Hello.

Well it's almost 2014.
My baby girl is now 6 months old and my eldest is going to be on school holidays very soon. This year has definitely been one of the fastest. Ever.
I am thinking about my goal list for 2014 as this year I've mainly focused on baby (as you do). Next year she will be crawling and walking and eventually talking, so I do struggle to see how I'm going to find that extra bench time I'll need to fulfill my goals. But I'm sure I will manage somehow.


A couple of weeks ago I tracked down a hardware store with foldable market tables and I got one! And I've even ordered a table cloth for it too. I'm actually on Vistaprint right now looking at banners and posters. I'm serious about the markets. I'm dying to see how the locals receive my kind of work.

The enameling experiments continue.
I'm still enjoying it. My other half even offered to buy me a kiln! Yes, That is how supportive he is of my metalwork. Basically though I want to continue to torch fire, until I see a steady sale of enameled pieces. (none have sold yet) I don't think it would be a wise investment if there was no opportunity of recouping the costs. Do you? Right now, I am still able to do decent sized pieces with my torch. Just. It's hard to keep the whole piece hot enough, when you have a large area to fuse.

Instead of a kiln, I am thinking of a nice bench guillotine. I have my eye on a Pepe one. Their smallest. It will help make some of my work a bit swifter. Not a big fan of sawing out big squares and then sawing out the shape. I just want to get in and saw the shape and be done. Especially if there is piercing involved too. Plus I like the idea of being able to cut my own bezel wire easily. Sawing in a dead straight line tends to send me cross-eyed!

Below are a couple of pairs of enameled earrings:

 

The green ones are in my Etsy store and the crescent shapes I'm still yet to list. 

I have been having a play with drawing on enameled pieces with Graphite pencil. My ideas of 'drawing' would just be patterns mainly as I can't draw to save my life. It's a great addition to the enameling. I have found you can even do it on coloured enamel pieces too. 

I have run into a bit of difficulty. I can't for the life of me pin anything (ball up both ends of wire to secure a bail). I have tried a big bushy flame, a very small hot flame and nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero. My wire. Just. Won't. Ball Up. Super frustrated. As I really wanted to pin my enameled earrings and pendants. Someone on Instagram suggested riveting, but I'm not really any good at that either. Guess I will just have to practice that, as I really need a solution to attaching a bail to my pieces.

So that is about all for this post. 

Might go and have a little snack before Poppy wakes up.

Have a great week all.

Em ♥

 

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 ♥

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 ♥

Parcel joy :)

I have got my parcels with my new tools and supplies :)

I finally took the plunge and got myself a Swanstrom disc cutter. I've played around with it a couple of times and I'm happy with it thus far. There is some 6ga twisted silver wire, which I am going to make myself some bangles with. Some ring shank wire, earring wire, a charcoal block and some wire screens for my tripod and finally some Vintaj patinas.

I've never used the patinas before, but I have heard (and watched) plenty about them. So I hope once my Ferric Chloride arrives, I can go ahead and etch my own designs and then play around with patinas to help the patterns stand out. As much as I love to oxidize absolutely everything I make, sometimes I like to mess around with colours. It's an inexpensive way to expand my skills and inventory, as mostly I will be using brass and copper for etching, so the patinas will be perfect for that....I hope.

Oh and I also bought a silicone polishing set (you can see that under the charcoal block) I haven't used any polishing things like that before, not really even sure How to use them, but I'll figure it out.

Thus far I have made myself 2 bangles from the twisted wire.
I had to dig out the MAPP gas for that though.

Not a huge fan of the MAPP gas, but needs must. Still have another 2 to make and I might be making one for Summer as well.

Thanks to the new supplies/tools I am dabbling at the bench a little this week. I have some scrap gold (from an old ring of mine) that I am making some nice weighty studs with, just waiting on the solder and stud parts to finish.

Annnd there is a student open day on Saturday the 3rd, at a place that holds workshops and courses for silversmithing. I have been pondering attending a workshop there for some time now, but never got around to it before baby was born. I checked out the website again and saw that the owner/teacher now offers private tuition and studio hire. So I figured now's my chance (well Saturday will be) to see what it's like there and to meet the owner/teacher and see if it really is something I want to go ahead with.

