News

Today my grandmother is 95 - happy birthday Oma!!!! Thought I'd start with that rather impressive birthday news!

Yesterday I made a visit to the lovely New Ashgate gallery in Farnham to drop off a couple of pieces of jewellery for my display there. If you haven't already seen it, their website has been spruced up and looks rather spiffy these days: http://www.newashgate.org.uk/shop_artists/7702/c/101/machi-waard/jewellery
Of course I also have work at Jam in Eton, whose new website is also pretty spiffy and you should have a look at the wide range of lovely jewellery (and more) on show: www.jam-eton.co.uk 

The big news for me is that I've joined Studio E174. The studio is a proper jewellery and silversmithing studio in the sense that it's filled with tools and benches and the buzz of people making exciting things. It's in a lovely old industrial building with lots of other studios in it, ranging from PMC upstairs to model cars and railways and many other things besides. Studio E174 (named after the E number that silver is as a food addidtive) was founded by Lucian Taylor and Elizabeth Callinicos. Lucian is an accomplished silversmith (amongst many other things, Goldsmith Hall commissioned work from him!) and Elizabeth is a well-established jeweller and installation artist who shows work all over Europe.

I will be attempting to post items on the E174 Facebook page, which you can like here: https://www.facebook.com/studioe174

So far it's been a great environment for me to get lots of making done. I've been busy! I'm getting closer to being able to work on new designs, which is a great feeling. Here are some photos of activities in the studio:

This is the main bench in the center of the studio, here with Polly Collins (she was learning tig welding with Lucian, the result of an award she won for her silversmithing work). 

This is a small torch (oxygen and propane I think it was) - a type of torch I hadn't used before, so something new to try! The regular torch had been kidnapped to go to Art in Action with the silversmiths (I think it was the Contemporary British Silversmiths). Art in Action is on this weekend!

 I've been asked to make a ring and a bracelet with some roses - so I practiced making roses with sterling silver, here are some results: left is a close up after polishing, right on my hand before polishing.

And a photo of the benchpeg with a whole load of circles ready to be turned into earrings. 

How can it be May already!?

Somehow May snuck up on me. Not only that, but it seems that it's nearly the end of May. How time speeds up so much when I'm not looking is baffling. Last week I sent a top up of work to the New Ashgate Gallery. You can see the selection on their website here: http://www.newashgate.org.uk/shop_artists/7702/c/101/machi-waard/jewellery
And here are photos of some of the pieces which are now with the New Ashgate Gallery:

Custom bracelet and ring

A customer bought this set of earrings and necklace - what I call my 'all circle' set - circles set in circles, made sense to me! Anyway, she was very pleased with the set and wanted a matching ring and bracelet.

The bracelet was made along the same lines as my single gold ball open circle bracelet, so it looks like this:

But the ring was a trickier matter. The little silver balls are hollow, so cannot withstand the kind of pressure that rings take. Although it would be ok for a while, at some point one of the silver balls would dent. So I needed solid silver balls, so I handmade them. (You can buy solid cast balls, but they have a rough finish that is annoying to clean and have a pronounced flat bit from the sprue.) There are two issues to that - firstly the silver balls need to be as close in size as possible to each other and secondly, they need to be as round as possible. The size thing involved choosing a piece of silver wire - no using lots of bits of different sized silver, or it is too hard to calculate. Then I had to make a phone call to Dougall about if I start with a 3mm wide piece of round wire, how much of that do I need to end up with a 3mm diameter sphere? I heard some mumbling over the phone about pi and radius and some other things and then the answer was roughly just over 2.1mm. So I cut the pieces to be as close to that as possible with a tube-cutter tool.

I melted each piece in a block of charcoal - with a round dent cut into the charcoal to get the spheres as close to round as possible. Of course the weight of the metal means that they are actually a bit bottom-heavy, so not totally round, but as this was for a ring, only the top half is important. Also the top of the sphere turns out pretty clean, with only minimal tidying required, whereas the bottom is rather textured, but again, for a ring this would go on the bottom so it wouldn't matter. Anyway, long story short - success with only 0.1mm variation in size between the silver balls. Result, a strong, solid ring:

ring repair

Several years ago, I made a wedding ring which is 5 rings put together - 3 yellow gold with 2 white gold in between. If you have read this blog before, you may recognise this because the husband lost his ring and I remade it for him at the end of last year. Now his wife had an unfortunate incident a couple of weeks ago - a train door was slammed on her hand! Luckily the ring took the brunt of the force and thankfully her finger, although bruised, was not broken. However, the ring didn't get off lightly! Here are some photos of the damaged ring, with the joints of two of the yellow gold rings cracked from the force of being bent as well as the join between the various rings also taking a beating and cracking (especially one of the top yellow rings).

