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?!)

The Perfect Wire Gauge For Hoop Earrings

I think I've found the perfect wire gauge for hoop earrings - 2mm. This is just my opinion and probably many would disagree! But..................I've made hoop earrings from various gauges from 20g/0.8mm (big no there, way too flimsy) to 1.5mm and 2mm definitely feels just right. It forms sturdy feeling hoops that don't bend out of shape but aren't too heavy so are nice and comfortable to wear.

I've always loved hoop earrings and I am wearing a pair right now. I've often seen the handmade hoops made from 20g/0.8mm wire with the hammered bottom section and thought they looked cool. These are the one's where you form a loop on one end and the hook on the other end of the wire. I did make a pair a long time ago but soon realised that they were much too flimsy and would easily bend out of shape as you tried to fasten them. I tried the same in 18g/1mm which were a bit sturdier but the 1mm wire was too big for the holes in my ears and actually hurt to wear so that idea was shelved. Reluctantly.

I've made various hoops since with complete hoops and separate ear wires and have always felt vaguely dissatisfied with them. They were fine but still not quite robust enough for what I wanted so when I made some hoops from some 2mm sterling wire I bought recently I was really pleased that they turned out how I wanted.

I made three different designs - one with a copper and silver etched disc dangling from the bottom ~

The second pair has a small silver heart that I cut out from sheet and soldered to a backing of copper before soldering to the bottom of the hoop. Making the heart was fiddly, I seem to have this perverse desire to make very small things and make life hard for myself! The ring clamp I sometimes use to hold things for filing wouldn't grip the tiny hearts so I did a lot of fumbling and managed to file part of my finger while I was finishing them :D

The wooden box is one of two I picked up from a local discount store. They were plain pine so I decided to stamp and stain them. They were sitting on the table when I was photographing the earrings earlier today and I thought they might be ok for the "dangle" shot so I tried them and I think they look alright and a change from the usual bright green vase/leather pen holder I normally use. I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do with the boxes, what I'm going to put in them or even where I'm going to put them but I like them!

 The third pair of hoops have a leaf shape in etched silver soldered to the bottom. The etched silver sheet was only 24g/0.6mm which would have been a bit thin on it's own so I soldered it to a base of 20g/0.8mm and trimmed the edges. Soldering the jump rings to the top was a bit stressful as I still struggle with the small fiddly bits but it got better after the first one. There was only a little bit of swearing this time.........