White Oak Jewellery

Still no mojo!

2012-03-01T15:04:00.000Z

I came back from the second selling event (Dec 2011) feeling that I was getting back my enthusiasm back for the jewellery, but since then I haven’t really spent any time making jewellery, just thinking about how I go forward from this point. It’s taking longer than I thought it would to get my “mojo” back but I’m hoping it will come back soon.

In the meantime, I’ve decided to move away from just having my own website as a point of sale. Partly because I haven’t managed to get PayPal buttons on to my website. It is, apparently, very easy to do, but so far I have failed to make it work at all. I may have another attempt later in the year, but for now I decided to take another path.

I have looked at the prices for sterling silver chain maille bracelets on Ebay a couple of times to try and get a feel for the pricing that is out there. One thing I found was that if the sellers on Ebay really made some of these items themselves with the hours involved and the current price of silver, then they are selling the items for a serious loss. A bracelet similar to my own sterling silver byzantine piece

My sterling silver byzantine bracelet

was selling for £4.56 - mind you it was coming from Hong Kong so I'm not sure I'd believe that it really was "sterling silver" as the advert claimed.

So, rather than try to use Ebay, I’ll be using Etsy. Etsy was originally set up in the States for online selling of handmade, vintage or items supplied to make something from. Now there is a large British presence on Etsy, enough that they allow transactions in Pounds Sterling as well as US Dollars. I have an Etsy buyers account and have had for a few months as I have used it as a place to buy lampwork beads. I found it originally because I started following various lampwork bead makers on Twitter and started looking at some of the goods they made and were selling through Etsy. Anyway, I now think it is time to start looking to sell on Etsy as I think that the jewellery I make falls into the “handmade” items category quite nicely. I also know that some of the jewellers I respect and admire have Etsy shops as well as their websites so I’d like to think my work will be in good company.

I’ll keep you up to date with my progress, that is assuming my usual “procrastination” delays don’t get in the way too much.

Until the next post

Anne

And some sales (in December anyway)!

2012-02-23T16:47:00.000Z

At the pamper evening I attended at the end of September I got chatting to one of the other stall holders who said she was organising a charity evening for the girl guides group she works with and asked me if I wanted to be involved. I said yes of course, another marketing opportunity, and this one was in November so I was hoping to pick up some interest for Christmas.

Before the event I felt that although I had a number of bracelets and necklaces available, I did not have very many pairs of earrings and that earrings might sell better for Christmas. A handy factor in making extra earrings for the event rather than other items is earrings do not contain very much sterling silver so do not need to be hallmarked.

The evening turned out to be very quiet because it had been organised for the same evening as Children in Need, so turnout to our event was low. But, I made 2 sales so I was over the moon. My first sales to people who were not friends!!

One of the items I sold was my “Seaside sunset” lampwork bead pendant about which I blogged a while back (Sept 2010), this is it:

Seaside sunset

This sale produced an odd feeling in me – I guess that although I had set up my website with the intention of selling what I had made, I’d never sat down and thought about how I would feel selling what I make to strangers. It turns out I felt slightly uncomfortable, and had to stop myself pointing out the flaws I thought there were in the piece! I think part of the reason I felt odd about selling the piece was because I had made it so long before it was sold and I had worn it myself sometimes. Also, as I said earlier, it was my first sale to a person who was not a friend, my first sale to someone who was buying the piece because she saw it and picked it up and liked it enough to pay good cash for it! She said it was going to be her Christmas present from her husband which was fine by me.

The second sale was of a pair of sterling silver and green aventurine earrings that I had made especially for the event. Because I’d just made the earrings and never worn them myself, selling them turned out to be much easier than selling the pendant. Mind you, it was also the second sale of the evening so maybe I’d already got over the “selling panic” hurdle earlier making it easier the second time around.

I recently got asked if I want to do another "pamper evening" like the one in September, I said "yes" so we'll see how it goes, this time it is timed to coincide with Mother's Day in March.

Until next time
Anne

It's been a long time coming!

2012-02-19T15:36:00.001Z

Having just checked, I know that my last post was March 2011. I’d like to say that the gap has been caused by my just being too busy to blog – but that isn’t the true of course.

For a long time in 2011 I could not find any enthusiasm for making jewellery or even anything to do with jewellery making or my fledgling business.

Before my last blog posting I visited the Spring Fair at the Birmingham NEC in February 2011, while there I bought a number of new beads which at the time I fully intended to use in new pieces. But, although I have lots of unused sterling silver wire in the house I have not been able to summon up the enthusiasm to make any of the items for which I have drawn sketches.

In early September I visited IJL in London and again I bought more beads that I intended to use but still the lack of enthusiasm continued.

Then a friend of mine suggested that I join her as a stall holder at a “pamper evening” that was taking place at the end of September. The idea made me a bit nervous but I said yes to the suggestion. I didn’t think that I’d sell any items but I knew it would be good experience for the future, and maybe even a good marketing opportunity.

