Sapphires for my Mum

Today is my dear Mum's birthday and I can now share my latest silversmithing project as well as the card I made her as she will have opened them this morning.

We have been "flush setting" stones in our class. Most people made rings but I decided to make a pendant for my Mum. In my stash I had some very small sapphires and I thought they would work really well for this project. 

It was very fiddly indeed as the stones only measure 1.75mm in diameter.

First I made the pendant from silver square wire and added a handmade bail to the top. I had to drill holes through ready to receive the sapphires. Then I soldered on the bail.

Sorry the photo below is so blurred but it was taken on my bench peg!

I have no photos of the setting process but it was very tricky!
Eventually my 3 stones were set and I polished it up and put it on a chain for my Mum. As always silver jewellery is so difficult to photograph but here are a couple of snaps.

It's much prettier IRL!

So I am also able to share my card...my Mum loves vintage images so I used one from the Graphic fairy to make her card.

The stamped sentiment is an old Lili of the Valley one.
The backing paper is by Craft Consortium....this is a gorgeous pad which I keep for those special cards. I added lots of die cuts and embellies. As I didn't have to post my card I was able to use some of my paper flowers from my stash, which my Mum loves, and add lots of layers.

all finished off with a ribbon.

 I would like to enter my card (and my pendant if it is appropriate) into the following challenges;

Pixie's snippets playground #340
Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes
Simon says stamp Monday gift it
A vintage journey paper stash
Let's craft and create anything goes
Frilly and funkie tis the season for gift giving
Little patch of crafty friends 1/3 anything goes

Happy Birthday to my dear Mum...85 years young today..and so very precious to me.

Thanks so much for stopping by today and have a wonderful weekend.
I am back again in the morning...yes it's 1st December and our last Country View Challenge for 2018!

Bye for now,

Jane x

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

Pea pods

Good morning I thought today I would share a recent project from my silversmithing class. We were designing projects using fold forming which is something I  used a few years back when I made my daughter a peas in a pods silver pendant. 

I shared this post 6 (!) years ago and photos of the pendant I made.  Here it is again, not the best photos as they were taken with a very old camera.

Now this pendant was sooo complex to make as I had to thread the pearls onto silver wire which I had drilled a hole for. I also made silver tendrils. My daughter loves this pendant and
over the years many people (including my own Mum and Daisy) have admired it.  When I knew that we were re visiting the technique of fold forming in our class I hatched a plan to remake some very simple mini versions of my daughter's peas in a pod pendant for them.
Below are some photo I snapped with my phone on my jewellery bench showing how I brought my idea to life.
I used sheet silver and folded small pieces into rectangles onto which I drew my outline and then cut out.

I then hammered along the rounded edge, re annealing the metal regularly as it work hardens.

This gradually causes the metal to stretch and curve and creates the pod shape.
Once I was happy with the curve I pickled the silver to remove the oxidization and then opened the pod up with pliers (seen on the left side of the photo)

I then drilled holes into tips of the pods.
You can also see in the photo below that if you hammer on the opposite side of the metal you can get a reverse shape rather than a pod....I also made some leaf forms.
I had a play with several versions.

To finish them off I glued in some tiny freshwater pearls.
So here is the mini peas in a pod version..it's always so hard to photograph silver...which Daisy and my Mum really loved.

My card today links in with my pea pod necklaces and is the Lili of the Valley sweet pea pod digi image. I made a new baby card which is up for sale at Dotty's Teahouse where my cards are sold. I added a LOTV stamped sentiment and some fun die cuts.

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

Crafteezee summer

That's crafty 1/3 A summer's day

Fussy and fancy 1/3 summer fling

Happy little stampers 1/3 anything goes with dies

Thanks for stopping by and for your kind comments. Have a lovely weekend. I'm back on Monday with my Monday DT make for Visible Image.

Bye for now,

Jane x

A jewellery reveal

Now that my daughter's birthday has been and gone I can finally share one of my latest jewellery projects from my silversmithing class. It was a real labour of love but worth every second.
I bought some lovely stones a long while back and made some silver pins for them.

Next I made a toggle fastening

and then it was time to make lots of links for my chain from silver wire. First I made rings, which I soldered. Some I pulled them ovals and then flattened them all through a rolling mill. This took lots of 2 hour classes!

I then put together my design. First I had to saw through the ovals to put on the rings

and then re soldered them as I made my chain in stages.

Finally I polished everything before wiring in the stones. 

So here it is

with a couple of close ups

Made with lots of love xxx

My card today is a  near white on white wedding card. As today the sun is shining and the sap is rising in the plants I added in some greenery. Everything is looking lush outside and I am looking ahead to summer and the wedding season for my cards I make for Dotty's Tearooms. The image is a Lili of the Valley simply print. I glittered up their headdresses. The stamped sentiment is also LOTV.

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

Fussy and Fancy 3/3 add a sentiment
Simon says stamp Wednesday add some texture
Happy Little stampers 2/3 anything goes with dies
Creative moments 2/3 anything goes
That's Crafty 2/3 circles I used a circular sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy a lovely weekend. We are off to visit friends in Essex, the return of the sunshine is an added bonus. 

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