I am chuffed with how far I have come on my own.
But I feel I need some guidance and help to further my skills and private tuition every now and then would be great for that! Also I would like to hone the skills I already have so that my work can be better.

I am getting sick again :(
Summer has had a cough for quite a while now, if it doesn't disappear in the near future, we might have to take her to the doctors and go down the medication route - which I don't like to do. That's the only reason I hate Winter time, sickness. It's everywhere and it's so contagious too :( I can deal with it, but the thought of poor little baby getting sick again makes me very anxious!

Okie Dokie, I don't have much else to write about today. Not sure if you've noticed, but I have been blogging more lately?! Off to look at cabochons (and to buy a few lol). Have a great week.

Em ♥

Oh So Quiet.

Peace and Quiet.
Doesn't happen often around these parts.
But when it does, I soak it right up.
My other half is working his day away.
My older daughter is at school.
And my baby girl is sleeping in the warmth of the sun.

And in the meantime, I am writing this post and doing lots of house cleaning.
I don't mind house cleaning. It gives me so much satisfaction (for the 1minute it stays that way) to see a clean house and everything in it's place.

My mother is coming to stay for a couple of nights, which I am really looking forward to. It's a beautiful sun shiny day here, but still quite cool. We are just over halfway through Winter.

I have ordered a bundle of new tools and supplies this week. Have been holding off for a while, but decided I needed some excitement injected into my week and waiting on tool/supplies parcels always gives me that! The anticipation of experimenting is always lots of fun too. I have some new ideas tumbling around in my head - I just hope that they turn out the way I see them .... it's probably about a 50/50 chance.

Poppy had her injections done yesterday afternoon.
I hate taking babies for that to be done. Fortunately, both of my girls cry for only a moment and then get over it quickly. I hate seeing them in pain, even if it's for a good reason.

It's nearly lunch time.
I have upstairs to finish off cleaning and then I have to tidy up downstairs and make a pie, pop on some washing and post off a parcel and then on to pick up my daughter.

I wish the days were longer.

Em ♥

Grey Saturday.

It's a grey Saturday. Not great for photographing my jewellery. But I did it anyway.

I have spent the better part of the afternoon rephotographing my jewellery for my Etsy shop. I absolutely loved how it was looking, but I decided to have pictures that were more zoomed in than before. 

Hubs likes how it looks now as you can clearly see the items straight away....I'm still not so sure. But it will probably grow on me. I'm quite fickle and never satisfied with how something is .... I'm always changing my mind.

All my supplies came on Thursday and Friday and I'm very happy. 

I have a nice big sheet of silver and lots of chain and wire and findings etc. But I think my muse is on vacation now, as she had to wait too long before I got new silver :(

With my supplies came some new boxes for packaging. I love them. 

And last night I ordered some Luxe Business cards from Moo with matching labels. Can't wait to get those too! 

It seems like it's never ending, the things you need to make jewellery. I've been saving for a little while and just spent it all on supplies :( I look forward to the day when I don't have to spend all of my savings on more supplies/tools. But that day will probably never come, as there is just no end to the techniques to learn, meaning more tools to buy.

Kindy was back on this week as the school holidays are over. But I was bored out of my mind as I had no silver to make anything with. Next week will be better I hope, as Summer has 3 days at Kindy :p

so, please come back muse! Pleeeeeeze!

Em :)

Goodies

Yay I received my parcel this morning of goodies :)

My fave kind of parcel is this kind. Supplies. Yes fresh new tools and silver and gold (gold fill to be exact) and a lovely shiny new book.

But as usual it's too hot in my workshop to play :(

So the goodies will sit and wait patiently for me to try them out. Cept for the book, I could read that anytime :)

I'm enjoying a nice hot cup of tea (that is going cold swiftly) and a couple of short bread biscuits. Yum. Summertime is coming to a close at the end of February and then it will be Autumn. I can't wait! 

There is so much on my mind at the moment. 

So much I have/want to do.

I'm thinking of some classes perhaps in smithing, to expand my horizons. Like wax carving.

You can see in my piccie above that I have some handles. I need to make a little burnishing tool at some point and that is what those are for. Once I have that made, I can attempt flush setting. I have the stones and burs, so I could at least make a start on my first attempt....