The ring as a whole had gotten an oval shape, but the thing with this ring is that the yellow rings are higher than the white ones. If you use a mallet on a mandrel in the usual way to reshape the ring, the force only applies to the yellow rings directly, thus risking more solder joins cracking between the rings. Luckily I have polymorph, so made a small tool with the indentation of the ring profile so I could use the mallet on that so the force would be more distributed over all the rings. These seemed to work, as I didn't create any more cracked joins! Using a combination of annealing, gently forcing the ring up the mandrel and the polymorph tool, I got it back into shape. As anyone who has tried will know, solder will not fill a gap. So with the most damaged join (of the middle yellow ring, see top photo), I also made a teensy piece of yellow gold sheet out of a bit of scrap gold and soldered it over the join, the only way to trick solder into filling up a gap. (Well, besides laser welding, but I don't have a laser welder!) So in the end the ring was coaxed back into shape with no cracks on the outside. There is one small crack on the inside still, but it's not structural so I guess it's a souvenir to remind one not to get a train door slammed on one's finger! Anyway, here's the repaired ring with the side that was most damaged front and center:

Fashion Party at Jam Eton and Ieva Poriete

Click on picture to zoom

"20 of the Best" exhibition

I am super excited to have organised and be taking part in Jam Eton's "20 of the Best" exhibition. This year is Jam Eton's 20th anniversary of exhibiting and supporting great fine craft. Mike and Jacqueline have worked very hard at always finding the best jewellery, ceramics, glasswork and more from across the UK and sometimes from further afield. It's a huge achievement to have been in business for so long - and still going strong!

For March, I have organised a special 20th anniversary jewellery exhibition which will be shown in the window at Jam. We asked 20 of our favourite jewellers to create a special piece of jewellery for us to exhibit for the month. These pieces have been arriving over the last couple of weeks and they are stunning - it is truly exciting to see what each jeweller has come up with! Since it is a very special exhibition, I also organised a photo shoot at Stone Photos studio with a model to show off the jewellery creations. We were kindly lent some amazing dresses by Eton's newest fashion designer, Ieva Poriete. I will put some of those photos here, but you will be able to see them on Jam's Facebook page throughout the month: www.facebook.com/JamEtonGallery as well as on their website: www.jam-eton.co.uk

Of course I was excited to come up with a special piece myself for the exhibition! My piece is a concave spiral sterling silver bangle with four 18ct gold balls placed inside the curve around the bangle. It is made from a single strip of sterling silver sheet and has a muted saturnised finish. Here are some photos of the piece itself and on our lovely model.

The ring with the bird is by Hannah Louise Lamb.

Updates!

I've just updated my Not on the High Street and Etsy shops. I've added a brooch, a pin and a necklace to NOTHS and you can see them here: http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/partners/machidewaardjewellery/products and includes this necklace:

And over on Etsy, I have added 7 pairs of small silver earrings and 1 pair of cufflinks. Those are the last pair of that style of cufflinks. The earrings haven't seen the light of day for a while - they are small so quite good for higher ear piercings as well as regular. Perfect for work! Also included is a pair of mini white pearl dangle earrings - the last pair. I've never come across these mini pearls again - although to be fair I didn't look that hard! I like their tiny-ness.

Tempus fugit

Firstly, and importantly, Mr Dion Stallwood (telephone number available if anyone needs it) did a brilliant job and fixed our washing machine. Secondly, and rather annoyingly, the following week our fridge broke. So I called another repair guy (Mr Stallwood doesn't work on fridges) and sadly the fridge is dead as a doornail. The new one is arriving tomorrow and I can confirm that two weeks without a fridge is rather annoying. There are many worse things in this world, nevertheless not having a fridge is more of inconvenience than I may have thought.

In terms of jewellery, things are afoot. A new brooch is coming together and will hopefully be finished soon so photos can be posted. I am excited to be working on Jam's 20th anniversary jewellery exhibition with 20  very special pieces from 20 different jewellers. Next Monday I've arranged a photo shoot with a professional photographer (Loren Stone) with dresses from an Eton fashion designer (Ieva Poriete) and a friend of mine who is stepping in to be our model. Hopefully some fabulous photos showing off amazing pieces of jewellery will come of that!

