Bangle Making Workshop

On March 3rd I taught a bangle making workshop, my workshops are small so I really get a chance to get to know students and give them plenty of attention. John and Katherine had not had any experience of working in silver, Jeanette had experience but had not dabbled for quite a few years and was looking forward to reawakening rusty skills! We started off with discussing the bangle making  process, I then demonstrated the forming of a basic wire bangle. We practised with copper wire to obtain an understanding of the required skills then progressed onto silver.



This workshop involved piercing/sawing, filing, soldering, texture, forming around a mandrel and finishing, and a lovely lunch in the Biscuit Factory cafe!!



John, Katherine and Jeanette then decided what they wanted to create, they all involved a mixture of metals, silver, brass and copper, they were very surprised and proud of their bangles! 

Katherine made a beautiful interlocking triple bangle, consisting of two silver bangles and one copper with a subtle satin finish.

John made a lovely triple interlocking bangle consisting of one silver, one brass and one copper bangle for his granddaughter's birthday.

Jeanette created silver and copper bangles with a hammered finish held together by brass and silver shiny tendrils -wonderful - a gift for her daughter.

All of these bangles are amazing - John Katherine and Jeanette did a  fantastic job!



A Ring for Diana

I was approached recently to copy a much loved ring with great sentimental value for a friend of the client. This ring seemed initially to pose a challenge, it was nothing like anything I had made previously, I do not include stones in my designs too frequently and these were quite unusual shapes.



I think the original ring was made in India, the design, mainly owing to the shape of the stones, is quite organic in contrast to my own simple outlines. I decided this was going to be good for me!

The first job was to identify and source the stones. The pear shaped moonstone and black stick pearl were pretty obvious, but the blue stone proved a little more difficult, I eventually came to the conclusion it was a kyanite, these are very hard to find in this country in cabochon form but I managed to find a faceted kyanite, I really wanted to keep the blue stone - it catches the blue in the black pearl.

Fine silver bezel wire is used to make a bezel to hold each stone. It must be a perfect fit before soldering onto the silver mount. The mount is curved to fit the curve of a finger and the bezels are filed to fit - probably the most tedious part of this adventure!

It is pretty easy to melt fine silver - so extra care is taken when soldering them onto the base. I little bearing wire is soldered into the kyanite setting, necessary to hold a faceted stone. Excess silver is cut and filed away before the silver balls are added. I do believe we are on the home stretch....

I sent the D shaped silver wire I would use for the ring shank to be hallmarked at the Birmingham Assay Office before I formed it into a round. This was then checked to make sure it would fit a size M finger good 'n' proper before I soldered it to the bezel.

So there it sits - awaiting those lovely stones. Holes have been drilled in the back of each setting to enable the stones to be positioned, they also allow a little light to shine through.  A pusher and burnisher are used to push and burnish the fine silver around the stones hopefully holding 'em nice 'n' snug.

Da daaaa...

I have heard Diana is pleased with her ring, and I'm so very pleased to hear it! I did enjoy this project, it is sooo good to be taken out of your little comfort zone, it usually results in a learning curve both beneficial and enjoyable. I now have a 'thing' for unusually shaped stones, it has set in motion a whole new project.... I did get more of those lovely pear shape moonstones...







The Birth of a Bangle.

Bangles are very popular at the moment, and they are fun to make! This triple bangle was a commission - three bangles interlinked with three freely moving hoops. A bangle should jangle.

This bangle started its life as round wire, cut to length, soldered closed then formed around a bangle mandrel into three perfectly round separate bangles.

One bangle then has to be cut open, linked with the other two then soldered closed again, so they are permanently linked. Three small silver hoops are constructed in a similar way only around a smaller mandrel, they are looped around all three bangles and soldered closed.

Ah congratulations - you have a lovely healthy shiny bangle - this bangle is given a super soft satin finish.  Next bangle making workshop is Saturday March 3rd.



Wonderful Ring Making Workshop!

 I held a wonderful ring making workshop on Saturday here in my studio in The Biscuit Factory. Lynn, Corinne and Sue made really lovely silver rings in the day long workshop. Lynn and Corinne had not had any jewellery making experience and managed to make two rings! Corinne had the lovely idea of making one each for her daughters, a very personal gift.