I had plenty of sterling silver pieces available to sell on the evening but since it was being held in a primary school I wanted to have more pieces made from gold or silver plated wire as I thought there might be an opportunity to sell to girls as well as their parents. So I spent some time making cheaper selling items. As it was, it turned out to be a parent’s only evening and my extra work was for nothing which was slightly disappointing.

But the evening itself was fun, I spent time talking to some of the other stall holders and trying to get the hang of selling my own goods. I’ve helped out at sales before but never when it’s been items I have made on the table so it was a whole new experience for me. Although I didn’t sell anything, I did get some nice compliments about some of my sterling silver items so that was great.

I found that suggesting people take business cards was hard to do, and not very rewarding as no one picked up a card. I had put out some postcards I'd had made, but again no one seemed interested in picking them up. So it did not turn out to be the marketing opportunity I thought it might. But it got me back into thinking about selling jewellery for the first time in months.

Anne

Bracelet - Rainbow with silver helm chain

2011-03-10T11:42:00.003Z

Bracelet - Rainbow with silver helm chain,

The other day I was playing with the idea of making a helm chain bracelet with a lampwork bead as the centrepiece.

I was looking around various sources I have for lampwork beads and couldn't really find what I was looking for to finish the bracelet.

So I spent some time on Twitter looking for new people to follow and I found Jane Hamill's account (@Jane_Hamill) and through that her Etsy shop - and I fell in love with the colours and shape of this bead - so I bought it!

This is what I produced as a finished item and I really love the way it looks and wears.

Until next time
Anne

Attempt 1 at piercing silver

2011-02-14T17:06:00.002Z

In case you don't know, piercing metal involves cutting holes into a solid piece of metal using a drill (to make the initial starting hole) and an adjustable saw to cut out the bits of metal not wanted.

I've been wanting to try this for a while and a couple of months ago I ordered two pieces of 1 mm thick sheet silver. The two pieces weren't very large in the other two dimensions - 2.5 cm by 5 cm in fact. I felt these were large enough to give me space to work in, but small enough to make reasonable sized pendants and would not be daunting to work with.

Then, as usual, I couldn't think what to do with them.

Then the UK Jewellers Collective (or the Lars and Ingrid) forum poppped up with a "spring themed charm swap" idea.

So I cut one of the pieces of silver down into a square (mostly square at least). Stuck a sticky label on top of the blue plastic protective film (it arrives wearing the protective film to prevent damage before I get started on it) and then I drew a slightly abstract tulip flower on to the label.

I then drilled 4 holes into the bit of silver sheet. This involved using masking tape to bind the piece of silver to a wooden batten (an old bit of clean wood) and then clamping the batton into a vice. Then using a drill bit that was probably rather too big at 2.5 mm, I used my little hand drill to drill the holes through the silver. I tried to stop before too much of the wood was drilled, but that didn't always work.

Then I took off all the masking tape, and the sticky label, and the pieces of blue protective film from both sides of the silver and then the finishing work started.

(Next time I'm going to take some "work in progress" photos as it'll be easier to explain I think).

Finishing a piece of piercing involves the use of small files (trying to get the edges inside the cuts to look nice - that's still a work in progress on this piece) and micro mesh to get rid of scratches on the surface of the silver.

Anyway, with more finshing work to be done (as you'll see) here is the piece in it's current state:

Because I'm still learning the "art of finishing" a piece of silver like this, I've decided not to use it as my charm to swap in the forum's current swap session - I really don't think it's good enough. Instead I am making something involving beads and wire which I'm much more comfortable with.

In the meantime I plan to finish this charm for my own pleasure and wear as soon as I can.
Until next time, when I'll hopefully have done some more finishing on this piece

Anne

Lots to tell you today

2011-02-12T16:05:00.001Z

Having not posted anything for a few weeks, I now find that I have a lot to tell you.

I had some time off work this week so on Monday I visited the British Museum and I took some photos of some jewellery that was made using lapis lazuli, carnelian and gold - Mesopotamia 6000 - 1500 BC was the room I took the photos in. Here are a few of the photos - the ones that came out in focus that is.

Sorry about the reflections etc - but hey, ho, that's what happens when taking photos of jewellery inside glass cases.

On Sunday I had spent time at the NEC in Birmingham at the Spring Fair, mainly in hall 19 where the jewellery sellers were. I picked up some lapis lazuli and carnelian beads - so I have plans now that I've seen the museum items. Here are some of the beads I bought at the Spring Fair.

I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to make but I'll let you see it when I'm done.

Until next time

Anne

Trying to make posters!

2011-01-30T21:01:00.001Z

I'm trying to design posters to advertise my website and the jewellery I make - and it isn't going well!

I guess this just proves that my design skills are definitely jewellery oriented, and not so able in the "poster design" area.

