Cinnamon Jewellery

I've got that mellow relaxed feeling at the moment, knowing I've got the next two days off work. But it does mean I'm working this weekend though........ My plans for tomorrow (Weds) are to make a start on a project for Bead magazine that needs to be in by December. I know what I'm doing it's just taking the step-by-step photos and the weather issue! It's meant to be a bright day tomorrow so it should be full steam ahead (camera battery on charge as I write!) I managed to get all of my new earrings photographed last week which is always a relief. Here's some of them....... These green enamel ovals have been hanging around for a while then I suddenly thought those pretty pink and green czech glass nuggets might go ok with them! Dogtooth Amethyst and sterling silver hoop earrings made as part of my last Bead project I twisted the copper wire for these using my Dremel I'm planning on making more of these in other colours..... I had fun...

After a few teething problems yesterday trying to access the newly relaunched  Folksy site - I had to install Firefox due to problems with IE8 closing the page, I managed, about an hour later, (wasn't impressed!) to get to see my new improved shop. I do like the new look but think it's appalling that there were so many bugs on relaunch day............ Anyway, it was nice to see a pair of my enamel earrings in the Featured Items section on the front page, which takes up the entire front page now! Here's the rest of the lovely items chosen for the page :

It was a lovely surprise earlier when I went to sign into my  Folksy shop  to see my red enamel poppy earrings as part of the current Featured items on the homepage! There's some really lovely stuff on there at the moment with a red theme. Definitely worth a look!

I've been busy recently making stock for two new stockists! I gave myself two weeks to make 22 pairs of earrings including earwires and oxidising and polishing them all and did it in just over a week working in the afternoons when I'd finished my part-time job. Am I the only one who likes to get things done and out of the way rather than have it hanging over me?! Here's some of the enamel stuff cooling on my soldering block. That is NOT our carpet!! It's the doormat by the back door where I took the photo cos it was nice and bright. Good forbid anyone should think that grubby, cat-hairy delight was gracing the entire floor :D All the earrings were dutifully packed up and sent on their way and can now be found in ArtFully Made , a lovely gift shop run by Tamsyn Simmonds at 14 South Street, Wellington, Somerset and at Good Girl Designs, a shop run by Nicola Hunt at Area One, 2 Old Dairy, Twitter Lane Waddington, Clitheroe in Lancashire. Catching Up I've...

A couple of months ago I received an email from Liv at the  Wildfowl and Wetland Centre at Arundel in West Sussex which is about an hour's drive from me, asking me if would be interested in a wholesale order for the gift shop at the centre. After setting up a meeting where I took some of my jewellery to show the manager, Liv and another member of staff and agreeing terms, I waited to hear if the Wetland Centre's head office would agree to them placing an order. They did and a few weeks later I received an order for 40 pieces! Fantastic, I thought, I can do that! I've just started a new job but hell, I can do that! It took about 2 weeks altogether as most of the pieces are oxidised plus making all the earwires and oxidising and cleaning those up too but I did it. I did take some stock from my Folksy shop  to save time and experimented with using a radial disc polisher on my Dremel to clean up some of the oxidised pieces (it worked and saved a lot of ...

It's a fairly bright day today so I thought I'd catch up on some photographing. I managed to get 5 pairs of earrings done and I've just finished editing them including these raspberry pink enamel hearts. I cut the hearts myself from copper sheet - I don't enjoy sawing metal if I'm honest but I am slowly getting better at it! After filing and sanding the hearts and punching the hanging hole I enamelled the back then enamelled the front with two layer of mauve opaque before adding some transparent raspberry ontop. I love the effect you get with transparents over opaques. Transparent enamels do need to be washed before using them over opaques to help get rid of some of the "bits" that sometimes contaminate the enamel and leave imperfections in the final result. I've become a bit obssessed when I use my washed transparents and always check them to see if there's any black bits, bits of hair or wire wool in them before using them as once they...

Charlie my cat that is with his strange rubber fetish............. He likes to rub against the rubber mallet I use to whack bits of metal with whenever he gets the chance. He also loves the smell of bleach. Funny boy  : )