A lovely Sunday's work

Yesterday was my first day teaching in the new workshop. Fiona and Hannah came out for a day's silversmithing tuition to celebrate Hannah's birthday, and despite the fact that neither of them had made any jewellery before they both made some really beautiful pieces of jewellery - just have a look!

They both made bangles from square wire - Hannah's is round and Fiona's is an oval bangle. Square wire is harder than oval or round wire to file to form a really neat join, and they both did great jobs. And they both decided to texture their bangles with my favourite hammer - old and dented to give a gorgeous texture!

Fiona spent the afternoon making stud earrings- one pair that I've had sketched out as an idea for ages but never got round to making, and one pair made by melting scrap silver. I think she got rather addicted to the fun of melting silver!

Hannah made a stunning necklace. It uses the same wire as we used for the bangles formed into five rings, two of them textured to match the bangle. I couldn't get all of it clearly into the very quick photos that I took before the girls left, but trust me, it looks even more stunning worn!

Happy St Dunstan's Day!

Today is St Dunstan's Day - the patron saint of, amongst others, silversmiths. He seemed to have a very busy life - he was first Abbot of Glastonbury, then Bishop of Winchester, then London, then Archbishop of Canterbury in the 900s, and worked as a silversmith and jeweller during his time at Glastonbury. I am amazed that so much is known about him still. He's even mentioned in "A Christmas Carol" apparently. If you want to find out more about him visit Wikipedia here! 

Dunstan still has relevance today - today is the day that the Assay Offices change the date stamp in the hallmarks, the letter that indicates the year an item was marked.

So, Happy St Dunstan's Day!

Tutorial...erm....Wednesday - Simple Hammered Clasp

I went to bed early last night with a nasty headache and left this post half done - sorry! So, it's Tutorial Wednesday this week instead!

I decided that it was about time that I wrote another tutorial or two myself. It's fun linking to other people's tutorials and I like finding yet more ideas to add to my ever-growing 'must-do' list, but it's fun to write my own too. So, you've had tutorials on eye loops, wrapped loops, coils and ear wires, so this week it's the turn of clasps.

I love to make clasps that compliment the rest of the piece of jewellery that I've made, and they are much much easier to make than you may think. I'm starting with a simple hammered clasp to compliment a necklace that I'm making as an example for my Hammered Chains workshop next month.

You will need:

• 1.2mm sterling silver wire, or a thickness that compliment the rest of your design. The thinnest wire I use for clasps is 0.8mm (20 gauge)
• easy solder & flux & soldering equipment - safety pickle & pot, tweezers, quench pot, fire brick, goggles - these are optional
• round nosed pliers
• wire cutters
• hammer to texture your wire
• needle files
• emery paper

Use your round nosed pliers to turn a loop at the end of your length of wire. I prefer to work from the reel of wire most of the time, especially when I'm making a particular size of clasp for the first time and I'm not certain exactly how much wire I'm going to need.


Decide approximately how long and wide you want your clasp to be. Hold the wire with the round nosed pliers at the extreme of the length you wish your clasp to be and turn a U shaped bend. The further down towards the handles of your pliers you place the wire when you make the bend, the wider the clasp will be.


Cut the wire level with the loop you formed at the start.


Use the round nosed pliers to 'flick out' the last 5mm-1cm of your U shaped bend. This gives your work a more professional finish and also makes the clasp easier to use - easier to fasten but far less likely to come undone by accident.


Use your finger and thumb to manipulate the sides of your clasp so that they meet....


And use the round nosed pliers to manipulate the shape of the clasp too if you wish.

This is the optional part ... soldering the starting loop closed can help to strengthen clasps made of thinner wire than I've used here. Place a small piece of easy solder onto the join of the loop and gently heat the silver to melt the solder and close the join. Quench, pickle and rinse the clasp.



And this is the fun part! Hammer your clasp to give it the texture you want and also to strengthen it. You will probably have to push the clasp back into a closed shape after hammering as hammering will encourage the wire shape to spread out.


File and sand the end of your clasp to remove any sharp edges


And finally ... attach the clasp to your piece of jewellery and enjoy!

Once you've made a couple of clasps you should become more confident in changing the basic shape to better suit the piece of jewellery you're making it for. Perhaps try turning the U shape around a pen barrel of piece of doweling instead to get a wider shape.

Keum Boo Tuition

Yes, after mentioning it months ago, Keum Boo tuition is finally here!

