Daisychain Designs

Finishing projects!

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Thu, 16 May 2013 09:13:00 +0000

I have a growing pile of projects in every stage of creation from sketches in little boxes with the components I need to make them, to rings and pendants with the settings complete and polished and just waiting for the stone to be set. It has got to the stage that I am almost out of room on my desk, and it's not a small desk!

Two of the many cabochons that I've started to make settings for! I'll often make lots of bezel settings to fit some of my growing collection of stones and then they are ready for when inspiration strikes - and time allows!

I've always used the excuse that, because I teach jewellery making, I need part made projects to use as examples with my students, but as I have a pendant that has been waiting for its stone (the beautiful Botswana agate in the picture above) to be set for nearly three years now I think it safe to say that things have got a bit out of hand!

Beautiful picture jasper to be set in pring setting - may not completely finish this one as I am still using it for teaching!

So, at the weekend I set myself the goal of finishing off the projects that you can see here before the end of Saturday, which is going to be a bit of a tall order as I taught all day yesterday, I'm about to start teaching again all day today and I'm teaching for college all day Saturday, not to mention my usual Tuesday and Wednesday night evening classes. My inspiration was a post that Melissa Meman wrote for the AJE blog nearly two weeks ago, challenging readers to show off the projects that they managed to complete before the end of Saturday.

Mystery lengths of square wire - any guesses as to what these will turn out to be?

My questions to you are, will you be joining me in Melissa's challenge, and do you have any part made projects older than my poor three year old pendant?!

Elegant rings and lovely earrings!

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Wed, 15 May 2013 22:41:00 +0000

I've been busy teaching over the last couple of weeks, which is why I've been so quiet on here, sorry. I really must get into the habit of just posting pictures and not much writing to show you what I'm up to!

Julie's rings - rutilated quartz and aquamarine set on thick silver bands

Two of my students over the last two weeks have learnt how to set stones for the first time and made beautiful pieces of jewellery - the same technique (bezel setting cabochons), but very different styles and colours, and all very well finished. I know that, because they are my students, I am slightly biased, but I don't think that anyone looking at the photos and not reading the text would have any idea that these were the first stones settings that Julie and Michelle made.

Michelle's first pair of earrings - I didn't have time to photograph the second pain made of silver sheet! Rose cut smoky quartz cabocons and amethyst briolettes

I will be putting new tuition dates for the summer months on the website here next week - to be in the know as soon as the dates are ready add your name to my newsletter using the link on the left!

Enjoy the sunshine with free shipping this weekend!

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Fri, 03 May 2013 13:50:00 +0000

The Spring sunshine is a time for a new injection of colour into your life! For me Spring means fresh colours, natural materials and textures - and long dangly earrings that can no longer get caught in woollen scarfs and bracelets that shorter sleeves show off to better effect!

Whether your tastes run to the one-off pieces in the Unique Collection, such as the earrings above, or the timeless elegance of the sterling silver and 24k gold designs in the Golden Collection, this Bank Holiday weekend brings FREEPOST on all jewellery orders above £25, UK or International.

No codes are needed, free post will automatically be applied for you, and the offer runs until midnight on Monday 6th May. Have a wonderful Bank Holiday weekend!

The earrings shown above, L to R, are: Ebony and Silver, Tropics and Luna

Shop Update!

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 12:51:00 +0000

The photos are edited, the descriptions are written -

the Daisychain Extra shop update begins at 3pm BST this afternoon!

Poorly spotty boy

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 22:57:00 +0000

My poor Jamie is a poorly spotty boy - a chicken pox spotty boy. He seems so far to be having a fairly light dose of it though and is trying very hard to be his usual cheerful self. I've stocked up on children's puriten and I've been putting a couple of spoonfuls of bicarb of soda in his bath though to help with the itching - and of course cuddles with Mummy whilst watching Peppa Pig DVDs are a very good distraction!

I had planned a Daisychain Extra shop update for tonight, but that's (obviously considering it's so late!) not going to happen until tomorrow now. The photos of new designs are edited, the descriptions written, but my poorly boy has obviously taken priority over finishing the listings! I'll be listing some old favourites and some new designs tomorrow evening - the collage above is a taster of what's to come!

