A new project

My friend Katie came round to help me take some photos for my tutorials on Saturday. They look really good, and I should have the tutorials up and running very soon. Thank you Katie!

Anyway, she brought with her an old silver (so we thought) chainmaille purse that her parents had given her with the idea that we might like to repair it. As you can see from the photo, it does need a little bit of TLC! The side edges of the purse have come away from the frame, but as far as we can work out the problem is that the rings have come loose, not that lots of rings are missing. There are also a couple of sections towards the bottom on one side where one ring is missing or where a ring has opened up slightly and joined itself onto the ring in the row below, rather like when a knitter drops a stitch. I think that it's European 4-in-1 weave - I'm hoping that someone out there will tell me if I'm right or wrong!

The first thing we did was to clean it in my lovely new ultrasonic cleaner and it does look alot better already. The next job is to cut some new rings. I managed to work out what diameter wire we needed and took a ring off the edge of the purse to check the inner diameter and I've coiled up the wire, just need to cut the rings now - we'll have to do that by hand as the 'koil kutter' cradle that the coils sit inside for my dremel to be able to cut them safely is too big. We're going to have to oxidise the rings slightly for them to match the original rings in colour. We were certain that the purse wasn't sterling silver - the colour, even for tarnished sterling, was wrong and anyway a sterling silver purse of that size would have been very expensive! The purse has got the name 'Alpaca' stamped onto the frame, so I did a bit of hunting via google and came up with the following:

"Alpaca silver is a common name for a metal alloy, a combination of metals, of copper, nickel and occasionally other metals such as zinc, tin, lead or cadmium. The alloy also can be called nickel silver, German silver, new silver and paktong."

If you want to find out more about it, have a look here. I'll let you know how we get on with the repairs!

What a week!

Finally after tonnes of searching on the web for help and trying different ideas out I seem to have solved the hyperlink problem! I decided this evening to start again using a different blog address but wanted the same look so chose the same template, colours etc. Imagine my dismay when the hyperlinks didn't work on that either! It finally clicked that maybe the template was at fault so I changed it and ........they work!! How could something so simple have caused me to swear so much at the computer?!

It's been a strange old week. Poor old B has been ill today, and he is hardly ever ill. There's a 24 hour tummy bug doing the rounds and I think he's got that. When he's not actually being sick he's fine, just a bit tired and not really wanting to eat anything. He and I had a quiet day at home as there was no way he could go to his childminders as he usually does on Thursdays.

On Tuesday I had a meeting in Hastings with my new website hosting company. Mum had agreed to look after B (she didn't need much persuasion!) so he and I drove over there in horrible rain. Mum and B then dropped me off at Barnham train station as I had decided to get the train rather than drive as
a) it was slightly quicker and cheaper
b) I hate driving long distances in the rain (and for anyone reading this who wasn't in the UK on Tuesday it was horrendous weather) and
c) I could read my book and do some knitting (okay, so that was actually the deciding factor!)

I got as far as Eastbourne and then had to turn round again as concrete sheds had apparently been washed/blown onto the line damaging the line. They were organising a bus but by the time I would have eventually got there I would have had to turn right round and come straight back again. In the end I stopped in Brighton for a quick lunch as I had to change trains there anyway. I had a nice wander round the Laines (in the rain!) and found a couple of shops that could be potential outlets for my jewellery, so the day wasn't wasted, but it definitely didn't go to plan!

I've got a couple of new pieces of jewellery to show you but they'll have to wait until tomorrow as I still need to photograph them. In the meantime, have a look at Nicky's blog - I made up a chainmaille kit for her birthday using my koil kutter, and it looks as though she's got the chainmaille bug!

Saturday's workshop

Just a quick note to let you know that there are only 2 places left on Saturday's jewellery workshop so if you want to come along and you're not booked in you'd better get in there quickly! The easiest and quickest way of booking is via my website http://www.daisychainjewellery.co.uk/ The workshop is suitable for all abilities, and I've got a couple of new projects for those of you who are regulars.

