Recyling, Repurposing and Re...er... Sunshining!

I've been waiting a couple of days to show you this... the light has just been awful here, so dull, but I couldn't wait any longer. Look at this!


Can you guess what it is? It's a cabochon of Fordite, a remarkable and rare material. It is solidified car paint from the Ford plant at Dagenham. Can you believe it? When the paint shops were closed there was a huge build up of paint on the walls and floors and it was found that this compacted material could be cut, shaped and polished like a stone. The colours and patterns are just fabulous.

I have set the cabochon in Sterling Silver.

So, that's the repurposing, here's the recycling:


These lovely lampwork beads by Tania Grey, of Tan, Of Course, were made into another set, but I wasn't happy with it, so that was taken apart and I've made this new one. The lovely Swarovski pearls compliment the lampwork beautifully.

I've added a few new spectacle chains to the website today too, here are two of them.

And last, but certainly not least, my love and thanks go to Maz Simpson of Amari gems (do pop over and have a look at her blog: here - she makes the most amazing jewellery) who has given me the Sunshine Award. This has really brightened my day, which outside was cold, wet and misty with low lying cloud.

The rules for accepting the Sunshine award

~ Put the logo on your blog or within your post

~ Pass the award onto 12 bloggers ~

~ Link the nominees within your post ~

~ Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

~ Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

My nomiated award winners are:
(please do go and visit their blogs, they're all really interesting)

Beady Pool
Behind the Scenes at Jewelry Tales
Chameleon Designs
ChatElaine Jewellery
Cristina's Jewelry
Eve's Gems
Fired with Imagination
Kiamyka - Now and Then
Little Castle Designs
Lush Blogs
Made by AnnaK
The Makings of Beads by Clare Scott

OK, that's it for now.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Much love,

Lesley
xx

Half-Term Happenings

Well, it went by in a flash, didn't it?

Lots to show you. Firstly, the gallery wanted some earrings to go with the squiggle pendants I left there last week:

These are hammered just to widen the curves - and to strengthen the metal.

While these are more heavily hammered to give a texture which means that the light bounces in all directions making them very twinkly.

And these are three squiggles soldered together and very lightly hammered for strength. It was a bit of a fiddle working with such small scrolls, but I was pleased with the outcome.

Because these need polishing to bring up the shine - and because it's half-term and therefore no class at college where I use the big polisher - I had to get out my polishing machine. This hasn't been installed (bolted down to the workbench, dust extraction mechanism devised, cowling to prevent polish going everywhere) yet, so I did a bit of a Heath Robinson and put it into a cardboard box to try and contain the bits of polish which fly in all directions. It worked - but the box kept moving with the vibration of the machine. It was all a bit awkward holding the earrings under the polishing mops while holding the whole thing on the workbench with my elbow!

I left the polisher in situ... and obviously Cleo decided to investigate and rub herself up against the mops...
We now have a tortoiseshell and pink cat!!

I've also been working on a commission for my lovely chum, Anne. A long, long necklace (34"):
There are loads of pearls and then sea glass, chalcedony, fluorite, crystals, blue lace agate and amazonite. Part of the necklace is made with chain and little dangles of the semi-precious stones.

And also for Anne, a kilt pin to be worn with a beige cardigan:

This has Tigers Eye, nephrite, poppy jasper, rhyolite, ocean jasper, fancy jasper, moonstone, Botswana agate, smoky quartz and crystals. There is also mix of gold plate and copper.

There were three sets that also got made this week:

Turquoise rondelles with loads of silver.
Gorgeous lampwork by Clare Scott coupled with sea glass, Swarovski Crystals, black onyx and Sterling Silver. I'm pleased to report that Clare really liked it! It's always a bit of a concern that the lampwork artist will be disappointed with what you've done with their beads, so it's great to get positive feedback from them!

Hang on, I hear you cry, that's only two sets... you said there were three. Correct! I didn't get time to photograph the third set before it was sold! It was Amazonite and silver. It was really pretty and I'm hoping to make something using the same beads - in a different pattern - this week, so you'll get to see something like it soon.

Anyway, it sold at our first visit to the HBOS offices in Bristol. Wow, what beautiful offices they are too. We were selling in their vast atrium which is five stories high and has a glass roof, so the light was fantastic. And we sold LOADS! Absolutely brilliant. And really lovely people too. We're booked to go back about once a month for the rest of the year and really looking forward to it.

So that's about it for jewellery.

On the home front, the big news of the week is that Tom turned 17 yesterday. I know I'm biased but I couldn't wish for a better son. He is a kind, thoughtful, clever and gorgeous boy. And I'm terrifically proud of him and all his achievements. Can you tell?

