Cinnamon Jewellery

I haven't had much spare time recently so haven't had the chance to make much new stuff but I did get round to altering the etched bronze and malachite earrings I made a few weeks ago. I wrote in this  post about how they didn't hang well. The design means they are a bit bottom heavy and hang at an angle like this.... So I was at a quandry with what to do with them. Do I leave them or do I cut them down and change the way they hang? I couldn't do any more soldering as the stone was set so I decided {eventually} to cut them down and add an earwire to the pierced hole at the top. They now hang evenly but it was a shame to have to alter them although I have come to the conclusion that I'm not keen on the type of earwire I used originally for them. The type that is soldered to the back of the earring then formed into an earwire. The length of the wire and the size of the earrings meant the earwires could easily have been bent {accidently} out of shape....

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 went through a hoop phase a couple of weeks ago when I just had to make some hoop inspired jewellery. I quite often get these urges - sometimes it's for enamel, sometimes it's etching, it just depends. I'm currently in the grip of a hollow form phase but I'm having to wait for supplies before I can go any further which is a bit annoying but does serve to make me think about it a bit more before diving in! I wanted to continue my bezel setting practice so I added cabochons to the hoop earrings and pendants. I stamped a circle design onto the hoops and added a jump ring at the top then pierced out the part of the hoop in the centre of the jump ring to make a cute hanging hole. The glass cabochons are from a Turkish shop on Etsy and are lovely!  They remind me of jelly sweets. Tip! Put a piece of aluminium foil behind the glass cabs before setting them. The foil gives them a luminous glow in the light and avoids the backs of the bezels darkening an...