Competition! Win a Beautiful Handmade Bracelet

You can win a beautiful handmade bracelet, made by myself from Leopard skin jasper and turquoise beads, wrapped with sterling silver wire.

All you have to do is go to our Facebook page (linked below) and share any of our links on that page (thats hit the share button not the like button):

here: http://www.facebook.com/wireandicejewelry

 

Alternatively, you can share the link to this competition on your Facebook page

The more links you share, the more times your name gets entered into the hat.

On the 1st of December 2011, we will then collect all of the names of those who have shared links on our Facebook site and place them in a virtual hat and randomly pick the winner. The winner will be announced on this blog and on our Facebook page Wire and Ice

The competition is open to worldwide users and I’m happy to pay the postage, but if you live outside the UK you’ll have to be responsible for any customs charges: although there shouldn’t be any as it’s a gift.

Handmade bracelet competition prize

Legal bit (sorry!):

By accepting a prize, all winners agree that the Host  will have no liability whatsoever for, and will be held harmless by winner for any liability for any injury, loss or damages of any kind, to winner or other persons, including (without limitation) injuries, loss or damages arising out of or relating to death, and, injuries, damages or losses to property, due in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, from the acceptance, possession, use or misuse of the prize or participation in this promotion.

Newcastle Craft Mafia

Last night I attended my first meeting of the Newcastle Craft Mafia.

Newcastle Craft Mafia is a group of people who are all handmade artists from a variety of areas and walks of life. They are highly talented and enthusiastic and I feel quite honoured to be part of their team.

Here are just a few of the handmade loveliness created by some of the team members but you can see more in the online shop

Traditional English printed fabric purse

Bird Postage Stamp Pendant

Nigella Bracelet

Contemporary Lace panel

It was a meeting of enthusiasm and vision and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Exciting things are afoot for Newcastle, which will open up the world of handmade to the north east of England.

I will say nothing more except…watch this space…

Indie Junction Artistes Extrodinaire (sounds posh but they aren’t, believe me)

I’m a member of a fabulous Etsy Team called Indie Junction. It was started by two wonderful women, Nicky Vee and Deb Hall.

It is a truly eclectic mix of artists, designers and makers. Not only are they a talented bunch but they are often the sweetest, kindest, cheekiest and funny people I have ever, not quite met in person.

One of the nicest features of being a member of the Junction, is the chat facility, where I can find myself completely immersed in crazy conversation when I should, in fact, be working.

So on that note, I just wanted to share some of the lovely creations of the Indie Junction clan:

p.s. Did I mention that Indie Junction is also an Etsy Team

Bitch Notecards for that special someone

Just beautifully wrapped ernite briolette

Janine Basil's unique approach to millinery

Stunning tribal bead sewing from Bernice

Sunshine and bubbles

Sublime beauty in the form of steam punk

Byzantium wonder from Jess

Amazing handiwork of Ben

Folksy Friday: I Have a Wool fetish and I’m Not Afraid to Say It

It’s a little late in the day to do a Folksy Friday, but better late than never.

Now, although I am a jeweller, one of my other main loves is textiles. I adore textiles, always have since I was a child and my dress maker mother would take me to the fabric shops in town. One if my true loves is wool. I think I may have a  fetish. It is very difficult for me to stop myself from buying lots of woolies and it’s just as well that I’m not a millionaire, otherwise my house would collapse under the weight of them all.

However, I do splash out on handmade woolies as they are, without doubt, often the best a girl can get. Even when the sun is shining, you can still use the odd woolie to accent your bikini.

So, in honour of wollie makers on Folksy, here is my Folksy friday selection of wonderful woolies:

I have to start my selection with MrsGKnits as I am her biggest fan. Her work is always of high quality and beautiful. I have bought a number of things from her for both myself and family.

Here is one of my latest purchases – the colour is divine:

MrsGKnits Spring Poncho

One mother of a cowl from Urban Knit

Grape Cowl!

