Cinnamon Jewellery

Ok, so it is slightly late as it's already February but...... after the mad Christmas rush I closed my shops for a few weeks for a break and to give me time to make some new stock. I spend most of my time making bangles as the majority of my bangle designs are made to order so when I have the chance I make earrings, as many earrings as I can! I do have a fairly quick turn around with my made to order bangles {3 - 4 days} as I work better under pressure when it's busy but it was lovely to have the time to just play without having to think about getting anything else finished to post for a certain day. I managed to get a few pairs of earrings in silver, copper, bronze and enamel made. I get bored pretty quickly and sticking to just one metal or design type doesn't work for me which is why I produce stuff that is quite varied. The green speckle enamel earrings are copper sheet I cut into these cool Moroccan/Moorish style tile shapes which is my favourite shape at the...

My recent break a few weeks ago gave me the chance to make a few new pairs of earrings and a couple of new bangle designs. I didn't go for anything too tricky with the earrings - I really wanted to use up some of my etched and patterned silver and copper and some of the {way too} many cabs I have at the moment! I also made a couple of pairs of enamel earrings. The above pair are made from copper sheet etched with a nail varnish resist to create a drop pattern. I used some half-drilled pearls that I sanded on the bottom to make them level then set them in fine silver bezels. I also made some copper and carnelian earrings using some more etched copper. I made both pairs with a stud fitting just for a change too.  I also experimented with a wooden background as I fancied a change from the usual slate I use but I'm not sure about it and will probably go back to slate next time. I do like the weathered wood look for a background but finding ...

I was on holiday last week but just before I went away to the land of beautiful sandy beaches and castles - Northumberland in other words - I had another step-by-step torch enamel project in issue 81 of Making Jewellery! The magazine came out on May 28 and this time the theme for our projects was "tropical". I decided to go for a colourful combination of orange and seafoam opaque enamel colours and make a hoop style earring with turquoise jasper bead decoration on the earwires. As we have to provide three pieces I also made another pair of earrings with turquoise jasper dangles and a pendant with {you've guessed it!} turquoise jasper bead links. I've done a few projects for magazines now but I still get a little thrill every time I see one of my projects finished and published! Copyright © 2015 Cinnamon Jewellery. All rights reserved.

I do seem to have a bit of a poppy thing going on at the moment. My poppy bangle sets are proving to be quite popular - I had several made to order sets and singles to make  last week and I sold the silver poppy studs I made too!  So to carry on the theme because I like the shape I made a couple of pairs of simple enamel poppy earrings too. They are pretty easy to make once the enamelling is done. The balled sterling wire is threaded through the hole in the centre of the poppy then bent at a right angle before being bent up over itself to form a loop at the back that stops the  enamelled poppies from flopping forward when the earrings are worn. The wire is then curved into an ear hook and finished. I made the poppies in minty green and mauve and another concave disc pair in bitter green... I was thrilled to see my new order of decals arrive today. The designs look really sweet and a bit clearer than the last lot so I'm hoping to have another go w...

I posted recently about some enamel earrings I made recently and how I was going to make some more small enamelled stud earrings. My first attempt at them a while ago was a bit fraught as it involved using enamel solder and enamelling the back over the soldered on post. I hadn't done much soldering at that point so was a bit, well, scared really! It worked ok then and it worked ok a few days ago when I made the little group above. I thought I'd take a family portrait before they were separated! Pea green topped with lichen and robin's egg blue  I could make life easy for myself and just enamel the front like a lot of the enamelled studs you see on Etsy, I could but then I'd be waiting for the cracks to appear in the enamel which they have a habit of doing on thin gauges of metal without any counter enamel. I know this because I tried it :D They are "easy" to do really, just a bit fiddly with being pretty small at 7.5mm. The orang...

I've been concentrating on bezel setting and soldering a lot recently so have been working mainly with metals of the silver and copper hue. So a bit like when your body tells you you need chocolate (all the time in my case) I got out the enamels recently to feed my craving for colour. Enamels used to scare me when I first started using them and I was ultra careful about not contaminating them so as not to discover those little black specks and tiny pieces of wire wool that you never see until after you've fired something. I'm still careful but maybe a bit more relaxed these days. I recently had a problem with some transparent enamel I'd washed several months ago. I used it over opaque and it cracked. Not straight away because enamel likes to lull you into a false sense of security sometimes. No, one piece cracked a few hours after it was fired and the other a couple of days after. I reckoned it was because the washed enamel had been hanging around for a while and...

I posted recently about experimenting with fold forming and enamelling - creating a definite division in the surface of the metal then enamelling both sides a different colour as seen in these disc earrings below Well I've been playing around with the idea again and made two more pairs this time leaving one side of the fold bare copper. I used transparent enamels over opaque - you can achieve some lovely colours that way.  A bit fiddly but that's all part of the fun :D Raspberry transparent over ivory Turquoise transparent over lichen green with a sprinkle of seafoam