No longer Londoners!

We completed on our flat on Friday - hurray!  Our flat was featured in the Evening Standard because it was in the same Mansion Block as Yoko Ono used to live when she was seeing John Lennon (Hanover Gate Mansions).  Not missing London yet but I will be going back soon to get more jewellery supplies and go shopping!  She picture of Megan in our garden - does she look like she's missing London????

I have made a few rings and bracelets since my last entry (see pictures). 

We have exchanged contracts on the Winchester house and are due to complete on 3rd June.  We have also put the Somerset place on the market (where we are living now).  Richard is finding the commute a bit challenging but he does manage to do his emails on the train which is good.

We are off to Sardinia with Gill and Richard on 15th so it's all happening.  I need to get talking to people in Winchester about the craft fairs etc and get myself booked in before its too late. 

I must say it's nice to be able to hammer without the neighbours complaining.  Talk soon

hello from sunny Somerset

I haven't written for ages! I have been very busy trying to move house. We have almost sold our London flat - just waiting to exchange and complete. In the meantime we have all moved to Somerset. Me and S&M are loving it but poor Richard is having to commute to London every day. It's a long commute which is why we have put an offer in on a house near Winchester. At the moment we are in limbo land until we exchange. All our London furniture is in store and I have had to cram all our stuff into this house. We have been so lucky with the weather - it's been glorious since we moved here 3 weeks ago.

I have been making jewellery as well as all the other stuff. Not as much and quite a bit of it is for myself. I am loving my tumbler. The things come out of it so shiny - its amazing. Here's a few piccies of some things I have made.

She liked it!

I gave Amanda the bracelet this morning and she was thrilled with it. I am so pleased. What a challenge that was - I learned so much from making it.

I am doing an Art and Craft show in Highgate at Lauderdale House on Sunday. Fingers crossed that I do well. I will be showing my new silver creations for the first time. I'll let you know.

I have been using my disc cutter but have found it so hard to cut the discs - I know I am weak but that is crazy! I am taking it to Somerset where I can use the garage and not annoy the neighbours with my hammering! With Richard's assistance I managed to make some earrings from discs of silver and copper (see picture). I cut the discs out and then used the doming set to dome them. I then drilled holes in them and added jump rings and handmade earwires - pretty good eh!

I have also been using my new tumbler. It is great - I leave the items in it for about two hours and they come out really shiny.

We have sold the flat in London (subject to contract) and hopefully nothing will go wrong. We should be moving to Somerset within a couple of weeks. Then we need to find a property in Winchester as the commute to London is shorter. We are off to Somerset tonight, taking lots of things with us. S&M are with Victoria for the weekend and coming back on Monday morning. I am going to miss Regent's Park, it is beautiful at the moment with all the daffodils.

I got a scary commission!

Since I last wrote I have had another birthday and decided to move house and put our flat on the market! I also got a commission from a friend I see in the park while dog walking. Her granddaughter gave her some rubies (red beads) for Christmas and she wondered if I could make a bracelet for her from the rubies. I was rather nervous with my silversmithing skills being rather new but said yes. She gave me 8 rubies. I decided to make silver bezels from bezel strips, solder them into circles (all the rubies were different sizes) and then solder the circles onto silver sheet. Only one of the bezels was successful. I could have cried! They either melted as the bezel strip was only 0.3mm thick or they didn't solder because I was too worried about melting them. I wanted to give up and tell Amanda that I couldn't do it but decided to have another go. Eventually I had my 8 circles and soldered them onto 8 pieces of silver sheet, pickled them, sawed them out and filed and polished them. Then I had to join sterling silver jump rings either side of the bezels. I was most worried about this bit but only one jump ring gave me a problem. I put the rubies into the bezels and joined the links together with more jump rings and added a toggle clasp. I had to make some adjustments to the size and only needed 6 rubies in the end. Here is a picture of the finished article - I am amazed I managed it. I will take it into the Assay Office in Hatton Garden for hallmarking and will let you know if she likes it!

My wonderful husband gave me a doming set with punches, a barrelling unit and a disc cutting set from Cooksons for my birthday. My sister gave me two books - Two-in-one manual on jewellery by Madeline Coles and Tips and Shortcuts for jewellery making by Stephen O'Keeffe - both great books! Victoria who looks after S&M when we are away gave me a schnauzer bag charm/key ring.

Made a few other pieces recently - see piccies. My fibromyalgia is flaring up at the moment so I am going back to Prof Davies for some help.