I've managed to decide that the posters need the company name (fairly obvious) and the website address (again, fairly obvious) and I've decided the best way to draw attention is to put photos of some of the jewellery on it.

But that's really as far as my "design" skills manage for this particular task anyway.

Attempt one I thought was quite good until I printed it out as an A4 poster and found that the captions I'd put on the photos cannot be read! If it was an A3 poster they would probably be readable - just.

Here's a scanned image of try 1 - it's worth a laugh anyway. It was printed in draft quality so the image isn't great - sorry about that.


Poster try 1

Ah well, on to try two - 'cos being me - in photoshop I had "merged" the captions down into the photos so therefore cannot change them in any way!

So, try 2 - better, much better in that the captions on the photos are readable - but now I'm not sure I'm even going about the right kind of thing. Here's try 2.

Poster try 2

One thing I am happy about on try 2 is that at least the captions on the photos are readable - whether they make sense and are good I don't know.

Tomorrow at work (the day job) I'll get opinions on the 2 I've done so far. But I think it's going to be back to the drawing board.

Until next time
Anne

Sore fingers - but worth it.

2011-01-18T13:20:00.000Z

So far my idea of doing something jewellery related each week is working - that's 2 weeks in a row that I've done something! Hopefully I can keep this up but we'll see.

Last Thursday I was thinking about the fact that everything I've made recently has involved beads - so colour choices for what to wear to work mean I can't always wear a particular piece of jewellery. I was also unhappy with the fact that nearly all the earrings I have made recently have been of the "long and dangly" variety - great for evenings out but they do get caught up between jacket collars and scarves in cold weather! I kept having to take one pair off everytime I put my coat on, and that got boring quickly. So, what this all leads to is, I decided to make myself a simple set of silver earrings for everyday wear.

Now what to make??? I've been toying with various chain maille designs for a while now, but something I've not really used is "flowers" - this is a set of 3 jump rings of the same size linked together and then laid on top of each other to create a flower as shown in this earring:

Flower earring

Having made the pair of simple silver earrings I wanted I was happy, at least for 24 hours or so.

On Saturday morning I was watching TV and my fingers started twitching - some might see that as a sign of madness or something, but I decided it was time to do some jewellery making.

So I spent a little while making 3 larger jump rings of 3 varying thicknesses of sterling silver wire - I had this idea of binding them together and using them as a pendant - but it kept falling apart. At that point I gave up for the day, it obviously wasn't to be. But I've kept the rings in case I can use them later - waste not, want not as they say.

On Sunday I was having a similar problem - couldn't really settle to anything, so I decided to have another go at a necklace. This time I decided to stick with the "flower" design I'd used for the earrings. Time to make a necklace to match the earrings already produced.

I decided to try different sizes of jump rings for the flowers - I have a set of mandrels with multiple sized sections so finding things to wind the wire around was not a problem. So the largest rings had a 10 mm inner diameter, then I just worked my way along the largest mandrel so the rings are 10 mm, 9 mm, 8 mm, 7 mm and 6 mm from that mandrel. I then decided I wanted one more size down, so the second mandrel was used to make some 5 mm inner diameter rings.

I formed the flowers one at a time - one in the 10 mm size and two each of the other sizes of rings.

Then I started linking the rings together. At first I was going to use small rings with an inner diameter of 2.92 mm - then I realised that you can't get 3 pieces of 1 mm thick wire in a 2.92 mm space - it doesn't work!

So I picked up the left over 3.25 mm rings I've been trying to find a use for. And they worked a treat. Originally I started linking the flowers together directly - but then decided I wanted more space between them, so used 3 smaller rings instead of one.

This is what it turned out like - and I'm really pleased with it.

Graduated flower necklace and earrings

Admittedly my fingers were sore after making this - holding the spirals of wire while you saw through the rings with a jewellery saw does tend to make your fingers numb after a while, but it was so worth it!

Bye for now
Anne

Inspired by Egypt

2011-01-14T13:23:00.004Z

I've always loved Egyptian things - the pyramids, the temples, the art work and as you'd expect, the jewellery.

I visited Egypt itself a number of years ago and thoroughly enjoyed visiting the places I'd only seen on TV or read about. At the time I had no interest in making jewellery so was not bothered by not visiting the Cairo museum or any other location at which the ancient jewellery could be viewed.

But since I started making my own jewellery I've been toying with the idea of making something based on Egyptian designs. I knew I wanted to involve carnelian (my favourite stone) and something dark blue like lapis lazuli but didn't really know what I wanted to do.

Cornelian (or carnelian) drops

Recently I was at a jewellery exhibition and there were some stalls selling beads - one of them had faceted carnelian drops and dark blue tube beads labelled as "lapis" - so I bought them, a design was brewing at the back of my mind.

"Lapis" tubes

I carefully took my prizes home and my brain continued to work on what to do with them.

After a couple of false starts I sketched up a design for a necklace I liked (sorry, forgotten to scan the sketch or I'd show it to you now).

