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An Eventful Morning And Silver Bangles For Hallmarking


What was supposed to be a quick half hour trip out in the car yesterday morning to post an order and pop into Tesco turned into an hour and a half and ended with me walking home........


As I turned into the car park at Tesco the car made a very loud bang and there was the smell of burning rubber. After checking under the car and staring at the engine for a bit - I had no idea what I was looking for but it seemed like the right thing to do - I ended up at the garage via a nice roadside recovery van man being asked if I'd gone over a pothole. I hadn't when it happened but all the other potholes that I hadn't managed to avoid in the past had obviously done their worst and cracked the front coil springs. I must have hit a little bump or something and the springs both snapped causing the car body to drop onto the tyres at the front. Luckily the tyres weren't damaged. I was really impressed with the service I received and the speed that everything was fixed and I now know what coil springs do...... :)

Anyway...enough waffle about cars and that sort of stuff. I mentioned in my last post that I was in the middle of making some thicker gauge sterling silver bangles that would be sent off for hallmarking. I've been a bit reluctant to make heavier sterling items because of all sorts of things - the higher cost, the faff of having to get them hallmarked and how complicated the hallmarking pricing system was but as you can see from the photo I've now got over that! Some help from fellow jewellery maker Claire of Dragonfly Lane has made me see it's nothing to worry about and the London Assay Office has simplified the pricing for hallmarking which also helps.


I've made 18 bangles of various designs and even got my stamps out! They aren't completely finished yet as some of them will be oxidized once they've been hallmarked but it was really enjoyable just making new things without any limitations in weight or design. I'll be sending them off next week and then avidly waiting for them to get back to me so I can see what the hallmarks look like. That might sound silly to some people but I'm sure there's a lot of jewellery makers who understand my excitement at seeing those small but very important stamped marks on my jewellery for the first time.





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Comments

  1. Divya NFriday, May 01, 2015

    These look great Tracy, good luck with the hallmarking

    ReplyDelete
  2. Miss Val's CreationsFriday, May 01, 2015

    These bangles are gorgeous. I can totally understand how it is exciting that they will be hallmarked! Car troubles are not fun. My car died over the winter at the post office. Since I was new to the area I walked home waiting for my boyfriend to wake up and bring me back to it. We called for help and it turned out to just be a dead battery...but I had no clue!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Niky SayersFriday, May 01, 2015

    I still get excited every time I get my things back from the assay office, I check through and look at every one exclaiming, "NS, oh thats me!"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cinnamon JewellerySaturday, May 02, 2015

      Thanks for your comment Niky, I'll probably be the same when I get the bangles back!

      Delete
  4. Nana Louise NielsenFriday, May 01, 2015

    I totally understand that excitement. I was so excited to see my first ones come back. Mine was mostly rings and the marks are so tiny that you can barely make out what they are even with a jeweller's loupe :oD But they were there. Sheffield office laser marked a few rings for me last time and those are much easier to read - and look very cool. I found the pricing somewhat opaque too and of course ended up getting my cheque wrong, but they just sent me a bill for the rest later.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cinnamon JewellerySaturday, May 02, 2015

      Thanks for your comment Nana Louise. I might ask them to laser mark them as the stamp I have is the 0.75mm which will probably look tiny on the bangles.

      Delete
  5. UnknownMonday, May 11, 2015

    Thanks for the mention - the silver bangles look great! Cars are a pain in the bum, ours recently broke down at night, with all three children in the back, and it was throwing it down with rain! Thank goodness we were near Asda!

    ReplyDelete

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