I have a dentist checkup appt this afternoon and I'm not looking forward to it. I have to have it late in the afternoon, to make sure my hubs is home to be with Summer. Which means it kind of ruins the whole day, with the appt lingering overhead.

Anyways, at least I have some nice new stones and tools and supplies to play with. It gives me something to look forward to :)

Em ♥

Spring In Full Swing.

It's a lovely day.

Breezy, sunshiny and new tools have arrived!! ♥


I have finally got a new pot of flux - was tempted to buy the borax cone/dish...but it cost another $10 or so. I have always been happy with this flux, so I figured I would stick with it. I got a new firebrick, new sparex pickle, new crosslock tweezers etc. I can't to use one new particular tool that I got to teach myself something new.

Below are pictures of my latest PMC3 experiments. I purchased some cold mold putty to make my own molds and it is such great stuff. So below are pieces I made with shells from my own collection, I am sure I have more somewhere, but don't quite know where......




This picture is of my work area. Not sure that I have shown a picture of it before (cept for the view). It's a bit chaotic at the moment, because I am trying to sort out stuff since the arrival of the mill - speaking of which, Hubs bolted it down for me on the weekend and I have barely tried it out yet...not in the mood to yet. . .


I like to work in a pretty clean area...I'm a bit anal when it comes to organisation and work...I can't really do one without the other. I hope to make a proper bench soon too...we have found the timber, just have to find the time and money, everything is about time and money isn't it?! :(

There is so much I would like to write here. This past week has been a very stressful one, my emotions are on a roller coaster, but I want to try and keep this blog solely about my hobby. Apart from the obvious (my little family) this hobby is the only thing that gives me any joy and I'd like it to continue for as long as possible....I'm sure you other smithers out there can relate :)

By for now
Em ♥

Tools, New Moo Cards, No Mojo...oh my!

Yes, I have some new tools, moo cards and Zero Smithing Mojo :(

If anything would normally kick my butt into creative gear it would have to new tools....but no....not this time.

Below are pictures of my new matching Moo cards and stickers.
I spent ages designing these and am very happy with how they turned out. And they are such good quality! So now the hubs has decided he wants me to make some cards for him from Moo. Oh and they also came like 2 weeks earlier than I was expecting them, so Woohoo!!


Below is my first print I have purchased from Etsy. I have been lusting after several artists pictures for a long time now and then decided I would get on with it finally and just buy one! And I love it! So does my hubby. I think he even approves me collecting more of them :)

This print is by janethillstudio


And this is a picture of some new stamping tools I purchased from 2moontools

I received them this morning and hope to use them on some new pieces.....eventually......if my mojo returns :(

lol I know that I will.
This is not the first time I have encountered the creative block, nor will it be my last.
What's strange is that my head is just absolutely choc full of stuff, but I can't seem to put it to actual physical work. Maybe my head is in overload?? I'm hoping to get a break sometime this weekend and maybe I'll be able to remove this block. I can only hope.

Yesterday I took my daughter with me to a big hardware store to look for some new tin snips etc and I came across a work bench for $100....it's not too big and it has peg board and a shelf underneath and an extra area to hang hammers etc. I'm hoping to take hubs to see this bench and talk him into buying it for me haha....it would be a spot I could bolt my Rolling Mill to as well. So it's kind of necessary. I can't wait to get the mill bolted down so I can try it out.

Alrighty I must go. Daughter is talking non stop and I can't type anymore as I can't hear myself think, think that is half the reason I struggle at the bench these days :(

Em

To Roll With The Mill.

(for some reason, everything I write is going to be underlined and I have nooo idea how to remove it)

Well it seems like everyone is getting a rolling mill lately! I've been talking about buying one for ages now. My Etsy sale went so much better than I expected it to and now that I have funds again, I am pondering the ever pondered question in my brain...to buy or not to buy. I'm hesitant only because it's a largish sum of money to spend on one tool and not knowing what the future brings financially/hobbywise I am in 2 minds about it (as I am about pretty much everything in my life lol).

So I will think about it this week and hopefully make my mind up quick smart.

