pendants and Coiled Jewel Earrings, I have been working on this Coiled Jewel Bangle. I am calling it 'The First' as I feel it is the first of many...


The design needs a little modification to make the front part of the bangle more sturdy - I think the circle needs to be complete or smaller or I might try thicker wire. Maybe now is the time for some lessons in soldering - I always knew that my journey would lead me there one day but am I ready?


My head is buzzing at the moment with new ideas for different shaped bangles. I love the problem solving process I have to go through to turn my ideas into reality. It is so satisfying when you create something from your own design and it works!

Coiled Jewel Bangle - The Second

Here is version two of my coiled jewel bangle, this time with faceted beads of magical labradorite. This bangle is more sturdy than version one.

My order of thicker wire and 'fine silver' wire (for fusing) has just arrived so I'm going to have a try making bangles with them.

Silver Wire Fusing

I just got home today from my holiday in Thurlestone, Devon (great time, relaxing, good weather, lovely location, happy families and even a bit of time to make some jewellery - more on that to follow) and waiting at home for me was this book I had ordered from Amazon: 'Silver Wire Fusing' by Liz Jones:

I have been thinking about fusing silver wire since Shay suggested it to me following my post about my first coiled jewel bangle where I was thinking about needing to make my bangle design less flexible.
Liz Jones' book makes the process of fusing fine silver wire look quite simple. I shall just have to see. I have quite a few of the recommended tools and materials but have not got a 'fire brick'. I'm not sure how essential this is - my husband has found a smooth brick from his out house and suggested I use this. Can anyone advise me about this or suggest where in the UK I can source a fire brick quite cheaply?

Coiled Jewel Bangles - sturdier designs

More of my 'Coiled Jewel Bangles' - this time more sturdy as I have made them from stronger thicker sterling silver wire.

Firstly is 'Blue Waves' with wonderful sparkling blue kyanite.


And secondly, 'More Shades of Orange' with different shades of carnelian. This bangle co-ordinates perfectly with my 'Shades of Orange' coiled jewel pendant.


For more pictures and details, please click on the photos.

Gorgeous carnelian - Etsy treasury

It's been a beautiful hot sunny day today in Surrey but heartsabustin is thinking of autumn with their stunning selection of jewellery displayed in this Etsy treasury:



They have kindly included my Shades of Orange - Carnelian Coiled Jewel Pendant. Carnelian is such a beautiful gemstone. I love the depth in its colour. I would not have thought to pair it with turquoise but that combination looks amazing in some of the above jewellery. To see more details of the jewellery shown in this treasury just click on the photo.

You must check out Kanna Glass Studios

Ooo... it's been a while since I blogged. June/July are always very busy months for me with lots going on including many birthdays, family holidays and last weekend was Glastonbury Festival. My tenth year of going and this year was one of the best for me. We had the obligatory rain/mud but it soon dried out and I still managed to come home with a suntan having seen and done so much.

Anyway, I wanted to tell you about Jenn from Kanna Glass Studios and urge you to check her out. Back in April I won her blog giveaway of some beautiful green swirl beads from which I made teardrop earrings and a teardrop pendant. I loved these beads so much I immediately commissioned her to make me more in different colours and here's what arrived.

Her packaging and attention to detail is outstanding. It felt like my birthday as I opened up the beautiful little pillow boxes to find the lovely beads inside.

Then, very soon after that, I won another of her giveaways with a twist. To fit in with her Blooming in June theme, she sent me and another lucky winner a set of similar beads and has challenged us to create something with them and post our creation. I won this stunning Tuscan Bead Set with a fab swirly flower.


The colours are HOT, HOT, HOT (just like the weather here today) and the bead collection says 'bracelet' to me (might even manage a pair of earrings too). I have a few ideas swimming around in my head but I'm not sure whether they will work.

Thank you so much Jenn for all the goodies. I think you have helped me find my inspiration (it's been such a long time, I was thinking it had gone for good!). Watch this space...

Best Blog giveaway

Today I saw that I have 100 followers of my blog (and 101 hearts of my Etsy shop). So to celebrate this, I have decided to have a giveaway of a pair of my Amethyst Shades Earrings (beautiful faceted rondelles of different shades of amethyst sitting together in pairs).

If you would like to win a pair of the above earrings just leave me a comment below with your details. I will draw the name of a winner on Monday 13th July so please check back to see you if you have won.

Good luck and thanks for reading.

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.

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.

Blue bracelet

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.

Doubly lucky

What a lucky girl I am, I can't believe it - I won not one but TWO giveaways at the weekend!

My first win was this beautiful pink ribbon heart pendant I blogged about a while ago from Mel of Kookie Designs. And my second lucky win was this lovely Lilac Chain Maille Bracelet from Jo of Jolicious.

Thank you so much to both designers. I will wear your jewellery with pride (and if I feel brave enough, I might even post a photo of me doing so).

From the pictures they look like they will go very well together so it must have been fate that helped me win or maybe I'm having a lucky streak..... I'm off to buy a lottery ticket tomorrow!

Busy

Last week and weekend were really busy for me. I had a stall at a fair on Saturday, so last week I had my head down making up some extra stock and taking as many pictures as possible.

The fair went okay, although it was mainly my lower priced pieces of jewellery that sold the best. No worries though as I now have lots of stock to offer to the shops I sell in and I shall also be listing some of the following jewellery in my Etsy and Folksy online shops over the next few days.