Edinburgh jeweller

I've been working on some chain making over the last few months. This piece is made of bronze and silver clay links. The bronze is Goldie Bronze . This is a clay that you mix up yourself from powder. I mixed a 50/50 mix of hard and soft bronze clay. I shaped the bronze links and fired them in carbon as instructed. They came out well fired. The silver links are Art Clay silver new formula . I made the links, dried them, cut them, reformed them in between the bronze and torch fired each link separately. It does take a bit of work! I'm pleased with this as my first metal clay chain. Using the bronze makes it more affordable than just using silver. I also had a go at some more traditional chain making with copper and sterling silver. I did the chain making course at the London Jewellery School and enjoyed focussing on soldering for the day. We learnt to make our own jump rings, textured them and soldered them into a chain.

This is re-blogged from a blog post I wrote for the London Jewellery School  that was published last week In the jewellery workshop – making your own pickle Jewellers pickle is an acid used for getting rid of firescale on metal, particularly after  soldering . Many people are wary about having it in the home, especially those of us with small children or animals. I made do without having it in my home jewellery studio for quite a while because I work in professional jewellery studios where I could easily just pickle my pieces when I was there for teaching. However, I had an urgent commission recently and found I didn’t have time to get to the studio. So, what to do? I googled it (of course) and found that there are ways to make pickle from substances that you have in the home. And so I had a go at making it myself and found that it was very effective and had other benefits. So, this is how I went about it. I found this  blog post by jeweller Jo Hollingsworth ...

Enamelled and bejewelled chain from the Cheapside Hoard This week I was really pleased to get the chance to visit the Cheapside hoard at the Museum of London . The collection is made up of priceless jewellery from the late 16th and early 17th century. It was discovered buried in a cellar in Cheapside, City of London in 1912 and is exhibited in it's entirety for the first time. As it is worth so much the security is very high. You are not allowed bags or coats and must pass through a security gate. Once you do get through you are treated to a room full of gorgeous stones and jewellery. I particularly loved the enamelled chain (pictured here) which I stared at for a very long time! No one knows why it was buried which lends to the mystery surrounding this beautiful collection. I recommend you see it if you can.

A new BBC comedy starts tonight called Me and Mrs Jones (BBC1, 9.30pm). It stars Sarah Alexander, Neil Morrissey, Nathaniel Parker and Robert Sheehan. Before filming for the show commenced, I was excited to be commissioned to make a 'good luck' pendant for Sarah Alexander, who has the title role. And what's more she is wearing her pendant in this BBC interview ! It is a handmade silver pendant with 'Mrs Jones' written on the front and a message from her children on the back.  I'm looking forward to watching the series and I'll keep an eye out to see if she is wearing any of my jewellery on the show! I'll keep you posted!

A friend of ours, Sarah, has a mini-festival in her garden each year. She has bands, DJs, a bouncy castle, nail painting, henna tattoos and camping. This is the second year that it has run and the second year that we have gone. It was a lovely day, fortunately and Sarah had asked me to bring along some jewellery to sell. I haven't sold at any festivals before so I didn't really know what to expect but was pleasantly surprised. I set up on a blanket and wrote my prices on a paper plate (not totally organised!) I sold a few licorice allsort bracelets and the silver hummingbird pendant went to a good home which was great. We enjoyed a barbeque for dinner, loved the live music (including a singer accompanied by a cellist - loved their rendition of Raspberry Beret) and the fire breathing. Many people went home but there were a few campers left to enjoy sitting around the fire with marshmallows watching out for falling stars. I got a go on the bouncy castle which I always enjo...

Jenna Odie of Cute Kids clocks featured my busy bee cufflinks in her blog today. Thanks so much Jenna. Take a look at her range of custom made Cute Kids Clocks

Ring, resin charm, domed earrings, leaf charm, bezel set pendant The final day of the intermediate course. Sandra and I arrived at about 9.10 and got started straight away. There was a lot of finishing to do! Everything had come out of the kiln OK which was a relief! I spent a lot of time on my bezel set stone pendant. I really don't like it! But at least it passed in the end. I had to raise the stone up slightly with copper wire to get it to sit right - such a nightmare! Took three attempts! It polished up pretty well and is slightly reminiscent of a peacock feather which was the plan. I don't think I'll be doing a bezel setting again! We had to make some domed earrings which was done by laying the clay over ping pong balls. I used a cuttlefish as a texture and I was quite pleased with it but unfortunately it didn't pass because the texture on the two earrings are so different. I then had a nightmare when drilling them, the hole is not in the right place. So I sus...

Licorice allsorts necklace I've had a very busy weekend of jewellery making with beads. I had a great commission from a colleague at work to make a licorice allsort necklace, earrings and a love hearts necklace and earrings.  I love the chain of the love hearts necklace, it's the heart link silver chain I bought at Hatton Garden this week. Love Hearts silver necklace I am also in a BNR for the first time! BNR stands for Buy 'N Replace (or buy now replace). Basically, there is a page of sixteen shops on Etsy. If you buy something from one of those sixteen shops you replace the shop you buy from. It is a good idea as many people who make handmade items like to buy them. I bought a brooch I had my eye on anyway from 7071 designs . So, I bought in on Saturday and then started making more items. We managed to photograph them this morning with the help of some rare sunlight! And then I was able to list nine new pieces (it was a very busy Saturday!). I sold this silver l...