Last weekend we went to a Sweet Sixteen party and the invitation said we should 'Dress to Impress' - so we all donned our poshest togs. Here's the rest of the family as we're about to set off:
And no, there's no picture of me. I'm the photographer in the family and rarely feature in the pictures. Needless to say, I looked absolutely gorgeous!! LOL!!!

So, that's got you call caught up on events at this end.

I hope you've all had a good week, whatever you've been up to. Have a terrific weekend and I'll be back next week with the next exciting installment.

Much love to all.
xx

Back in harness...

Today is our first event since the onslaught of the pre-Christmas selling. We are in at Clerical Medical offices selling in their canteen. We aren't expecting too much in the way of sales, but it will be good to get back into selling mode.

And it will be interesting to see our customers' (many of whom we're getting to know quite well after our visits there last year) reactions to our new ranges that we've been developing during January.

My squiggle pendants are evolving at quite a rate now.

Here's a triple squiggle pendant:

It's fun to make the individual squiggles and play with them until I get an overall shape that I'm happy with - a bit like doing a jigsaw.

For the next one, I thought I'd try to incorporate something else into the squiggles. I had got these hammered domes, so I bent the wire around them and soldered them in place.

I'm pleased with the way it's turned out. I've called it Islands in the Stream... which is an early nod to Comic Relief as Rob Brydon (Bryn) and Ruth Jones (Nessa) from TV’s Gavin & Stacey are duetting on the charity single. It's released on 9th March and Red Nose Day is on 13th.

I'm currently trying to work out a way to raise money through my blog for Comic Relief... watch this space.

Had a super couple of days... Sunday I went to Chepstow Bead Fair to give my mate, Julie Fountain of Lush Lampwork, a hand with her stall. And then on Monday (yes, through all that snow) the two of us went to Spring Fair at the NEC. I bought lots of lovely new Sterling Silver beads and loads of fabulous new beads... which you'll be seeing over the next few weeks. I'm itching to get to them.

But first, I must away and get packed up for today. Wish us luck!

Hope you're all coping with whatever snow you've had - we had quite a lot on Monday night which all disappeared yesterday, but we're forecast a load on Thursday/Friday. Martha has her fingers crossed as she felt hard done by not having a snowday yesterday.

Take care, all, and keep warm.

Much love
xx

Proverbs...

Further to my waffling about naming pieces in a previous post, this next set's name was a gift. The lampwork beads are by the ever-talented Julie Fountain of Lush Lampwork and she calls this style 'Rolling Stones'... and as they are a lovely shade of green... this set is called Gathering Moss.

The beads are threaded onto Sterling Silver wire which has been shaped and hammered to give it texture and strength. The pendant is quite big, so it's rather a statement piece. I can't wait to take it out to earn its keep and see the reaction from customers.

This set features one of my favourite stones, multi-rutilated Quartz. The big square piece is just gorgeous as you can see from the picture below.

I love all the little indentations which must be little holes inside the stone and therefore don't get polished with the smooth surface. The round beads are River Stones and compliment the quartz well, I think.

The next one is made with three different shapes of Amethysts and two different shapes of pearls.

The big irregular nuggets on the front are just lovely and lend an organic feel to the necklace. The second lot of Amethysts are irregular ovals and then at the back are some round ones. I love those big pearls, they're pearls with attitude!

This last picture shows a pendant - with a chain made with gold plated and antique copper rings in a Byzantine chain maille weave.
It gives a really fluid chain and compliments the pendant which is glass and gold plated beads on copper wire.

All these are on the website now, along with a huge batch of spectacle chains that I'd promised myself I'd get on there this week. Yes! Something to tick off the ever-growing list!!

Just got back from taking the cat to the vets. It was only her routine innoculations, but she really HATES going to the vets. As I've said before, she's not an affectionate cat. She rarely sits on anyone's lap and really, really doesn't like being picked up. Last year, the vet couldn't get near her and abandoned all hope of checking her teeth, ears, heart etc. This year was a bit better - I held onto her really tightly and she got a clean bill of health. Phew! That's done for another year...

Tom has now finished his first batch of AS exams and feels pretty confident about them. Now Martha has a week of exams. Hopefully these will help her with her decisions about which GCSEs to opt for. Because she has several that she doesn't have any choice about, she, in fact, can only choose two others, so that's quite difficult.

Is it time for a coffee? Thought so. Black, no sugar, please.

Take care and much love to all.
xx

Extremes

Whoa, three posts in a week! I'm spoiling you...

I have been at the extremes of my jewellery making spectrum this week. These first three items - although good little earners, don't exactly stretch me.