For those of you who haven't come across this technique before, let me tell you, it is magical! Keum Boo is an ancient Korean technique that literally translates as 'attached gold'. 24k gold is bonded to fine silver through a combination of heat and pressure - no solder is used, and the process really does look magical! It is a beautiful way of using gold in your designs without breaking the bank. I've been planning on offering Keum Boo private tuition for several months now, and I thought that the New Year was a good time to start, so here it is!



A day's tuition costs £130, including the first £10 of silver, gold foil valued at £15, lunch and refreshments. There will be enough foil for you to be able to take some home with you at the end of the day. I've worked out that a day's tuition will allow most people to produce two simple or one more complicated piece of jewellery, and like my silversmithing tuition, the idea is that you make a piece of jewellery that you like in your own style. There's no point in paying for private tuition if you can't choose what you'd like to make!



There are information sheets to take away with you, and the day will cover lots of general silversmithing techniques as well as the Keum Boo and I could go on, but for more information see here! But one of the most important things to tell you now that, just as when I introduced the silversmithing tuition, I've decided to give a discount to the first five people who book Keum Boo tuition - instead of £130 it will cost £120 - but you will need to be quick as the first five silversmithing places went very quickly when I offered this before!

And if you'd like a go at Keum Boo but you're not sure about the whole day, I'm also running a Keum Boo taster workshop for 6 people on Saturday 13th March at £35 per person - see here for details!

And for those of you who like your silver without any gold, I'm running another hammered chains workshop on Saturday 13th February - and you can find details of that here!

Today's lesson

Well, Saturday's lesson, but it's taken me until this morning to edit the photos! Sue came round for a day's private silversmithing tuition on Saturday with the aim of learning how to make chains and making herself a bracelet. She learnt how to make the individual links, solder, hammer and link them together - and ended up with enough links to be able to make herself a necklace and a bracelet! The bracelet features a lampwork bead in lovely muted shades of green by Tan.

If you fancy coming and learning how to make your own pieces of jewellery with me, then email me on info@daisychainjewellery.co.uk . January is fully booked, I've got space for one more person in February and there are still spaces in March. I have to warn you though, silversmithing is addictive!

Look at this!

Today was a tuition day - Phil was given a day's silversmithing tuition for his birthday and for once I remembered to take photos of what was made during the day. I usually forget until students have left! Anyway, he was busy working away all day, and I just had to show you my favourite of the things he made - this fantastic ring!



He came to the day with some clear designs in mind, and used the rolling mill to texture the silver with skeleton leaves, calulated how much silver to cut out for the ring, did lots of sawing, filing, sanding and soldering, used my lovely disc cutter to make the holes and melted scrap metal to make the little balls on top of the ring. The ring was oxidised at the end to highlight the texture. Doesn't it look great? And this was his first go at silversmithing too.

All hammered out!

At first glance this photo may not look much different than this one, apart from the angle, but I promise you that a lot of work has gone on between each photo shoot!

Today has been a day of hammering, and my shoulders are definitely telling me that I need to do something else tomorrow! Each of these rings has been hammered on both sides, half of them have been cut open (I have to close them before hammering them otherwise they lose their shape), and in the middle of the picture you can see a chain that I have started. Once the rings have been linked together the next stage is to solder closed the ones I re-opened, link through the next row of rings to make a double chain and solder those links closed again. It takes quite a while, but it's worth it! This lot of rings will become a necklace and a couple of bracelets, both for commissions and to go on the website after hallmarking.

On a completely different note......Happy Birthday Nicky! I hope you've had a lovely evening and I'll see you tomorrow.

On my desk today

Today has mainly been a day of napping in bed to try to fight off a cold (I just haven't got time!), doing admin jobs and preparing for a couple of commissions. You can see the results of the preparation above - lots and lots and lots of jump rings of various sizes and wire gauges! They've all been soldered closed and the next job is to hammer them, cut half of them open, weave them together to form an interlinked double chain and then solder the rings closed again. It'll take a while, but it will be worth it!

You might also be able to see a couple of small flowers cut from silver sheet in the background - they will be turned into a couple more pendants like the tourmaline one I posted a couple of days ago.

A very pleasant afternoon...

I spent a very pleasant afternoon today doing a talk and demo at the Hedge End Arts and Crafts society down the road from us. It's been a while since I did a demo, and it's certainly the first demo I've done where I've taken along my silversmithing equipment - or some of it at least! I obviously couldn't take along the bigger heavier bits of kit. I had lots of fun talking about how I got started jewellery making, the materials I used and some of the techniques I use. I demonstrated the different stages in making a bangle, with a few 'Blue Peter' moments where I got out one I'd made earlier to speed things up a bit! I took along the gorgeous lampwork beads that arrived last week from Mindy too, and they were very much admired and rightly so. I have such plans for these beads!

