Skip to main content

I've Got A Bit Of A Thing Going On


A disc "thing" that is. The last few pairs of earrings I've made all feature discs in copper or enamel, with or without beads and with a central "dot".

I'm always looking for ways to attach "things" to other "things" when I make jewellery - I think it makes things more interesting. You can do it with rivets, soldering (still learning!) or with wire.
I fancied trying it with wire which is probably the easiest of the three and came up with these designs...


copper and green impression jasper


enamel and copper


enamel and sterling silver

I'm planning on making more of these with enamelled flowers instead of discs because I think they're quite sweet :D

Fold Forming •

I felt like a bit of metal bashing the other day so decided on some very basic fold forming - annealing metal to soften it then creating a bend which you then flatten with a mallet or hammer, anneal again and open up to reveal a "fold" across the metal. I decided to enamel it too and came up with these colourful oval earrings...

The fold is quite tight as I hammered it pretty flat then stamped lines on it once it was opened out. Enamelling it was a bit fiddly but I love the definite division it creates. I think they look a bit like Easter eggs :D

Comments

  1. They looks great. I particularly like the two top ones. There's something about the bright copper colour with the blue and green that really pleases me. Envious :o)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm always pleased when I see a blog post from you appear on my dashboard. I love the work you create, always beautiful :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love these earrings! The disc ones remind me of those puzzle drawings you used to get in comics as a kid. The particular one I'm thinking of was of a mexican riding a bike? (as viewed from above).

    B x

    ReplyDelete
  4. love the sterling silver and enamel. so pretty x

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Your comments and questions are very welcome!
If you would prefer to contact me directly please use the contact form on my "get in touch" page.

Popular posts from this blog

Combining Soldering And Enamel

The need to make cute, brightly coloured enamel studs propelled me into the world of combining soldering with enamel a couple of years ago. I knew from reading up on it that it was possible to enamel and solder on the same piece but wasn't too confident I was able to do it back then. It was a slightly embarrassing occurance that made me just get on with - I'd made some enamel studs with glued on stud posts. I'd used 2 part epoxy resin which was a job in itself as it set hard after 5 minutes so I had to keep mixing more up. The finished studs looked ok but that little voice in my head kept asking "are you sure you want to use glue?" I wasn't but didn't think I had any other way to do it so I used glue. I sold my first pair and merrily sent them on their way to Canada. A couple of week later the buyer got in touch to say the stud post had come off one of the earrings and the other was hanging off. I was mortified, apologized profusely and refunded her m...

Torch Enamelling - What I've been Up To Recently!

I've admired enamelled jewellery for a while now and not too long ago did a blog post about Etsy seller tekaandzoe  and her wonderful kiln enamelled creations. I didn't think at the time that it was something I would ever be able to do as the cost of kilns plus lack of space would be a problem for me. That wasn't until I saw an advert for a torch enamelling tutorial from US jewellery supplies website Beaducation  by Steven James . It's a great tutorial showing the basics on how to torch enamel on copper. Of course I bought it! I then spent hours scouring the internet for more information on torch enamelling, where to buy the tools I'd need and of course the enamel powders. There are quite a few UK sites selling enamelling supplies and tools but as usual I found the US sites had more choice (why do we always lag behind?) I bought some enamel powders from a couple of UK sites to begin with - Cookson Gold have a good selection but bear in mind th...

Etching Silver Using Nail Art Stamps

So my love/hate relationship with etching sterling silver continues. I've tried a few times now and always end up with different results most of them not that great to be honest. I've tried connecting the silver and a piece of copper to a 9v battery and also heating the ferric nitrate. Sometimes the results are good sometimes not so good. I currently have an etched piece of silver sheet waiting to be reticulated and rid it of the mess that is the etched "pattern".  I now know that using stamps and Stayz On ink just doesn't work with silver - the time needed to etch using ferric nitrate is much longer than etching copper and the ink starts to wear away after about an hour. This results in the pattern being patchy as the resist is eaten away and the silver ends up quite lumpy and course looking. I have yet to try using pnp paper. I don't know why but it all seems a bit of a faff to do. I don't have a laser printer so would need to find somewhere or...