Anda  droolable cardie by Ileaiye

Droolable Ileaiye

A rather lovely tote to go with your outfit by Mothers Ruin (how aptly named for me)

Wonderful tote

And the stuff woolies are made of from Abstract Cat Crafts:

Alpaca wool

And its not strictly wearable  but how cute is Oddsox’s HooterNinnie!

Cute HooterNinnie

“House of Gems” Flickr Group Contest

I’m entering the Flickr group House of Gems contest which has a number of prizes:

Grand Prizes (Two): $250 each, free merchandise of your choice.

Second Prizes (Two): $100 each, free merchandise of your choice.

Third prizes (Six): $50 each, free merchandise of your choice.

I’m entering so far two new necklaces. The first is a pearl necklace, which I will show you how I made here.

The necklace was based on 8-10mm freshwater peacock blue pearls. the pearls themselves are utterly gorgeous in both form and colour. I created a number of oval shaped sterling silver links to create the pearl chain.

You can create oval links by making up sterling silver rings. Once they are soldered, pickled and tumbled, you then simply use a pair of jewellery pliers to pull the ring into an oval shape: place the pliers into the ring, taking care to place the pliers offset against the soldered part (i.e. dont lie the pliers on the soldered part) and then pull the pliers apart until the ring becomes oval shaped. I then hammered the ovals to give them a bit of sparkle.

I wire wrapped each pearl using sterling silver 0.7mm wire, creating a hoop to attach to the links. I joined these up to form the main chain. I then created an encrusted pearl pendant to hang from the chain using, again, wire wrapped pearls and my own oval sterling silver rings.

Making the ring into an oval shape

Hammering the oval

Wrapping the pearls

Here is the result:

UK Handmade Magazine: Spring Edition

UK Handmade are an organisation that I am proud to be part of. They help to promote, advise and inspire the  handmade artist in the UK.

As well as having a thriving community of artists and crafters, UK handmade do a quarterly magazine filled with the work of artists and crafters. They also have interesting and stimulating articles on a range of issues that affect the handmade community.

Take a look at the spring edition of UK handmade magazine.

Mellow Yellow

Yellow is a most under-rated colour. It has dual meanings of cowardice and sunshine / death and hope: What a complicated colour it is.

My Folksy friday this week will be one to commemorate the colour yellow, in all its glory.

Click on the images to find out more about each piece.

Photos by Rosie: Sunshine

POTSTOP: Yellow Bowl

Ich Bin: Yellow Canary Bird Necklace

Cherished Stained Glass: Daffodil Suncatcher

Oh HUzzah! I Won The Prettiest Moon

How lucky am I.

I won another blog giveaway and this time it was the prettiest, sweetest moon beam.

As a jewellery artist, I really appreciate the love and care that goes into making handmade pieces of jewellery. The jewellery artist that held the competition was Sophie Franck of Trinket Box Jewellery. All of her jewellery is pretty, these earrings for example are just gorgeous:

This is what I did with my moonbeam charm. I added it to a fine silver chain and hey presto, the most beautiful, delicate neckalce:

Moon on a chain

Thank you Sophie, it has come to a good home and I am ‘over the moon’ with it XX

The Trial and Tribulations of Making Handmade: Hard Decisions

One of the problems in the handmade community, is educating the buying public about the differences between something made by the hand of an artist/crafter and something that is produced, en masse.

Before I start this post, let me explain that I don’t want to create a  war between manufactured goods and handmade goods. Ultimately it is up to the consumer which they prefer. However, I am hoping that this post might give an insight into the differences between the two. One of the areas that may seem to be different is that of quality control. In industry QC is used to assure a level of quality for the goods manufactured, it is performed by specialised groups within the industry, often at the end of the manufacturing process.

However, making goods by hand comes with inbuilt QC. The creation process itself creates an intrinsic quality control, because the piece will have been laboured over and even tears may have been shed during its construction. Because the makers love what they do and have made a life choice, not just a career choice, to create handmade goods, the love, care and joy they have for their craft becomes associated with their work. The process of creation itself, ensures that the goods will be of the highest standard possible for that person.

