New Earrings - A Bit Of A Stud Thing Going On!

Going to jewellery classes has made me want to conquer my still slight anxiety about soldering. I don't know why I'm anxious about it - the worst that can happen is you melt something (done that), get solder where you don't want it (done that too) or the soldered parts come apart when you quench (yes, done that too). So I thought I'd do something easy and make a few pairs of stud earrings.

I started simple with some flat discs in copper and silver that I textured using wire and my Bigshot then hammered in areas. I use the posts with the pads as I don't think my hand is steady enough to hold just a post in position while I solder it in place, in fact I know it isn't! I flow some solder onto the pad first then solder into place to make things easier.

Then I made two pairs of concave disc studs with a fine silver ball soldered in the centre. I like this design and the fine silver forms a smoother rounder ball than sterling. I textured the discs with a Vintaj folder and my Bigshot again and flowed solder onto the back of the silver balls. This a bit fiddly but I find you're less likely to get excess solder flowing where you don't want it by doing it this way, especially when you're soldering onto copper.

 I made myself a silver ring in this design a few weeks ago and kept meaning to make some matching studs to sell so now I have!

Spirals!

I've been sadly neglecting my beloved spirals for quite a while now but seeing the necklace Professor Alice Roberts was wearing on that BBC2 program last week (that I can't remember the name of!) made me want to make spirally things again. Her necklace is a series of linked silver spirals and very cool. I started by annealing some 14g copper wire, straightening it then hammering it a lot to flatten. After annealing the hammered wire again I coiled it into two spirals which after a bit of tweaking and pickling I soldered together......... then I soldered it again at the ends to make it more stable. After a lot of filing and sanding and thinking.... "Do I like these? Do I? I'm not sure, I think they're ok, I'll see what they look like when they're oxidized....." I've decided I do like them but there's room for improvement! And they look nothing like Alice Roberts' necklace :D

I'm going to make a silver pair but form the double spiral shape from one piece of wire which will do away with the ends which I should've hammered flatter on the copper pair so they would be easier to file and taper in a bit more neatly. I'm planning on putting a hole at the top so I can thread a balled piece of wire through to add beads (or something, not sure yet). Silver solder on silver will look better too :D

Silver Jewellery Class 1st Project - Textured Band Ring

I finished my first project for my jewellery class last week - a textured silver band ring. I've made a few copper and silver rings using wire at home but not from textured silver sheet so it was fun to learn.

The photo shows the ring before soldering - I wasn't convinced the join was tight enough but the teacher was happy with it and it soldered fine. I used some plastic netting with the rolling mill to create the texture. I love the rolling mill! I've ordered some skeleton leaves from ebay to use with it in the future as I love the vein texture you get from them.

After some filing and finishing with wet and dry the ring was ready for polishing. It came out lovely and shiny but then I decided I wanted to oxidize it so the teacher showed everyone how to do that with LOS. She told me to leave it for 24 hours before cleaning it up after oxidizing which puzzled me a bit as I normally clean up my oxidized jewellery straight away. I cleaned it up when I got home that night! A spell in the tumbler and it came out shiny with the textured areas darker from the LOS.

It's a bit scratched up now as I've been wearing it - and yes it did fit the finger I made it for!

This week we're planning a new project - amulets/charms. I've already got a good idea of what I want to make (kind of). We're also going to be shown reticulation, fusing and applying gold foil. I'm a happy bunny :D

 

If It's There I'll Sit On It

Meet Tuppence.

Also known as Tuppers.

Tuppence likes to perch.

It doesn't matter what it is - a pile of cushions, a suitcase on the bed, freshly ironed clothes or an empty plant pot in the backyard, Tuppence will sit on it.

She's 16, has a heart murmur and I love her to bits :D

I've Got A Bit Of A Thing Going On

A disc "thing" that is. The last few pairs of earrings I've made all feature discs in copper or enamel, with or without beads and with a central "dot".

I'm always looking for ways to attach "things" to other "things" when I make jewellery - I think it makes things more interesting. You can do it with rivets, soldering (still learning!) or with wire.

I fancied trying it with wire which is probably the easiest of the three and came up with these designs...

copper and green impression jasper

enamel and copper

enamel and sterling silver

I'm planning on making more of these with enamelled flowers instead of discs because I think they're quite sweet :D

•• Fold Forming ••

I felt like a bit of metal bashing the other day so decided on some very basic fold forming - annealing metal to soften it then creating a bend which you then flatten with a mallet or hammer, anneal again and open up to reveal a "fold" across the metal. I decided to enamel it too and came up with these colourful oval earrings...

The fold is quite tight as I hammered it pretty flat then stamped lines on it once it was opened out. Enamelling it was a bit fiddly but I love the definite division it creates. I think they look a bit like Easter eggs :D

Super Stud! New Enamel Earrings

I thought I'd try something different. I don't normally make stud earrings but browsing Cookson Gold a while ago I spotted their sterling silver stud earring fittings and suddenly thought " I could make some tiny cute enamel discs and attach the fittings and voila! Stud earrings!"

So I did and here's the results.......

A bit fiddly, the smallest size are 8mm, but fun to make and there's more colours on the way!

Currently being listed in my Folksy and Etsy shops.

10mm turquoise

8mm lavender

10mm Raspberry

8mm mint

group photo!