Chain! Chain! Chain!

We have been having our bathroom and toilet re-done this past 2 weeks so I have been attached to the house!!  Having builders in with all that entails can be very stressful and even though our guys have been great I have missed my personal space.

So what better to offer escape than having to concentrate on chain maille.
I really enjoy wearing maille bracelets especially if they are made from aluminium jump rings which are so light that you can create quite chunky looking pieces that weigh almost nothing.
My first piece is a byzantine weave using gold and silver tone with a touch of bright purple. It is so cheerful and catches the sunshine so well. I love wearing this one, it has a summery feel and will make super holiday jewellery.

For the second one I made my own jump rings from a lovely green wire and a copper wire. I didn't have exactly the same gauge in copper as the green so I doubled up the rings which has made quite  feature.
This is inverted round weave and the rings are 5mm ID which is a good size to work with.

The final piece is again byzantine weave in a much smaller diameter jump ring in rich copper and was quite tricky to manipulate but has resulted in a very delicate bracelet which is a rich colour.

Just so you know the bathroom is now complete - well, I have to paint the new plasterwork next week once it is all dried out and the woodwork will need a coat of white. The new shower is amazing and after having no doors on the loo, the privacy is wonderful!!

Getting all Posh

I occasionally enter one of my pieces to the Jewellery Maker TV Wall of Fame where over the course of the week about 50 or so pieces are chosen to be shown on the show. Every entrant is entered into a weekly draw and about 2 months ago I won £100 to spend.

It's really hard when you have money burning a hole in your pocket to know what to choose. Finally I decided to buy some of their more expensive strands - they call them Gems of Distinction. I really enjoy making jewellery but I don't do wirewraping, silver smithing or fine gem setting so tend to buy jasper, agate, quartz etc rather than the more precious gems.

However with these winning I invested in a few better quality strands especially as I have some birthdays coming up.

My business partner Helen is 50 this month and adores emeralds. I couldn't afford - nor did I trust myself with - a good strand of emeralds but when I saw these gorgeous green quartz rondelles so beautifully faceted and such an amazing colour - in fact the colour of emeralds - I couldn't resist.

Helen needs dainty jewellery - she is only a tiny person. She also likes little drop earrings with a bit of movement. So I created some earrings and a dangle necklace. It isn't a long pendant it is quite high up, again her preference but looks very pretty.

I also found these beautiful sky blue topaz graduated, faceted drops which are such a delicate colour. I have really only sorted and re-strung them with tiny silver seed beads in between to separate the drops so that each one is displayed to the best.

they look amazing close up

More Summer Brights

In my last post I was wondering if there was scope to create a matching necklace to the juicy charm bracelet. 
Often when I am pouring I try to recreate a certain colour or mixture and get frustrated because I just can't quite get it right.
This time because I had used pretty much unmixed colours apart from a tiny bit of clear to make everything a little less dense in colour and a touch of mica powder to add a shimmer I was able to reproduce virtually the same colours.

So I poured just a couple of the periwinkle flower and three large leaves, then I realised that the mould had a tiny leaf which I thought would really balance a necklace.

I did think was going to be hard to pour without spilling everywhere because it was so small - UTEE is not the easiest medium to control but apart from one reject I was able to pour quite a few tiny leaves to complete the set.

I then had a rummage in my stash for some purple toning beads and found some lovely blackberry coloured faceted glass in a deeper purple. Perfect!

I added a matching silver toned chain and here it is......

a close up shows the detail

here are the two pieces together