But then I stopped doing anything to do with jewellery making for a while - a combination of "winter blues" and lack of inspiration I think.

Anyway, with Christmas over with I was determined to get back to making jewellery again. So I sat down with the design for these beads and put the drops on to sterling silver wire with loops. Then it all sat around for another couple of weeks.

A couple of days ago I was fed up of having accomplished nothing recently so made the concerted effort to move on with this piece of work. And I managed to finish the necklace that night (it just proves what I bit of will power will accomplish), so I made matching earrings.

Sorry that the photo isn't the best one I've ever taken but you can see the important bits in it. So this is what I created.

"Inspired by Eqypt" necklace and earrings

Today I am wearing the set around the office, need to check that it isn't going to fall apart, and making sure that it has no "rough" bits. So far it's a success.

I'm hoping that I can create something jewellery related each week of the rest of 2011, even if only some findings to use later (ear wires, s-clasps, jump rings, etc). And I hope to be a bit more creative with my own designs this year rather than only copying other peoples designs. Guess I'll see how it goes.

Bye for now
Anne

Blue lampwork inspiration

2010-12-05T12:49:00.000Z

While checking out the new lampwork beads on Little Castle Designs the other week I spotted some beads I wanted, so I ordered them.

I loved the blue colour of the beads and the swirl that Sabine (the maker) had put round the outside.

For a while I've had a long section of really nice sterling silver chain lying around the house and I've been wanting to use it for something "drapey" (if you know what I mean). So I decided Sabine's beautiful beads were ideal for putting with the chain.

I'm not sure what the official name for the type of chain is but it's a lovely spiral using very small links and I love the way it drapes when hanging from my hands so I wanted to make that drape part of the design.

I decided I'd also like to have some of the chain hanging loose as a tassle below a single bead. That led me to decide to make a pair of matching earrings also with sections of chain hanging down from them.

So these are the pieces I made:


Blue lampwork and silver


Blue lampwork and silver

I love the way the drapes on the necklave have worked out. I did have to swap the longer dangles I had on the necklace for the drapes to get the shape I wanted, and I am now thinking that I might shorten the central dangle in the necklace tassle so that the tassle has similar proportions to the dangles on the earrings. But I haven't really decided yet.

For now I think I'll leave them alone and wear them for a few days to see how they work. Also, to make sure that they don't all fall apart while being worn - don't want that to happen if someone ever buys them.

Until next time
Anne

What have I been up to?

2010-11-18T12:30:00.000Z

It's obviously been a few weeks since I last posted here so I thought I'd drop in and leave a note for anyone who is interested.

Just after I last posted I went to California for a 2 week holiday. It was a good break to have as work (the day job as opposed to the hobby of making jewellery) has been a bit up and down in terms of good/bad feelings.

My brother and his family live in California so the main purpose of the visit was to see the family and catch up on gossip etc.

The weather while in California was slightly disappointing as it rained quite a lot, especially at weekends which did put paid to some of the family oriented outings, but at least it was warmer than the UK while raining.

But being inside so much did mean that the catch up on gossip went rather well. Large amounts of food and a moderate amount of wine were consumed over the break.

Anyway, I came back from California at the end of October.

Since then I've been looking for (and failing to find) inspiration for working with the silver clay or doing any other type of jewellery related work.

This was a bit of a problem for a while as I'm involved in a Secret Santa on a jewellery forum and the gift has to be posted by 7th December!

I have now managed to decide what I want to make for my Secret Santa recipient and have even started on the making of said gift, but it's not finished yet.

I won't be posting any photos of the Secret Santa gift until after I know it has been received - I just hope it is liked when it arrives.

And, of course, I can't wait to see what is made for me by who ever was matched with me. I tried to say something useful about the kind of things I like/dislike (as we were asked to do) but really, I'll be happy with pretty much anything. It's just nice to get a special gift at Christmas!

Anyway, that's enough waffling for today.

Until the next time
Anne

Silver clay course - the results!

2010-10-12T09:05:00.000+01:00

On Sunday I attended a course on using silver clay (precious metal clay) to make things (technical term there).

This is the second time I've attended a course held by Nic of Murano Silver and it was even more fun this time around as I've played with silver clay in the gap between courses.

This time I wanted to tackle 3 particular tasks: making and using moulds of buttons; setting stones; and bails for hanging from.

Nic was able to fit my requests into the course nicely without taking too much time away from the other two ladies who were there.

As I was there a short while before the others arrived we were able to look at mould making and using before they arrived so that was good.

We then started the course by making a two piece framed pendant (top left in the photo below) before Nic showed me how to set a 3 mm stone into the eye of the fish using a drill bit about the size of the stone.

The other stone in the 3rd pendant was set into a hole that was slowly carved by hand as we couldn't find a drill bit that was the right size, so I'm really chuffed with that one.

