Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all! I hope that you had a great Christmas and managed to relax and recharge over the holidays. I also hope that you are managing to stay warm and dry during this weather. I'd really like to know why the heavens always seem to spill their worst just as I'm taking the boys to and from school!

It's been a busy few weeks, so here's a quick random rundown....

I would have had a birthday picture of Ben as well if he'd kept still long enough!

• Ben turned 8 just before Christmas and Jamie was 3 yesterday - queue lots of comments from friends and family (and me!) on how fast time flies! This year was the first that Jamie has had a 'proper' birthday party and he had a wonderful time. T and I, however, are still recovering.
• We had both sets of Grandparents over for Christmas and then visited friends in deepest darkest Wales for New Year. No internet access or working phone (trouble with landline and no mobile phone signal without going for a walk!) was lovely and relaxing until Ben tripped over and cut his head open on the piano stool! 40 minute drive to Aberystwyth and 3 stitches later and he was fine! We then went and played on the beach – the same beach that the storms have now all but washed away sadly. Despite Ben's mishap we had a great time, and we've invited ourselves back in the summer!
• I listed new tuition dates on the website yesterday, sent out a newsletter and within 48 hours they have all gone! I'm sorry if you were interested but missed out, but there will be more dates available for the Spring. I didn't even get a chance to post about them on here as blogger was playing up. Again. Which leads me to...
• I haven't been able to get into the studio much over the holidays but I have been writing out lots of plans including plans for moving my blog over to Wordpress. It won't be for a month or so yet as I want to get it right before I press 'publish', but I've started putting the plans into action!
• I've also been planning and drafting out a couple of ebooks and also an ecourse on stonesetting. I've wanted to do these for a while, and the time has finally come!
• I've been sketching and writing notes for new designs like crazy and my fingers are itching to put them into practise! Many of them are ideas for building a collection around my Wise Owl, Rabbit, Lovebird and Butterfly pendants and I'm really excited. Not all of them will make it into the final collection, but they'll be fun to experiment with along the way.

I've got my first full day back in the studio tomorrow. As I say every year, the holidays have been great, and it has been especially wonderful this year with Jamie being old enough to really enjoy Christmas, but it's always equally great to get back into the studio!

If you did miss out on the private tuition I'm teaching two workshops over the next couple of months. I'll post more details tomorrow rather than make this post too long, but you can find more information on the website here.

Tuition photos!

I've finally edited some of the photos from jewellery tuition sessions over the last couple of weeks! Some of my students nowadays work on larger projects that need more than one session so there are quite a few unfinished pieces I can't show you yet, but these ones are done!

Two sisters came for a day's tuition last weekend. Neither had done any jewellery making before, but both are very artistic and that showed on what they made. We started out with simple rings made from oval wire which they were both rightly proud of. After lunch I taught them how to saw silver sheet,  and this is definitely where their artistic talents showed! One sister made these tiny stud earrings - such delicate sawing for her very first attempt sawing silver!

And her big sister made this beautiful leaf pendant. Isn't it gorgeous? The texture is done by hammering lengths of binding wire into the silver to form the leaf's vein, and I love the curly stem bail. This will look so lovely hanging from a leather cord.

Paul comes out to the studio for tuition a couple of times a month, so you've seen some of his work before. His wife is Brenda, the lovely lady I buy lots of my stones from, so as you'd expect Paul has a lovely choice of stones to work with. This Thursday he made Brenda a beautiful ameythst ring to match the earrings that Brenda made last spring.

Carefully balancing the ring shank with a T-pin

I particularly enjoy the problem solving that goes with Paul's designs. He'll arrive with quite a clear idea of what he wants to make, and then we have to sit down and work out what components need to made in which order and how everything is going to be put together to make a beautifully wearable piece of jewellery. As each stone he works with is unique, and usually handcut so slightly irregular, each piece of jewellery is a challenge. Definitely a fun challenge though!

More Bangles!

Lots of hammering and polished took place in the studio today! Some of the bangles I showed you this morning will have cups of gold or lovebirds attached to them as orders come in, so they've been left as they were for the moment, but the square wire bangles were hammered with my favourite hammer today. I estimate that each centimetre around the bangle gets about 10 hammer strokes, so considering that the bangles are hammered on the three outside faces of the wire each bangle has approximately 700 hammer strokes - give or take!

However, I've got an extra special bangle to show you now. Rebecca came for a day's tuition at the beginning of July, but the main piece that she wanted to make was for a present for her fiancé which meant that I had to keep it under wraps for a while! They got married a couple of weeks ago and are now, I hope, having a wonderful time on their honeymoon so I can now show off what Rebecca made!

Rebecca asked the jeweller who made their wedding rings to use the remaining gold (which came from a piece of family jewellery) to make a little "kiss", and came to me to make a sleek bangle to solder the kiss onto. She hadn't made any jewellery before, and worked really hard to give the bangle a beautiful finish. Often it's the pieces of jewellery that look the most simple that need the most attention. If you give your jewellery a texture you can sometimes use that texture to cover small surface imperfections or scratches - with a smooth sleek surface there's nowhere to hide!