A Beautiful Day

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 21:44:00 +0000

It's been a wonderfully sunny spring day here today, and as on all sunny days the radio station has been playing U2's "It's a Beautiful Day". I've now got the lyrics going constantly through my head, but I thought it would be the perfect title for this post!

I'm not that good at showing you what my students make during private tuition sessions, partly as I don't always get round to taking photos of their work before they go as we're so busy making jewellery up to the last possible minute! I do have a back log of student work to show you though, and I thought I'd start with Rachel and Dale who came out to the workshed in February to make their wedding bands and now that they are married I can show the rings off to you! I've helped men make special rings for their girlfriends before, but this was only the second time that a couple have come to wedding rings. I was so thrilled to have played a small part in their wedding preparations!

Both of the rings are beautiful, and of course even more special because they made them for each other. Dale's ring is a thick and wide silver band with a satin finish, and Rachel's is made from round 9k gold wire and brightly polished. Although the designs may look simple that actually means that the finishing of the rings had to be perfect - adding a hammered texture would have hidden any small imperfections in the soldering joins.

Despite never having made jewellery before Dale also had time to use the skills he had learnt in making Rachel's ring to make a bangle as a bridesmaid's present for Rachel's sister. I was very impressed!

Thank you to Rachel and Dale for sending me the photos of them wearing their rings on their wedding day! Love and congratulations to you both.

If you'd like to learn how to make your own jewellery or would like to improve on jewellery making skills that you already have please visit my Jewellery Tuition page for more information on private tuition and workshops. New private tuition dates will be available soon - sign up to the newsletter using the link on the left of the blog to get the new dates as soon as they are released!

Happy St George's Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 09:31:00 +0000

When we were in Barcelona the other weekend (doesn't that sound good?!) red roses could be seen everywhere in preparation for La Diada de Sant Jordi (St George's Day) today. St George is the patron saint of Catalonia as well as of England, and Catalonians celebrate in a manner similar to St Valentine's Day with the giving of red roses - by the end of the day some 4 million roses will have been sold, many of them along Las Ramblas, the main street running through the heart of Barcelona, and the city is even more filled with colour, music and street performers than usual! Here in England we haven't really celebrated St George's Day since the time of Elizabeth I - on her death King James, the King of Scotland, also became the King of England and celebrating the patron saint of England wasn't exactly in favour, but there are moves to celebrate more. Even campaigns to create a public holiday, but we'll see!

To join in the celebrations I've got a special promotion running on the Daisychain Jewellery website, but only for today and tomorrow. Use the code "St George" on the Daisychain Jewellery website to receive 23% off orders of jewellery designs in the Bloom Collection - from the stunning Daisy Cuff to the sweet and dainty Red Rose earrings there is something for everyone. However, the celebrations end at midnight on Wednesday 24th April so you'll have to be quick!

Happy St George's Day!

I wrote about St George's Day for my post on the Art Jewelry Elements blog on Sunday, with lovely rose beads and components from some of the AJE team - it's over here!

Instant Downloads!

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 21:48:00 +0000

It's been a busy few days - but then again, when aren't I busy?! Not that I'm complaining - it's good to be busy when you're self-employed! We took advantage of the sunny spring weather at the weekend. I was teaching on Saturday so T and the boys went on a bike ride round our local park. Well, T and Ben rode their bikes - Jamie sat in style in the trailer attached to the back of T's bike! Sunday afternoon was spent putting new felt on the roof of my workshed, pressure washing the decking and generally tidying up after a long drab winter. Next up, pots of colourful flowers and maybe a lick of paint on the garden furniture!

Etsy have been doing some Spring cleaning and organising too. Virtual products such as my Macramé, Art Beads and Wire ebook can now be downloaded immediately after purchase - so now whether you order your copy through my website or through my Daisychain Extra shop it will be sent to you for you to enjoy 6 great projects straight away!

Life begins?!

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 23:43:00 +0000

So here it is, my 40th birthday! Heavens, I just got a chill seeing that typed up in black and white on my computer screen! I still feel 27 years old but according to my passport and my Mum I definitely am 40 years old today. Any you know what? I actually feel relaxed about it. That probably is partly because I'm still relaxed after T took me to Barcelona for the weekend while my parents looked after the boys. We had a fantastic time - Barcelona is such a beautiful city with so much to see and do that despite visiting four times now we still haven't seen everything! Don't worry, there will be photos later, and I'm going to write a new "Barcelona bead shops" post too.

