Monday 25 February 2008

Sea/beach glass jewellery: an online tutorial

This tutorial by Ali Friedman is called Convertible Beach Glass Bezel and shows you how to solder silver bezel settings for pieces of beach glass, which may then be joined together to make a necklace.

See also my earlier posts about sea, beach and tumbled glass jewelry: three websites and a tutorial on tumbling bottle glass.

Friday 22 February 2008

Inspired by the sea: three websites from Orkney


Sheila Fleet's jewellery is inspired by the sky and seascape around Orkney, and in the case of this collection by a photograph of a wave (http://www.sheilafleet.co.uk/NewWave1.asp). Wonderful shapes and enamel colours.

Shoreline by Emma Thomson With textures inspired by cockle and limpet shells. (http://www.aurora-jewellery.co.uk/shoreline.asp).

Machair range from Ola Gorie. Delightful designs inspired by the machair: the sandy meadows on the Scottish west coast. (http://olagorieshop.com/finder.html?rangename=Machair:price_start=1:id=cugTN6wc)

Wednesday 20 February 2008

Tree ring design: another change!

In order to get a wider silver border around the felt circle, I have decided on another change to my tree ring design (seen previously in 1, 2, 3)

I squeezed one of the felt beads through the holes in my circle template, and found that it would go through a hole of diameter 3 mm smaller than its own diameter. So the new plan is to make a little silver cylinder with a hole of that size (or perhaps a little smaller to start with) in the top. The felt will be squeezed in once all the soldering and polishing is complete.

Saturday 16 February 2008

Winter beach collage


Photos for my Coast theme design project. I like the cold blue colours here, the shape of the breaking wave and the textural patterns of the shells. The photos were taken in February a few years ago at Gullane, East Lothian.

Tuesday 12 February 2008

Completed. Silver ring with polymer clay cabochon



I finished the ring that I previously mentioned in this post. My ring and I then went off to do a location shoot at Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Garden (North Yorkshire), and you can see the results above!

I made some mistakes while setting the cabochon, primarily by using a burnisher rather than a pusher for the first step. This led to a corrugated setting, and the end result is still a bit dented and uneven. However, I am still pleased with the result.

Saturday 9 February 2008

Orientation of fold-formed pendant relative to oval link chain



To help me decide on how to assemble the necklace, I took some photos of different arrangements of my fold-formed pendant and the first few oval links. I've set up an online poll so that people can vote for their favourite layout. The poll appears in the sidebar on the right of this blog, just below the introductory bit. Go on - cast a vote! The poll will be open until 4 March 2008.

Wednesday 6 February 2008

Brief number 3: Design project, a learning journal

Patterns in the sand, Gullane, East Lothian

Brief number three is a project to be done outside college hours. Here's the start of the brief "You need to create a Learning Journal based on a theme ...".

My chosen theme is Coast

I've decided to organise my material in two parts. There will be thematic entries in this blog and I shall also build up a book of pictures and other material which, for copyright or other reasons, would be unsuitable for the blog.

Friday 1 February 2008

Silver ring with polymer clay cabochon

I got slightly diverted from my tree ring design plans, when I came across this cabochon the other day. I made it myself from polymer clay a year or so ago. I usually prefer the clay polished, but not varnished. However this is an exception, as it is varnished, and I love it!
I have made a setting for it, and now just need to fix the setting to the ring. The thread in the picture is to help me get the cab out of the setting again. If this comes out well I shall be sorting through all the little collections of polymer clay beads I have around the house to find more forgotten treasures.