Karen & La Vidalerie
Hi, I'm in my 7th year of running fabulous jewellery making holidays in the beautiful Aveyron in SW France with my partner Tim. Workshops from beading to silversmithing, glass fusing to fold forming & lots more.
When I'm not doing this I make artisan silver jewellery and a wide range of handmade findings, charms and ear wires for jewellery makers, oh and manage our army of ginger cats. www.lavidalerie.com
-
Recent Posts
Categories
- Bangles
- Bracelet
- Brooches
- Choo Choo
- Earrings
- Etching
- Fold Forming
- Fused Glass
- Fusing Silver
- Ginger Cats
- Giveway
- Glass Fusing
- Handmade Charms
- Handmade Clasps
- Handmade Ear Wires
- Jewellery
- Jewellery making workshops
- Kits
- Necklaces
- Out and About
- Oxidised
- Pendants
- Rings
- Riveting
- Rolling Mill
- Sea Glass
- Silversmithing Workshop
- stamped jewellery
- step by step
- stone setting
- Students Work
- tutorial
- Uncategorized
Popular Posts
Posts by Month
- March 2017 (1)
- January 2017 (1)
- July 2016 (5)
- September 2015 (1)
- August 2015 (1)
- July 2015 (1)
- May 2015 (1)
- April 2015 (8)
- February 2015 (1)
- January 2015 (3)
- November 2014 (2)
- October 2014 (27)
- September 2014 (2)
- July 2014 (1)
- May 2014 (24)
- April 2014 (3)
- March 2014 (4)
- February 2014 (3)
- January 2014 (3)
- Bangles Bracelet Brooches Choo Choo Earrings Etching Fold Forming Fused Glass Ginger Cats Giveway Glass Fusing Handmade Charms Handmade Clasps Handmade Ear Wires Jewellery Jewellery making workshops Necklaces Out and About Oxidised Pendants Rings Riveting Rolling Mill Sea Glass Silversmithing Workshop step by step stone setting Students Work tutorial Uncategorized
Category Archives: Handmade Ear Wires
GiveAway No 2 – Wild Garden Straights
GIVEAWAY No2 ! Ear Wires Week –
Beautiful Wild Garden Straights Interchangeable Ear Wires
These ear wires are pretty enough to wear on their own but you can add and change the dangles when you want.
To win a pair just…
1 – Add a comment – Pearls or Turquoise ?
2 – Share !!!
3 – Like this post
Do all of that and you’ll be in the draw to win a pair – ends midnight tonight 26.7.16
http://www.lavidalerie.com/EarWires/Wild-Garden-Straights.html – Just £4 a pair !
Remember to check back Wednesday for 3rd giveaway
Posted in Giveway, Handmade Ear Wires, Uncategorized
GIVEAWAY – Week of Ear Wires & a Passion for Handmade
Anyone who knows me knows I have a passion for handmade and that includes ear wires. I believe that every pair of earrings that you design deserves a special pair of ear wires that suit the design – That’s how we ended up with over 50 ear wire designs on our website 🙂
This week I’ll be giving away a pair off handmade ear wires each day – you can enter via this blog or my FB page (here) or both.
I started late so today there will be 2 giveaways so make sure you visit later today so you don’t miss is.
The 1st giveaway is for a pair of my Long & Elegants – Gorgeous handmade silver ear wires almost beautiful enough to wear on their own but here they are with a pair of fabulous beads by Lush Lampwork (not included I’m afraid)
To win a pair just…
1 – Leave a commend with what stone etc you would hang from these
2 – Share this post
Do all of that and you’ll be in the draw to win a pair – ends midnight tonight 26.7.16
http://www.lavidalerie.com/C…/Long%20Handmade%20Earwires.htm – Just £3 a pair !
Remember to check back later today for the 2nd giveaway
Step by Step Setting Cabs using Riveting and How to Make these Mixed Metal Earrings !
I made these earrings recently and it was only when I finished that I thought what a good step by step tutorial they’d make.
Unfortunately I hadn’t taken any photos so I made different pair in a similar way and photoed each stage.