The main difference, then, between handmade and manufactured is the human touch. The intrinsic link between the maker, the piece and the buyer, cannot be overstated.

This post is about how making something by hand, often means you have to make hard decisions to make sure that the joy, love and integrity of your work is retained and passed down to the person who buys it.

Making the Necklace: The Story Begins

Over the past few day I have been making  a necklace. The necklace was made by creating, sterling silver links. The links were formed by hand using pliers, into a looped shape, the ends of which were soldered to form closed loops. The links had to then be pickled and tumbled to clean them up and make them shine. This first part which included tumbling the silver links, took about a day and half for them to be ready for the next stage.

Once the links were ready, I then had to wire wrap the green moss agate beads onto the links. This was a laborious task and I kept getting back ache, so I did it over 2 sessions, each of which lasted around 2 hours. Finally I had the basis of the necklace and to complete it I added a hand-made extender chain (again made from linked that were forged: soldered, pickled and cleaned) and a clasp.

Once finished, I looked again at the necklace and there was just something not right about it.

The Hard Decision

I took it to my hardest critics (my family and friends). They all loved it and said it was a nice piece. Yet still, I didn’t like it and my dislike was growing. Now remember, this piece had taken a long time to make and used up my precious and expensive, starting materials. However, I continued to feel something wasn’t right and I just could not put my finger on why. I tried to look at the necklace from different viewpoints, using different lengths and trying it on, to find a feel for it, but still, I didn’t like it.

I have now had to make the hard decision to de-construct the necklace. And because the stones were wire wrapped onto the links, it means that the silver used to wrap the beads, will be cut off, making it unusable in that form: however it will be recycled. It’s a very hard decision to make and I havent come up with a replacement design for the links yet either, but it has to be done. I am very unhappy about it.

As the maker of the necklace I have to feel that I have done my best by the person who will ultimately own and wear the necklace. As the maker, the level of quality control that I apply to my designs, I believe, cannot possibly be equaled by a mass manufacturing company. Makers all over the world will understand why I have to essentially kill something I have created, because it does not feel ‘right’, even if everyone else says they like it. I have to imbue my pieces with my own confidence and assurance that they are what I meant to create and that I am proud to unleash on the buying public.

Fortunately, this doesnt happen to me too often!

For those interested you can see the necklace here – say goodbye!

Handmade all the way.

The Sun God Has Risen

At last, I have finished the necklace ‘Homage to the Sun God‘, see earlier post.

The final stages included soldering the rays to the surface of the Sun – ironically you seemed to need temperatures that normally are only found at the centre of the Sun to get the things to bond!

The problem being that the disc is made from thick sterling silver and so was acting like a heat sink, allowing the heat to flow away from the solder. Took some doing, but eventually the solder flowed and the rays became part of the Sun.

In the meantime, I also created a bezel cup in which to sit the heliodor beryl gemstone. I decided that I would sit the beryl unconventionally, upside down, to have the effect of the sun’s flames coming out from the belly of the Sun. The bezel cup was slightly sunk into the Sun disc to house the beryl.

After that the next most difficult part was to clean up the disc, as I couldn’t tumble it, as the bezel housing for he beryl is quite delicate, so it became very laborious and took a number of goes with varying grades of wet and dry and then finally very fine wire wool and soap, to make the Sun shine.

I then drilled a hole into the Sun disc from which the Sun hangs via a silver hook to the chain.

After that the beryl was fitted into the cup and the necklace was complete and the Sun finally rose.

Here are a few images of it. I’ll be listing it on Etsy and Folksy very soon. What’s particularly nice about this necklace is that it can be word with the Sun pendant or without a chain on its own. So you can have your crazy pendant days or your much quieter chain only days.

Homage to the Sun God

me wearing the Sun God

A Different View of the Sun God Necklace