Amethyst water cast pendant

Hello, the sunshine made a welcome return yesterday afternoon after quite a dull few days. I took these photos in the early evening last week, I really like the shadows cast at that time of the day.

My fuschia and pots are still hanging on to their colour.

My silversmithing class is on summer break for another month but I thought today I would share the pendant I finished on the last day of term in July.
You may remember that last year we played with watercasting and I cast some interesting organic shapes. If you missed that post you can see it here
I had some other piece left and decided to use it as the base for an amethyst I wanted to set.
These photos are taken on my work bench with my phone so not the best but I know people are interested to see the process.
Below is the piece of water cast silver.

This is the setting I made for my stone.

I soldered both pieces together

 I then carefully cut off the excess and filed the edges smooth.
Then I set the stone, this view is taken from above with my setting held in a vice on some setting wax, which had been melted first. It's very much like the wax used for seals and has that distinctive smell too. It holds the setting in place without marking it and I was then able to gentle tap the edges of my mount over. You then gentle tap the setting out from the wax.

I also soldered a hanging loop on the back.
Here is my finished pendant.

Silver is so hard to photograph but I think you can get an idea. You can even see my hands and the lens in the stone's reflection!

 So my card to day is also purple in colour

It's a very CAS wedding card made for Dotty's Teahouse. The die cut is Sizzix, the stencilled hearts are a Tim Holtz stencil. The maker of the sentiment escapes me ,sorry!

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

Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes
AAA cards use a stencil
Happy Little stampers CAS die cuts
Creative Moments 2/3 anything goes
Lil patch of crafting friend's 3/3 anything goes

Thanks for stopping by, the sun is back here again this morning and I have a plan to start some Christmas cards..yes only 117 days to go..ho ho ho!!

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Water casting fun

I have been a little AWOL this week as I had a rather special girlie staying. Daisy and I had some magical days and as the weather was horrible we crafted non stop. Today though I am going to share another of my silversmithing projects from last year which got forgotten about with all the excitement of Christmas. 

A couple of weeks ago I showed you my up-cycled Murano pendant. If you missed that project you can see it here

With every project I make there are always little bits of silver left over. As I have been attending classes for over 16 years in all that time those little pieces of silver have turned into a whole bag full of "waste" and our tutor decided that our valuable silver could be turned into something usable using a technique called water casting. 

Boy was that fun...but without proper safety measures could be really dangerous.

We put some of our off cut silver waste into the furnace and melted it. We then carefully took it out using long tongs protected by aprons, gloves and gauntlets. This photo was our tutor showing us how to hold the container.it was cold at this point..when we actually did the technique we were well gloved up. 

 Once the silver came to temperature and was liquid we tossed it into a water bath.

 

 Out came these very cool, rather organic shaped pieces of silver. These pieces below came from 3 separate water casts. I could see leaves, branches...

and a "rose". Can you see it too?

I cut off the spare silver under the "flower."

 I then designed myself a pendant....as I could also see leaves and a stalk in my water-cast pieces.
  I soldered my "leaf" under the bud....looking more floral at this point.

 Then saw a "stalk" which I filed down and soldered this on too. 

I then filed everything and soldered a hanging loop to the back.

After a final polish my "rose" pendant was finished.

Here it is.

My card today is one I recently made having enjoyed a day being able to play with my Lavinina fairies. This one is for my sister in law 's birthday.  I made an oxide background using black soot and antique linen. The sentiment is a Tim Holtz die cut.

I would like to enter her into the following challenges;

C.R.A.F.T 1/2  distress your project/vintage
The house that stamps built 1/3 anything goes
Creative Moments 1/3 anything goes

Let's Craft and Create 3/3 anything goes

Noor UK anything goes
Shopping our stash 1/3 birthdays

How quickly the week is flying by. It is nearly the weekend again. Thanks so much for stopping by today and for the kind comments you take the time to leave. The sun seems to have returned today thank goodness and today was quite mild and sunny. Let's hope it hangs in there for a good weekend.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

A new life for a Murano bead

 My silversmithing class re started after the Christmas break and I realised that I have not shared any of my recent makes.  So I thought that today I will share a pendant I made last year.