Fine silver charms

The 2 piece framed pendant has a textured background and a tiny heart charm that has been attached to the front.

Until next time
Anne

White Oak Jewellery website is live!

2010-10-02T10:56:00.001+01:00

I've gone and done it - finally. Yesterday I paid for hosting space for the WhiteOakJewellery.co.uk domain name and this morning (at the horrendous time of 7 am) I uploaded the site.

Okay, I have to admit, it didn't work first time, but then it is the first time I've ever uploaded a website to the net so a few teething problems are to be expected.

But it is up and running now so I'm pleased with myself over that.

Now to figure out how to tell Google etc about the site and get them to start paying attention to it.

Then, one day it will hopefully start appearing on people's search results - although I know that will a lot more work on my part before it happens. Just 'cos the website is "out there" doesn't mean anyone can find it! That much I do know.

Full Persian bracelet

The other day I blogged about the full persian bracelet I had made - turns out it wasn't the full persian weave after all - I hadn't followed the instructions as closely as I should have done. But, by accident, I had made a Box Weave bracelet instead - I guess that is how new weaves are found/created.

Anyway, full persian or box, I still like the bracelet.

But it now means I can have another go at the full persian weave at some point - I'll just have to remember to pay a lot more attention to the instructions and accompanying photos.

Until next time
Anne

Finished fine silver charms and chain maille

2010-09-25T22:14:00.000+01:00

Finished fine silver charms

The last post talked about the fine silver charms I was making from moulds of buttons and I said I'd post a photo of the finished, polished charms, so here they are after they've been tumbled:

Finished charms

I'm rather pleased with the way the charms turned out, although if you look closely enough, you'll probably spot the finger prints!

Weekends and chain maille

The last couple of weekends I've found time and inclination to saw jump rings and make chain maille.

Last weekend I used 0.8 mm sterling silver wire to make 144 jump ringswith an inner diameter of 4 mm - I wanted to try the Half Persian 3 in 1 chain maille weave. It took me a couple of hours to make the jump rings, but that's what films on DVD are for.

Once I'd made the jump rings I turned my hand to the weave and made a bracelet that ended up 7.5" or 19 cm long and used up 90 of the jump rings I'd made. I finished the bracelet with one of my s-clasps and 2 larger rings made from 1.5 mm wire with an inner diameter of 4.5 mm. The larger rings were attached to the bracelet using 4 jump rings made from 0.8 mm wire but this time with a 3 mm inner diameter.

So, here is the finished piece:

Sterling silver half persian 3 in 1 bracelet

Today I made some more 0.8 mm jump rings with a 4 mm inner diameter - then I used the ones I made last week with the new batch and made a Full Persian weave bracelet.

This bracelet is 7.25" or 18 cm long and contains 176 of the 4 mm jump rings I made last week and today. It is slightly shorter than the length I prefer for a bracelet but since I've used up all my 0.8 mm sterling silver wire it will have to do. It does fasten around my wrist but there is not a lot of space so it doesn't drape well. I finished it off for now to see if it would fit my wrist and to see how it would look. So I used my usual s-clasp, 1.5 mm rings of 4.5 mm inner diameter and a couple of the smaller 3 mm 0.8 mm rings to hold the larger loops to the weave and allow the s-clasp and larger rings to lie on the same alignment (it makes it easier to close and lies more comfortably against the skin). So here's a photo:

Full Persian bracelet

Until I buy more sterling silver 0.8 mm wire (and 1 mm wire as I've finished that too) I can't make any more sterling silver chain maille items. So maybe I'll concentrate on something else.

More likely, I'll buy more wire when pay day arrives.

Until another time
Anne

Finally made fine silver charms from button moulds

2010-09-24T09:05:00.000+01:00

I few posts back I showed pictures of some buttons and the moulds I had taken from them to be able to make fine silver charms from using precious metal clay (PMC).

Last night I finally got around to making the charms. And this morning I fired them using my gas hob - a smelly job as the binder in the PMC burnt off but at least its finally done.

Here's a photo of the moulds with the unfired clay charms:

Moulds with unfired charms

I then used a pair of tiny drill bits to drill a hole in each charm, the smaller bit first and then a slightly larger bit to widen the hole. Later I will put jump rings through these holes so that the charms can be hung on bracelets or necklaces.

After firing, PMC has been changed to fine silver but it is covered with a white crust that needs to be removed to be able to see the silver, in the photo below, the fish charm in the top right corner has been cleaned with a wire brush and water to remove the white crust. The other 3 charms have not yet been cleaned.

Fired charms

Tonight I will clean the last 3 charms of the crust and then tumble them with steel shapes to polish them further. I'll post a photo of the polished charms next time.

Until next time
Anne

Website development

2010-09-23T13:21:00.001+01:00

Last December I bought myself two domain names. WhiteOakJewellery.co.uk and WhiteOakJewellery.com.

The intention was that within a few months of buying the domains I would have a website that show cases my jewellery up and running on the Web.

