Making Lemonade – Or Not Wasting Beautiful Stones

A while ago I ordered some specially drilled semi-precious cabochons for a particular project, unfortunately they all arrived with damage around the large drilled holes.  The supplier kindly sent replacements but it kept bothering me that the original very beautiful, but damaged, stones were sitting sadly in their box. Here’s one of the labradorites.

I thought I could rivet on a large bail to hide the damage whilst still showing off the beautiful flash (the thickness of the stone made it a bit awkward too).

I cut 2 silver discs, rolled them to make ovals and added a spiral texture and oxidized them.

I riveted the discs together so the stone is able to swing and a silk or chain can be threaded through the top.

Not perfect but not bad for a stone that was too good for the bin and too damaged to use.

Let me know your ideas for a stone like this ?

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Jewellery for Twitchers & Walnuts & Blackberries – Days 26&27

Walnuts & Blackberries
I haven’t gone brambling since I was a child but when we had the dormice staying I collected blackberries for them everytime I took Choo Choo for a walk.  Now of course they are back in the wild but I must admit I still pick  the blackberries and eat them – it takes me right back to being a child !  Another silly pleasure is looking out for the walnuts – today I found 3 on our walk – now if I could only find a way of making them into jewellery 😉

Jewellery for Twitchers & A Leafy Ring for Brenda

Love Bird House Pendant – £28 inc postage

One of our lovely students bought my Love Bird Pendant before it reached our website and I have only just got round to making another – the birdhouse and bird started off as silver sheet and with the help of a saw and sanding sticks became this very cute necklace (ideal gift for a twitcher 😉

Etched Leaves
Don’t worry if you are think you are suffering from déja vue, I did make a similar ring recently but this one is for Brenda who liked the first one and wanted one made in her size – due to the making process each one is different.  We’ll be running etching workshops next year so do contact me if you’d like information when it’s available.

Etched Leaves Ring – £15 or £20 for the thicker version.

Today I’m doing more etching with a new pair of earrings and a BELIEVE ring so join me tomorrow to see how they turned out.

In The Clouds
This time of year we often wake up in or above the clouds, one morning Tim took his camera out early and here are a couple of his photos

Lunet – This is our nearest village  – I take in this view each morning when I walk Choo Choo

Four del Mas – a farm just down the road looking very sleepy in the morning

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

Jewellery Making Tip – Always Have A Plan B.. & C And Deep Breath ! Silver Etching

Day 16 – Not everything goes to plan and it’s always a good idea to have a plan B (I don’t believe in giving up on a piece of jewellery.  One of our lovely return customers asked me if I could make my etched copper BREATHE ring in silver and as you know I’ve recently been experimenting with silver etching and so thought this would be a good project to try.  I applied the resist to the silver and set it etching not realising that it would all happen so quickly – The end of the rectangle containing the final E was etched completely off ! and instead of a rectangle I now had a sort of sword shape – After a while and a few curses Plan B came about and I’m really glad it did – Now I have a Deep Breath Pendant instead of a BREATHE Ring (more about the ring further down).

Take a “Deep Breath” – etched and stamped silver charms with a lovely chunk of amethyst on leather – £40

I soldered a loop on the top, made a stamped Deep  charm and made a wire wrapped charm our of a chunk of Amethyst – The Breath charm is just over 5cm long plus the loop.  They all hang on a leather thong with a handmade silver clasp.  Everything was oxidized to bring out the detail and because it looked right 😉

Handmade silver hook and soldered ring

Here are the other things I etched (before oxidizing) – you can see yesterdays leaf ring.

And here is the BREATHE ring that started it all…

Tell your own story – Etched ring – £28

Fran & Sue Arrive
Today we are eagerly waiting for Fran and Sue to arrive for our Wonderful Week of Jewellery – it isn’t their first trip to La Vidalerie (far from it) and we always look forward to seeing them.  The week is loosely planned around glass fusing, etching, torch fired enamels, riveting and silversmithing – I’ll keep you updated with what we make.

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

A Different Kind of Karma & 2nd Christmas Rush – Day 14

A quick (and late) posting today as I’m in the middle of our 2nd pre Christmas rush (I wish I was so organized ;-).

I recently sold a “Different Kind of Karma” necklace to one of our lovely return customers so yesterday I started making some more

A Different Kind of Karma – handmade in silver – £25 – This one has just been sold

I really like making this necklace because each one is unique – it’s impossible to make them all the same and I think this is a good thing with handmade jewellery so you know that you are wearing something really individual and not mass produced.

Here are 3 Karma circles – they have just been fused and I deliberately overheated some of the wire so it broke and balled. The idea being that sometimes Karma can be a little strange and not follow a path.

Here they are all pickled and polished – the one on the left is going to be called “Heavy Karma” as it is a little bit chunkier than the others.

Etching Silver

I’ve also been playing with etching silver recently, it’s something I’ve been putting off as it’s a bit more complicated than salt water copper etching (which I love).  So far I’ve managed to etch a Breathe pendant and ended up with Breath as the etch was much quicker than I expected and it ate away the end completely !    I will be posting about this soon – It is a really exciting technique and one that I may bring into next years workshops to do contact me if you’d like to be kept up to date about this…..

Talking about contact…

We all love feedback so please don’t be afraid to add your comments to my postings and ask questions – otherwise I feel like I’m talking to myself, as therapeutic as that might be 😉

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