Today I'm working on a wedding ring - 18ct white gold court profile 4mm wide in case you were wondering. And hopefully working on my new brooch plus some components for some more mini pendants. And I leave you with a photo of the stand that Jane Tadrist and I shared at the Desire Fair in Winchester last October (It was all black and white, we even had a white orchid on the smaller table to match):

easing into the new year

Cruising the internet for interesting bits and bobs, I came across this article, which  nicely illustrates one of the many ways jewellery isn't just about the piece, but about what it symbolises. There aren't many objects* as imbued with sentimental value as jewellery:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/12/fashion/A-Third-Ring-Bearing-the-Most-Important-Truth-modern-love.html?src=rechp

*other objects that I can think of with high sentimental value are toys, photographs and things passed down through families. I'm sure there are more....

I didn't feel so hot today, so not much progress at the bench. It's all waiting for me, though. Up first is a nearly finished pair of hoop earrings - these, now available on Not on the High Street http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/machidewaardjewellery/product/large-circle-gold-ball-dangle-earrings). Then two nearly finished bangles that just need a bit of a clean and a polish. Then a ring which was knocked out of shape, so needs a knock back into shape and a polish. After that, a new set of mini pendants, as I am clean out of the non-oxidised version. Plenty to do!

Right now the washing machine repair guy is downstairs, hopefully fixing said machine after its sudden refusal to work on New Year's Eve. If it works again, I shall post his details here to recommend him. I won't do it yet, though, it's got to work first!!

Happy New Year

2014 - it has started! So, onwards march! Here's a photo of a ring which was a Christmas present, so can now be shown. It's 18ct yellow and white gold, with the white gold inset and scratch finished. It's also a square ring.

I've also made a special piece for the Jam Gallery's 20th anniversary exhibition in March - 20 pieces of jewellery by 20 jewellers. More about that closer to the date.....

More news soon, hopefully, as I get items made and more on Not on the High Street.

been a while...

Been a couple of months since I wrote a post, but it's been busy busy busy. Always the same in the time leading up to Christmas, things get hectic! I've been making loads, but some of those things are secret Christmas presents, so no revealing them here yet. I had a fun time with Jane Tadrist at the two crafts fairs that we did - one in Farnham and the other in Winchester.

This is one of Jane's pieces, a rose gold plated large star pendant:

My mom has also been busy with her portion of the Art is Davis gallery in Davis, California. Coming up for Christmas, she made a little penguin installation (mini penguins from Jam Eton Gallery!) and also made a mama penguin for the mini penguins, who guards over them from the corner! Amazing!

Today I'm working on making another of these bracelets and another pair of these earrings:

In other news, I'll be doing my part for the Windsor & Eton Living advent calendar on 19 December, next Thursday evening, at 6:15pm at Jam Eton Gallery at 81 High Street Eton. Come along and join in the fun if you can make it :-) Find out more here: http://www.windsorobserver.co.uk/livingadvent
Oh yes and Jam Eton has a shiny new website! You can see my page on it here: http://jam-eton.co.uk/makers/machi-de-waard.html

Desire jewellery and silversmithing fair at Winchester

Come see me and Jane Tadrist in November at Desire:

Festival of Crafts

Lace tie slide made from wedding dress lace

A couple months ago, I made a lace tie slide for a wedding. Having already made the engagement and wedding rings, this was a secret gift for the wedding day from the wife-to-be to her future husband. He doesn't wear cufflinks, so a tie slide was another option. The lace was an extra piece from her wedding dress, so it was very personal and truly one-of-a-kind. This was the process of making the tie slide:

Quote

I really like this quote and it took some finding, because I saw it years ago, but here it is: this is a really good way of saying that when you see the finished piece, there are years of hard work behind that one piece that works, that looks good, that is finished!

Festival of Crafts

Festival of Crafts!

Saturday 19 & Sunday 20 October 2013, 10am-5pm (Sun 4pm)

Farnham Maltings is delighted to host its 17th annual festival of crafts, a celebration of contemporary crafts, part of Farnham Craft Town Month, in one of south-east England’s creative hot spots.
Festival of Crafts brings together over 80 designer-makers and offers a great opportunity for visitors to buy bespoke craft pieces and gain inspiration from skilled professionals.
Contemporary crafts on show include ceramics, textiles, glass, metal, jewellery and wood. Items range from embroidered accessories, bespoke wallpaper and handmade furniture.

