More Enameling Fun

So yes, my latest love has to be Enameling.
I am having so much fun! I love that I can blend (sort of) colours together, to give the illusion of texture and I love that I can pair enameled pieces with silver. Below are 3 pairs of earrings I have made so far (available in my Etsy store).

My biggest challenge has been how to attach an ear wire that compliments the earring. I don't really want to do plain french ear wires, I wanted to do something a little bit more fancy. The Aqua blue pair of earrings have an enameled center ear wire, so they add to the look and the function of the earring.

I have just finished an animal piece last night, now I just have to work out how I want to attach it and then it's good to go too. I just ordered 2 liquid enamels yesterday to try and I have gotten some Cloisonne wire with my rio order last week, as I would really like to attempt torch firing Cloisonne too :)

The only booboo's I have encountered thus far, is when I don't balance my piece on the trivet properly and just as I go to fire it, it falls off and in the process, dumps half of the powder too :( But fortunately it's a pretty easy fix :) I really need to seriously consider a hydraulic press in the near future as I would like to be able to cut ovals, squares and circles quickly and neatly (which pancake dies are great for I hear!). As for flowers and animals, well I will continue to hand saw those.

I have just washed a nice Prussian Blue transparent enamel last night, I want to give it a go with some fine silver cups tonight at some point. When I get some time and some very fine tipped paint brushes, I will also give that Cloisonne a go too. And eventually when I get back to some etching, I hope to give Basse-taille a go as well :) So many techniques, so little time!! But I love having something new to try.

Hope you are having as much fun as I am?!
Em ♥

long post ahead .....

Sometimes I want to write more about how I'm feeling here than I do. But I have tried to make this blog more about my journey of jewellery making, rather than about personal things. Though by personal things, I mean jewellery personal things, not 'life personal' things. If you know what I mean??

*I just wrote down everything I wanted to and decided to delete it. I think I just got things a little out of perspective and needed to 'see' my thoughts written down in black and white to help answer some of my own issues*

Basically I'm still a little down with how I'm doing on Etsy, or rather how I'm Not doing on Etsy (as I touched on in my previous post). If I don't sell some of my pieces, I can't restock supplies and then I can't continue to create - as I'm sure those of you who craft are well aware of that vicious circle. I don't want to sound martyr like. I have so much to be grateful for. And sometimes I just need to be reminded of that.

All negative things aside, I have been having an absolute blast with torch fire enameling. Below are some pieces I have been experimenting on.

The leaf and the flower shapes (sawn by hand) are in copper. And the little yellow cup is in Fine silver. For once, this is a skill I have picked up rather quickly and haven't really had any boo boos yet. Even my other half is surprised at how good the enamelling is turning out, he tells me they look better than he thought they would. I think though, that it comes down to how much time I have spent reading and researching torch fire enameling (countless hours). Most likely also helps that I have my little Orca torch to do it with too. I haven't really tried much firing with my butane and I probably won't bother, seeing my Orca works so well for this. It would also be great to not have to hand pierce/saw every shape I want to make, as in all honesty I'm not a huge fan of it - but I do love the end result of course, so it's all worth the work. Though I'm not against using my disc cutter for my circles!!!  I'm working on an earwire that compliments the enamelled pieces too.

Below is a picture of most of the colours I have thus far. I do have a couple on my bench that aren't hanging up and also 2 transparent colours in my locker, that I have to wash first (boooring). I have some *hopefully* nice little clear containers coming, so I can store my enamels in them on a shelf and then I will make a little colour swatch board for the discs as referral. But before playing with the enamels, I spent time cutting and doming a copper disc for each colour and firing them 2 - 3 coats so I could see what colour to expect after firing. I will have to do this with fine silver also, but costs in doing so are substantially higher than with copper (obviously). Doing this with the discs gave me practice too for my other later pieces.

I was struggling to find those 3 point trivets here in Australia and eventually found 1 supplier and so I grabbed them right up, but I could do with more as it could certainly speed up the process not having to share a trivet between firing. So with my next Rio order I think I will stock up on a few more and some more enamels too :P  Honestly I haven't enjoyed myself like this in ages. I've always been a fan of instant gratification (come on who isn't?!) and I feel that enamelling somewhat gives me that. As much as I love the beauty of metal in it's natural state, I also love bright colour especially in accessories. And what better place to put bright colour than in my jewellery!!

This is a picture of where I am at with the custom order I last wrote about:

One will be a pendant and the other a ring. Both a gift from a daughter to her mother for christmas. My muse swiftly evacuated the building when it came time to do these too. Sooo frustrating!! I just hope I can finish them with no more issues.

So there is the latest for me. I think I am falling in love with enameling and the endless possibilities for incorporating it into my work. And I can't wait to experiment more with it and also accumulate more colours hee hee :)

Em ♥

Whirring.

That's how my mind is right now. Whirring. With ideas. Too many ideas and not enough time in the day. I find when it gets like that for me, I tend to do little bits of making here and there on something small or I don't do anything at all. I really frustrate myself sometimes. Wasting time thinking and daydreaming, instead of actually Doing. Well I am never really wasting time as such, I'm always researching and learning something .... but still, not actually doing.

I am focusing on enamelling.
And I am really enjoying it.
It took me a while to finally track down some of the necessary tools I required and I think I am going to stock up on a few more of those particular hard to find tools as back up. Just in case. Fortunately, they're not costly. Just so hard to find here.

A picture of my bench right now:

It's a little annoying having to clear all my silver work before I enamel, but to avoid contaminating my work, it's something that I must spend time doing. So because of that, I am trying to work out a plan for another bench of some sort, just for the enamelling side of my work.