Of course, Rebecca couldn't show her fiancé the bangle until their wedding day and knew he would ask to see what she made, so the last hour or so of the day was spent making herself the pendant and earrings below. Again, the gold in the middle of the pendant was left over from the wedding rings. I can honestly say that out of the many many pieces of jewellery my students have made over the years, Rebecca's pendant is one of my all time favourites. It started out as a simple disc of silver, but hammering has given it such a beautful shape and texture, and as liver of sulphur doesn't affect gold the patina really works wonderfully. I love it!

Today's work

At last! Some lovely pictures of lovely jewellery made by one of my lovely students that I can show you! I'm hoping that there will be some more finished pieces tomorrow as well as Brenda should finish at least one of the pieces that she's been working on in her session tomorrow.

My student today was Nicky, who came along to some of my classes at Eastleigh College a couple of years ago. She had a stone setting that she wanted to finish off and mount onto a ring, and wanted to learn how to make a bangle too - she did both of those, and made a pair of dainty stud earrings as a bonus!

New tuition dates will be on the website here in a couple of hours - sign up for the newsletter if you want to know exactly when!

Long summer days

It may have been very quiet on here recently, but our long hot summer days are very full! We're now half way through the school summer holidays and so far we've had two camping trips (one a mix of gorgeous sunshine and torrential rain, typical British summer, but still loads of fun), a trip to Legoland and a couple of other days trips out. The rest of the holiday is booked up with our friends from New Zealand visiting for a few days while they're back in the UK and trips to see T's side family. And of course two days a week I disappear off to the studio - we've all felt the benefits of me having a studio away from home this summer! Normally during the school holidays I feel pulled in all directions on work days, even though T is looking after the boys (the benefits him being a teacher!), but now I leave for work and can concentrate completely on the wonderful world of jewellery making!

I've done lots of teaching so far this summer, but I can't actually show you any of the finished pieces yet. They are either work in progress being made by some of my regular students who tend to make pieces that take more than one session, or jewellery that people have made for particular occasions, and I can't show you those yet just in case I spoil the surprise! I'm teaching again today though, so hopefully I'll be able to show you some finished pieces this evening. I can, however, show you one of the most special pieces that has been made so far in my studio. Ben spent an afternoon in here with me, as is rightly very proud of his rabbit key ring - as am I!

Talking of teaching, I will be putting new private tuition dates on the website this evening. There will be a newsletter going out as soon as the dates are up, but this is a bit of advanced warning!

A day of stone setting

Today was the day - my first student in my new studio at the Sorting Office! Julie worked really hard learning a new stone setting technique - and as she set five tiny (3mm) faceted stones in a beautiful bangle I think it's safe to say that she learnt it well!

Soldering the discs onto the bangle - a delicate piece of soldering!

Julie didn't just set the stones. We had square wire to start with for the bangle but she decided that slightly rectangular wire would work better, so the first job was to send the wire through the rolling mill to flatten it. This had the added bonus of lengthening the wire too so she ended up with enough to make a matching ring - a project for a later date! Next was making the bangle, soldering five discs onto the outside to form frames for the stones, cutting the seats for the stones - and then setting them! An amazing amount of work for one day, even if Julie is one of my advanced students from my college evening classes.

I've still got to set up my photo studio so these were quick shots taken in the beautiful natural light in my studio.

Julie set the stones using flush setting. The seat for the stone is cut into the metal sheet or wire using burrs in a pendant drill so that the top of the stone is flush with the top of the silver. After the stone is pushed into place a burnisher is used to push some of wall around the seat down onto the stone to hold it in place. I think she did a beautiful job! There are five stones around the bangle - amethyst, aquamarine, quite a pink garnet, citrine and peridot.

More gorgeous earrings!

No posts for over a week and two come along at once - and both with earrings! These earrings were made by Brenda last weekend. She comes along for tuition a couple of times a month and I've shown her work on here before, but these are, in my opinion, the most beautiful piece of jewellery she has made so far. The back is just as lovely as the front!

Of course, she does have an advantage as Brenda is the owner of Iced Hot Rocks, the Etsy shop that I have bought just a few gorgeous stones from, so the amethysts here are from her stock. However, coming along for tuition so frequently this year has meant that Brenda has improved her jewellery making skills and, just as importantly, her confidence in her skills amazingly. We've been working on her sawing and piercing skills over the last couple of lessons too, so I'll soon have come more of her beautiful work to show you.

There are just three dates left for private tuition until the Autumn,

 so if you've always wanted to start learning how to make your own silver jewellery, 

want to add to your jewellery making skills by learning a particular technique or 

want to make a special piece of jewellery for someone equally special, 

check the available dates here and email me quickly (info@daisychainjewellery.co.uk) 

before they all go!

New Tuition Dates!

New private tuition dates have just been added to the Daisychain Jewellery website and can be found here along with all the information you need about prices and how to book. Private tuition is available for one or two people at a time, and dates do go very quickly so if you've always wanted to start learning how to make your own silver jewellery, want to add to your jewellery making skills by learning a particular technique or want to make a special piece of jewellery for someone equally special, now is your chance!

