Commissions

I love commissions. I do get more nervous about them than I do about regular orders, as of course they are made to a client's exact requirements and are quite often made for a special occasion. I am always so flattered when clients ask me to make something special to mark a wedding or anniversary or birth especially!

I've had a couple of really lovely commissions recently, both for the same client. Vici had apparently wanted to get me to make something special for a her for a while, so when her husband asked her what she'd like for her birthday she knew what to ask for! She had seen the Dainty and the Russian Circles pendants on my website, and asked if I could find a larger pietersite stone than the Russian Circles pendant used and combine it with a silver daisy. After emails with pictures of different stones for her to choose from and phone calls back and forth to confirm exactly what she wanted, this is what we came up with....

And she also asked me to make her a Baby Daisy cuff with lapis lazuli cabochons sent in the middle daisies

The commissions took longer than commissions usually do, mainly because we wanted to wait until the Queen's Diamond Jubilee hallmark was available. It seemed a shame to commission pieces like this and not wait a few weeks to be able to get such a unique mark, especially as the mark is only available from July this year until October 2012. Vici collected her new jewellery on Thursday evening - and she loved them!

Buzz buzz buzz....

I am quite literally buzzing with excitement! One of the reasons is that T and I went to a wonderful wedding reception yesterday. Kevin and Juno are two of our loveliest friends, and after a very small wedding yesterday 80 of us joined them for a reception at the Mayflower theatre, first of all for a champagne reception, then for a meal and then a fantastic performance of We Will Rock You - it was definitely the most unique wedding receptions we have been too, such a fantastic idea and so perfect for Kev and Juno. They had a box for the show whilst the rest of us had amazing seats in the upper circle. The rest of the audience must have wondered what on earth was going on though - all 80 of us gave the happy couple a standing ovation when they entered their box and we were all up on our feet dancing and singing to the wonderful Queen rock songs. A lot of other people in the audience were too (audience participation is encouraged!), but they must have wondered what we were all celebrating! Their wedding outfits were wonderful too - they went shopping for fantastic bohemian vintage clothes at Camden Market in London. Thank you both of you for a fantastic night out, and thank you Mum and Dad for babysitting and not minding that we didn't get back until well after midnight!

There are other reasons for my general buzziness too - two equally lovely commissions, some exciting emails and a couple of projects that I've been working on recently nearly ready to show you. I can finally share one of them with you on Monday, which will be a relief as it's been a bit frustrating watching what I type and what I show you on Bead Table Wednesdays so that I didn't give the game away too early!

Right then, time to watch the latest Doctor Who! It clashes with the boys bedtime so we have to record it. I've a feeling that I'll be hiding behind a cushion rather than buzzing while we watch it from what I've seen of the trailers!

A couple of repairs

I don't often take on repair work. I've only once needed to repair a piece of jewellery that I've made, and that was because I'd sold the bracelet to a friend of mine who has a habit of catching bracelets on door handles and breaking them. I don't really like repairing jewellery made by other people as a) I can never be completely certain exactly what materials have been used to make the piece, b) repairs can be time consuming and so take time away from the work I really want to do and c) to be blunt it's rarely worth my time doing the work as people generally do not want to pay very much for the work at all and although the repairs rarely require much in the way of new materials they do take a lot of time and my time is money! So I don't advertise that fact that I can repair jewellery, but every now and then I'll repair something that a customer has brought in to a gallery I supply work to or that a friend or colleague needs mending.


T brought the ring in these pictures home from work one day, with a note from a colleague of his asking if I could mend it. As you can hopefully see the 'before' photos the band of the ring had completely snapped. Soldering it back into place and cleaning up the new soldering wasn't actually going to be that big a job, but the first thing that I had to do was remove the turquoise as that would be damaged by the heat from the torch, and that was where the problems started!


The bezel setting was very rough and quite sharp in places, but it wasn't too hard to gently pull open. However, what looked like quite a big stone actually turned out to be a thinner cabochon with some kind of packing behind it (an unfortunately common trick to make stones appear bigger and therefore more expensive) that had just crumbled away to leave a right old mess. So, after repairing the band of the ring I had to clean up the inside of the bezel setting and then file and sand the bezel down so that it fitted the stone properly. The bezel actually ended up looking a lot better than it had originally!


It took a while, but I was actually quite pleased with myself when I had finished and oxidised everything so that it had the same finish as before and I'd reset the stone. I still prefer making my own designs though!

'Tis The Season....

To stay up late finishing commissions.

To wait for HOURS in the queue at the post office.

To wonder where on earth the last twelve months have gone.

To feel quite chuffed with how far I've come business-wise.

This Christmas season has been busy, but I seem to say that every year! I've been lovely and busy with commission, some of which I can show you here, but others will have to wait until the New Year when everyone has opened their gifts.

I am pleased with the direction I've taken the business this year. As soon as I got my hallmarking sorted I was able to start creating some of the designs in my sketch book that used more silver. I still can't quite decide what silversmithing techniques I like the best though! I love making bangles and soldering, but I've been surprised at how relaxing I find pierced (sawn) work like my daisy cuffs. And it's obviously been satisfying that other people have liked my designs too! There are some new sketches in my book that my fingers have been itching to start work on, but I've been good and concentrated on finishing my Christmas orders. I am looking forward to the New Year, though, as I've promised myself some time to work on them then. B will be going to his childminder for an extra half day after Christmas, and I've got plans for that time!

Tomorrow is the last day for orders in time for Christmas, and the last parcels will be posted on Thursday morning. Tomorrow will be the only day this week that I will not be standing in line for what feels like hours at the post office as it's B's third birthday and I will be slightly busy putting the finishing touches to a birthday party to which 12 children are coming - I must be mad!! I will let you know you it went and how much hair dye I need to cover up the resulting grey on Thursday!

By the way, the gremlins have completely and utterly eaten the photo that should have been in last Tuesday's post so I'm going to have to take another one when I've finished the party organisation!