Anyway, my birthday - fancy helping me celebrate? For the next 40 hours, use the code "BIRTHDAY" to get 15% off orders in my Daisychain Extra and of course on my own Daisychain Jewellery website too. So, if you've been waiting to treat yourself, you have until 4pm GMT on Thursday 18th April to make it an extra special treat!

P.S. I have decided to delay the changes to the Daisychain Extra shop that I wrote about here because of this sale, so the shop will be closing temporarily on the evening of Thursday 18th April - but don't worry, when it opens again there will be lovely new designs along with the old favourites!

Soup is ready!

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 22:13:00 +0000

My apologies to those of you who visited on Saturday hoping to see my Bead Soup challenge piece - as I was going to be away for the reveal I scheduled the blog post - and managed to schedule it for the wrong weekend! Ooops! And I thought I was being so organised....

Anyway, I'm home again now so here it is....better late than never?!

To be perfectly honest I was a little bit worried when I opened the bead soup ingredients Deborah Read that sent me as, lovely as the lampwork and dichroic glass pieces, they were on the opposite side of the world from anything that I would normally use - but that's what this challenge is all about, right? If you'd like a reminder of what Deb sent me please have a look at this post from last month. I did my usual bead soup trick of putting all the ingredients in a lovely wooden bowl that sits on my desk and every now and then I pulled a few pieces out, added some extras in and generally had a play. In the end, however, I decided to use just a focal and one of the two clasps that Deb sent, and this is a little hint of what I did.

I took part in an Artisan Whimsy challenge last year that used a tutorial by to set a flat back stone or found object in prongs that started life as rivets. The rivets were pushed through holes drilled in the backing plate and soldered into place so that they were strong enough to be pushed over the object being set. I set a beautiful Botswana Agate cabochon in silver for that challenge, and loved the technique, so I decided to use it again to set one of the pieces of dichroic glass that Deb sent me.

And this is the glass set in place. I love the contrast of warm patinea'd copper with the blues and greens in the glass. You've probably noticed that I haven't used the clasp yet. I realised once I'd made the pendant that I didn't have enough of the leather I wanted to hang it from, so as soon as the postman brings it I'll be using a clasp, promise!

Please do go and see what Deb made with the ingredients I made I sent her - you can see her post here, and for a full list of all the people taking part visit http://lorianderson-beadsoupblogparty.blogspot.ca/2013/04/7th-bead-soup-blog-party-2nd-reveal.html

I'm actually away this weekend (T's taking me away to Barcelona for an early birthday treat!) so I've scheduled this and I will start visiting the other blogs taking part when I get home!

Non-stop Mayhem!

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 20:43:00 +0000

Or, as those of you without young children will probably call it - the school holidays. I do love having Ben and T home more and the mornings are definitely more relaxed without the school run, but this school holiday has left little time for any Daisychain business other than filling orders. Blogging and work on new designs etc will have to wait until school starts again next week! I have had time to plan out the next few months for the business though, and I'm going to be making a few changes that will hopefully make things a lot more efficient.

One of those changes, probably the most visible one from the outside, will be that I am changing my Daisychain Extra shop from one with a few ready-to-ship items and mainly made-to-order designs to one with just ready-to-ship items. At the moment I rarely have time to build up much stock because as soon as I make something it flies out the door to the post office - which is a good thing for orders but not so much for my creativity. So, each week or so I will be doing a shop update that will be partly current designs but also new designs -and I will be able to spend more time creating new designs as making stock and listing it all at once if more efficient than making smaller batches a little at a time.

I hope that all makes sense! Basically, what it will mean for you is that everything that you see in the Daisychain Extra shop will be available and ready for dispatch and you won't have to wait for me to make it for you. It will also mean that there will be more new designs available more often as I will have more time to make them.

I will be putting my Daisychain Extra shop in holiday mode for a few days as from Monday 15th April (next Monday) and open it up again with a shop update and new designs, so if you need to stock up on any of the current designs you have until Monday!

P.S. Orders placed from now until Monday morning will be processed on Tuesday as T is taking me away for a long weekend for my birthday!

