Hoop Crazy!

I've definitely gone a bit hoop crazy in the last few days! I bought some copper washers from eBay a while ago and fancied doing a bit of wirewrapping with them. "Bit" being the operative word - I love the elaborate swirly wirewrapped jewellery people make but I'm not sure I could manage it myself without a lot of swearing :D

Rummaging through my bead boxes in search of beads to go with the copper hoops I remembered these strangely shaped pearls I've had for years.....flat on the bottom and rounded on the top, all in pretty pale icy colours - pink, green, gold, blue, peach and a funny peacock greeny-grey which are perfect for wrapping to the copper washers.

So I was off!

I fancied adding some sterling wire to these for contrast and actually remembered to oxidise it first - I always have trouble getting sterling to oxidise well when it's in contact with copper. Then I thought I'd make some in sterling silver so I cut some discs with a slightly off centre hole and added a pink pearl......

Then I made a matching pendant.....

The copper earrings with the pink pearl also have a matching pendant which is ready and waiting for it's copper chain, currently winging it's way from the States. I just need to make a fastener for it and oxidise it and then it will be set free in my Folksy shop with the others!

Definitely going to make myself a pair of these......

Silver Filled Wire Earwires.........At Last!

I've finally done something with the silver filled wire I bought a while ago - made some basic earwires! I've just listed them in my findings shop on Folksy and my eBay shop Cinnamon Jewellery Findings (did I mention I had an eBay shop? It's a bit of an experiment really).

I had planned on making headpins too but couldn't work out why I was struggling to make a decent start to a spiral then realised the wire was half hard and I'm used to working with dead soft in sterling!

I'm finding the half hard quite hard to work with (ok for earwires though) - spirals look lumpy and when I tried to make a swirly rosette at the end of a headpin the wire actually snapped! I thought about buying some dead soft silver filled but the price plus postage would mean the end cost would be pretty close to sterling so I knocked that idea on the head.............

Anyway, I've made some hoop style and hook style earwires - nice and shiny and a pretty decent price too :D

Blog Interview On Charlotte HupField Ceramics!

Check out Charlotte's blog Charlotte Hupfield Ceramics for an interview about me and my jewellery!

Charlotte does regular blog interviews with us creative types and I think she's done a really good job.

Thanks Charlotte :D

New! Handmade Sterling Silver Earwires

I've just added some handmade sterling silver earwires to my findings shop Cinnamon Jewellery Findings on Folksy!

Two pair sets of ball end and hoop style in bright or antiqued (oxidised) finish. Made with 20g/0.8mm sterling wire and tumbled to work-harden and shine up lovely!

The jury's still out on the silver-filled wire - it didn't oxidised very well, had a yellowish tinge because of the copper even when cleaned up and I'm not sure about seeing the copper when you file the ends of the wire. Although I suppose it would darken over time so would be less noticeable. Hmmm...... maybe I'll give it another go.

Here's some more sterling earwires in the meantime :D





I Wish I'd Done It Sooner...............

No, not get a tattoo, dye my hair pink or climb the south face of Dolly Parton.....I'm taking about changing my broadband supplier!

I've been with Supanet (don't go to Supanet, never go to Supanet!) for quite a few years and didn't have any problems with them until late last year when I started having problems getting a connection. Using the landline or just picking up the phone and putting it down again worked ok for a while then I lost the connection altogether - yes the dreaded flashing light on the modem. So I rang Supanet's "technical support", an 0800 number thank God, to be told to change the filters and get BT to check the line. The new filters didn't make any difference and the line was fine according to the nice man I spoke to at BT. Supanet also said they would contact BT and ask them to do some further checks - "ring BT tomorrow and they'll tell you if they find anything wrong" they said. I rang BT the next day to be told they hadn't heard anything from Supanet....... One "technician" suggested I try something, wished me good luck and put the phone down on me! Very helpful.

So after several more phone calls to Supanet and having to wait 15 to 20 minutes every time whilst they played the most God-awful music I've ever heard before I actually got to speak to someone (a different person every time so I had to explain the whole thing every time) we decided to try a router. The router arrived (eventually) and didn't make any difference. At this point I was starting to lose the will to live and just couldn't face ringing "technical support" again so with the help of an early Christmas present from my Dad I acquired a laptop and used a dongle ( a nice pink one) to get online.

My dodgy connection eventually sorted itself out (how it did that if it's not a problem at Supanet's end I'd love to know?) and was fine for about 5 months. Then about a month ago it started again. I changed the filters again, unplugged things, plugged them in again but no, it wasn't going to work. Enough I thought! Even though I've still got several months of my contract to go I've just got to get away from them before the frustration makes me kill someone! So I rang Supanet and said I wanted to cancel my contract to be told by a supervisor it's a problem with my filters and changing them would sort it out! No it won't I said through gritted teeth and then rather brusquely asked him to work out what I owed them and send me the MAC code (they didn't, I had to ring up and ask for it over a week later). Then they sent me an email asking me to send the modem back or send a cheque for £10 for it which I swore at (you can **** off, I think were my exact words!)

I now possess a shiny black BT Home Hub - absolutely no problems with my connection and the best bit - the lights are all blue and don't flash! And it's cheaper than Supanet so as far as my broadband connection goes, everything is fluffy kittens and marshmallows at the moment. I just wish I'd done it sooner :D

Here's a nice picture to make up for all the writing :D

A New Shop On Folksy And Feeling Scared!

Now that I make the majority of my own findings to use in my jewellery I very rarely look on the internet to buy them. One of the things I did used to buy were pure copper findings before I got myself a bigger and hotter torch - a mini butane torch is just about hot enough to ball 20g copper that's if you don't mind standing there for 10 minutes waiting for it to happen!

I used to get frustrated at the lack of places online in the UK that actually sell pure copper findings - there's lots of "antique" copper, the base metal coated in an antique colour coating stuff but not that much in pure copper that's oxidised in liver of sulphur so................... I thought I'd start making and selling antique pure copper findings myself!



I've just opened my 2nd shop on Folksy called Cinnamon Jewellery Findings, selling ball headpins and earwires, fancy headpins and earwires, copper discs and dangles plus sets of 3 or 5 pairs of headpins and earwires just waiting for beads to be added! The majority are antiqued (oxidised in liver of sulphur and polished) but there's also a small selection of bright copper and rosy ball findings too.

I'm planning on making some findings using silver-filled wire too, once I've experimented with it. Apparently it's very similar to sterling wire to work with and can be hammered and oxidised, so if they look ok they will go in the shop too. I might list some pure sterling silver findings also but the price of sterling at the moment may put people off!

I'd forgotten how scary it is when you open a new shop - those big fat zeros on the right - no sales, no feedback, wondering if anyone will visit, buy, tell me I've not gone completely mad! I've SEO'd my listings to death and was pleased to see one of the first items listed already showing up on Google about three links down, when I searched for handmade antique copper findings UK earlier today ( not bad!)

Will they sell? Who knows? I know there's a market for them so we'll see. There's always eBay!