I've been busy with commission work over the last week or so, and also trying to rebuild my stock of the goodies I know sell well at Christmas shows, namely simple lampwork pendants and my daisy pendants. I've got to make some more though as they seem to be selling nearly as fast as I can make them at the moment and faster than I can get them on the website! A friend popped over at teatime to buy a birthday present and went home with two pendants, and I sold 3 more when people popped in over the weekend. Not that I'm complaining, of course, but the ones I'm planning to make tomorrow will definitely be on the website before I show anyone else! I've also been doing a lot of pierced work, and this simple but sweet tourmaline pendant below is my favourite so far. I've got some more polishing in the tumbler as I type, and I think I'm going to add sapphires to one of them. I think that they will become a made-to-order item.

As a family we've also been busy spending time with my friend's beautiful miracle girl - Gracie came home last week! Considering that they had been told initially that she may not survive, that fact that she's out of neonatal, let alone home, is definitely a miracle. Thank you to those who texted/emailed/phoned etc to say that you were praying/sending positive thoughts - it was really really appreciated. The doctors still say that brain damage is a possibility, but I find that so hard to believe when I'm holding her as she is just so perfect. I guess only time will tell, but all the signs are looking positive so far.

My boys are back!

My boys came home yesterday afternoon! T phoned me when they were about 30 minutes away and so I was sitting in the bay window waiting for them to arrive. I managed to get lots of work done while they were gone and they had a lovely time with our friends in Wales and with Grandma and Grandad (they called in on the journey), but 5 nights is far far far too long. Heavens, what on earth am I going to be like when he leaves home?!

I did take a bit of a break from working while they were away and took the opportunity to do some stencilling in B's new bedroom too - something I'd been wanting to do since I first painted it. I've stencilled cars, trains, bicycles, tractors, boats and aeroplanes around his room and he had great fun trying to find them all. They're not quite as neat as I'd have liked (horrible bumpy woodchip wallpaper) but he likes them, that's the main thing. Ummm - I really must improve my indoor photos! Outside in sunshine ones are good, but my indoor ones look too harsh or washed out and my very simple camera won't let me change any settings. Maybe I should drop a few hints for Christmas?! Anyway, the cars do look a lot better in real life, honest!




And they brought me back a present too - a hot pot for heating my pickle! I asked T's mum if she'd be able to look out for one for me at the car boot sales she goes to, and she got one really quickly. Pickle is essential when you're soldering sterling silver as it's the only real way to get rid of the fire scale that appears after the silver is heated. Pickle works alot faster if it's warm and so far I've been using a tealight food warmer to do the job. This will be far more efficient, and look, I've been able to use it already!

Tornado warning

One of the blogs I catch up with regularly is Jillian's The Life and Times of The Plume. I love the enthusiastic way she has with words, and it seems as if tackles everything in her life with the same energy and enthusiasm! Anyway, she described herself today as a tornado, twisting and turning from one direction to another, trying to decide which project to do first. That's exactly what I've been like the last couple of days. I've been so determined to be as productive as possible while T and B have been away that this morning I really didn't know whether I was coming or going! I have sawing wire for bangles, cutting discs and then doming then with my two latest toys tools for several different projects, cutting tube for even more projects, soldering etc etc etc. Put it this way, with the amount of work I've done in the shed today, I haven't needed to put the heater on at all, and it's been a miserable damp day here weather wise! The problem is, though, that if I don't give myself an evening off tonight I'll be worn out by the time my boys come home tomorrow!


So, I'm going to leave you with a picture of some of the work I've been doing over the last few days - lots of lovely shiny silver necklaces, bracelets, pendants and earrings, but they're not finished yet - I'll explain more tomorrow!



Umm...I guess I have had a busy long weekend. Oh look - if you look closely you can see upside down mini mes reflected in the cupped discs! I think that may be the closest you're going to get of a self-portrait!

Silversmithing

A quick update on the reduced silversmithing tuition - there are is now 4 3 2 1 places place no places left at £100 for the whole day or £60 for half a day. Just so you know!

Workshops update

I realised, as I was talking to people this weekend about my workshops, that I haven't posted about the next set of dates on here - oops! So, here are the dates of my next workshops, and also news about something I'm really excited about!

