Wire Wrapped Hoop Earrings in Silver and Copper

Circles are a definite theme in my life. It started when I was old enough to grab a crayon and scribble on a neighbour's wall. My Mum said they always knew when it was me because the circles gave me away. I still love circles and sometimes have to tell myself to NOT make another pair of disc earrings! Hoops are also a favourite and something I come back to often. I finished three pairs of hoop earrings this week, one pair in silver and two in copper.

I started with soldered hoops made with 2mm copper and silver wire and teamed them with some wire wrapping. I love coils of wire especially when it's oxidized and the contrast of dark and polished areas of metal really shows up.

 I normally like to make at least one pair in copper as it's useful for working out how much wire I'm going to need and I always find copper is easier than silver. I don't really know why other than maybe as it's much cheaper I'm not afraid to make a mistake ( I think that probably is the reason!) I actually made two pairs in copper. This pair has 4mm green grass turquoise beads added to the earwires for a bit of colour. The second copper pair has unakite beads threaded onto the earwires which is a beautiful coloured stone - a mix of olive green and brick red and looks fab with oxidized copper.

I then made a silver pair because you just have to..... I added some turquoise jasper beads to the earwires which is a favourite coloured stone of mine. It's a bright sea-green turquoise colour and as I've had the beads for so long I can't remember where I bought them but I think it was maybe Lima Beads.

I really enjoyed making these earrings. I started out making wirework jewellery several years ago with a bit of basic wire wrapping before I moved onto more metalwork type stuff so it was nice to do something relatively easy.

I went a bit coil-tastic this week and have also made a silver and copper bangle both with soldered coil decorations. I love the addition of coils to bangles and I'm planning to make myself three silver coil bangles as a belated birthday treat to myself. 

As soon as I have photographed the copper version of the coil bangle (Tuesday is looking good weather-wise) I will write a post about them 

♥

Etched Silver and Copper Wirework Earrings

I managed to catch up with myself last week after a couple of biggish findings orders recently that kept me busy for two whole days and made a few pairs of earrings. I used some copper and silver I'd etched and ventured into wire work territory that I don't do a lot of these days. Just simple bead loops but it was fun getting my beads out again and choosing colours and the quickness of making them was a nice change!

I bought these czech glass beads a while ago from Lima Beads and I love the colours. They have a large selection of czech beads but I couldn't see the kiwi green colour anymore sadly.

I also used some of the sterling silver sheet I'd etched using nail art stamps. The etched designs are small so I was a bit restricted and kept it pretty simple.....

The shape of this pair with the garnet cabochons reminds me of little handbags (kind of). It's the first pair I've made with garnets and I love the colour combination with the oxidized silver. I put a piece of foil behind the cabs as the silver will continue to oxidize and will eventually go black. The foil keeps the area behind the cabs bright and also reflects the light making the garnets appear even redder.

I am back at night school again for my 2nd year of silver jewellery classes. It's nice as seven of us from last year have come back plus four new people have started. We've been learning to cast using delft clay and cuttlefish bone. I didn't fancy the delft clay method so I had a go at casting some of my scrap silver using the cuttlefish bone method last Tuesday....... more of which I shall blog about soon!

Summer Colour - Enamel Flower Earrings and Pendants

After a few weeks of concentrating on metalwork making hollow form pendants and earrings I needed a burst of colour so out came the enamel powders and some pretty pre-cut copper flower blanks. Yes I could saw out the flowers myself but I didn't :D
I felt like mixing up the colours a bit by sifting a mixture of opaque enamels together and firing at the same time. Previously I would only do one colour and fire it then add another colour, fire, then another colour but mixing the second layer of enamel colours saves time and doesn't do any harm. Mixing two different enamel powders won't result in a new colour as such, eg. mixing red and yellow won't produce orange but a speckled blend of red and yellow. Mixing similar shades is good as the different coloured speckles aren't as obvious so the end colour looks more solid. It gives you more options.

The earrings above are a base layer of seafoam then another layer of seafoam mixed with lichen and pea which produced a lovely sea green shade with sprinkles of brown and cream added on top.

I made a pendant with the same colours but this time I mixed the seafoam, lichen amd pea enamels and put them in a pot. The resulting colour was slightly different to the earrings but that's the fun of mixing your own blends - you don't know how they will turn out until you fire them the first time. You can then add another colour in the second layer to change the overall look if you want to. As I'm writing this I've had a sudden urge to try to achieve an ombre effect with similar shades of enamel. I think applying the enamels wet with a brush will be the way to go. This idea obviously need some thought.........

These bright young things, currently on their way to Oregon, are a mixture of sunset orange with sprinklings of scarlet, pink and brown. The pink completely disappeared in the orange and the brown is very subtle too (in other words you can hardly see it!)

I was asked to make the pendant for a custom order which means I'm now out of the cute flower blanks. I did create a few templates just in case I had a sudden rush of blood to the head and felt like sawing out my own flowers which I may do as I now do enjoy sawing which is something I never thought I would say, or I might just buy a few more which would be much easier if a bit more expensive!

I wanted to use up some sterling beads and spacers I've had for ever so combined them with some more mixed colour enamel discs and "lily pads". It's nice to do a bit of wirework every now and then!