I haven't actually made anything today as B and I went to a birthday party (our 2 in 3 days!) and I thought it was about time I tidied my workdesk. I did, however, plann out a couple of new projects and also bought some more sterling silver wire to make some more rings for chainmaille. I was going to wait a bit before putting an order in, but Nicky texted to say that she was putting an order in and did I want to add anything to the list? What a silly question!

It seems as though the hyperlink problem is only if you use the latest version of Internet Explorer as your web browser, and there only seems to be a problem on my blog - wonderful! It seems as though I may have to republish the blog, but we'll see.

Chainmaille

This time last year I just didn't 'get' chainmaille. I'd played around with various patterns using silver plated jumprings, but it just didn't appeal to me. Then I saw some beautiful work on various jewellery and beading forums and decided to give it another go. I don't know whether it was because I'd started using sterling silver for all of my designs, but I finally got it and I'm now hooked!

The earrings below are from a chainmaille pattern I found on a forum (I'll let you know which forum when I find it again!). I had to play around with them able to get the purple jade bead hanging to my liking, but I'm rather pleased with them.

I've posted them as the first week of the Year of Jewellery 2008 challenge. I joined up to the 2007 challenge halfway through last year and really enjoyed it. All of my pieces of jewelelry were made on time, but not always posted on time! Once winter arrived I found it more difficult to take photos and I'm still not that confident with my light studio. Anyway, I've posted on time this week and started as I mean to go on!

A busy afternoon with the camera

B had a really good nap this afternoon ( I think I wore him out playing and going to the supermarket this morning!) so I used the little bit of sun we had between the rain storms to catch up with some photos for my website.

I made this necklace yesterday. The beautiful egg-shaped bead is by Anna Pilgrim (Beads on Toast), and when she posted a picture of it on UKBeaders I knew I just had to have it! I wanted to keep it simple and not really add any more colour to it so I've had to wait for my new supply of leather cord to arrive. Part of me hopes that no one buys it and I get to keep it for myself, but only part of me - every now and then I have to remind myself that I'm not buying these beautiful lampwork beads for me to keep!

I made the necklace below last week but I didn't have the chance to photograph it until today. I've called it "Starry Starry Night" and it uses stunning beads by Laura Sparling, silver bead caps by Kutuu (Hannah Salomon), Swarovski crystal and, of course, chainmaille. I love doing chainmaille - it's time consuming but very relaxing!

Anyway, I'd better get back to uploading all the photos I've taken today to my website! I hope you're keeping warm and dry this rainy November evening!

Workshops & jump rings

I've had a busy week this week. A youth group workshop on Tuesday, my sterling silver pendant workshop on Wednesday and a workshop for Spice Art Gallery Thursday evening. I really enjoy teaching people to make their own jewellery - it's definitely more enjoyable than teaching at a school! I really enjoyed Wednesday's in particular as it was the first time that I had taught a full workshop on this technique, and I was really pleased with what the girls made. My friend Katie was one of the students, and has asked me to oxidise her pendant and earrings. I thought I'd take 'before' and 'after' photos to show you, so here is before:

The photo definitely doesn't do her work justice as the light was really bad today - I'll be so pleased when my light box arrives! I'll show you the change in the pendant once I've oxidised it!

Most of my beading time this week has been spent cutting jump rings and weaving chainmaille, partly for a commission and partly for up coming craft shows. I thought I'd show you some photos of the process - I start with a reel of sterling silver wire, coil it round mandrels, cut the coils using my lovely koil kutter, tumble the cut rings (the wire through the middle of each bundle is supposed to keep them together in the tumbler, but one of the wires broke and so T and I spent far too long last night picking tiny jump rings out from the steel shot in the tumbler!) and finally weave them together. The weave here is Byzantine. It whole process takes a while, but I enjoy it! Mind you, I didn't enjoy it quite so much before I had a koil kutter as sawing all the coils by hand hurt!

Well, I'd better go and get B's tea ready - he's got a cold, poor love, but I bet he's feeling warmer than T who is on a canoeing weekend - yes, I do know he's mad! My brother is due over later for a visit. He's staying until tomorrow afternoon, and I think he's really coming to play with B rather than to see me!

have a good weekend!