A memory wire bracelet, commissioned for a young man (8) to give as a birthday present to a young lady he has a soft spot for:


Then two spectacle chains. They continue to be the Google search that brings the majority of people to my website, so I really must get more on there. I practicaly sold out before Christmas!



Then two sets. The first one features lampwork beads by my chum, Suzy Hannabuss. I fell in love with the colours in the focal and even though I'm not usually too keen on 'bumpy' beads, I had to have this one and its accompanying spacers.


It is teamed with some fabulous Thai Hill Tribe beads, loads of Swarovski crystals and sterling silver tubes.

I have named it Tyuratam - the place where Sputnik was launched from in October 1957.

As an aside, I love the mini-adventures I have when naming my pieces. I usually have some sort of idea what I'm going to call something as I'm making it, but I then like to take it off at a slight tangent... which involves delving into the thesaurus, Brewers dictionary of phrase and fable and Google. I know all sorts of facts as a result that I don't suppose I will ever need in my day to day life... but I'm getting pretty good at quizzes!

The last one to show you, showcases the work of the supremely talented Isabelle Anderson. I adore Izzy's beads and have to really sit on my hands not to click and buy way more of her beads. I bought these back in November and already had an idea how I was going to use them, but then had to wait for the Christmas rush and the move to the new workspace to get to it. Then, I ran out of chain and had to wait for that to arrive... But, at last here is Tribal Arcs:

Tribal - because Izzy named the beads 'One Tribe' and the Arcs is pretty self-explanatory. I have hammered the curves of silver to give them texture and strength. I think when you have such wonderful beads to work with, they don't want to be fussed over, but shown in a way that gives the spotlight to the bead in an interesting way.

The same goes for the earrings, which I have simply teamed with a couple of sterling silver beads and dangled from my favourite large kidney earwires.

So, what are you up to this weekend? Now we've got the accounts out of the way, I'm hoping we can have some fun. Maybe the cinema - there seems to a loads of good films out at the moment. Brian mentioned doing a bit of gardening... but that's not exactly my idea of fun!

Hope whatever you're doing, you have fun.

Take care and much love to all. xx

Come up and see my etching...

Woohoo! It's finally warmed up - and I can be in the workshop without the extra heater on... at least for some of the day!

Had to come and show you what I've been up to. We did more etching in my class on Monday and these are the results.



This one is an 'inny' - the letters are lower than the rest of the surface.

I did this one by rubbing on some letter transfers, painting the whole thing with the resist (stuff that stops the other silver being etched) then carefully scratched away the letters.

I was a bit disappointed that this didn't come out very clean - the acid had eaten away at the resist and given it this rustic look. But it's growing on me!

I expect I should have put the resist on thicker and/or not left it in the acid so long.

And this one is an 'outy'. The design is higher than the rest of the metal.

I drew the design onto the silver with a resist pen - and so the acid ate away at everything else. I'm really pleased with this one and think you may see more of this kind of thing... very soon!

I'm gradually gettting all the bits together to be able to do this at home... My mum has dared me to post a picture of myself when I'm all togged up to do it... pink rubber gloves, mask and protective goggles... watch this space!

Much love xx

First items from the new workshop!

Do you think it's ever going to warm up? Ever again? I'm so fed up with being cold, aren't you? I've got the new heater in the workshop, and it's a bit warmer but it's still quite cold in here. Hey ho. Remind me of this when I'm moaning about being too hot in the summer, won't you!

Anyway, I've finally got round to making some jewellery! Just a pair of earrings, but it's a start. This is a design I've had in my sketch book for months, just waiting for time to get to it. I'm pleased with how they turned out and will probably make some more.

I have shaped and hammered the curves to give them texture - they really catch the light well. The beads are faceted Amethyst rondelles.

The next two photographs are of a project I did in my silversmithing class. We had to make beads. The first one is copper.

It started life as two squares which I textured with a tiny 0 punch and then domed. I then turned the corners and soldered them together.

The next one was as a result of me not wanting to do what I was told (nothing changes!). The idea was to make a round bead. So, you cut out two circles of silver, dome them and then solder them together. But, my urge was to kick against the norm and so I soldered my hemisphere's back to back to make a sort of egg cup shape.

I incorporated it into this necklace, with Tanzanite coloured Swarovski crystals nestling into the cups. The rest of the necklace is (ready made) sterling silver beads and smaller Tanzanite Swarovski Crystals.

We started on the etching project on Monday - it was very exciting - and I've bought some bits and bobs to have a go at doing some at home too. It's a bit scary as it uses strong chemicals, but I promise I'll be careful!

Hope you've got a lovely weekend planned. We're going to be doing accounts :-( Hey ho, it has to be done.

Whatever you are up to, have fun and keep warm!

Much love xx