Silver and Glass Necklace and Earrings

 

Back in October I went on a course with Sarah King at West Dean.  I enjoyed it very much, but I also really liked her necklace.

It's one she had designed herself and sells on her website.  And I wondered if I could make myself a version of it.

So in the final term of jewellery class this year, I bought lots of silver wire and made some tiny glass beads (more about them in a minute) and set out making myself a silver necklace.

 

First I had to make some giant jump rings (easier said than done).  Then I had to solder them all together which again was more tricky than you'd think it would be.

I made a clasp and then had to tidy all the solder joints, before shaping and hammering all my jump rings.  All the time having to make sure I didn't break the tiny glass bead sitting on one ring.

 

The glass bead was made from recyled wine bottle glass.  I love this colour sooooooo much!  Of course there is a bit of a process to follow to get to the final bead and it's not as quick as just buying some glass rods.  But I do love the fact that bottle isn't going into landfill or whatever they do with them right now.

 

So with a necklace looking good and a little time and materials left, I decided to make some matching earrings.  Soldering the posts on was painful, but I got there in the end.  Some shaping and hammering later and a matching pair of earrings were ready to wear.

I'm really pleased with this project.  I think I might make the rings a little smaller in furture to help them sit better when wearing it.  But it is definitely a contender for next years big event!

Spinner Ring and Sliding Necklace

 Since I reduced my working hours in May, I've been going to a weekly jewellery class where I've been learning lots about how to work with metal and how I can incorporate my glass creations into the mix.

Some classes have been frustrating, mostly where my soldering hasn't gone to plan, some have been successful, but I've learnt so much from each one.

So I thought it was about time I did a quick update on some of my favourate pieces form recent weeks.

Firstly is my sliding necklace.

I was at West Dean earlier this year learning about fusing glass.  When I set some pieces to fuse I added an off cut of plain glass just to see what it would do.  Well it came out as a lovely rounded length of glass and I knew right away that it would be perfect for a sliding necklace.

It took me ages to get there, but I finally had time to make a little silver cap for it, along with a silver ring for it to slide through and to add some chain.

I was very pleased with how it came out.  It's now on the possible list to wear at a big event happening next year, although I do have a few other ideas to try out too.

 

The other thing that I've recently worked on that came out very well was a spinner ring.

These are traditionally silver with two parts.  The main core and then the spinner outer piece.

 

I wanted to know if I could do the same with a glass outer.  So first I had to make a glass ring, before making a silver core to fit it.

 

This took a little work, but I was very happy how it came out with the texture of a leaf.  Then came the nerve racking bit - fitting the two together and flarring the ends of the silver ring so the glass ring won't fall off.

It worked a treat.  So now I need to see how safe it is.  Glass and metal can be a bit tricky together, so I've been wearing it and playing with it to see if I can break it.  So far so good.

 

 I have loved working on these project.  Not just the beautiful outcomes, but also the problem solving and learning new skills.

We've only got one more term left before Christmas, but I hope to have a couple more things to report on by the end of it.

Sculptural Sustainable Wood Jewellery

 

This weekend I was back to West Dean for the Sculptural Sustainable Wood Jewellery course.

I booked this a while ago and had been really looking forward to it.  I was not disappointed.

 

I love wood as a material, love how warm it feels and how versatile it is, so when I saw the things Sarah King, our tutor, had made I couldn’t wait to find out more.

 

It was a small class with 5 of us and we all had some knowledge of jewellery making so it made for quite a relaxed class with Sarah showing us techniques and then allowing us to use them in any way we wanted.

 

 

We started by making a hard wood pendent with silver dots inlayed.  The technique is quite simple, but looks very effective.

 

Next I made an ebony ring with more silver inlayed.  This time a strip along the top with some dots down the sides.  Getting the shape right took the time with this one.  Finishing both of these with wax made them sing.

 

On our second day I worked mostly in lime wood, which was much softer to work with.  Again I made rings, but this time more sculptural using holes and paint to give an interesting surface.  

 

 

I also made a laminate with I cut up to make a pair of ear rings, although I didn’t quite get them finished.  It won’t take long in my jewellery class next week.

 

 

Many of the things we worked on, we used superglue to keep in place.  This was very reassuring as I’d never thought using glue in jewellery making was very professional, but it shows there is a time and a place.