S&M are doing fine - still haven't had their hair cut since November! It's a bit matted.

4 pairs of earrings and a necklace!

After practising my silversmithing techniques since getting back to London after Christmas, I finally made some of my more usual jewellery when we went back to Somerset over the weekend. I made a lovely necklace - all mauve and pearls and sparkly crystals - it really is pretty and lovely to wear. Took me a long time to wire wrap all the stones and crystals. I also made 4 pairs of earrings. I have just put them all on the website but will post the pictures on this blog as well.

Rained so much this morning I had to dragg S&M down the road to the park. The only way I can get Megan to move is by running and then she runs with me - otherwise she stands and shivers and digs her heels in!

I have so many ideas in my design notebook that I can't wait to make. Don't know where to start. Have to pick up my hallmarked items on Wednesday so will have to do something with those. It's all go!

Happy New Year! The joys of stone setting

Back in London now. Having made 4 sterling silver bangles and 4 rings, I decided to try setting a gemstone in a ring. Have been using my new book, Jewellery Making - a complete course for beginners by Jinks McGrath - very much recommended for an introduction to silversmithing. I bought a couple of amethyst cabochons - 4mm - big mistake as they are so tiny. I decided to use a 6mm purple zircona instead. Made a ring band from sterling silver sheet and hammered it. Not too bad apart from the fact that it started to melt and I had to file some off the top! I then had to make a bezel cup from bezel wire. I made that, so I now have two rings in effect. Both soldered with hard solder. Then I had to solder a silver backing sheet to the bezel with medium solder and saw round it making a small bezel cup. (found out later that you can buy them in Cookson's for about £1!) My cup then has to be soldered to the ring with easy solder which has a lower melting point than hard and medium solder which means the other joints will not unsolder. Are you still with me? That worked fine. Then I had to fit the stone. - it was a very tight fit and I struggled. Richard had to help and eventually managed to push the bezel top over to hold the stone in place. It looks OK and is wearable but I won't put anything on this site unless it is perfect and it isn't - see picture. So I am keeping it for myself. With all the time it took to make it I would have to charge about a million pounds for it.

I have now got another book from Amazon about art clay called Magical Metal Clay Jewellery by Sue Heaser - another wonderful book with amazing things in it. I have a 20g pack of slow dry silver art clay so I will make some things with that to attach to a ring or bangle - watch this space. See picture of the art clay pendants I made recently that are waiting to be hallmarked.

S&M are doing fine - I am letting their fur grow as it's so cold - they look very cute.

silver ring snaps and a bit flies across the kitchen!

The saga with the silver ring continues. When I was trying to solder the flower with purple heart zircona (made of silver art clay) I managed to solder it with the heart in the wrong direction. With the help of Richard we tried to unsolder it but must have heated the ring too much and it split and a bit of it flew across the kitchen. Neither of us were wearing safety goggles - a lesson learned there! Anyway, I googled how to unsolder and we managed to remove the bit that was left on the ring and although the ring is no more, the flower and purple heart are doing fine. After that episode I decided I was trying to run before I could walk and have been making silver rings with 1mm sterling silver wire, fitting them together like jump rings and then firing them with easy solder from a syringe. Then I pickle them and file and sand paper them and hammer them with my texture hammer. I have made some earrings and a pendant necklace. See piccies. I also made my own head pins by heating the end of 0.8mm wire with my torch until a little ball of silver forms and my own earwires for the earrings. All good fun. I have ordered some copper sheet from Cooksons to take to Somerset on Friday so that I can practise sawing shapes out of the copper with my jewellery saw.

The first picture is Richard snoozing the day after his office dinner dance joined by Megan who decided to sleep on his back!

Got the National Express coach from Victoria to Southampton last Thursday for a 'girls night out'. I stayed with young Wend who I have mentioned before. We had champagne at Pam and Dave's house and then a lovely meal in the Ferry Boat Inn. Got the coach back at 11am the next morning feeling slightly the worse for wear but slept most of the journey. My coach trip cost £14 return - amazing value considering the prices for the trains to Southampton! The 3rd picture is Pam, Penny and Wendy on the sofa (starting from the left).

I did a Christmas selling day at a bank in the city last Tuesday. I sold a couple of pairs of earrings and a ring which was disappointing but I handed by business card out to lots of people so you never know.

Off to Somerset on Friday and staying until 3rd January next year! Nothing to do but make jewellery, eat and drink - utter bliss. It has been great chatting to you and I hope to get a few more followers next year - thanks Claire! XXX

HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!