Cinnamon Jewellery

Image:  Leo Reynolds on Flickr Now that the madness associated with selling online at Christmas has gently drawn to a close... but not after two last minute make-them-and-get-them-in-the-post-today bangles I wanted to say a big Christmas t h a n k y o u ! to everyone of my customers this year. It's been a great year for selling and despite sometimes just wanting to stop making findings/earrings/bangles and the packaging I also make for them to go in, and just go and veg out in front of the TV, I really have enjoyed every minute of it! I also wanted to wish everyone who reads and comments on this blog and those who have emailed me to ask questions or just for a chat about making jewellery a very  M e r r y C h r i s t m a s and thank you for making it feel like it's worth it.  •• ♥ ••

photo courtesy of Andy Beal Photography www.govisithawaii.com After what has felt like weeks of making made to order bangles and findings, deleting items sold on one site from the other two sites they are also listed on, packing orders and printing postage labels, walking to the post box, and dealing with queries, the Christmas rush is now over..... or at least it will be when I get one last bangle made and in the post by the end of today. This has been my best Christmas selling-wise so far. My copper and silver bangles have been a big hit so I'm so glad I had a go at making a bangle in jewellery class last year when I didn't know what else to make! Now it's just the pre-Christmas induced twitchiness of "can you tell me when my order will arrive?" type of queries to deal with. I've had three so far and after reassuring the buyers that their item should turn up soon and asking them to be patient (nicely) two have turned up and the other (in Franc...

I mentioned a while ago that I'd been doing some cuttlebone casting at my jewellery night class and that I would post about it. Well this is the pendant I made from the cast silver. You wouldn't know it was cast from a cuttlefish bone really but I did learn several things by making it including what not to do when tube setting! I took some scrap silver in to college to use for the casting rather than pay for casting grains and made my mould in the cuttlebone. I went for a simple rectangle shape just to keep it simple rather than try to create a more intricate design that possibly wouldn't work. My first mistake was to use all the scrap silver I'd taken in - all 35g of it! It took forever to melt in the crucible and at one point there were two of us with two torches going at it. I actually gave up at one point then realized that the silver was stuck in the crucible so I'd have to carry on and get it flowing. Eventually (after about 20 mins) the silver scrap sta...

Last time I blogged about the Durston rolling mill I'd just bought. I love it. I haven't had a chance to really have a play with it yet thanks to being busy with orders (which is a good thing!) But I hope to have a good old go on it soon. I received some textured cards today from Rolling Mill Resource , a wonderful shop on Etsy. The cards are specially textured for use with a rolling mill or metal clay and are available in lots of cool designs and sizes. Here's one of the designs I choose..... I was really pleased to see that the shop owner Tracey Perseverance Johnson had included a couple of extra patterns too which was very kind of her. So I'm slowly collecting textures to try with the rolling mill. I have some brass texture plates and some very fine netting (it's probably got a proper name but I'm no seamstress so haven't got a clue!) I also have a couple of embossing folders that you use to add raised texture and patterns to paper and c...