AJE March Component of the Month

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 13:18:00 +0000

As I think you may have guessed by now, it was my turn to design something new for the AJE Component of the Month challenge, and I sent out lovely copper hollow beads to my team mates and to some of the AJE blog readers. Normally we have the challenge reveal on the last day of the month, but as we thought we'd all probably be a bit busy on Easter Sunday we'd do the reveal today instead.

And this is what I made....

This pendant is actually the third piece I made for the challenge. I kept thinking that I had to make something more elaborate as it was, afterall, a challenge with my own component, but nothing seemed quite right until I kept it simple. I've used a gorgeous lampwork bead by (of course) Mindy Macgregor (Moogin Beads), a palm wood square bead from Smitten Beads and a purple Czech glass bead. I've been wearing it strung on a length of purple silk from Marsha Neal Studios, but I think that this particular pendant will be better on a length of brown leather - which I haven't actually got yet, which is why I'm showing it to you like this!.

I'd love it if you could take the time to visit the designers taking part in this month's challenge - I am really looking forward to seeing what they all made with their beads!

The guest designers this month are:

Carolyn (Carolyn's Creations)

Jess Green
Niky Sayers

(Kathy (Northern Light) hasn't been able to take part due to her mother's illness -
I hope she gets better soon Kathy!)

And the AJE contributors taking part are:

Making Hollow Beads

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 22:54:00 +0000

Have I mentioned before how addicted I've become to making hollow beads?! I think I may have mentioned it once or twice! The components I made for the AJE Component of the Month challenge for my turn this month were the copper hollow beads that you can see above, and if you'd like to see how I made them click here to see the post I wrote for the AJE blog today!

P.S. I'm currently working on a limited edition batch of these beads to go in my Daisychain Extra shop!

Tutorial Tuesday - Armful of Flowers

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 09:45:00 +0000

The April edition of Beads and Beyond magazine came out last week with a flower bracelet that I had lots of fun with. My starting point was discs of silver and copper - well, they started out round discs, but that was before I hammered them into submission! Each stem of a flower links behind the next like a daisychain.

And there's more! Each two page project in the magazine includes a varation, another way of using the design idea. The variation for this project is a brooch, and I've written a blog post for the Beads and Beyond magazine blog - www.beadsandbeyondmagazine.blogspot.com - with step-by-step photos of how to make it. You can find it here, and if you have a go I'd love to see what you make!

Good old fashioned bartering

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 20:59:00 +0000

Source: Uploaded by user via Joanne on Pinterest

A good friend of mine makes absolutely gorgeous polymer clay jewellery, including beautiful large hollow beads. She and I have just spent a lovely evening in my workshed where I taught her how to make her own sterling silver ear wires and simple clasps, and she swapped her son's old car seat for the tuition - I posted about the earrings she made a couple of weeks ago here. Her son had grown out of the seat, we needed another for T's car, and it's perfect for Jamie.

I'm a hopeless gardener. I'm forever optimistic about it but once I get out in the garden I don't know where to start, especially as the garden got out of hand while I was in the last few months of pregnancy with Jamie and then I was so ill after he was born. I perfectly happy weeding and cutting the grass but heaven help me when it comes to the rest of it, and what with the business and the boys I don't have the time to get the garden back into order. But another lovely friend of mine is has a small gardening business, and when I asked her if she could fit me in she suggested swapping gardening for jewellery. She gets so much more done in an hour than I could in a whole afternoon, and I get the time for jewellery making instead!

And then there's Brenda, she of the amazing stones that I've used in quite a few of my designs, such as here and here. She, and her husband Paul, regularly come for jewellery tuition, which she partly pays for in cash from stone sales in her etsy shop or in stones that she lets me choose from her stash. And, of course, they use Brenda's stones in what they make with me too! One of the rings that Paul has made Brenda is pictured above.

Three win-win situations - three situations where we swap our skills and goods for other skills, three situations where both parties are delighted with the deal that they've made. Good old fashioned bartering at its best! And I'm sure that my friends and I aren't alone, especially as websites, usually locally based at first, are now being built to help people link up to swap their services. So, have you turned your time and skills into useful goods or skills for your household, or treats for yourself even, without purses being opened?

Soup's ready to cook!