Techniques covered included cutting metal ( piercing in jewellery making terms!) filing, soldering, forming around a mandrel and polishing. These were helped along with copious helpings of tea and biscuits and a delicious lunch in the cafe!

I think the gals were deservedly proud of their creations! I find it amazing the different creations people produce from the one basic design.

Next ring making workshop is Saturday Februrary 4th. Just email me to book one for yourself or to purchase one as a gift. If two or more want to do the workshop on a different date let me know and we can arrange a day to suit you. Maximum number is four.

Workshops

Again - I apologise big time for my HUGE gap in posting, lots of stuff going on, one major bit of 'stuff' is my studio move. I recently moved to the The Biscuit Factory  http://www.thebiscuitfactory.com/  in Newcastle. It has been a wonderful move, I just love my new studio and its location.

This weekend I took part in the annual Ouseburn open studios  http://www.ouseburnopenstudios.org/  The Biscuit Factory, The Biscuit Tin Studio's, Cobalt, Foundry Lane Studio's, Lime St, Mushroom Works and Northern Print were all open for the public to wander around, chat to artists, check out their studio's and buy unique work! It was a good turnout, I totally enjoyed meeting people and having them in my workspace. Thankyou to everybody who made the effort to come along and meet us!! My only regret was my inability to visit other artists open studio's!!

I will be holding jewellery making workshops in my lovely new studio in the New Year, the first Saturday of the month.

Only 4 students per class, so lots of attention per student, tea and biscuits included! Choice of bringing your own lunch or a wonderful lunch in the Biscuit Factory cafe (not included - sorry!)

Saturday Februrary 4th Ring making workshop.

Saturday March 3rd Bangle making workshop.

Saturday April 14th Pendant making workshop.

Saturday May 5th Earring making workshop.

These day long workshops are £50.00 with materials extra, to give you an idea of material cost a typical ring will cost around £9.00.

These workshops make wonderful gifts, vouchers are available from me - just email!!

Check my blog for workshop updates, I will add new dates and details.

Ring making workwshop will happen next weekend - December 3rd - I will post pics!

Molten Metal an Adventurous Day!

                                                                                                      

For a while I have bemoaned buying silver when I have lots of scrap, so after much procrastination ( scaredy cat) and with the help of numerous books and Andrew Berry, I finally did the molten dirty ...



First I had to purchase heat resistant solder boards to build a soldering station, I really did not want to burn down my workshop! I also needed an ingot mold to pour molten silver into, crucible and crucible holder, plus a biiig burner for my torch, big heat requires big burner! Here you can see scrap silver placed into the crucible awaiting its transformation.

Biiig torch doing its job - it is really beautiful at this point, it is necessary to bang the crucible on the surface and swirl that mercury looking glowing wonder around to remove anything that is not silver. The crucible must be placed next to the ingot so to warm the ingot, pouring molten silver into a cold ingot is a big no no, can result in exploding silver due to contraction of ingot mold! I guess you only do it once....



The ingot is poured and looks a little disappointing sitting cold and grey in the ingot, glowing molten glory no more! Its ashen appearence is due to exposure to air, but that is nothing that a dip in acid cannot cure!

Here we have lovely organic looking silver plucked out of the ingot post acid bath and the sheet silver I worked so hard for, this requires heavy duty hammering and numerous passings through the rolling mill. But it is worth it, recycled silver ready to be formed!

Slapped Fingers

Well it is slapped fingers for me - but not too hard as it may impede my work! I fully intended to blog weekly and months have passed since my last post. I am not proud of this! I definitely need to get my blogging act together! One thing that has happened in this time that I would like to mention is that myself and and two  artist friends of mine Jill Gibson and Sue Jackson have started an art group called Shincliffe Arts. We meet once a month with other artists to try different artistic disciplines, discuss techniques and ideas, current and future events and exhibitions. Our first meeting's task was to sketch with sticks and ink - it was an excellent project to free us all up and produced wonderful work! Jill is a web designer and has built us a wonderful website, so please take a peek when you have time!  shincliffearts.com

I have a thing for hares!