Last week I received some new tools I'd ordered. One of them being digital calipers. Why the heck I hadn't ordered those before now I'll never understand, but they are a mighty handy tool to have around!

I've also been buying up new books. My husband found a great online bookstore a few weeks back and he suggested looking to see if there were any books I would like (metalsmithing books are always more pricey here and damned hard to get). And lo and behold, there were loads!

Below is what I have purchased so far and I've another on the way:

Not much else is happening round these parts jewellery wise. Etching has taken a back seat for the time being - but once I have mastered torch enamelling, I would like to try etching and transparent enamels together. I'm still yet to try etching silver. As I said initially, not enough time in the day to do it all, as I know you are well aware....

My shop isn't doing so well. I won't get talking about it now though, as I know where I could improve things. It does put a dampener on making new pieces though. So I am happy to be trying new techniques in the meantime. Etsy isn't as easy to be selling at anymore (as I'm sure you are well aware of that also). This is part of the reason in the new year I want to focus on selling at markets, where there isn't so much competition for my style of jewellery (yes I'm tired of me talking about damned markets too lol). Though I do have the pleasure of a commission order I'm working on at the moment.

Poppy is 5 months today! It won't be long now till she will be crawling and I will have to really try and organise my time even better, or I will never get to my bench.

I've a long overdue dentist appointment late this afternoon looming over me. Kind of ruins the whole day, especially when you know how many other things/bills you could be spending that large amount of money on!

So that's it folks.
I hope you are all keeping safe and well.
Em ♥

Stinky day ahead

stinky hot that is. It is set to hit 36 Degrees here at some point today. Not going to be fun for those that have to be out in it. Unfortunately, this means no bench time for me. It's just going to be too hot to use a torch.

I purchased myself some Opaque Thomsons enamels a couple of weeks ago. And I finally got my hands on a small sifter for them - they're sold out everywhere round these parts.

Seeing as I've a heap of copper sheets, I can practice enamelling with my torch and not have gone to too much expense to do so. I really do want to incorporate enamel work into my silver as I love the colour pop you can get. (plus I'm almost out of sheet and funds for it too :( - that's what you get for buying everything else under the sun and not what you really need - smack on the wrist!) So's I can have fun playing with the enamels and such till I've recovered my supplies fund.

Finally I have my newest Moo.com order (as pictured below). Now I have a cohesive look across the board. From business cards, to packing stickers, all with my logo. This is my first time trying the mini cards. I splashed out and got the Luxe ones.

The stickers for my jewellery boxes, I print myself on our laser printer. The little stickers are for my tissue wrapping inside the box. Overall I am very happy with them.

I received a nice bunch of labradorites in the mail yesterday and I have another big lot coming as well. Got myself some nice Broken Arrow Variscite too, which I haven't ever had before, must say I really really like it and think I will be investing in some more in the future. (see, this is where all the funds go ..... )

There are several pieces almost finished on my bench and one piece I finished setting the stone in yesterday, I probably won't get that listed till the weekend some time and who knows when I will finish up the other pieces. I'm a procrastinator at the moment (nothing new there) and just can't seem to get it together out there and get things done! Makes things even harder when you are down to that last few inches of silver sheet and you don't know what to do with it!

Well little Poppy is waking up now, time for some milk I guess. Better get to it!

Take Care
Em ♥

Holidays.

Well it's the school holidays. And already they're off to a bad start.
Summer has the measles :(
No one can remember if I've had them either.
Which means I probably haven't and probably soon will. So you can see, a pretty rubbish start to the school holidays.

Now I just wait with baited breath as to when I (and quite probably) my baby girl get them too. Not happy. At all. Actually that's an understatement.

Below is an earring display stand my FIL built for me over the weekend. ♥ it.

I am in the process of waiting on some sticky adapter things for the backs of my earring cards, so when I've got those I can start arranging my dangly earrings on this stand. Yes I am intent on getting to some markets in time for Christmas shopping. I have decided to try the ones closest to me, they're Farmers/Craft markets and about $33 a stall. I will have to borrow the FIL's gazebo tent and I have found a table to buy and I just need all the other bits n bobs - table cloth, vinyl logo and a mirror - then all I need to do is get more stock together and finally go! haha how long have I been saying THAT for??

Anywho, below is the latest off my bench:

Earrings and a pendant. I am working on more earrings and more pendants and a ring or two. There are some new tools on their way to me and some new stones, new books and some new enamels. Oh and I got new Business cards coming from Moo.com with my new logo on them! Lots to look forward too! :)

These are 3mm Natural Diamonds I purchased from a fellow jewellers stash on etsy.

I would like to flush set these. Which means teaching myself to do this. I have seen a couple of videos and read in mags/blogs etc how to do this. And most of these tutorials suggested making your own small burnisher, as the original burnisher we use to set stones is too big and will mar your metal and leave not nice scratches all over. Well I am not one to make my own tools. Not yet anyhow. So I purchased these off an Etsy seller also:

I haven't yet used them. Well actually I lie, I did try the metal twisted bezel rocker and found it a little slippery and a bit difficult to hold as it's quite small. But I will keep trying. Probably just used to using my big wooden handle one I guess.

Trying to get to some tuition for metalsmithing is pretty much out the window for now too. It's much too difficult to get to the classes, I will just have to be happy with trial and error and continuing to teach myself with the help of the internet. ♥ the internet.

Alrighty well I had better get back to my less fun chore of the day - bleaching the grout in our tiles. It looks terrible. Spesh when I have bleached the actual tiles and they're looking pristine. I am bleach/scrubbing them by hand and we have A LOT of tiles :(

Take Care
Em ♥