Cinnamon Jewellery

I'm really enjoying creating jewellery for me for a change! Despite making jewellery to sell I very rarely set something aside just for myself. Why? I have no idea other than the uncontrollable urge I have to keep making new pieces to add to my shops. In fact I feel a tiny bit guilty spending time making jewellery for myself which is utter madness I know. So to make up for this I've been making pieces at my jewellery course at night school that really are just for me and it makes me feel very extravagant {although I think that's more to do with the cost of silver to be honest!} As I make mostly earrings to sell and not really being a pendant type of person (I should be I know) the last two projects I did at college were rings. The latest is an etched silver and carnelian combination which morphed into being like a lot of my stuff does. It was originally going to lie lengthways along my finger than I realized it looked better going across. The shape changed seve...

Here's the finished silver pendant I made as the second project for the silver jewellery evening class course I'm on. The "brief" for want of a better word, was amulets and charms. I didn't really know what an amulet was - I thought it was something you put things in - it's something you wear like a talisman to protect you from danger and bad luck so like a good luck charm really! I loved the finger shape of an amulet I saw on a Jewish jewellery website so decided to go with that to start with. I also wanted to add texture with skeleton leaves and pierce out a shape as I haven't done any piercing before. I managed to break 3 saw blades piercing out the heart! I melted some sterling silver to form balls then hammered and stamped them and soldered them above the heart. Then it was a case of filing and sanding, using the triangle file to add the cut in bits at the bottom and making and soldering a jump ring for hanging. I finished off by oxidizi...

Next Tuesday night (25th Sept) I will be starting a 25 week silver jewellery class! I found out about it last year a couple of months too late but this year miraculously remembered about it in time and enrolled a few weeks ago. It was quite expensive but covers all those lovely techniques I either can't teach myself/am too scared to try myself or just really need an expert to show how to do it properly. I know it definitely covers etching (yay!), soldering, stone setting, enamelling and ring making. Some of it I will know how to do but a lot I won't so I'm really looking forward to getting started. Slightly nervous too but once I've got over the "which building is it/who are all these strange people/where's the toilet" stage I know I'll be fine :D  Finally got round to photographing a few pairs of earrings today - I was in one of those let's get organised and do the things that actually need doing and not spend all day experimenting with ...