Wednesday 24th September 7.15pm-10.15pm – Jewellery workshop

Suitable for all abilities. I will teach you the basics of jewellery making, after which you are free to copy or adapt one of the couple of dozen of projects on offer or to create your own design.

Saturday 11th October 10am-4.30pm –Sterling silver charm bracelet

An all day workshop suitable for those with some experience of working with wire - as long as you've used a pair of round nosed pliers to turn eye loops before you'll be fine, I'll take you through everything step by step! The workshops will cover techniques including making clasps, chains, jump rings, ear wires, wrapped eye loops and coils, and an explanation of the different gauges and types of sterling silver wire. The photo above is an example of the style of bracelet you will make.

Wednesday 22nd October 7.15pm-10.15pm – Sterling silver earrings workshop

Learn how to create a base for your earrings from sterling silver wire, solder the shape closed and then decorated it with fine sterling silver wire and semi-precious stones. You will also learn how to oxidise your earrings if you wish to give them an antiqued look, and to make your own ear wires. No previous experience of working with wire is necessary.

For more information on any of the workshops look here. You can either book via the website or email me.

And now the bit I'm really excited about! You may have noticed by now that I am rather addicted to beads and all things related to jewellery making, and that I like passing the addiction on! When I set up my workshop (okay, shed!) I had a surprising number of people ask me whether I would be adding beginner's silversmithing to the list of workshops I run - so, after checking my insurance, equipment etc, I decided I would. I have had a couple of willing volunteers to help me work out how much jewellery people are likely to make during a day or half a day’s tuition and everything is now in place to start taking bookings.

More details of the tuition will be available on the website as from tomorrow, and I will be offering full day tuition at £120 including the first £10 of materials and half day tuition at £70 including the first £10 of materials. Places are limited as I will usually be able to take only one, sometimes two students a month initially. As a special offer for those signed up to my newsletter and you lovely lot the workshop fee for the first 5 people to book will be reduced to £100 for a day’s tuition and £60 for half a day’s tuition. For more details please email me or use the 'contact me' form on the website!

Moving Day

Yes, I have finally moved into the shed! I spent last Wednesday putting a final coat of paint inside while B had an extra day with his childminder, and then started the job of moving everything in from the spare room. By the evening everything was ready, and I started working in it on Thursday morning! It is fantastic having a space that is properly organised for silversmithing, with a soldering station permanently set up, and I love the fact that I can leave a project out on my desk ready for me to continue with it the next day. I've been able to get so much done over the last few days!

I've been working on a couple of commissions (can't show you these yet as they're going to be surprise presents) and also on some more projects for the next few jewellery workshops. The photos show another bracelet and also a pair of earrings for the Spirals Bracelet workshop coming up in a couple of weeks. Both of them will be added to the website tomorrow.

To celebrate the fact that I've finally got a proper workshop (okay, a shed!), I've got a special offer for you on jewellery workshop places. If you book 3 or more places on the workshops that I'm running this spring and summer then I will give you 10% off the workshop fees. To book places using this offer then please email me at info@daisychainjewellery.co.uk to organise it as I can't yet get the website to work it out automatically! The offer runs until 12th June.

Making my mark!

Now, my exciting parcel - on Saturday the first pieces that I sent off to Goldsmiths, the London Assay Office to be hallmarked arrived home! I applied for my own Maker's Mark in April and decided to keep it a surprise for most people until I got my first pieces back. The main person that I wanted to surprise was my Dad. He's an ex-Trading Standards officer and they're the people who enforce hallmarking and things like that in the UK, so I really just want to hand a piece to him and say "so, do you notice anything?". I think he was suitably impressed! I know that in theory anyone can apply for their own maker's mark, but in my mind having one makes me a 'proper' silversmith.

Anyway, this means that I can now start selling my pieces of jewellery with more than 7.78g of silver, as anything over this weight legally has to be hallmarked. This is why I haven't added things like my silver bangles to the website yet - they will be added very shortly! And if you'd like a preview of my hallmark (although you'll need good glasses for this!) have a look at the bangles above - no, they're not scratched, that's a hallmark that you can see! My maker's mark is my initials JRT inside an oval. So, Hannah, was your guess right?!

The parcel containing all my silver and hard work was actually supposed to arrive on Friday, but thanks to the Royal Mail van breaking down after it left Goldsmiths' on the Thursday afternoon everthing was delayed and the Royal Mail had no record of my parcel exisiting until Friday morning. That made me just a little bit upset (!), so thank you to Nichola who came round and gave me a hug on Friday morning! I really needed it!

