Unfortunately I had terrible trouble with the clip-on findings.  She had some that she wanted to send me to use but the first pair got mangled in the post…must have gone through the letter roller, the second pair I managed to melt whilst attaching them (oops!) so the actual sprung clip bit became really loose and wouldn’t have stayed on an ear and the third pair having actually managed to solder them onto the earrings (using a lot of thermo-gel on the hinge / clip bit) then seemed to react with the acid in my pickling bath and deposited a worrying layer of dull grey fuzzy-ness (this is the only description I can think of) onto the whole earring.  I thought for a while that I’d ruined them….I may have had a small paddy through sheer frustration…but I dared to put them in the barrel polisher and they came out really well finished. Phew, big sigh of relief.  I’m not sure why they reacted in the pickle that way but I have a suspicion that they weren’t fine or sterling silver and may have been something plated or just a poorer silver – they didn’t have a silver stamp which my findings normally do have (ps – ‘findings’ is the word for little things like ear hooks, studs, chains, butterfly earring backs etc, just in case you were wondering). 

I’ve managed to squeeze in a couple of small crochet projects recently for various little people (mostly on my train commute to work – my fave crochet time) and am discovering the fun (and frustration) of Amigurumi.  Meet Derek the Dinosaur and Henry the Hippo, both are suffering from a slight case of droopy head syndrome, hey, it’s hard work keeping a massive head like that up all the time!  Henry made friends with his new owner Baby Billy this weekend, despite the face I think they’ll get along just fine once they get to know each other (he’s been well initiated into the world of hand knits and crochet by his crafty mum!). 

Well, better get making.  I feel some floral designs coming on…

Happy mothers day to all those lovely mums out there.  I know quite a number of new mums and it’s no mean feat becoming a mum for the first time so well done to you all, hope you are being spoilt rotten by the family.  Unfortunately my mum is poorly today with a horrid cold so I’m going to take her a yummy Chinese take-away as a treat for tea tonight.   Anyway, I wanted to share some of my mums amazing talent with you.  She is very crafty too but her specialities are knitting and anything fabric related.  She has been doing a re-upholstery night class for the last few years and recently re-upholstered an old chair for us that belonged to my Grandpa and Grandma many years ago (her parents).  I think the frame is a sort of 1950s style and we wanted something that would match our colourful curtains.  The finished chair is just amazing, we love it and it’ll be a welcome addition when I have the girls over for craft club…one of us always ends up sitting on the floor!

Fuschia earrings

I also had a fun time fiddling about and making a prototype of something that has been in my head for months…I was really pleased with how it’s turned out so far.  The design is loosely based on a Fuschia flower.  As a kid (much to my Dad’s dismay!) I used to love popping the flower pods on the bush that was at the end of our drive!  I love the colours of Fuschias too – vibrant pink and purple, none of that namby pamby pastel nonsense.  I’m thinking about developing it into a pendant on a long chain as well as dangly earrings.  Watch this space…..

Anyway, my recent orders have now all been sent across the country…one made a second trip over to France and I’m so pleased with my new boxes and ribbon that I bought to package things up.  My sister-in-law’s wise words ”it’s all about the packaging” are so true.  Nothing nicer than getting something through the post which is all wrapped and special and present-like – especially if you’ve bought it for yourself as a little treat. Naughty but nice.

A huge thank you to everyone who sent such kind and supportive messages, tweets, facebooky things etc and for forwarding my newsletter onto other friends. I’ve already had quite a few enquiries as the word has spead so that is really brilliant.  I think I might have to schedule a ‘jewellery only’ evening or two every week…(maybe I can give up jogging as I simply won’t have time to go…Oh what a tradgedy that would be!). Not quite time to give up the day job yet though….!

Speaking of Valentines day…I’ll be adding some new little heart earrings to the shop super soon, a very wearable, simple and affordable design so keep your eyes peeled for those in case you need to drop some hints….or treat yourself. Go on, you know you deserve it.

PS – Since penning my post above I’ve made another sale.  Double exciting! A little humming bird will be fluttering it’s wings down to London later this week.

Hopefully this is a good place to start and maybe the word will spread but I have to let you into a secret. ..I’m a little bit nervous about putting myself ‘out there’. Making jewellery has been in my life for quite a long time now…gosh, maybe nearly a decade? But I’ve never really tried to make it anything more than an enjoyable hobby with the odd few sales at craft fairs or jewellery parties or through commissions.  I’ve never had the time or the confidence to push it further really but after much encouragement and some very kind words and actions of support I thought it was high time to dip my toe into the world of online selling and see how I got on.  There are so many amazing opportunities to sell (and buy) handmade work online that I thought maybe, just maybe someone somewhere might like to buy mine. We shall see!

I have become an earlobe stalker! but don’t worry, I haven’t been accosting random strangers with my camera, just willing family and friends. I’m going to try to keep adding images of pieces being worn to give a better idea of size and shape so look out for these on the blog.

Now, strictly this might be a silver jewellery blog but I have to confess to you that I have developed a bit of a guilty pleasure since doing a short night class last January. Crochet. I love it. I can’t get enough of it and the entire house is now full of wool. There is a ball in nearly every room (perhaps apart from the bathroom….I think). It drives the Other Half a little bit mad and he bought me a really lovely little wooden storage bench for Christmas in the hope that I might actually put some wool away occaisionally. Anyway, I just had to sneak in a little post about it and some photos of a few recent creations. My crocheted snowflakes and holly leaf brooch are from patterns on the brilliant blog Attic24. I only learnt how to do the holly leaves on December 22nd so if you didn’t get one this year I plan to start my Christmas presents very early in 2012! You can expect some other random crafts to appear from time to time…..I wouldn’t want anyone to get bored of silver….

After that, there is a lot of filing and polishing with various grades of polishing paper (a bit like sandpaper), next the piece might need shaping or for bits to be soldered together (such as earring backs). In order to shape the metal it needs to be made softer by heating it, this is called ‘annealing’ and is done with a blow torch as many times as you need so achieve the shape you want. After annealing, and sometimes throughout the making process, pieces are put into a very mild acid solution which cleans them ready for finishing. Finishing off a piece might involve more papering and then a final polish – for some pieces this is on the ‘scary polishing wheel’ which resides in the ‘dirty’ side of the basement. The ‘scary polishing wheel’ is scary indeed but it puts an amazing high shine finish on the larger pieces – although it usually takes off my fingertips in the process and the metal gets super hot whilst using it! The Other Half laughs a lot when I emerge from this activity as I often have hands and a face which look like I’ve been down the pits (with a clean goggle shape where I’ve had my eye protection!). For polishing smaller pieces I will use a barrel polisher which also gives a good finish.

So, there you have it, Jewellery making in a paragraph!

…and maybe you’ll be wearing a new piece of silver jewellery?

I’ve sold at quite a few fairs this Autumn and especially had fun with the usual crafty crew at the Made-It fairs run by the lovely Kirsten and Deborah made it and also at a very fun ‘Mums Mulled Wine Mooch’ in support of a local pre-school. The combination of wine, cake, no husbands and no children was definitely good for my sales. I don’t think I’ve ever sold a piece of jewellery at 11.15pm before!

I’ve had a few nice silver jewellery commissions and presents to make too, ranging from a really simple star necklace for my niece to a more complicated pair of bike cufflinks and there have been a few new festive Silver Ink Tree designs to add to the collection including tiny snowflake earrings and a stags head pendant so look out for these on the website.

I really hope you enjoy looking at the website, it’s been a long time coming and I must thank my patient Other Half for making it look so fab. The website is dedicated to my lovely Dad.