Using Beads As Cabochons

I finished these etched silver and green pearl earrings recently and took the opportunity yesterday when the sun came out to take a few photos. I used some of the silver I etched recently using nail art stamps and decided to try bezel setting some pearl beads I've had for absolutely years. Yes I did say beads! I bought the beads years ago from "somewhere" (can't remember). They were described as button pearls and they were shaped kind of like cabochons with a slight dome on one side and a flat base on the other and obviously had holes. Some of them were very flat on one side and very domed on the other which is what gave me the idea to use them as cabs.

This photo of a few of the beads was taken under a day light bulb so the colours are a bit off but they are all lovely icy pastel shades of pink, green, apricot, pale blue, purple and grey which look great contrasted with oxidized copper and silver. I sorted through them and removed the ones whose holes were too high to work but as you can see once they are sanded a bit on the bottom the holes will be low enough for the bezel to cover up giving me a lot of very nice pearls to add to my jewellery. I couldn't believe the price of pearl cabs when I looked so I'm really glad I kept hold of these. The only downside is they aren't all exactly the same size and height like cabs but are near enough for it not to matter. Saying that a lot of the cabs I buy are slightly different sizes and heights too!

I'm really proud of these earrings and think I am slowly getting a bit more adventurous! I am still conquering my fear of soldering on the "fiddly bits" - hanging loops, jump rings, etc. I soldered the loops on this pair before I soldered on the bezels to make life easier. My max flame butane torch did start playing up and wouldn't light again after I turned it off after the first soldering. I'd just filled it too so I have no idea what is wrong with it. I managed with my mini butane torch after swearing at the max flame quite a bit.

••• A Completely Different Subject •••

Am I the only person who watches the Strictly results show on Sunday nights and didn't realize it wasn't live? I started to get a bit suspicious after noticing members of the audience in exactly the same seats wearing exactly the same clothes on both nights and thought it was a bit odd..... also I started to look closely at the celebrity dancers' hair and make up to see if it was a bit different on the Sunday night and they always looked exactly the same as they did on Saturday nights. So I Googled it earlier today and found out the Sunday night shows are recorded after the phone lines are closed and the votes are in on Saturday nights. 

Funny what you think about......... :D

Kernowcraft Gallery Feature!

A few weeks ago I received an email from Nathalie who works at Kernowcraft. She said she'd been doing "geeky" things and had noticed several views to the Kernowcraft website that she traced to my own Cinnamon Jewellery  website. I do have a page on my site where I've listed several of the places I buy my supplies from with links and did mention that I buy cabochons from Kernowcraft.

As a thank you Nathalie very kindly suggested that they include one of my pieces of jewellery on their Gallery of Jewellery Ideas page. I was thrilled to be honest and thought it was really nice of her! I chose my silver hollow form pendant with turquoise cabochon and I noticed today it's there in all it's glory! You can find the Gallery by clicking the "Jewellery Making Tips" link in the top navigation bar on the Kernowcraft website........

I took a screen shot of it too (can you tell I'm excited?!)

Silver Hollow Form Pendant and Earrings

I recently finished my first sterling silver hollow form pendant. In my last post I said how much I love the look of hollow form pieces - the 3D solidness of them despite being hollow. Anyway I still love them after making my first version in silver!

I didn't take any photos this time but I promise to do so next time when I'm planning to make another one with a bezel set cab on the front. I used 24g/0.5mm sheet that I etched using nail varnish as the resist to create a dot pattern. I used a small brush for the nail varnish and managed to get it all over my fingers (course I did). I discovered you get a neater, rounder dot (which is so important to me because I'm slightly weird!) if you load the brush so it's almost but not quite dripping, hence the messy fingers. I bought some 5mm 24g/0.5mm strip from Cookson Gold for the frame or walls of the hollow form which is a bit extravagant I suppose as I could cut it myself but it just makes it a bit quicker to do.

I found the soldering easier to do than on the copper version. I use steel T pins to hold the frames down firmly onto the sheet and I did sand the sheet this time as well as annealing and flattening it with a rawhide mallet. I also used a different flux than usual - Tenacity 5 instead of Auflux. I like Auflux but being a liquid it tends to run everywhere so you need to apply it several times to make sure everything is covered. The Tenacity flux is a powder you mix with water to a paste consistency so it stays put. Incidently I discovered there is a burlesque dancer called Tenacity Flux - good name!

