Trials and Tribulations: Part 2 A New Start

I recently posted about how sometimes, when you make a piece of jewellery, even though it may have taken you a long time to do, the result may not be exactly what you want. So, you have to just , start again.

Well, I did: start again, that is. I took the necklace as mentioned in the post “The trial and tribulations of making handmade: hard decisions” and made it into something else.

I had a look at the necklace and realised that I could re-use the handmade links and turn them into three bracelets. To break up the necklace, I had to cut the wrapped silver from the green moss agate beads, however that went into my scraps pot for melting down at a  later date. The links however, were fully able to be re-used. From those links I created three bracelets. One from the green moss agate beads and two others using some, quite fabulous, black freshwater pearls that I just bought.

One of the black pearl bracelets will be sold by WowThankYOu on behalf of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust

So, in the end, what seemed like a large waste of time, ended up in a good result: three bracelets, one of which, the proceeds will go to charity.

Here’s a sneak preview of one of the pearl bracelets which will be going off to the Edinburgh Assay office for hallmarking shortly:

Black pearl bracelet

I think we need more jewellery!

My jewellery escapades, have been sorely neglected on this blog for a few weeks, due to presenting the fine work of other handmade artisans. So, to amend this situation, I will show you my latest creation, entitled:

“I am finding myself becoming more and more abstracted”

I am currently working ona range of statement necklaces which I am calling ‘Totem necklaces’, mainly because they are formed from several parts, that are connected to form a pendant. This piece started out as sterling silver wire and sheet silver.

Part 1:Making the basic parts

I created semi-circles from the silver wire, soldered them, pickled them and then tumbled them.

I then formed several silver discs from sheet sterling silver

Part 2:Starting the construction

The first part of constructing the pendant, involved soldering the semicircles to each other, to form a  weave. This become more and more difficult as the piece grew, because of the heat sink effects of a larger surface area of metal. I created 2 sections of the weave, the smaller of which would be attached to the large, so that it hung below.

Once the soldering was complete I picked, cleaned off excess solder and tumbled the two sections.

Part 3:Doming the silver discs

While the two weave sections were being tumbled I used a doming block and punch to dome the silver discs, creating a concave surface. I then drilled holes into each disc to allow them to be hung from the main pendant.

Part 4: Joining the parts

Once the main two weave pieces were cleaned, I attached them using some sterling silver rings, that I had previously created (I usually make a load at once as they always come in handy).

Part 5: Completing the pendant

To complete the pendant, I attached the domed discs to the main pendant to create dangling discs. I added a Swarovski crystal to the bottom of the pendant to finish it off.

Part 6:Finishing the statement necklace

I attached the pendant via a sterling silver wire hanger to a leather necklet. In fact I am going to make 2 different length necklets to use with the pendant.

So, here is the finished piece. It’ll go on sale once it has returned from the hallmarkers:

Abstract statement necklace in silver

Abstract statement necklace in silver