I will be there, along with my good friend and fellow jeweller, Jane Tadrist. If you'd like a complimentary entry ticket, please contact me!

I was delighted to see that my little stud earrings made it on to the flyer (you can click on the photo below for a larger view):

Also, while I was at the opening of the Autumn Craft Exhibition at the New Ashgate Gallery a few weeks ago, I saw some work which I thought was really beautiful, so I bought myself a piece - a tiny (4.5cm) ceramic vessel by Jill Haddock. It's lovely, with little layered circles on the edge. Here's a photo:

New Ashgate Gallery Autumn show

The New Ashgate Gallery Autumn exhibition opening reception is this evening from 6-8pm. I am participating with a set of oxidised versions of my gold ball collection. This will include several new pieces, such as these two pins - both about 70mm long with a stopper at the end. Elegant and minimal, they would make a chic addition to an outfit! The circles are about 11mm wide and the pins are silver.

These bold statement earrings haven't been shown for a while and this is the first oxidised pair I've made:

Another pair of earrings, available in this mid length or in a longer version, are new to my collection as well:

To see the full collection, visit the New Ashgate Gallery in Farnham.

New Ashgate
Waggon Yard
Farnham
Surrey
GU9 7PS
http://www.newashgate.org.uk

cleaning some neglected silver plated items

I have a pair of silver plated salt and pepper shakers which I really like for sentimental reasons and the amusing family stories attached to them. I have had them now for several years, having found their way to me via various family members. I really do like them, but sadly neglected them at the back of a cupboard. Hopefully by doing this post about cleaning them, I can pretend I didn't actually neglect them but was embarking on a carefully planned project to demonstrate how to get rid of bad tarnish on silver plated items.

Of course you can use a polishing cloth - although a bit slow with such bad tarnish. You can also use silver cream polish. However, if you don't have that handy and you have some silver plated items either sat in storage for ages or simply rediscovered at the back of a box somewhere, then toothpaste will do the job. Toothpaste is a mild abrasive, so will quickly and easily remove the worst of the tarnish with a bit of scrubbing with an old toothbrush.

So, to demonstrate:

1. Here is my as-part-of-this-project neglected salt and pepper shakers.

2. Put a dab of toothpaste on the object and have an old toothbrush (never again to be used on teeth, I say!) handy.

3. Scrub away on said object, adding toothpaste if necessary. You can already see after a couple of seconds it makes a difference:

4. Compare with other objects not yet clean. Feel smug.

5. Proceed in same manner with all remaining objects.

6. After drying, use a silver cloth to give the objects a vigorous final rub down. Take picture and sit back in awe. The whole process took about 10 minutes.

***disclaimer -- this is what I was told was useful to remove bad tarnish. Works for me, might not work for everything.

500th post!

Blogger informs me that this is my 500th post!

On Saturday I received the New Ashgate Gallery programme for their autumn shows and to my delight my gold vermeil mini pendant is featured (see below).  You can see the whole programme on the front page of the New Ashgate website. Today I am working to finish the last piece in the collection I am sending for this autumn craft collection. It's a new piece and hopefully I will have photos by the end of the week. The opening reception for the show is Friday August 30th from 6-8pm.

lace

My lace collection has been getting a lot of attention lately - perhaps it's the warm weather or the season of weddings soon approaching. September is peak wedding season, according to a wedding facts booklet I once got from Cookson Gold. In any case, I still have plenty of my small lace imprint stud earrings, available on Etsy.

The 13th wedding anniversary is the lace anniversary, which doesn't make it easy to find a gift for the husband or non-lace loving partner. But my lace cufflinks include a lace imprint without being girly or obvious. Also available on Etsy.

Also in the same collection, I have a narrow and a wide bangle which have a pleasingly soft finish. They are larger items, so have a certain tactile quality that is not so present with the smaller earrings. I don't have them available on Etsy at the moment - simply because sizing is much easier in person! If someone knows what inside diameter they need, then it's easy. If you like seeing jewellery in person, I will be at the Festival of Crafts this October at Farnham Maltings! More about that closer to the day, in the meantime some photos of the bangles (6mm wide and 11mm wide):