Step 1 – Cut 2 pairs of triangles our of 0.3mm copper sheet (when the earrings are riveted 2 x 0.3mm = 0.6mm a nice weight/strength for earrings

Step 5 – Pick a hole in the doming block that is slightly larger than the hole in the triangle. Use a punch to gently flare the hole outwards

Step 9 – Put the earrings together remembering to include the domed silver discs – put the silver rivets through the earrings front to back

Earrings ready to be riveted – I added an additional wire rivet near the top. – They are then ready to sand down the edges and add the ear wires.

These earrings were made in a very similar way, I punched the hole for the labradorite cab through both pieces of silver to allow the light to shine through and I riveted a bail on the top.
You can use this technique for semi-precious cabs, round fused glass cabs and domed discs.
Learning how to rivet gives you lots of options in your jewellery making – have a look here for more examples – Riveting Workshop or see more riveted jewellery made by our students on our FB page
Just a Little Bit of Snow This Year – So Far…..
For those of you who missed my snowy pictures on FB – Here are a few of the photos I have taken in our lane whilst walking Choo Choo
And these two photos I’m planning to etch into rings – I’ll post photos when I find the time to do this 😉
And Finally… Choo Choo
Do visit our website and see all the lovely new items by clicking here
And learn more about our fabulous jewellery making holidays by clicking here
Quick GiveAway – UPDATE 1.3.15 – Congratulations to Caroline J – Winner !
Add a comment with the name of our closest village to be included in the draw for a pair of my new handmade silver crescent moons – winner can choose hammered or sanded finish – Draw ends Sunday midnight 15th Feb 2015 (don’t worry if your comment doesn’t appear – they won’t until after midnight on Sunday)
Posted in Choo Choo, Earrings, Handmade Ear Wires, Jewellery, Out and About, Riveting
Tagged doming block, lhassa apso, mighty punch, semi-precious, snow
Quick GiveAway Post – Slim Leaf Handmade Earrings/EarWires
I run a number of GiveAway draws on our FaceBook page but I know that not everyone uses FB so you can enter the draw here too.
I made some of these for an order yesterday so I thought I’d make an extra pair and give them away in a draw – Super elegant, wear them just as they are or add dangles – Slim Leaf handmade sterling silver ear wires/earrings – Just add a comment to this post to be in the draw – ends midnight tonight (31st January) so hurry ! And if you want to buy a pair you’ll find them here – £5.50 a pair –http://www.lavidalerie.com/EarWires/Slim-leaf.html
OR….
Come on one of our workshops and learn how to make them yourself 😉 – http://www.lavidalerie.com/JewelleryMakingHolidaysandWorkshops.html
Days 21 to 25, Step by Step Etched Earrings & Twisted Vines
Well it turns out that sometimes I just can’t fit in running a workshop, packing orders, making orders and taking Choo Choo for his walks and updating my blog, especially when our lovely students take us out to dinner 😉
So here are a couple of things that I made in the lost days.
Etched Cosmos Earrings – Copper & Silver

The chains hang behind the copper and add lots of movement – One of a Kind Earrings – £24 – Click on the photo to buy
Step by Step

Using tweezers I applied some of the circles to my piece of copper and packing tape on the back so it doesn’t get etched.

Handmade components – Tiny handmade silver spiral charms added to pieces of silver chain * balled ear wires ready for pickling
If you fancy a go at etching email me about our jewellery making workshops !
Here are another pair of earrings I made last week – Twisted Pearl Vines
Tiny leaves cut from silver sheet and textured with real leaf skeletons with stud backs and long twisted wire makes a vine holding a small black/peacock freshwater pearl – long, extremely elegant and the pearl add a flicker of movement. Very Cute ! – £25 – You can click on the photo to buy these.
Students Work
On Friday we were very sad to say goodbye to Fran & Sue, we’d had a great week of jewellery making and I’ll be posting the photos of their creations this afternoon on FaceBook and on an extra blog posting here so follow my blog for automatic updates.
Posted in Earrings, Etching, Handmade Ear Wires, Jewellery, tutorial
Tagged cosmos earrings, salt water etching, step by step, twisted vine earrings
Glass Glass Glass… And Tiny Toadstools
Yesterday I finally got around to finishing drilling my fused dichroic glass and making it into jewellery. I don’t think anyone enjoys drilling glass, it’s a little stressful and a bit boring but I love making the glass I fuse into jewellery so it has to be done.
I really like the way these turned out, lime green glass with a dotty dichroic top layer on handmade sterling silver vine ear wires that just hook into your ear.