The solder flowed well all round both frames so I didn't have to do any further soldering to fill gaps. One problem I did encounter was fire stain - that greyish/purple staining caused by oxidation within the silver because of too much heat in one spot for too long. I did struggle with the Tenacity flux to know if the solder had actually flowed - it behaves slightly differently to the Auflux and I didn't notice the solder flow so probably held the heat on the silver for too long causing the fire stain. I did manage to remove it with sanding discs and my Dremel so it wasn't a catastrophe plus using liver of sulphur would help cover it up too if you didn't want to sand it out.
I did my usual and started finishing the pendant before I'd finished soldering on the bail and heart so had to sand the edges twice to remove the fire stain. One day I will learn to leave the finishing till after I've finished soldering! The heart was made from a fine silver ball that I hammered then filed into a heart shape. I think it adds a touch of cuteness to the pendant. The final shape of the pendant kind of forms itself - I start off with a shape for the frames them tweak them once they're soldered until I'm happy. I prefer free-form but I do want to try more of a flower/wavy edge shape soon.

The pendant feels fairly substantial at 6.2g despite being made from a thin gauge of silver which is handy as it means I won't need to get it hallmarked. I made some simple silver hollow form disc earrings too....... slightly easier than the pendant!

I was busy helping to paint the living room and dining room last week so didn't get a chance to make anything so you can probably guess how much I'm itching to get my torch and some metal out and start playing again this week.

My next post will be about how I made a hollow form pendant with bezel set cab with the promised photos :D

Silver Jewellery Course Project - The Last One

This Tuesday night (14th May) is the last week of my silver jewellery course. I feel a bit sad to be honest as I've met some lovely people and had a lot of fun. I've also learned stuff!

The main reason I went on the course was to learn how to bezel set and hopefully to become more confident with soldering and piercing. Well I certainly feel a lot better when I'm sawing and piercing now. I don't have a proper jeweller's workbench and have to make do with working on the diningroom table and in the kitchen so sawing metal was a bit of a challenge as the table is too low. I used to resort to sitting on a silly little plastic stool and feeling uncomfortable and a bit stressed about it all. Then I thought it might help if I used a G-clamp to attach my bench peg to the table instead of the metal clamp that came with it (that I'd managed to bend out of shape!) and use my computer chair to sit on as I can adjust the height. The result - a much better position and much quicker and confident sawing. Hallelujah!!

My soldering has improved too and I've overcome my fear of holding small things in position whilst I'm soldering. By this I mean attaching jump rings and earwires to the ends and backs of pieces. My hand isn't the steadiest and I have a tendency to panic slightly if things slip. I still use gravity and my third hand to help sometimes but some of the fear has now gone :D 

I've also realized that my sight when doing close up stuff has deteriorated in the last few months and using an old pair of my Mum's reading glasses helps immensely! I can now see those little bits of solder that have jumped off from where I fiddled about for ages putting them. The glasses do make me look like Deirdre Barlow though .....good job no one can see me.

 The photos are of the last project I made at college - a pendant using etched silver and a frosted yellow glass cab. It's simple in style like a lot of my stuff but I love the contrast in colour with the oxidized silver and the almost glowing yellow of the glass. I rarely use yellow anything when I make jewellery so it made a nice change. I decided I didn't want a normal hanging hole so made a jump ring that I soldered onto the front of the pendant then pierced out the centre. The frosted glass cabs came from an Etsy shop in Turkey and I have several different colours that are currently being turned into earrings and pendants as we speak.

For the last week of college I will be taking full advantage of the rolling mill to texture my own copper sheet for using at home. I would love a rolling mill at home but lack of a proper workroom means I don't have the space for it, alas. Last week I used it to flatten some thick gauge (2.6mm and 3.25mm) copper wire which I then twisted with the help of a vice and huge pair of pliers. I've used the twisted copper wire to make three bangles, yet to be photographed, but I will post the photos as soon as I've done them.

Another good outcome of going to college was that I was classed as a student and could register at the London Assay Office, which is the office nearest to me, for half price, saving £75 which isn't to be sniffed at. It means that if (when) I start making bigger sterling silver pieces I'm ready for sending them off for hallmarking. I checked with the assay office as I wasn't sure if a night school class would class me as a student and the answer was yes as long as the course is a fair length and not just a couple of weeks type of thing.

Overall, despite already knowing how to do some of the things we did at college I've really enjoyed it. I have learned new things and I could go back for a 2nd year in September - the 2nd year isn't a new class in it's own right but basically tagged onto the learners class but doing different projects. Decisions, decisions!!