 

I really enjoyed the weekend and learnt so much.  Now I’m trying to work out how I could incorporate glass with wood, maybe in rings or brooches.  I love how going on courses like this builds on what I’ve learn before and while I might not have a fully formed idea now, it’s the sort of thing that will come with time.

Sustainable Practice: Recycling Silver with Elisavet Messi

 

 Today I was up early to catch the train to London, but I wasn't going into the office, I was visiting The Goldsmiths Centre to learn how to recycle all my offcuts of silver.

I really wasn't sure what to expect, but I arrived a little early which gave me a chance to look at the beautiful student work in the foyer. Wow!  

 

At 09:30 me and another lady were met and taken to the classroom we'd be using.  It's an amazing building and we walked past several classrooms, all very well equiped.  In our classroom we met Elisavet who talked us through what we'd be doing.

First we had a chat about the sustainable and ethical reasons why we'd want to recycle our offcuts, before going through the process.

 

First we had to set up our crucible by enameling it with borax.  This involved heating it up and melting the borax powder so it ran over the surface of our crucible, meaning our silver wouldn't stick to it later.  You only have to do this the once, then you're set for the life of the crucible.

 

Next we weight out our silver (13g), put it in our crucible and melted it.  Sounds easy, but it took a little bit of skill to get the flame the right distance away to get the metal hot enough.  Once liquid we poured it into a mold.  We'd made a tiny ingot!

Once it had been pickled we could start to shape it using the rolling mill.  I wanted to make wire with mine.  You can only pass it through 3 or 4 times before you have to anneal and pickle it again otherwise it will probably crack, so I didn't have time to finish it, but I will take it to class with me, I'm sure I can finish it there.

 

It was a great morning, and wonderful to finally do something with all the offcuts I've been hoarding without really knowing what to do with them.  Elisavent was so knowledgable and happy to share, I really feel this is something I could do again on my own now.

I then went on to the V&A to have a look at their glass display.  A nice way to spend a couple of hours on a damp afternoon, before heading home.

3 Silver Bangles

 

This week I was back at West Dean.

I've been wanting to do the 3 silver bangles class for years now, but it gets booked up very quickly.  I think I must have booked this 6 months ago, before I had even come across the Frensham Old Barn Workshop.

This was a one day workshop run by Sarah and Rachael.

We were given three lengths of silver wire.  One was round, one was square and one was D wire.  We were also given some copper wire so we could have a play before making our actual bangles.

Copper wire samples

 

Sarah talked us through how to anneal our metal to make it easy to work, and showed us lots of example bangles to give us ideas of what we could make.

Sarah and Rachael were on hand the whole time to answer our question and help us to figure out our designs.  They were so helpful!

I knew I wanted to twist the square wire to match the ring I made before Christmas.

 

I had of course also bought some glass beads with me, and wanted to know if I could add them - would they deal with the heat ok?  And all the other processes used in making a bangle?  So that was the round wire sorted, but what to do with the D wire?

I really liked the wishbone bangle they had but the example used square wire.  Would it work with D wire.  They suggested I turn the rounded side inside against my wrist and used the flat side to make the point.  Sorted!

 

Once I knew what I was doing I could just get on with it.

I twisted the square wire first as that was quite straight forward.  You have to keep quite a lot of tention on the wire as you twist it to keep the twists equal, but I think I did ok.

I then set about shaping the wishbone and cutting the wire at an angle to make the point.  This needed a little refining, but I got there in the end.  It really does prove that taking the time at the start is worth it, as I ended up with a lovely finish in the end.

Then I moved onto the round wire with beads.  Several of the other ladies had textured their wire with a hammer, and I thought this looked really good, so I did the same with mine.  I then threaded on my beads and set up to solder it.  I covered the glass beads and tried to keep the heat away and I think it was ok, until without thinking I put the whole lot in the water to cool it.

This is fine with metal, but the glass likes to cool slowly.  Doh!  All the beads cracked.  But I put it in the pickel anyway just to see what would happen.  It's a mild acid and the glass didn't care at all.

 

 

So I ended up with 2 bangles which I'm really please with, and one that has proved a concept for me and given me LOTS of ideas to take home with me and I hope to explore later.  What more could I ask for from a day of crafting?