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 20:48:00 +0000

There was a sigh of relief on both sides of the Atlantic last week when the Bead Soup ingredients that my partner Deborah Read put together for me arrived safely. They had actually arrived in the UK over a week before that but I was out when the postie tried to deliver them so I came home I found one of those lovely "while you were out" cards. Unfortunately the sorting office had put my parcel in such a safe place that it took them a week to find it!

So, here at last are the wonderful goodies that Deb sent me! She has been so generous.

At the moment I'm leaning towards using one of the dichroic glass pieces to use as a focal - but knowing me I'll change my mind before our reveal on 6th April!

If you want a reminder of what I sent Deb, have a look here and here. We actually sent each other similar colours!

AJE earrings challenge reveal

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 00:53:00 +0000

It's my turn to write the AJE post for the earrings challenge reveal, so I thought that I ought to get my own reveal post up on time for once!

I've continued on my poppy and wood them. Afterall, I make so many poppy head pins, charms and earwires for my Daisychain Extra shop that I should make more use of them in my own designs! And I bought some beautiful wooden beads from Smitten Beads in the New Year, and I'm really enjoying showing them off in earrings.

Ebony and Silver use a pair of hollow silver beads that I made as a demonstration for one of my college classes. I've given them a lovely matt finish and teamed them with long ebony twisted beads - hanging from poppy earwires of course!

Out of the Blue has Czech glass turquoise faceted beads and ebony rondelles strung on poppy headpins that I've turned into earwires.

I've kept to a turquoise/aqua theme for the earrings I chose from the AJE Earring Challenge Pinterest board - click here to see!

Introducing....

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 22:23:00 +0000

the new additions to the Daisychain family!

Aren't they adorable? They are brother and sister, Mollie and Pickles, and Jamie and I picked them up from the Blue Cross animal rescue centre on Friday. We've had our names down in the waiting list for kittens since the New Year, and they called a couple of weeks ago to say that they had a litter ready to go home and were we still interested? What a silly question! I fell in love with them at first sight. It took me ages to get these photos of them yesterday as they were dancing all around the kitchen, skidding on the laminate flooring and generally exploring so most of the photos I took were of blurred balls of fluff! We've let them in the sitting room with us this evening after the boys went to bed, and after a good old explore in every single nook and cranny that they can squeeze themselves into they have fallen fast asleep curled up on the sofa pressed up against me. I am definitely in love!

Our adoption of them has been bittersweet though. As those of you who I'm friends with in real life or on facebook will already know we lost my beautiful Millie cat on 19th November. It was horribly, horribly sudden. She spent the Thursday afternoon basking in the winter's sun on the roof of my workshed, keeping an eye on what my student was making. Friday morning she was quiet, but not unusually so considering she was 12, but by Friday tea time it was obvious that she was ill. T was taking the boys up to his Mum's for the weekend as I was teaching on Saturday, and after they left I took Millie to the vets. They found three tumours in her chest cavity, and said that we'd probably have a few months with her at best, but on Monday morning it was painfully clear that she'd had enough. I think she'd been hiding how ill she was until she couldn't cope anymore and it was time for her to go. It still makes me cry now just typing this, which is why there was no way I could write about it before, but she had a good life with all of us at her beck and call, and we were able to say goodbye to her. She's left me with plenty of good memories to smile about though - remember the climbing the bathroom wall incident?!

So, bringing the kittens home has reopened some barely healed wounds, but it's going to help heal them too. Our house has not felt complete since Millie died - and now it's full of two bouncy kittens and two equally bouncy boys getting up to mischief! Thankfully all four of them are getting used to each other already!

New Daisychain Jewellery website party - Pinterest competition winners

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 22:57:00 +0000

Only a week has gone past (ok then, eight days!) since my last blog post but so much has happened! I think the next few days are going to be days of multiple posts to try and catch you all up with life at Daisychain HQ, but my priority tonight is to announce the winners of the Pinterest competition that has been running over the last two weeks to celebrate the launch of my lovely new website. To remind you, the rules of the competition can be found here.

So, without further delay the winners are....

First prize of £50 gift certificate for the Daisychain Jewellery website - Kira Withers-Jones with her pin of my Luna earrings.