At that point I wasn't thinking in terms of selling the jewellery I put up photos of, but more of just having a place on the web where I could sent friends etc to see that kind of thing I make and what I'd been doing with my spare time recently. It would be a lot easier to put up a site of photos than lug the box of finished items around with me when visiting - especially given the weight involved - or at least, that's what I thought.

When I mentioned my plans to friends, more than one of them said "what's the point of the site then, you should be putting prices up in case people are interested". Which complicated the whole process of course 'cos it meant I had to find a way of quickly pricing everything I make so that I have a "reasonable" price on them.

So first, I made a spreadsheet of the list of things I'd made and started trying to put calculations in to generate the prices. This was slow work as such actions are not something I'm particularly good at. But I had some prices.

So I started building a website from scratch. In theory, the day job (computer programmer using Visual Studio 2008 and building browser based applications) would help enormously.

Of course, what really happened was I quickly found that my short period of exposure to Visual Studio etc (about 2 months at that point) really did not provide me with enough knowledge of basic HTML to create a page with photos on it.

I turned to a friend for help - luckily for me, he's patient enough to repeat answers to questions even when I've asked them multiple times over various days and to read the pages I put together.

With his help, the site has grown from a single page to a set of 8 pages including terms and conditions as well as the jewellery photos. All the sterling silver items shown on the site have a price attached and each description comes with a "contact me" button so people can email me if they wish.

The photos on the site are (in my opinion) not bad considering that photography is not one of my talents. The friend who helped with the website is a keen photographer (understatement really) who has helped me learn so much more about taking a photo than I ever thought I'd know, and introduced me to functions on my camera I've never heard of before, let alone used!

It was the same friend who looked over my shoulder at my pricing spreadsheet and started asking questions that started with the words "why don't you...." - at which point I gratefully asked for his help and the resulting pricing spreadsheet was born. A spreadsheet into which I type a few simple pieces of information, e.g. how long it took to make, how many of each size and material of jump ring was involved and a few other bits. And then the spreadsheet produces me either a trade or retail price depending on my input. It makes my life so much simpler now when it comes to pricing everything even if I do have to keep it all up to date myself.

Anyway, the point of this blog post is, that 9 months after I bought my two domain names I am on the verge of uploading my first ever website. I'm currently waiting until on/after 1st October to organise a company to host the site - that way the relevant monthly direct debit payments are due shortly after pay day from the day job so I can afford to pay it.

So, hopefully in the next week or two I'll be able to announce the launch of my site. Here is a glimpse of the home page I'll be loading up.

Screen print of my home page

Then the hard work of getting it known by search engines starts, which will be a whole new learning curve.

Until next time
Anne

Round maille bracelet

2010-09-08T14:30:00.000+01:00

Over the last few months I've tried a few different chain maille weaves - out of curiosity to see how they work and if I can do them.

I couple of months ago I started a section of Round Maille - this is a "tube" of linked rings made from 1 mm sterling silver wire where the rings have an inner diameter (ID) of 3 mm. It was fun to do and grew quite fast as there are only 3 rings in each "round" of the tube - but it takes a lot of rings. In fact, I didn't have enough rings to finish a bracelet at the time so I put it aside for a while.

Then I made some more 3 mm ID rings and finished the bracelet. It's a lot chunkier than I expected it to be and I had a problem figuring out how to attach a clasp to the end of the tube until I asked for help on a forum and was given some help.

Round maille bracelet

This bracelet contains 307 individual 3 mm ID rings. It seems to be a much more "masculine" bracelet than the other ones I have made so far, just because it is much thicker and a lot less flexible than the byzantine or helm chain weaves made with the same thickness of wire.

I'm planning on making another round maille bracelet soon, but this time I'm going to use 0.8 mm wire and the rings will have an inner diameter of 2.75 mm - this should produce a narrower, less chunky, bracelet which may be more suitable for a women to wear.

Until another time
Anne

Changing my mind - maybe

2010-09-06T11:13:00.000+01:00

In the last post I showed you the lamp work bead I had bought that reminded me of a framed seaside sunset.

I showed photos of the piece on a forum, and one of the members commented that it made her think of a window into another universe showing the swirls of gas clouds! And when I look at the bead again I can see exactly what she means.

Seaside sunset or View on a universe?

Of course, people always talk about how an image can seem different to different viewers and I guess this is a case in point. I see it now as both a seaside sunset (one of my favourite scenes) but also as an amazing view of a galaxy similar to some of the amazing pictures that are produced from the images that the Hubble telescope and others take.

Whether it is ultimately a sunset or a galaxy will be up to the person who finally owns this piece. If different people own it over time, then what it shows may also change over time. Isn't the human mind amazing too!

Until later
Anne

Seaside sunset in a lampwork bead

2010-09-03T13:43:00.001+01:00

Recently I bought some lampwork beads from Annalyse Taylor who is one of my favourite bead makers. There were 7 beads in the group but all were different.

