forged earrings

I made a bigger copper pair of these a while ago.

I loved them so much that I decided to create a smaller version in silver.

Enamel - well sort of

I am desperate to learn how to enamel. Penny has a kiln and I have serious tool envy.

I Recently bought Linda darty's book on enamelling and set up a tin can Kiln as per a diagram in her book. All set up except uuh no enamels.

I can order enamels but I am impatient and when I want to do something I want to do it now - not wait for the mail man.

I have thousands of seed beads, from my bead obsession days.

So I crushed a few and used a tea strainer for mesh and hairspray to help it stick.

All thing considered I was really pleased with these results

Jasper Ring

I started making this ring about 2 months ago.

But it challenged me at every turn.

My biggest mistake was trying to get away with a thin back plate for the large stone.

Then I realised it was too thin and I remade the whole of the top piece using .8mm back plate which was probably too thick for my torch to handle. Then when I was setting the stone the whole thing came off the ring. AAGH. luckily I was able to remove the stone without too much damage and resolder it to the ring. I made sure it was soldered properly this time!

adventurine earrings

I have finally made something.
These earrings were a birthday present for my sister.

Double viking knit chain.

This is a double viking knit chain. I found it much quicker to do this weave then the other weave I know.

earring finding

The other day I got a phone call from Penny to find out if I knew where she could buy a silver screw on earring finding. I didnt know but managed to convince her that she could make her own. I like a challenge and thought it would be a good learning experience for me too. So here is my (unfinished) version.

Bead setting

So in keeping with my resolution to practice other methods of stone setting.
When I saw Janices work, I decided to try bead setting again.
Setting the stone isnt that difficult. Its the cleaning up with the gravers afterwards that is really hard. I have been reading a little and I see that I am going to have to invest in another graver.
YAY more tools!
This was practice it wasnt supposed to turn into anything.