Further progress with tree ring design piece

I've made good progress with the silver holder for my felt spiral. I am now a little further on than the pictures show, and have cut off the excess base plate shown in the last picture.

For earlier WIP posts about this piece, see here and here

The shape of puffins

Puffins in the Farne Islands, June 2007

I've had these photos in the back of my mind since deciding on the Coast theme for this design project. I think I'd like to use shapes from the puffins, particularly that glorious beak, in a jewellery design. The end result probably wouldn't be puffin-shaped.

Tree ring design work in progress update

Both rings made from square wire have now been bent and soldered. The bezel is soldered to the back/front plate and the plate has been pierced close to the bezel, but more filing is required to neaten the edge.

The previous work in progress post on this piece is here.

Pacific wave

A photo for my Coast theme design project, taken in La Jolla, California in February this year. More lovely blues, and a whole range of wave shapes. Even a tiny bird silhouette!

Scallop earrings after polishing

These silver earrings were seen as work in progress here. They were made using the project instructions on p68-69 in Creative Silver Chains by Chantal Lise Saunders.

Fold-formed necklace is finished!

The necklace is finished - for now anyway. I am still unsure about this, and may divide it into two necklaces in the future - (i) the chain and (ii) the pendant on a black cord, or on several coloured strands.

I'm also toying with the idea of seeing what liver of sulphur does to the silver fold-formed pieces.

Fold-formed necklace nearly finished

The fold-formed necklace is nearly finished.

I decided that 5 links of the oval chain on each side was adequate; there was a danger I'd produce a mayoral chain by adding more. Instead a purchased silver chain with oval links was used to add length. I made an S clasp from 1 mm wire for fastening.

The necklace is now ready to tumble polish.

Scallop earrings before polishing

I made these following the project on p68-69 in Creative Silver Chains by Chantal Lise Saunders. They still need to be tumble polished, but I think they look pretty good already. Each one has two curved pieces of wire, and the fish shape is not fixed because each curved bit of wire can move independently where it hangs from the ear wire.

I made these because I was looking for rather quicker gratification than I can get from my evening class pieces, which may take weeks to complete. However, as a side benefit, making these earrings has given me some ideas for the Coast design project, particularly regarding making jewellery based on the shapes of waves and ripples.

Globetrotting ring

This ring of mine gets about a bit! It was last seen posing in North Yorkshire in this post. Now here it is in La Jolla, California. Click on the picture to enlarge. The ring has a rather splendid shadow in this picture.

Tree ring design: I've started to make it at last!

It seems as if I've been working on this for months, probably because I have, but I'm pleased to say that I have at last started to make my tree ring design brooch. The design has been discussed previously in 1, 2, 3 and 4.

So far I've soldered the bezel, and have bent the first of the two wire shapes, though it hasn't been soldered yet. The design was discussed with a different tutor this week, who pointed out that I'll need to join the wire rings somehow on the side without the setting.

Supplies by post/mail

Like many of my fellow students I order my silver and other jewellery supplies online from a company based in Birmingham. It is always fun ordering and as the items are usually delivered the next day, the fun of the parcel follows quickly.

Each item in the parcel is separately labelled. The labels carry your own name. This can be useful at the evening class as it helps us stop getting stuff mixed up between us. The labels also include the name of the person at the company who has cut your length of wire or whatever. It is not uncommon for about six different people to have contributed to one of my parcels.

In spite of that personal touch, the added layer of distance provided by internet ordering does affect what I buy. On a recent order I was getting worried at the mounting cost, so bought just 20 cm of one type of wire, as that was all I really needed. I would probably have been embarrassed to ask for so little in person. As it is, the employee named on the label probably had a few thoughts about the extreme parsimony of this particular customer!

Democratic jewelry making?

Results of online poll: an experiment in democratic jewellery making

The pie chart shows the result of my online poll that finished on 4 March. I had suspected that the poll might receive no votes at all, so I was pleasantly surprised that there were six votes cast in addition to my own.

The poll concerned possible configurations of a necklace made up of a fold-formed pendant and chain of oval links. There were three options, and each voter could vote for only one. The options were named Jaunty C, Inverted U and U.

I was the only person to vote for the U configuration! The Jaunty C was the most popular.

I then asked the same question of my fellow students and tutor at the evening class. This was a rather different situation as we had the pieces in front of us, and a consensus was reached by discussion. In the end, it was a case of picking the least bad option, rather than a vote for a clearly preferred arrangement. There was some support for the Inverted U because of the symmetry between the curves of the pendant and chain. However, there was a widely held view that this arrangement looked too much like a cult symbol for comfort. Jaunty C, the most popular in the online poll, was rejected because of its resemblance to the letter C. This would make the necklace unsuitable for anyone whose name didn't begin with C. There was even a comment that it looked very like the C for a (probably) famous brand of lager. I've checked, and it does. So that left the U configuration.

Taken together, the two polls cancel each other out. Looks like I'll have to make my own decision after all!

This has been an interesting exercise. I enjoyed setting up the online poll, and seeing the number of votes gradually increase. It has made me realise that it is a good idea to seek others' opinions, even if you still follow your own view in the end. I would probably (pun intended) never have noticed the similarity to the beer logo on my own.

My thanks to the online voters - you made my day!

Oval link chain progress

The picture shows some tulips and the chain for my fold-formed pendant. The chain is gradually taking shape - the oval links are now joined with soldered 6 mm rings made from 0.8 mm round wire. The rings have been stretched slightly from round to oval to make the chain more flexible.

The online poll in which people could vote for their favourite arrangement of the components of my necklace has now closed. Thank you to those who voted! I was delighted that people took part, and I will be filling the space on the right of the blog with a new poll just as soon as I can think of a suitable topic. Results of the poll will be in a future post.

Aerial Utah

A view from a plane over Utah 10 days ago. I love the pattern and the lack of scale. Unfortunately it doesn't fit my Coast theme at all!