I'm a happy girl today!

It's been a good day today! The sun is shining, and I've got a new outlet for my jewellery! I had an appointment with the woman who decides what the shop at the Southampton City Art Gallery will stock, and she liked my work. She's given me a rough list of what she'd like and they've got space available from the beginning of July. I know that seems like a while off, but it gives me time to get everything ready without neglecting other outlets and my website etc. Anyway, judging by the year so far the time will go very quickly!

I'm off to pick B up from his childminder's in a little while (we've swapped days as her little boy was ill last week and she's also got an appointment on Thursday, B's usual day with her), but there's just time to show you a couple of pictures. The first is the cuff that I made Mum at the silversmithing course - I can show you now as I've given it to Mum! The second is a set of 3 bangles that I finished last night. They're held together by bead 'charms' of freshwater pearl, blue fluorite and smokey quartz. I was trying it out last night and it's very tactile - I kept spinning the bangles around!

New toys!

It's been another busy week, but then again I think that's the norm round here! B and I have been out and about at Toddler Twist and visiting friends, we went to see my parents yesterday lunchtime and we're all up at T's mum's this weekend to celebrate her 6oth birthday. I even had a social life this week - a lovely meal with friends I used to teach with (we were definitely the lively table at the pub!), and Thursday morning was spent being pampered at a local spa. My brother gave me a voucher for my birthday last year, so I thought I'd better use it before it runs out in a couple of weeks! It was a lovely treat, especially as a friend came with me.


It's also been a busy week for buying new toys! B and I visited Goulds in Portsmouth on Wednesday and bought bracelet mandrels and hammers and lots of other lovely things. Look out for some bangles on the website next week. But the biggest 'toy' that arrived this week was my shed! T and I spent some of the weekend clearing a space for it and generally tidying up the garden ('assisted' by B, of course), the shed arrived on Tuesday, and by Wednesday evening it was up. We've still got to insulate it, put electricity in etc but I'm so excited already! I've taken some photos, but I'll have to add them when we get home from T's mum's.

Hope you have a lovely weekend!

Still here!

Yes, I am still here! I meant to post as soon as I came back from the silversmithing weekend at Flux'n'Flame but to be honest I was absolutely shattered!! I LOVED the course! Not everything I tried turned out how I planned (several things ended up in my scrap pot on the second day) but I learnt alot and that was the aim of it.

So.....this is what I made. The first thing I made was a bangle using oval wire and I love it so much that I have hardly taken it off since. It's so comfortable to wear. I really enjoy making bangles and have several ideas for them so as soon as my bracelet mandrel arrives you will be seeing some on my website! The afternoon of the first day I use the rolling mill to press a leave pattern into silver sheet and practiced my piercing skills to cut out a leaf shaped pendant. I plan to hang some semi-precious stones from the top, but I haven't had time yet!

The second day, as I said, resulted in lots of experiments, but the third day was definitely more productive! I finished 3 stacker rings (for me) and a bracelet for Mum - but you'll have to wait for that as she hasn't seen it yet!

I have finally ordered a shed to turn into a workroom as I can't work in my room in the house anymore - it's right next to B's room and the only time I get to work is when he's asleep. Can't exactly hammer then!

The other reason that I've been awol is that I've been sorting my website out - and I've finally done it! Once my webhosting bloke (aka Ben from BM-media) got me so far, I could use some code I found on the zen-cart help forum to sort the rest out. Ben was a star - he even helped me out the day before his wedding! Anyway, go and check my website out and let me know what you think about the new look! And maybe by the time you're back I'll have changed the look of my blog to match.

Turquoise

Well, I was going to write a quick post letting you know that there were 2 places left on the sterling silver pendant workshop next Saturday, but they've just been booked - sorry! I'm just sorting out dates for next term's workshops. I'll post here when details are ready, and of course by then my website WILL be sorted so details will be on there too. If you would like me to send you course details please email me and I'll add you to my mailing list - I won't fill your inbox up with emails, promise!Nicky (Sparkly Treasures) and I are off on our silversmithing course this weekend, so I doubt I'll be post anything over the weekend but I'll hopefully have lost to show you next week! For now, the pictures here are of a bracelet I've made using beautiful turquoise beads from Moogin beads and sterling silver links and clasp that I've forged myself. I've made a matching necklace too.Happy Easter!