Cinnamon Jewellery

My continuing love for making bangles now includes bangles with added coils. It's one of the things I attempted with the very first bangle I made a few months ago.... I tried to solder the coils using paste solder on this one as I thought it would be easier but it just didn't work - the paste solder just burnt and formed a lump and refused to flow so I went back to using strip solder. That worked better but positioning the tiny pallions was a bit tricky "back then" and I ended up with a bangle a little bit out of round. Since then I've learned to pick solder which makes life so much easier! Pick soldering is basically melting the solder into a ball which will then stick to your soldering pick meaning you can position it in tricky spots more easily. Once your metal is up to the correct temperature you place the ball of solder on the join and it flows immediately (in theory!) It doesn't always flow immediately but it will stay in place and is a much q...

I am currently featured on  Rosie and the Boys , a blog by Rosie about creative crafts. Rosie is a papercut artist, professional florist and independant designer/maker who writes about her life and her creative interests. The blog is really interesting and varied and includes a section called "creative cities", where a different town/city and it's handmade community is featured for a week which is where my jewellery business came in. Rose decided to feature Eastbourne in East Sussex and found my shop on Etsy. She sent me some questions and you can read my answers in her latest post - Jewel of the South - An Interview With Cinnamon Jewellery . Eastbourne and it's crafting community is being featured all week so if you are interested check back to Rosie's blog every day this week!

Circles are a definite theme in my life. It started when I was old enough to grab a crayon and scribble on a neighbour's wall. My Mum said they always knew when it was me because the circles gave me away. I still love circles and sometimes have to tell myself to NOT make another pair of disc earrings! Hoops are also a favourite and something I come back to often. I finished three pairs of hoop earrings this week, one pair in silver and two in copper. I started with soldered hoops made with 2mm copper and silver wire and teamed them with some wire wrapping. I love coils of wire especially when it's oxidized and the contrast of dark and polished areas of metal really shows up.  I normally like to make at least one pair in copper as it's useful for working out how much wire I'm going to need and I always find copper is easier than silver. I don't really know why other than maybe as it's much cheaper I'm not afraid to make a mistake ( I think that ...

I recently finished two copper pendants that had been waiting on the sidelines for quite a time while I finished some other orders. I'd managed to cut them out and file and sand the edges then some findings orders arrived and they were return to the "to do" pile. But at last earlier this week I managed to finish them! I used a mendhi style stamp I got from Hobbycraft for a £1 with Stayz On ink to stamp the design onto the copper then etched for about an hour. I love these type of detailed designs. My ferric chloride was on it's last legs and took longer than usual - it would normally take about 40-45 mins to get the light etched look that I prefer. *Tip!* If you're planning to use stamps for etching I've found the fine line designs work and look better than the thicker line ones. I then sawed around the edge of the design, filed and sanded and made the bails. Strangely enough I have never made a bail like this before. I've made hidden bails and p sh...