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.

Beads Perles Interview with Lynwood Jewellery

Bi Lingual site ‘Beads Perles’ who specialise in interviewing the participants in the handmade jewellery movement, have done an interview with me today on their blog.  Hope you find it interesting!

'Leaves of Grass' from the Lynwood Jewellery Hidden range

The Saxon Hoard from Staffordshire and My Own Homage to the Hoard

The recent Anglo Saxon Hoard found in Staffordshire, here in the UK, was one of the most important, as well as large finds of Anglo Saxon treasure. The history of the pieces are still being investigated but you can see the workmanship is simply stunning. Gold is used as the main metal and garnet seems to be the stone of choice (perhaps to symbolise blood as the hoard seems to be mainly military in purpose).

Fish and eagles from the Saxon Hoard copyright image The Portable Antiquities Scheme

I love the use of swirls in saxon metal work and so I decided to make my own homage to the Saxon Hoard using sterling silver.

I drew out my idea, which was to use a a rectangle of sterling silver sheet to create a scrolled template, upon which would sit wire work swirls.

Step 1: Creating the scrolled silver template

To form the scrolls, I had to fold the two ends of the rectangle over: A silver snake chain would be passed through one of the scrolls to hang the pendant from. To soften the silver to allow me to work it, I first had to anneal it. Annealing silver involves heating the metal evenly, until it glows a dull red, then quenching it in cold water.

Once the silver was annealed I placed it in a vice. I held a steel rod of the correct circumference under the end of the silver and using a hammer I evenly hammered across the end surface to fold the end over to form the scroll.

I then pickled the template and cleaned it ready for applying the wirework

Steel rod used to form the scroll

Almost finished the scrolls

Step 2: Applying the wirework

Using 1.0mm sterling silver wire, I created 10 small swirls of wire, by wrapping the end of the wire around a pair of round nose pliers and folding the wire round this starting point to create a swirl.

I then cut 10 small pieces of medium solder.

I placed the wire swirls onto the template, where they would be soldered. I placed a small piece of the solder in the middle of the swirl.

I then fluxed the whole piece and using a large torch I heated the entire piece until the solder flowed.

Once the swirls were soldered I pickled and cleaned the pendant.

Preparing to solder the wire work swirls

Stewing the silver in acid to remove any fire staining after soldering

Ready to be tumbled and polished

And here is the finished pendant, hung from the silver chain.

Finished

Jewelry and Fashion: Vintage Statement Jewelry

Egyptian Revival Scarab Necklace

As I’ve mentioned before, in my opinion, jewellery and fashion are different sides of the same coin.

The fashion world dictates styles and the colour palette of any given season and often jewellery designs will follow suit to make sure that you can mix and match jewellery with the current trends.

However, jewellery can also transcend fashion and good quality, well designed, vintage pieces will almost always stand out in their own right and can be worn with almost anything.

I was lucky enough recently, to find a beautiful Egyptian Revival piece from the 20′s that was most likely made to commemorate the opening of Tutankhamun‘s tomb. It’s not to everyone’s taste, as it is a big piece, but it looks fantastic with any outfit (even my pyjamas).

It is a winged creature with a  central scarab – I’m not entirely sure what stone is used to make the scarab (sort of looks like turqoiuse). Inset into the silver of the beast, are turquoise and sea

jasper cabuchons. The chain is my own.

I’ve worn it to meetings and it is very noticeable.

Statement necklaces however, are not for the faint hearted. People do make comments, both nice ones and not so nice ones. But if you can accept that you are your own person and don’t mind a bit of attention, then the statement necklace is a great way to stand out from the crowd and to make what you are wearing very memorable.

Folksy Friday: White as the Driven Snow

I thought now that the sunshine is out, it’d be appropriate to do  Folksy Friday to remind us of the lovely snow we had this last winter.

I am of course being sarcastic, as it was awful, at one point I forgot what the world was like when it wasnt covered in thick white stuff.

So to commemorate this:

here’s some ideas for a whiter than white outfit:

The White Queen by April is Forever Jewellery

White Jaquard Cocktail dress by Fashion Couture

White Disco Earrings by Emily Storm Designs

Pure as the Driven Snow Bracelet

And to complete the look:

White headband by Janine Basil

I’m afraid you’ll have to find your own shoes as Folksy doesn’t seem to have white shoes for women – unless you know better?

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

Fashion and Jewellery

I recently read a very interesting article in Professional Jeweller Magazine about how jeweller must collaborate more with the fashion industry.

I couldn’t agree more. The great thing about both fashion and jewellery is that there is such a massively wide choice, varying from the very conservative and understated, to the wild and wacky. What I find most interesting, is when you team up a very conservative work suit or dress, with an ‘in your face’ piece of statement jewellery.  Lets put it this way, I’ve done exactly that myself and it certainly gets you noticed. You do have to have enough confidence to do it of course, then again, the act of wearing either statement fashion or statement jewellery, in itself, can add a layer of confidence to the wearer – almost like a mask to hide your shyness.

Conversely, wearing a very bright and colorful outfit with an understanded bracelet or necklace, can strangely have the opposite effect to that expected, i.e. instead of the outfit detracting from the understated jewellery, it actually accentuates it.

An example of using bold statement necklaces with conservative clothes would be this gorgeous Paul & Joe dress with the Homage to the Sun God necklace

Paul & Joe Dress from The Outnet

Homage to the Sun God Statement Necklace

Lynwood Jewellery Featured on Lovely Clusters

I am very pleased today as our jewellery has been featured on the blog Lovely Clusters by Rachel Follett.

Lovely Clusters is one of the top 50 design blogs as seen in the Times newspaper

Thank you Rachel x

Gorgeous Notepads from Rachel of Lovely Clusters

One of Lynwood Jewellery's featured bracelets on Lovely Clusters

Tribal Jewellery

As anyone who reads this blog knows, I am very much into ancient cultures and mythology. So I have decided to start a new range of jewellery created by Lynwood Jewellery called our Tribal Jewellery range.

The range will be mainly necklaces with some bracelets (I’m currently working on a bracelet at the minute). I want to work in earthy colours and have chosen stones such as dusty pink rhodonite and the beautiful brown hues of brecciated jasper, to incorporate into the range.

I am also, of course, using silver for central pieces such as hearts and chains, but I am augmenting this with greek leather and suede thongs to complete the piece.

The bracelet I am working on at the moment has a silver heart accented with a silver and leather chain. The next piece will use a mixture of turquoise and brecciated Jasper stones as the necklace and a rare Biggs Jasper pendant will complete the tribal feel.

The overall effect is to give the wearer a very distinctive and individual piece of jewellery, that uses tones and colours that touch on the whole tribal trend being seen in jewellery  minute.

You can see some of our tribal pieces on our website here.

Here is a look at that Biggs Jasper piece before I set it:

Our latest rhodonite tribal necklace:

Rhodonite tribal necklace

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