Source: daisychainjewellery.co.uk via Kira on Pinterest

Second prize of £30 gift certificate for the Daisychain Jewellery website - Linda Landig with her pin of my Dusky Rose pendant.

Source: daisychainjewellery.co.uk via Linda on Pinterest

Third prize of £20 gift certificate for the Daisychain Jewellery website - Sarah Goulding with her pin of my Ever Decreasing Circles pendant.

Source: daisychainjewellery.co.uk via Sarah on Pinterest

Congratualtions ladies! Emails will be on their way to you tomorrow. And a big thank you to everyone who took part in the competition!

AJE earrings challenge - reveal 4

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 21:41:00 +0000

One week I will actually publish a blog post on time for the Art Jewelry Elements earrings challenge reveal! I'm quite pleased with myself that I have made a pair of earrings for each week, even if I did get a bit behind with taking photos of them while I was setting up my new photography lights. I find earrings the hardest type of jewellery to make - they have fewer components in them than bracelets or earrings, so for me everything in them has to be perfectly balanced, and there's no room for error.


Top: Tropical Flowers, Bottom: Tropics

This week's offerings have a tropical colour scheme - partly because I want to see far more of the sun that we have started to see a bit this week, and partly because I just love the combination of brown, turquoise and deep red! Both pairs of earrings are waiting for new homes on the website here.

I'm really pleased with the earwires on the second pair. A lovely friend came round last Thursday evening so that I could show her how to make silver earwires to compliment her beautiful polymer clay beads. Joanna and I spent a fun couple of hours in the workshed melting wire into headpins, turning loops, twisting wire, and these are the earrings she made....

Aren't they beautiful? I love Joanna's beads, especially the hollow beads that she makes. And remember when you look at these that she hadn't made a single earwire before! You can see more of Joanna's work here.

New Tuition Dates available

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 15:54:00 +0000

Well, it's all change over here at Daisychain Headquarters! What do you think of the new blog look so far? Definitely more in keeping with my new website, don't you think? There are still a few bits and pieces that need tweeking, but they'll be done soon!

I put some new private tuition dates on the website late last night, and almost before I had a chance to publicise them much half of them were booked up! There are dates in May and June left, so if you would like to come along and learn how to set stones, make chains, learn how to make Keum Boo jewellery or to improve skills that you've already got please see here for more details. Dates for July will be available as soon as possible.

New look website party!

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 20:20:00 +0000

Welcome to the new look Daisychain Jewellery website party!

We've been working hard behind the scenes over the last few weeks, but it is finally time to reveal the new look Daisychain Jewellery website!

I hope that you enjoy the cleaner, fresh look and the ease of navigation around the site. Each collection of jewellery (Golden, Bloom and Unique) now has it's own section that can be found either through the drop down menu choices at the top of the page or through the beautiful carousel photos on the home page. Information on my jewellery tuition can also be found through the drop down menus, and new tuition dates will be added to the website over the weekend.

Anyway, all good parties have good bags and games don't they? Here's mine!

First of all, the goodies

Every jewellery order of £30 or more placed before 15th March will receive a complimentary pair of sterling silver Loveheart earrings as shown above. This design isn't available to buy on the website yet, and would make a lovely treat for yourself or a friend - or maybe even a Mother's Day gift!

And the game
As I seem to spend a fair bit of time on Pinterest at the moment, I thought I'd make the competition a Pinterest one. You will see that each piece of jewellery on the Daisychain Jewellery website has a "Pin It" button beneath the main product image. Simply pin an image of your favourite design (or designs!) to your Pinterest boards before midday GMT on Friday 15th March to enter the competition. I can easily see who has pinned which image from the website, and all pinners will be entered into a draw to win the following:

First prize - £50 gift certificate to be spent on the Daisychain Jewellery website
Second prize - £30 gift certificate to be spent on the Daisychain Jewellery website
Third prize - £20 gift certificate to be spent on the Daisychain Jewellery website

There are, of course, a few rules:

Only pins of items of jewellery from the Daisychain website (www.daisychainjewellery.co.uk) pinned before midday GMT on Friday 15th March will be entered into the draw.
The competition is available to both UK and overseas residents
Each time you pin an image of a different piece of Daisychain jewellery you will be entered into the draw - so the more pins you do, the more chances you have to win!
Gift certificates remain valid for a year from 15th March 2013 (i.e. they expire at midnight on 15th March 2014) and are only eligible on the Daisychain website (www.daisychainjewellery.co.uk)
Your Pinterest account must include a method by which I can contact you if you have won (e.g. a link to your Facebook account, a link to a blog, an email addres etc). Winners will be contacted by the end of Sunday 17th March. If any winners do not respond to that contact by Friday 22nd March the names of new winners will be drawn. The names of winners will also be listed on my website and here on my blog.