Like most crafters I tend to hoard  keep things just in case they will come in useful. I had a lovely Murano pendant I bought years ago in Italy and the bail had come off. I had every intention to fix it but it remained in a drawer for years. I decided that this glass star would be perfect for my project which was to fuse glass with silver metal clay. I designed a heart and using silver metal clay and I cut it out and added some texture. I also made 3 small heart to use as "claws" to hold in the star in place once fired. I also cut a star shape out (covered up by the bead) so that the light can shine through.

Unfired it doesn't look like much...this was a photo of it drying. We use playing cards when cutting out the clay so they are useful to dry the pieces on too. If the clay is wet when fired it explodes! Not a good idea really 😂

These were the texture plates I used.

Once fired and polished things look very different. This shows how the little hearts hold the glass in place.

This is the reverse where I cut out a star to let the light shine through. The texture worked out really well and the back is as pretty as the front.

I held it up to the window to show how the bead shines (these photos were taken last year)

and yes someone photobombed 😺

 One more photo

I have been busy making new cards for Dotty's Tea Rooms in Carshalton, where I sell my cards. Tea themed cards always sell really well so today's card is one I sold there recently.

I used a new teapot stamp and die set which I bought in a sale and had yet to be inked. I made an inky background using distress inks and added some stenciling and stamping.  The sentiment is Visible Image and you can see their old Bronte script too (sadly long discontinued but still my fave for adding some inky words to backgrounds). The dies are a mix of Memory Box, Marianne, Sizzix and The Works.

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

Allsorts 1/3 No patterned paper
Sweet stampin 1/3 Lots of layers
Fussy and fancy 1/3 distress it
Crafty Catz 1/3 anything goes
Happy little stampers anything goes with dies

Thanks so much for stopping by. Enjoy a lovely weekend, we have a nice quiet one ahead....I can craft to my heart's content.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane (and Billy 😼) xx

Schools out

Yesterday I finished my jewellery/silversmithing class for this year so yes School's Out for summer! Does anyone else remember Alice Cooper's 1972 single...I still love listening to it and it takes me right back to my childhood with my brother and I blasting it out in my dad's car on my yellow plastic radio 😂😂😂  I had just left primary school and was looking forward to my secondary education. Those were fun time and great memories.

There is always an end of year exhibition at my college and I took a couple of photos I thought I would share.  It is set up in Sutton library until 16th June.

 Below is a list of all the departments who take part in the show.

 It's always fun to see your name in print..here I am at Number 15 (I'm still in Top of the Pops mode with Alice Cooper now!!) In case you are wondering the NFS stands for it's Not for Sale... we could sell our work but I either wear mine or make it for family so there is never anything spare.

The blue cabinet below contains my exhibit..

I made the ball part form fold forming and etching and I hand made the complex chain...it is a multiple loop .never again...LOL! It's hard to photograph through the glass but you can see it here. 

I thought I would also share a very recent make using a stone I have had in my stash for a while. I etched the background and used none other that peel offs (remember them!) to give the resist. How amazing it is that my crafts cross over so much. I did not make the chain for this one.

I made the claws by cutting them into the backing and pushing them through. That was very fiddly indeed. I also hand made the bail to hang the chain from. It's a gorgeous agate stone and I had been waiting to set it for a couple of years.

So a card to share today.....as it is nearly time for everyone's summer holidays I thought I would share something very summery. I wanted to enter a few challenges too. I created this for selling at Dotty's and it features a Lili of the Valley pair of mermaids.  I really love this stamp.  I don't often hand colour images now as it does not pay me with the time involved, but every so often I get the urge to break out my Promarkers. I made myself a seaside backing using my new acrylic inks (great fun) and some white acrylic paint. I used them on top of a rejected oxide background and I liked the way a tiny edge of colour remained!

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

Penny Black and More 2/3 anything goes

Passion for Promarkers add a sentiment

Rubber dance 1/3 blue, sea green and sand

Noor summer

Fashionable Stamping 1/3 feminine

Allsorts 1/3 use at least 2 dies I have used 9!

