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

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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.

Riveting sterling silver & labradorite earrings – £28

Unfortunately I hadn’t taken any photos so I made different pair in a similar way and photoed each stage.

Copper & Silver Riveted Earrings Hanging on my Handmade Wild Garden Straights Ear Wires

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 2 – 2 discs cut from textured sterling silver sheet = also 0.3mm thick

Step 3 – Silver discs domed using a metal doming black

Step 4 – holes (a little smaller than diameter of domed discs) punched in copper triangles.

Mighty Punch – This was what I used to make the holes.

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 6 – Check the silver domes fit the triangles.

Step 7 – Drill 1mm holes for the 1mm rivets

Step 8 – Handmade fine silver balled end rivets (these could have been made out of sterling silver)

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.

Wild Garden Straights – handmade silver ear wires – £4 per pair

Copper & Silver Riveted Earrings Hanging on my Handmade Wild Garden Straights 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

Our lane

This is our closest village – Lunet

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

Choo Choo after his walk – His legs have turned into snowballs !

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)

Handmade silver crescent moons – Sanded finish – £5.50 a pair

Hammered Moons – £5.50 a pair

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

Applying the Resist (the parts that don’t get etched) This is a sheet of stickers for card making.

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.

Copper after etching using the salt water etching method

I cut the copper into two pieces and curved them

Handmade components – Tiny handmade silver spiral charms added to pieces of silver chain * balled ear wires ready for pickling

I polished the copper by hand to keep the lovely soft colour and tumbled the chains and ear wires 

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.

 

 

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.

Lime Green Vines – £20 inc postage – Arrive in a cute tin

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

Approx 4cm long – glass almost 2cm wide – 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.

Hidden Dragonfly Pendant – Riveted onto a handmade silver bail and hung from a silver chain – £21

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

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…..

… to stop the beads….

…or charms you might like to add falling off.

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