To book a date please visit the website to check availablity and email me at info@daisychainjewellery.co.uk.

Elegant rings and lovely earrings!

I've been busy teaching over the last couple of weeks, which is why I've been so quiet on here, sorry. I really must get into the habit of just posting pictures and not much writing to show you what I'm up to!

Julie's rings - rutilated quartz and aquamarine set on thick silver bands

 Two of my students over the last two weeks have learnt how to set stones for the first time and made beautiful pieces of jewellery - the same technique (bezel setting cabochons), but very different styles and colours, and all very well finished. I know that, because they are my students, I am slightly biased, but I don't think that anyone looking at the photos and not reading the text would have any idea that these were the first stones settings that Julie and Michelle made.

Michelle's first pair of earrings - I didn't have time to photograph the second pain made of silver sheet! Rose cut smoky quartz cabocons and amethyst briolettes

I will be putting new tuition dates for the summer months on the website here next week - to be in the know as soon as the dates are ready add your name to my newsletter using the link on the left!

A Beautiful Day

It's been a wonderfully sunny spring day here today, and as on all sunny days the radio station has been playing U2's "It's a Beautiful Day". I've now got the lyrics going constantly through my head, but I thought it would be the perfect title for this post!

I'm not that good at showing you what my students make during private tuition sessions, partly as I don't always get round to taking photos of their work before they go as we're so busy making jewellery up to the last possible minute! I do have a back log of student work to show you though, and I thought I'd start with Rachel and Dale who came out to the workshed in February to make their wedding bands and now that they are married I can show the rings off to you! I've helped men make special rings for their girlfriends before, but this was only the second time that a couple have come to wedding rings. I was so thrilled to have played a small part in their wedding preparations!

Both of the rings are beautiful, and of course even more special because they made them for each other. Dale's ring is a thick and wide silver band with a satin finish, and Rachel's is made from round 9k gold wire and brightly polished. Although the designs may look simple that actually means that the finishing of the rings had to be perfect - adding a hammered texture would have hidden any small imperfections in the soldering joins.

Despite never having made jewellery before Dale also had time to use the skills he had learnt in making Rachel's ring to make a bangle as a bridesmaid's present for Rachel's sister. I was very impressed!

Thank you to Rachel and Dale for sending me the photos of them wearing their rings on their wedding day! Love and congratulations to you both.

If you'd like to learn how to make your own jewellery or would like to improve on jewellery making skills that you already have please visit my Jewellery Tuition page for more information on private tuition and workshops. New private tuition dates will be available soon - sign up to the newsletter using the link on the left of the blog to get the new dates as soon as they are released! 

Good old fashioned bartering

Source: Uploaded by user via Joanne on Pinterest

A good friend of mine makes absolutely gorgeous polymer clay jewellery, including beautiful large hollow beads. She and I have just spent a lovely evening in my workshed where I taught her how to make her own sterling silver ear wires and simple clasps, and she swapped her son's old car seat for the tuition - I posted about the earrings she made a couple of weeks ago here. Her son had grown out of the seat, we needed another for T's car, and it's perfect for Jamie.

I'm a hopeless gardener. I'm forever optimistic about it but once I get out in the garden I don't know where to start, especially as the garden got out of hand while I was in the last few months of pregnancy with Jamie and then I was so ill after he was born. I perfectly happy weeding and cutting the grass but heaven help me when it comes to the rest of it, and what with the business and the boys I don't have the time to get the garden back into order. But another lovely friend of mine is has a small gardening business, and when I asked her if she could fit me in she suggested swapping gardening for jewellery. She gets so much more done in an hour than I could in a whole afternoon, and I get the time for jewellery making instead!

And then there's Brenda, she of the amazing stones that I've used in quite a few of my designs, such as here and here. She, and her husband Paul, regularly come for jewellery tuition, which she partly pays for in cash from stone sales in her etsy shop or in stones that she lets me choose from her stash. And, of course, they use Brenda's stones in what they make with me too! One of the rings that Paul has made Brenda is pictured above.

Three win-win situations - three situations where we swap our skills and goods for other skills, three situations where both parties are delighted with the deal that they've made. Good old fashioned bartering at its best! And I'm sure that my friends and I aren't alone, especially as websites, usually locally based at first, are now being built to help people link up to swap their services. So, have you turned your time and skills into useful goods or skills for your household, or treats for yourself even, without purses being opened?

New Tuition Dates available

Well, it's all change over here at Daisychain Headquarters! What do you think of the new blog look so far? Definitely more in keeping with my new website, don't you think? There are still a few bits and pieces that need tweeking, but they'll be done soon!

I put some new private tuition dates on the website late last night, and almost before I had a chance to publicise them much half of them were booked up! There are dates in May and June left, so if you would like to come along and learn how to set stones, make chains, learn how to make Keum Boo jewellery or to improve skills that you've already got please see here for more details. Dates for July will be available as soon as possible.