Pixie's snippets playground #285/6 I used snippets of card for all my die cuts.

Simon says stamp Monday 1/5 touchy feely my card has lots of texture..the seaweed die cuts, the glossy accents over the bubble and the glittery hair shells!
Deep Ocean die cuts, chipboards and/or punches

and just in case you want to listen to Alice... whom I still love...because deep down I am still a hardened rock chick ....I have a link to You Tube....enjoy 😎

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBEcLxnXVAc

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

When 2 crafts collide

My silversmithing class returned after the Christmas break and I realised I have not show you what I made during the autumn term. The brief set by our tutor was to make something with a hinge. I have made hinged boxes in the past so she suggested that I made a hinged "card" pendant, as she knows my papercraft addiction.

That set me off with lots of ideas. I had a copper metal clay heart which I made some time ago and thought I could use it as a "focal" just as I do on my cards. I wanted to have some writing on my "card".The only way I could do this without engraving, which we don't have the tools for, was to use alphabet punches. I designed the front of the card to show "love" and the inside would reveal the rest of the words.....

 I cut 2 matching pieces of silver sheet and filed the edges. I wrote the words on paper and stuck them to the silver sheet. Using the punches and a hammer I struck the words...it took a lot of patience to get the letters spaced and in a line.

 I also soldered the heart to the front of my "card"

 The hinge was made with thin silver tubing,  measured into thirds and partially sawn through. The middle third blanked out with rouge so that it did not solder and remained "free".

 Once in place I carefully sawed out that middle section

and this piece was them soldered to the front. This was a complex procedure.
It all got so fiddly and there are no more photo but a piece of silver wire was threaded through and then riveted off to make the hinge. Then I had lots of filing and adjustments to made the "card" close.
I added a loop and a jump ring to make it into a pendant. Then there was a week or 2 or filing and polishing.

So do you want to how it turned out.......here we go....if you  think photographing cards is tricky sterling silver is just ridiculous!

Hinge side view

The front

Opening the hinge to reveal the inside words 

Another front view

and to give an idea of scale here is my card pendant on an 18" chain.

It's much prettier and shiny in the flesh and I really love wearing it...it combines my silversmithing with my card making, infact I am wearing it as I type this.

So having combined silversmithing with card making my busy creative brain thought...why not combine card making with silversmithing! I seriously had been playing with foil techniques before Tim brought out his January tag challenge. I made a faux riveted card using snippets of foil and lots of tools including staples.

I added some black acrylic paint and then gave it a good rub with sandpaper to give a real grungy rusted feel.

 I added a lovely red embossed heart

 and a Dymo sentiment for a retro look. I put this card in my Etsy shop and it sold in 2 days! I plan to made another version soon.

*******EDIT: 12.1.16....A new version is available via the link here***********

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

WOW embossing challenge anything goes my heart is heat embossed with red embossing powder,
Anything but cute Ring out the old...bring in the new this is a new style male card for me and my first outing of Wendy Vecchi's gorgeous red geranium embossing powder
Crafty calendar something new   this is a new style male card for me and my first outing of Wendy Vecchi's gorgeous embossing powder
Rubber Dance Black white and one other colour....mine is black white and red.
Simon says stamp Wednesday something new this is a new style male card for me and my first outing of Wendy Vecchi's gorgeous embossing powder.
Love to create anything creative/mixed media #27
Crafty friends something new this is a new concept piece for me combining silversmithing with card making.
Simon says stamp Monday something new this the first time I have combined card making with my silversmithing
Art with heart  Favourite things Combining my crafts is one of them!

I love how all my crafts....silversmithing, card making, art journaling, mixed media Moments, knitting, crochet and cake decorating all share some similar elements. It keeps me endlessly occupied and with so many ideas that if I live until I was 100 I would never exhaust them. I actually keep a notebook of light bulb moments so that I don't forget them.

Thanks for visiting me today. Have a lovely weekend and hopefully you will get some time to get creative. I hope to get some creative time on Sunday....and yes my brain is already ticking away with ideas.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x