Cinnamon Jewellery

This Tuesday night (14th May) is the last week of my silver jewellery course. I feel a bit sad to be honest as I've met some lovely people and had a lot of fun. I've also learned stuff! The main reason I went on the course was to learn how to bezel set and hopefully to become more confident with soldering and piercing. Well I certainly feel a lot better when I'm sawing and piercing now. I don't have a proper jeweller's workbench and have to make do with working on the diningroom table and in the kitchen so sawing metal was a bit of a challenge as the table is too low. I used to resort to sitting on a silly little plastic stool and feeling uncomfortable and a bit stressed about it all. Then I thought it might help if I used a G-clamp to attach my bench peg to the table instead of the metal clamp that came with it (that I'd managed to bend out of shape!) and use my computer chair to sit on as I can adjust the height. The result - a much better position and ...

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...

That's how I'd describe my mood concerning my blog recently. Not because I don't enjoy writing stuff - I do, it's just "other things" have been on my mind. I started a part-time home carer job recently after 18 months of working as a private carer doing a few hours a day so working for a company again feels a bit weird. There've been a few starting hiccups - not knowing when I would get my days off, cocking up my worksheet then expecting me to work 7 days a week without any notice (er, no!) and the inevitable Saturday night " can you help us out, someone's gone off sick " phone calls. After previously working for another care company for five years sometimes doing 15 hour days without a proper break I vowed when I left never to work nights again so the answer to those phone calls is a definite no! I work mornings and that's it :D I am enjoying the work though and the people I go to are lovely. On the jewellery front (much better ...

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