Cinnamon Jewellery

This is the pendant I made as a commission recently. It was a slightly different request from the custom work I've done before in that the buyer wanted me to use one of her own cabochons. She also wanted the pendant with a shiny silver finish. If you read this blog regularly you'll know that I don't normally do shiny. One reason is just that I prefer the oxidized look especially with patterned silver. The other reason is getting a smooth shiny finish on plain silver is difficult!   When the piece features a textured silver top layer and quite a few balls it's even more difficult to get a good polish on it. Getting into the crevices even with radial polishers was tricky as they caught the edge of the top textured layer and would have worn the pattern away if I hadn't stopped. But, after a lot of finishing work I did get a decent finish on it and I'm happy to say the buyer was very happy with it and it arrived in time for her birthday which was nice :D ...

I've been quite busy recently with the usual orders {bangles and findings} plus I had a custom request to make a pendant in silver using the buyers rather lovely chequer cut labradorite cabochon. I've just posted that off so will wait to hear from the buyer before I post a photo. I've got several things on the go at the moment, mainly some more copper shapes to finish so I can do a bit more enamelling with decal decoration. I also have ideas for some studs using the bronze and silver pebbles I made a few weeks ago. But in the meantime I have had a bit of time to make some embossed bronze and sterling silver studs. After deciding I don't have a lot of success using texture cards with sterling silver in the rolling mill - the results vary from a very faint pattern to ok-ish but not as deep as I'd like. However, using etched copper or brass to add pattern to silver with the rolling mill is much more successful.  I discovered I had some brass sheet that I...

Photo: Leo Reynolds on Flickr { Creative Commons } I thought I'd do an A to Z of me this time. I've seen several of these on other peoples' blogs - some funny, some very deep and meaningful....I thought I'd keep mine light ☺  A is for Andrew - the name my Mum was going to call me if I had been a boy. Spencer Tracy was a popular film star around the time I was born hence the name she chose when I turned out to be a girl. B is for Blondie. I loved Blondie when I was at school. I recently watched a documentary about the band on TV and they really were so good in their day and I love their early albums. I loved them right up until they did Rapture then The Tide Is High and that's when I stopped buying their albums. I still can't stand that song! They are still touring and have dates for this year in the UK. Photo: Kevin Dooley on Flickr { Creative Commons } C is for Chocolate! Oh how I love it {probably a little too ...