A Brooch Making Experience

So.... I am into making brooches of late, I love the process of press forming using my wonderful arbor press, I like to get a three dimensional quality to my work, of course including the all necessary texture. Using brass and copper adds another dimension, colour and contrast, they seems to sit perfectly with Autumn.

My design is sketched onto brass and pierced out, I love to cut metal!

Silver sheet is textured and press formed into my leaf shapes.

The silver leaves are pierced out and soldered onto the brass back, alot more work is involved......texture, soldering on a brooch back and a huge clean up.. before ..

The finished brass and silver beauty is ready to present itself!

My sunflower brooch is made in a very similar way.

Both brooches can be purchased from my Etsy shop, or directly from me!

Glam up your outfit for the Autumn!



Earring Workshop

On August the 18th, this post is a little overdue, I had the pleasure to meet mother and daughter Hazel and Laura on the mission to make a pair of earrings! After a nice cuppa, biscuits and natter we discussed jewellery making experience, Hazel had not had experience with making silver jewellery but had made glass jewellery, Laura did have experience a number of years ago. I then showed the girls a selection of earrings, we discussed their preference for dangle or post/studs.
 I have a number of examples of textures to show and demonstrated how to achieve them. We practised piercing and texturing on copper before moving onto precious metal - silver!

The day covered basic silversmithing techniques, piercing, texturing, filing, soldering, sanding and polishing.

Well the mission was a success! Hazel and Laura each made beautiful and unique earrings, each have very different styles. We had a lovely creative and fun day!

'Laura and I wore our newly made earrings with pride yesterday and they were much admired! Thank you again for a delightful day, it was good to meet and enjoy your company too'