In the meantime, below are pictures of what I have made lately:

And below is a picture of a gorgeous tree stump my hubs surprised me with last week. I love it! It needs a bit of work to flatten and smooth down the top to make it completely steady, I am starting to think I might like it for photography lol and not for hammering on. I hope to have a proper blacksmiths anvil one day :) I've found the perfect one....and it would look so pretty on the stump :P

The weather is all over the place lately. It's been quite Spring like in the day time. And the night time hasn't been quite as cold, but it has been a bit more windy than normal. I am not looking forward to the Summer. Really not.

I have a lot of family in the U.K so I'm

sending out 'keep safe' vibes to those in the U.K who are affected by the riots.

A Lovely Day...

Or at least I think it is. It's certainly not as humid as it was a couple of weeks ago. And the nights are cooling down enough to need to wear a light cardi, so I'm happy :)

It's been raining a bit today, though the Sun is out right now.

I am working on a couple of new pieces at the moment. But I've kinda lost my mojo again. I need to learn new things, but trying to get a hold of the supplies to do so (at a reasonable price) is a little more challenging. As I've written before, we kind of get ripped off for things over here. I don't know if it's because of supply/demand issues or because that's just how it is. Either way it's frustrating.

I want to get a repousse set, which seems to be cheaper to get from the USA and I seriously need to source some nicer new stones. It is super hard to find any here. There are a couple of gem shows coming up I think, so I might try and get to one of them to see what's available. Right now, Etsy/Ebay is my only supplier, which sucks because of the wait time and the cost of postage.

I found out this week that I can't post to the Czech Republic. I've had someone ask me if I could send a particular piece to them and when I looked up online, "Precious Metals" was on the prohibited list....

I am having a hard time sawing things lately. I don't know if it's my blades, or me?? But it just doesn't seem to happen smoothly anymore. I've never used any type of bur stuff and it used to be just fine...but lately it's harder and it puts me off. I want to get a decent saw, like one of those big red ones I've seen on a few other's blogs recently. I am pondering a decent size disc cutter and a rolling mill and a new bench. Want much???? LOL :)

There's a lot on my mind lately too. We are moving again when our lease comes up for renewal in June. Not far to go now. As great as this house is, I'm over it, for lots of reasons, which I'll blog about another time. I also want to bring more colour to my home. If you were to walk into my home now, you would think I was boring (till you saw my shoe collection lol) I don't really like our furniture. So I am on a quest to sell on what we have and replace it with stuff that I actually like. I won a nice deco cabinet on the bay last night and I have a nice colour in mind to redo it with. It's going to be a lamp table.

Wow that's been a long talky blog....
Potty training has been going well.....ish.
Time to get back to looking at cabochons :)

Almost Over.

2010 that is. But that's kinda obvious :P

The lovely cool weather we were having here, is now gone. Well and Truly.
It's so muggy here again. We've been getting a lot of rain on and off too. And a couple of storms with more on the horizon. Fortunately where I live, there has only been 1 very humid evening. Hubby spent last weekend installing air conditioners in the master bedroom and our daughters. I love air con. I hate what using it is doing to the environment (along with every thing else I use) but I couldn't live without it. Not in the Summertime anyway.

I have lots I want to do in 2011. Thinking of Goldsmithing school (night lessons). Thinking of purchasing new tools to learn new techniques - chasing & repousse, etching, tube setting gemstones and the list goes on. I am pondering a rolling mill too. I have the opportunity to get one right now, but not sure if it's worth it yet.

I have a new tool:

An Orca Torch. My hubbzie bought the gas tank for it yesterday, but as it's been too humid and I've had a lot to do round the house, I haven't yet played with it, but plan to on the weekend.

My first ever Etsy sale went fabulously!!! I haven't yet filled my shop back up yet, but that's a good thing :) I've placed my 2nd order with RioGrande this week, which I hope to get on Monday (just in time to play over the christmas holidays). And I am going to send in my 1kilo of silver scrap - that took me an entire year to accumulate - to my silver suppliers to get credit to buy more supplies. I don't have enough to get refined and I will need more sheet soon, so it's the only way for me to go right now.

Well my old mans home and he's brought lunch with him (YUM) so I'm going to leave it here and go and enjoy it :)