One of the beads looked to me as if it had a framed picture of a seaside sunset in it so I decided to try and mirror the "framing" using silver wire. This is side 1 the result which is currently hanging from a simple silver belcher chain. What do you think?

Side 1

And this is side 2, they are a bit different.

Side 2

I'm pleased with the way the silver frame worked out even it is a bit more rustic than my mental picture was.

Bye for now
Anne

Can't decide what to do

2010-09-02T09:33:00.001+01:00

I'm having a period of time where I have lots of ideas in mind for things to make - I just can't decide what to do first!

I'm glad that I've got a lot of ideas going, but just wish I could settle to something.

Last night I got really fed up with myself and made myself sit down and do one thing, so I thought I'd tell you about it.

Moulding compound

The first task was to use some two part moulding compound to make moulds of 3 buttons I bought while I was away on holiday. The idea of making moulds from buttons was given to me by the wonderful Nic of Murano Silver with whom I have done one course on using Precious Metal Clay (PMC) and I can't wait for the next course I have booked with her in October this year. The moulding compound I use comes in 2 parts, as you can see from the pots in the photo, I don't have much left of these pots.

You take equal amount of each of the compounds and using your fingers work the two pieces of compound together until you end up with a light blue mixture. While the compound is still soft (and it doesn't stay that way for more than a few minutes) you press a button (or other object you want an impression of) into the compound and then leave it to set. I learnt recently that you can keep working the compound in your fingers, but when it's ready to set it will set - I overworked a piece because it was just so squidgy and fun to play with, at least until it turn rock solid between my fingers and had to go in the bin.

This is my favourite of the buttons that I wanted to mould and the mould that I made from it last night.

Heart button and mould

And here is a picture of all the moulds I have made recently.

Moulds of buttons

Once I get my act together I will use some PMC that I have already bought and use the moulds to make fine silver charms. PMC (or ArtClay) can be used to "sculpt" items in a way similar to clay and then when they are fired (in a kiln, with a torch or on a gas hob) the "binder" that they contain burns off and leaves behind a solid fine silver item. The moulds can be used many times so here is one of my favourite buttons with it's mould.

Swirl button and mould

And here are the 3 pieces I have made (so far) based on the button's mould.

Swirl button and moulded charms

On one of the charms above I remembered to drill a hole for a jump ring to be threaded through before I fired the piece on the gas hob (I don't own a kiln, although I'd really like one!) for the other two I forgot to drill a hole so will need to find another way to attach them to chains. The charm in the lower left of the photo has had a small cubic zirconia gem set into it - although the gem isn't very straight unfortunately. As you can see from the photo above the final charms are smaller in size than the original button, this is because when the binder burns off the piece shrinks slightly in size.

Until another time
Anne

Holiday over!

2010-08-25T14:19:00.000+01:00

I've just had a weeks holiday from work - but now that I'm back I feel like all my work related knowledge has been blown away along with the cobwebs. Ah well, I'm sure it'll all come dribbling back over time.

Why is it that going away for a holiday leaves me feeling like I need a break? I know, rhetorical question that one.

Anyway, while I was away I visited family and friends in various places and showed them some of the jewellery I've been making recently.

So far the responses have all be positive, with a couple of very useful questions being posed to, which was great.

Mental note to self - finish the website and get it up and running! That's the plan for the next month and so I'll see how it goes. Just got to finish the terms and conditions section of the site.

More another time
Anne

More helm chain with beads

2010-08-13T09:01:00.003+01:00

n the last post I mentioned I had made a pendant and earrings to match the sterling silver helm chain bracelet with red beads I showed a photo of. The earrings and pendant are made from 1 mm sterling silver wire. The larger rings have a 6 mm inner diameter while the smaller rings have an inner diameter of 3.25 mm.

Sterling silver helm chain pendant

As you can see, on the pendant it made more sense to me to place all the beads around the outside of the pendant.

Sterling silver helm chain earrings

But with the earrings I decided to stagger two beads and then used a single smaller jump with bead at the bottom of the earring to hold the lowest two large loops shut, until I did that, the lower two loops had a habit of opening and allowing the bead above them to slide down.
The pendant is hung from two sections of belcher chain using 2 small jump rings. I decided that hang the pendant from two points rather than one gave a better display of the piece as hanging from one link caused the pendant to elongate into an oval shape rather than a circle. This is because the gaps between rings are slightly larger than one that would allow the pendant to hold a circle shape - but when I tried using jump rings with an inner diameter of 3 mm instead of 3.25 mm I could not get the elements together so had to go back to the 3.25 mm inner diamter smaller rings. The two rings holding the pendant to the chain are actually only 3 mm innner diameter as I did not want them to be really obvious and get in the way of seeing the pendant.

Car insurance and helm chain!

