My first hallmarking pieces return

I’ve been getting my pieces ready for the Suffolk Open Studios exhibition, I only had three pieces in sterling silver ready but I am so very happy with them, when they returned from the Assay Office I was like a child in a sweet shop jumping around the kitchen!  Anyway here are my accomplishments;

 

It’s official!

I am now a jewellery designer with a hallmark!!

The confirmation arrived in the post yesterday so I’m off to create pieces for them to stamp with my intials.  Once I get a piece back I will pop a photo up so all the world can see!

From design to reality

Many of my ideas come to me when I am not expecting it hence why I have sketchbooks in all places!  This is to show how an idea comes to life and what changes I will make when I handcraft it again.

For this example I have chosen a pair of earrings, you will see the drawing and the finished piece but there are changes I will make due to the problems I came up against when making.  I wanted a dome effect with the semi precious stone to be set on the edge but in practice it just didn’t look right it looked lop sided!  So I decided to set in the centre of the dome but although that looked perfect in reality it was a pain to set the stone.

Problem one was that each amber stone varied in height which hasn’t helped in relation to the height of the bezel setting.  Problem two was getting at the bezel to secure the stone by using my bezel pusher so I used my burnisher but it still wasn’t the best but the only option at the time.

I have decided to solve both problems by not having the dome so deep this will give me slightly more room between the silver and the setting. 

I am pleased with the finished product I love the overall design and chosen stone (amber) but the setting is disappointing (thats the perfectionist in me!) so either I’ll have them or these will be my mum’s Christmas present!!

an excuse to make a noise

The next week the tutor set me a task to make a bracelet out of copper and I had to decorate it by using any of the hammers in front of me.

What a fab excuse to take my frustrations out on a bit of copper!  I picked up each hammer and stuck the copper to see the pattern it left behind, I discounted each one until I found I liked two effects and continued to use them.  Once I had covered the copper with my desired pattern I then had to shape the bracelet by curving the edges upwards and the centre inwards to give this great shape.  I then used the steel cone and shaped the bracelet to the desired size.  I was and still so chuffed with my efforts.

 

I was so pleased!

For my first attempt I was so happy with the clients cufflinks and she got them on the date she requested and her husband was very happy with them and still to this day!  I soldered the sterling silver bar cufflinks to the fine silver oval bezel, polished and then set the Lapis Lazuli cabochon in to each setting and then with the bezel rocker I slowly pushed the silver onto the stone to keep secure.

Her request for cufflinks made me face my fear of soldering, looking back on it now I’m not quite sure what all the fuss was!