Chain reaction

I thought today I would share another of my jewellery projects I finished at the end of last year which I have yet had a chance to share on my blog. Our brief was to make a bracelet with wide textured links. I looked at our tutor's finished piece and decided that the bracelet was rather too chunky but that it could be adapted to be made into a necklace as a Christmas present for my darling daughter.

The first thing I did was to cut out the links in paper to find the size links which suited. I then made a plan of the sizes and bought a piece of sheet silver. To texture my sheet of silver I played with several fabrics and copper samples and eventually found that this lace made a pretty texture.

I placed it on my sheet silver and put it through the rolling mill.

 I then marked up the sheet and using a saw cut out all the strips I needed.

Next it was time to bend the strips into links first using pliers and then use a mandrel for shaping.
I then bound each link with steel binding wire and soldered them shut.

Here is a link soldered and yes it was very fiddly!

It was then time to put the links together but as these are in a chain, alternate links had to be sawn open again and re soldered again afterwards.

 You can see how I had to then re solder the middle link of each group.

It was then time to file, finish and polish the links and attach a length of shop bought silver chain. My chunky links were the "feature " of my necklace.  All this work took me over 6 lessons to complete and I was delighted that on the last class before Christmas I able to put it into the polisher.

My daughter unwrapped her present on Christmas day and was thrilled with it.  Here is the finished chain.

She wears it lots and it was certainly made with lots of love.

My card challenge today has nothing to do with chains but I really liked the simplicity of my silver chain against the white card so I created a wedding card for my Etsy shop using this as my inspiration.
I made a shabby chic white on white card with a silver edged ribbon and a black heat embossed LOTV sentiment stamp.. I embossed the backing paper. The floral die cuts are Cheery Lynn and Joanna Sheen. It is so hard to photograph white on white, they always look a bit grey but IRL this is a gorgeous crisp white.

I also added one little silver heart brad to the flower.

This is for sale here in my Etsy shop which I am trying to re stock with some summery cards. More will be listed over the coming weeks.

I would like to enter my card into the following great challenges;

Cheery Lynn anything goes
Penny Black and More blossoms and bows
Fashionable stamping favourite go to stamp I have many favourite stamps this my fave wedding sentiment stamp
Country view crafts anything goes
Crafty ribbons anything goes with ribbon
Crafty Catz no designer papers
Whimsy stamps use a diecut
 Papertake Weekly a cut above
Top Tip Tuesdays buttons or bows
Frilly and Funkie put a ribbon on it


I have a wonderful day to look forward to tomorrow, my parents' Diamond Wedding Anniversary. We are visiting a National Trust property and having lunch. Their official celebrations are not until Sunday when the rest of the family are able to join us. I have made a very special card which I will share after the big day.....

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x