2010-08-12T09:00:00.002+01:00

It's car insurance renewal time - last year I'm sure it cost me £450 plus and this year they want £550 from me! I know they keep saying that premiums have to go up 'cos of uninsured drivers being a problem, but this is stupid. Time to look around for alternatives, and maybe time to stop insuring the fancy 'extras' I had put on the car (e.g, the body kit and posh alloys). But it was useful when I had the only accident I've ever had and one of the side skirts was damaged - it got replaced along with the doors.

Anyway, back to jewellery talk.

Having made the helm chain bracelet I showed you last time, I decided to try my hand at helm chain with beads as I was sure I'd seen something about it somewhere. This is what I came up with as a bracelet

The bracelet was made using jump rings I created from 0.8 mm sterling silver wire. The jump rings have 3 mm and 5 mm inner diameters. I decided to stagger the beads as I felt it looked better than them all being on the same side.

Of course, because I loved the way it turned out I couldn't stop there and make some earrings and a pendant to compliment the bracelet.

Photos and details of them next time.
Anne

A charm bracelet and the first helm chain

2010-08-11T09:02:00.000+01:00

Earlier this year I was asked by a friend how much it would cost for me to make a charm bracelet for her daughter's 18th birthday present.

I quoted a price of £50 ish and she agreed that I could go ahead. We agreed that I'd make a byzantine weave bracelet with 6 places to attach charms on it. She already had one charm to attach but it would leave space for more in the future.

Sterling silver byzantine charm bracelet

This photo shows a similar bracelet to that of the one I produced for the friend's daughter. And, luckily for me, the price of the bracelet for the friend was £55 at the time of making, so I think I'm getting better at pricing items.

After spending the last year using mainly byzantine weave in my jewellery I decided it was time to try a few more weaves. There are numerous books out there but none that is considered the 'definitive' chain maille book, instead the best sources of inspiration and instructions are found on the World Wide Web. There I found instructions for a number of different weaves, all of which I like the idea of completing, and so I'm working through some different ones.

Here is a helm chain weave bracelet that I made recently in sterling silver using 1mm thick wire. For this project I made my own jump rings, there are 2 sizes used in the helm weave and I chose to use rings with an inner diameter of 3.5 mm and 6 mm. This weave involves the 'capture' of some of the rings meaning that the captured rings are held between two layers of rings but are not actually through any of the other rings themselves.

Sterling silver helm chain bracelet

This weave hangs well on the wrist and the bracelet is 19.5 cm (7.7") long which is a comfortable length for me.

Next time, clasps!
Anne

Pricing - how high / how low

2010-08-10T09:04:00.002+01:00

Having made the sterling silver byzantine weave and amethyst bead necklace for my friend and priced it at £50 I wanted to know if I had priced it correctly or not.

About the same time as I'd been looking for sources of sterling silver jump rings etc to make the necklace I had revistied the website for CooksonGold which is a company which sells a huge variety of goods to jewellery makers. I had opened an account with them back when I did my silversmithing course and was slightly surprised to find that the account still existed even if it hadn't been used for years. I bought the sterling silver wire I needed from Cookson. While I was looking at their site I saw an announcement for their recently started forum and decided to sign up.

It just happened that just after I had given a provisional price for the necklace to my friend, a discussion about pricing started up on the CooksonGold forum and gave beginners like myself a huge amount of useful information about how to go about pricing items for sale.

After a bit of research through a few books and online I settled on a pair of formulae for pricing that I was happy to use. As I am not expecting to be a full time jeweller and have to pay my mortgage from my earnings, the formulae for pricing were a bit simpler than if I was giving up the day job. The formulae I chose of follow include one for a trade price and one for a retail price and are given below:

Trade price: (((price of materials + price of hallmarking) x 1.25) + a labour charge) + 10% of the total as profit margin

The retail price is calculated in a similar way except that instead of multiplying by 1.25, the total cost of materials plus hallmarking is multiplied by 2.

When I plugged the details of the sterling silver and amethyst necklace into these formulae I found that the trade price should have been £63 and the retail price should have been £88.50 - I guess my friend got even more of a bargain than I thought she did!

You live and learn, as the saying goes. So when the friend in question asked me to make her a bracelet in a similar style to the necklace I did and quoted her a price of £45 on the grounds that she'd got a good deal on the necklace. She was happy with the bracelet costing her £45 and admitted that she thought that the necklace was low in price.

I made the bracelet for her and then priced the bracelet using my formulae and found a trade price of £36.50 and a retail price of £47.00 so she still got a good deal on it too.

At the same time as we discussed making a sterling silver and amethsyt bracelet, the friend and I had discussed the idea of a matching set of earrings. I didn't tell her what I was doing and made a pair of earrings when I had finished her bracelet. I then gave her the bracelet which she was very happy with and then presented her with the earrings as a 50th birthday present as her birthday was only a few days later.

Here are the earrings and bracelet - giving her the whole set with the necklace shown in the last post.

More another time

Anne