Stacking rings commission

A couple of months ago, I met someone at the Henley Arts Trail who had a big birthday coming up and wanted something special to mark that day. She had two stacking rings already - one with moonstone (her husband's birth stone) and one with garnet (her birth stone). She wanted to add to the stack with two more rings - one with another garnet (her son's birth stone) and one with green tourmaline (her other son's birth stone). So first thing was to stretch the existing rings - very carefully - as they were already a bit too tight and adding more rings means you need them to be a bit wider usually. The wider a ring, the larger the size you need. Then I made two ring bands to match the existing ones in size - 1.5mm thick horizontally and 1.4mm thick vertically. The garnet was slightly larger, at 5mm, so I bezel set that one on 1mm sheet with a hole cut out of the bottom. The green tourmaline was 4.5mm, so I tube set that one. And this is how they turned out (with the two new rings on top of the existing ones):

two new rings

all rings together

rings in presentation box

close-up

I've been busy, busy, busy getting ready for my End of Residency show. More details will follow, but for your calendar - the opening reception is 4-6pm on Saturday December 3rd at South Hill Park in Bracknell.
In the meantime, a close-up of a commission I did several months ago (aquamarine stone in 14ct gold with pearls necklace):

Finished ring

White gold with sapphires.

cufflinks

These are 2 of 5 pairs of different custom cufflinks I made last week. Each had a logo from a different company. They are to be presented at a congress today which a representative of each company is attending. I liked the idea behind it a lot - it is showing the links between the companies, between people and cufflinks link the cuffs :-)

copper sculpture

A good friend asked me to make a copper sculpture...I came up with this:

custom pendant

Photos of a custom pendant made to match my silver bud collection...

finished pendant

This is the pendant I was discussing in my last post, now finished:

the ides of march have passed

I've been making tube and it's a bit addictive. I keep wanting to see how much smaller I can get it. Here's a photo of two of my attempts - both made from sheet. (I had to colour over my nail in photoshop because being a jeweller is not a good thing for the state of my nails!!)

The tube on the left is copper and just over 2mm outside diameter. The one on the right is silver and 1.3mm outside diameter. I'm thinking this will be useful for making hinges, possibly for odd shaped hinges. Also a wee bit cheaper than buying tube ready made.
So yeah, that's been the excitement this week! I've also been working on a custom pendant for my soon-to-be-ex-boss (she's leaving to pursue her own art). It's a silver rectangle, with edges, so it's sort of a shallow open box. We're going to fill it with the internal components of her father's watch - all the teeny tiny cogs and springs and things. Then we're going to fill it with clear resin. It's the ultimate personal piece of jewellery - made by someone my boss knows, filled with material from her father's watch, and she'll pour the resin herself. Hopefully I'll get a good photo of it when it's done...
Also working on some wedding rings, birthday presents, and making more gold ball stud earrings and rings. Photos coming soon...

only 10 days til christmas!

Another commission done, sterling silver star earrings:

blue wave pendant

just a quick photo of a wee commission I did last month:

fun photo

I just like this photo. It's a super close up of some laser hallmarking on a clasp for a piece I did which is part silver and part 9ct gold. You can't see this detail with the naked eye!!

engagement ring...

and here's another commission. Sterling silver with ruby, sapphire and CZ. Middle stone in 'mock' tension setting - ie there's a tiny bridge behind it to make it sturdier. satin finish.

more commissioned work

Here are some photos of a piece commissioned for a birthday. I think I said in a previous post, the hard part with this one was finding the right stone (checkerboard cut aquamarine). I found one and it looks much better than the photo the supplier sent. It also actually looks a lot nicer in real life than on any photo I could take. The light dances over the surface, hard to capture on a photo!! In any case, here is the final ring. Bezel set in sterling silver with a satin finish.

wedding gifts...

These have now been given to the various wedding guests, so safe to put up some photos. These are brooches and cuff links with silk Chinese cloth. The surround is all handmade by me, sterling silver:

holy busy, batman

Still manic around here, which you can probably tell, since the number of blog posts has been dwindling! Just getting a job ready and hoping I'll manage to get to the post office before it shuts. Meeting some people tonight, one pair for a custom job and another to return a repair job. Also need to clean and make one earring (for someone who lost one of their pair) and laundry and ....etc. I finished another custom job that I'd love to post photos of, but it's a secret so better wait til after they've been given! Right, I better run off to the bench again but before I go, for another custom job (another secret but I highly doubt the recipient would see this post and even if they did they wouldn't recognise it was for them) we tracked down the right fabulous stone, which is this facet cut cabochon aquamarine:

Reading Beer festival and rain

It's been such good weather lately that I got lulled into a false sense of security. I had visions of lounging around outside with a big crowd of friends at the Reading Beer Festival. Picnics, sunglasses, blankets laid out on the grass... But alas, the weather has gone back to its usual dreary and there are great big dark grey clouds hanging over Reading. I am now back to regular mode and assuming it will start pouring it down the second I get down the beer fest. Ah well, at least they have two HUGE tents so I'll be safe and fine and still have a great time!!
I've been busy on the jewellery front - finished the wedding cuff links and brooches. I have loads of photos, but the bride & groom are keeping secrets and these are surprises for the recipients, so I'll hold off on posting those until after the wedding! I'm also progressing nicely (finally) on their wedding rings. Also finished some other items and even snuck in a tester of a new bit of washi that I got for Christmas. Here's a photo:
The black came out very nicely with the metallic bits of silver and gold staying shiny. I'll be showing this washi at the private craft fair I'm doing on May 20th (newsletter readers have already received their invites - let me know if you're interested!).
Classes are progressing fine as well, with a bunch of new techniques show and next week I'll be doing a demo on photo etching. So, once I get these wedding rings done I can start making some new items - whose designs have been sorting themselves out in my head for months already! Hope you all have a lovely weekend, rain or no rain!

new items

Some photos of commissioned washi paper pieces:

photos, finally

Here are, finally, some photos of a commission I just finished. A ring and a pendant, 18k white gold with a diamond on the pendant and diamonds and a sapphire on the ring.

End of term

It's the end of the first term of this year. Less than a month until the next term starts and I have big plans which I need to get sorted. Before that I *still* have to sort out the commissions. I'm making major progress though, so that's getting there. I'm still waiting for the stone setter and he's making me nervous so I really hope post arrives from him today.
Today I'm very happy to be featured on a fantastic new website called Creative Boom. There's a central Creative Boom website and then there are regional ones and I'm on the Reading Creative Boom. (The link is http://www.creativeboom.co.uk/reading/2010/03/25/focus-on-jewellery-maker-magpienest) It's a website that showcases art and creative happenings around the country and it has a fab design. Check it out!

ps. just got tipped off to this website...oooo if you like modern furniture: http://www.deconet.com/

here we go...

Tomorrow's the day - my driving test. I am trying to stay calm and focus on all the driving around I'll be able to do when I pass!!!
Plus I'm sending off two items that I've been working on for ages to the stone setter. Am very excited about these two and hope to high heaven that they turn out beautifully...photos to follow in some weeks after their return and hallmarking.
I got the go-ahead for a big commission that I will be slaving away on all of next week - lots of cuff links and brooches. And I'm even making progress on my copper bowl. The bowl is moving towards vertical on the top half...I'm working on getting the top to go in so I have a rounded bowl. Photos to follow for that as well.
The financial year's end is near so am also aware I need to sort out my folders of invoices, expenses, etc once again. It's hard to believe it's March already. I wouldn't mind spring to hurry up and get here already, my fingers are so cold again today!!
Here's to the weekend and hopefully good news after about 12.15 tomorrow!!!