Turquoise Dichric Glass Earrings with handmade sterling silver beadcaps and ear wires – £20 inc postage – arrive in a cute tin
I love fusing glass whether it’s dichroic or plain, the combinations of colours your can play with are amazing and everytime I fuse a shelf something comes out that takes my breath away (usually in a good way 😉

Transparent pinky/purple dichroic glass with handmade silver beadcaps and S shaped ear wires – £21 inc postage – Arrive in a cute aluminium tin – SOLD
I like the way these ear wire turned out and will make them again – they are a larger version on my S Shaped Earwires on our website.

Soft light grey glass earrings with a dichroic stripe and handmade removeable silver tabs and handmade silver Ear wires – £20 inc postage and cute tin
These earrings are a really light soft grey (almost white) with a translucent dichroic stripe sunk into the glass and hanging on simple balled end silver ear wires . The textured silver tags can be removed.

Black & dichroic glass earrings on handmade balled end sterling silver ear wires – £19 plus postage (£1.50 unless part of a larger order) arrives in a cute tin
These are very sweet with lots of dichroic flash.
In most lights this pendant appears to be a simple rectangle of sparkly dichroic glass (colour is a little softer and slightly more purple) but if you hold it up to the light you can see a faint hidden dragonfly and turn it over and you can see the dragonfly raised. The glass has been drilled and riveted to a handmade sterling silver bail stamped with dragonflies and comes on a silver chain with handmade clasp.
If this has whet your interest why not come on one of our glass fusing workshops – 2 -3 days with 3-4 nights accommodation where you’ll learn about fusing glass and making your own silver findings to transform the glass into fabulous jewellery (without resorting to using silver plated, mass produced findings – grrrr – sorry but I hate seeing nice fused glass on sad findings.
None of the above are on my website yet and each piece is unique so when they are sold they are gone for good – you can email me if you would ike to buy a piece before it hits the website.
I popped into the garden today and couldn’t resist sharing with you these very tiny and cute toadstools – Isn’t nature wonderful !
October Make & Show Challenge – This month I have set myself the challenge to make something and post about it everyday – follow my blog for automatic updates. Some of the jewellery featured is available for sale here – http://www.lavidalerie.com/BlogJewellery.html
Posted in Fused Glass, Glass Fusing, Handmade Ear Wires, Pendants
Tagged fused glass earrings
Whoopity Hoops ! Day 6
OK, so I had problems naming these. Everyday hoops that can be dressed up. I had been working on this design for a while but the problem was stopping the hoop going completely through your ear.
So I made the hoops out of 1mm wire and soldered it onto the 0.8mm ear wire (the difference in thickness should stop them slipping all the way through), hammered the hoops to make them catch the light and balled the ends of the wires to look nice and…..
The lampwork bead shown above is by Trudi at Glitteringprize and the textured heart by me but I’m afraid these aren’t included in the £10 for the silver hoops.
Maybe I’m lazy but I love jewellery that can be dressed up or down.
Coming Soon (I hope)
This is something else I’m working on – not exactly pretty at the moment but this is a very rough prototype – earrings or pendant with lots of movement – hopefully I will develop this soon and show you the pictures.
October Make & Show Challenge – This month I have set myself the challenge to make something and post about it everyday – follow my blog for automatic updates. Some of the jewellery featured is available for sale here – http://www.lavidalerie.com/BlogJewellery.html