Remember, the more images you pin, the more chances you have to win!

Good luck!

So excited!

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 14:22:00 +0000

Today's the day when lots of hard work behind the scenes by me, my lovely friend Nicky and the equally lovely people at Big Front Door will finally pay off! Hopefully - I am keeping my fingers crossed as when I'm doing something like this I always have a last minute panic that some gremlins are going to get involved.

Anyway, what have we been doing? Only building a brand new fantastic completely new look website, that's what! I am so excited it's ridiculous! I've pressed the buttons to tell the web and google and any one else who needs to know that my website is moving, so sometime before tomorrow morning this front page....

will be replaced with this one..... (maybe with a different photo as I've got a loop of gorgeous photos in a carousel)

I'm having giveaways and competitions and lots of lovely things to celebrate over the weekend, so do come back for more information - or even better sign up for my newsletter or follow me on Facebook by following the links on the left to get the information as soon as I write it!

AJE Component of the Month - Giveaway!

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 15:45:00 +0000

First of all, thank you so much for the lovely comments on my Mum's earrings in yesterday's post. It was so nice to wake up to them this morning!

Secondly, GIVEAWAY!! Did that grab your attention? Good! It was my turn to create something new for the AJE Component of the Month challenge. The challenge itself isn't until next month, but so that I can get the components out to the challengees early enough I've reveal them today. As I'm enjoying making hollow beads so much at the moment I thought that I'd make some for the challenge, and here they are!

Antiqued copper hollow lentil-shaped beads, measuring approximately 15mm in diameter and with the holes running across the beads. If you would like the chance to win one and take part in the challenge then visit the AJE blog and leave your details in the post comments before Friday midday eastern time. Winners will be revealed on Friday evening - good luck!

P.S. these are not available in my Daisychain Extra shop yet - but watch this space!

Very special recycling

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 22:41:00 +0000

I've got a very special project to show you today, one that I was rather nervous about but thankfully turned out very well!

My Mum has recently been dropping hints about wanting a pair of gold earrings - the type of hints that were accompanied by a little plastic bag with parts of a couple of broken gold earrings and a few other scraps as well! As it was her birthday on 15th February I decided that that was the time for gold earrings. Fancy seeing how I made them? I'm afraid that the pictures aren't the prettiest as they were quick snaps of work in progress, but there are pretty pictures at the end, promise.

First up was melting the scrap into a ball on my charcoal block. Doesn't look particularly pretty at this point, does it? I then realised that to make the type of earrings I had in mind I would need some more gold, so I took out of my Grandma's old jewellery box a couple of old broken earrings of hers that I'd been keeping to melt to make something special. Perfect for a new pair of earrings for Mum! A bit of weighing scrap and a bit more melting and I had two nuggets of gold of as closely the same size as possible. 3g of 9k gold is about £30 worth of gold!

My plan was to use the rolling mill to turn the nuggets into little pieces of sheet as oval as possible, so I hammered them first to speed things up a bit and passed them through the rolling mill lots (and lots!) of times, making sure that they were the same way round each time to stretch them out into ovals. A little bit of filing to make sure that they were the same shape and size and they would have been ready for hammering......but I decided that I wanted to make them thicker and a different shape so I melted them again, into one bigger nugget this time!

And, after hammering with my favourite hammer, soldering on stud fittings and polishing, this is what I ended up with (here are the pretty pictures!). I think that I was more nervous about giving Mum these earrings than I have been about any other piece of jewellery I made for her. I don't think it was because they're gold, I think it was more about where the gold came from, but I do like the idea that I made Mum a pair of earrings from gold recycled from her old jewellery and her Mum's old jewellery. Much better than old broken pieces sitting at the bottom of a jewellery box! Mum put them in as soon as she opened the box, which is always a good sign.