Cinnamon Jewellery

I was asked by a customer recently if I made copper pendants and if so could I make a spiral pendant for her. My customer wanted the pendant to match the bangles she'd bought from me a few weeks previously. Of course I said yes! There is a distinct lack of pendants in my Etsy shop and on my website at the moment due mainly to lack of time. They are something I enjoy making but always seem to get pushed to the back of the queue when I decide to make new items - I'll always favour earrings if I have the choice. So it was quite nice to make a pendant for a change. My customer wanted a spiral design in copper using the same gauge wire as the bangles with some silver wire coils and twists and a thick black leather necklace to hang it from. I had a bit of a practice with copper wire to get the coils and twists spacing right then made the silver wire version, soldering the coils in place once I'd finished the wrapping. I added a sterling silver bail and oxidized ever...

I've had some time recently to catch up with all those little jobs that tend to be pushed aside when I get busy. One of them is reviewing what jewellery I have for sale and making new stock to fill any gaps. Well one of the gaps I noticed was copper studs - they are fairly low in price so tend to sell quite quickly and I hadn't had much chance to make any new pairs. So I made some more! Studs are a good way of using up small pieces of metal sheet and I have a lot of those, especially etched and embossed copper sheet. I went for a variety of shapes - square, triangle, flower and teardrops. I do love a heart stud and they do sell well but my plastic heart shape template is a bit weird. The point at the top of the heart shape always comes out slightly off centre when I use a felt tip or scribe to mark the heart shape on the metal. I press that part down to stop the pointy bit moving but it nearly always comes out a bit off and can mean a lot of filing to get the two hear...

I've been pretty busy recently with findings orders and copper bangle orders - some of them from my website which is slowly picking up buyers thank goodness (patience is a virtue!) So now they're done and I've got a bit of time I thought I'd better get some earrings made for my shops. I decided I like the spotty look you get with nail varnish and etching so I went for some spotty silver and copper studs first .......... Then I used some more etched copper I've had waiting in the wings until it found it's true vocation in life..... in other words a couple of pairs of simple, quick to make earrings! Then I felt all hoop inspired and made a few pairs of silver hoops with added lampwork and ceramic flower beads. I do love a hoop :D So now that I have a few new items to add to my shops and website over the next week I can relax and get on with the next thing that's running round my brain which is........

Going to jewellery classes has made me want to conquer my still slight anxiety about soldering. I don't know why I'm anxious about it - the worst that can happen is you melt something (done that), get solder where you don't want it (done that too) or the soldered parts come apart when you quench (yes, done that too). So I thought I'd do something easy and make a few pairs of stud earrings. I started simple with some flat discs in copper and silver that I textured using wire and my Bigshot then hammered in areas. I use the posts with the pads as I don't think my hand is steady enough to hold just a post in position while I solder it in place, in fact I know it isn't! I flow some solder onto the pad first then solder into place to make things easier. Then I made two pairs of concave disc studs with a fine silver ball soldered in the centre. I like this design and the fine silver forms a smoother rounder ball than sterling. I textured the discs...

 I posted recently about practising using my Bigshot to emboss metal and now I have some finished earrings to show! The copper "pansy" earrings above started life as copper discs that I used a Vintaj Deco Etch folder on to create the pretty flower and petal effect. The end result with the etch folders gives a more stamped look than etched to be honest but I do like it and have bought a couple more of the etch folders since. The petals were created using a file then the flowers were sanded and domed and the bead and earwires added. I could've used my saw to cut out the petal shapes but decided to sit in the sun and file industriously for 15 minutes instead! Purple lampwork earrings with the same flower design Serpentine beads with copper teardrop earrings Embossed Copper Disc earrings That flower design again this time in stud form!                  ...

I thought I'd try something different. I don't normally make stud earrings but browsing Cookson Gold a while ago I spotted their sterling silver stud earring fittings and suddenly thought " I could make some tiny cute enamel discs and attach the fittings and voila! Stud earrings!" So I did and here's the results....... A bit fiddly, the smallest size are 8mm, but fun to make and there's more colours on the way! Currently being listed in my Folksy  and Etsy  shops. 10mm turquoise 8mm lavender 10mm Raspberry 8mm mint group photo!