Wax Carving

Christmas seems like a dim and distant memory. Today Monday 17th January is meant to be the gloomiest day of the year - gloomy it is - the rain is pouring! A good day to stay in and potter about. I do find it hard to get motivated but today I did manage to focus on a few things.

I've been having a go at wax carving. I've started with a ring. Basically you cut a piece off a special wax tube and create what you want with the right tools and know how!

I haven't finished yet - still fiddling around with melting blobs and using a MAX WAX tool - which is basically a heated wire which enables you to cut or draw a pattern onto your wax. Wax Carving doesn't limit you to ring making. Wax blocks can be used to carve almost anything you want.

I haven't had anything Cast into Silver yet so I will unveil the results on another occasion!

Now for the unveiling of my first Bezel Setting Ring! I used an Amethyst Cabochon.

It's not perfect but it looks ok when I'm wearing it! This project turned out not to be as difficult as I was expecting and I'll certainly have a go at some more - with large Cabochons so it's not so fiddly!

Happy Christmas!

Wishing you all a very 

Happy Christmas !!!

A snow inspired Silver Snowflake

We've had plenty of snow even though it's almost gone - I think we can count it as a white Christmas this year!

A Snowy Christmas Chocolate Cupcake!

Eat, Drink and be Merry!

Rings and things...

It's a busy time of year. We've had lots of birthdays and scrummy cakes to make, bake and eat! As well as a truck load of Sweets from Halloween to work our way through!

I did find time to make a Rainbow Tiara for a little girl to have fun with at the Dressing Up Box. It's one way of using up all the odd Swarovski Crystal Beads I seem to have accumulated over time. 

Now I'm over the need to Bead and need to create everything from scratch - hence my current obsession with Silversmithing. I've been busy at the Bench experimenting with rings and different kinds of Silver Wire -Square, round, D-Shape....

A friend has asked me to recreate this ring made using Square Wire but in a larger width.

 I have made a start and formed the shape, sawn through it to make a good joint, soldered and pickled it and now starting to file and sand it.

Hopefully it will turn out as nice as the first one although it has been much tougher to form with the wire being thicker! Lots of Annealing going on (heating the Silver with a Torch to soften the metal).

I will be attempting a Bezel Setting next week......

Lots of Silver Rings in My Wordless Wednesday!

(Apart from Captions here is my Wordless Wednesday!)

Hammered Silver Necklace

Plain Silver Bracelet

Work in progress...

Catch up!

After a brief hiatus I am back and ready to be creative once again! It's that time of year when my age turns to another number I'd rather forget about!

Cake from the Boys

I recently visited Kew Gardens (not very far from where I live). I was very impressed by The Temple of the Imagination - or rather the metal flowers adorning it! I would really like this at the bottom of my garden with the addition of some lockable doors so no one could disturb me! 

The Temple of the Imagination (photos  J.Hannah 2010)

The Temple of the Imagination (Kew Gardens)

The Temple of the Imagination (Kew Gardens)

The Temple of the Imagination (Kew Gardens)

These remind me that I have quite a large collection of Silver leaves I made a while ago out of Precious Metal Clay. I still haven't got around to doing anything with them!

Some of my Pure Silver Leaves

  I particularly like anything forged out of metal at the moment as I have been learning how to use a jewellers saw and how to create pierced and cut pieces. I am getting through a lot of blades...it's not easy! One wrong move and PING - snapped!.

My Saw with a surprisingly unbroken Blade (for now) & work in progress

Now in praise of people with real artistic talent! I recently commissioned a Pastel drawing by Artist Sarah James of three dogs from my childhood. It was a gift for my Mother and it was nice to have a picture of all three dogs sitting within the same frame! This never happend in life. Sarah only had the most awful pre-digital photos to work from and did a magnificent job.

More interestingly if you visit Sarah's Blog you can see the process by which an Artist creates a piece of work - from rough sketch through to finishing touches. It's fascinating to see an Artist's "Work in Progress".

The Dogs by Sarah James

Finally - if you have a Twitter account please feel free to click on the Tweet button at the top of this post. It took me ages to figure out how to install it! xxx

Cakes @TheMakeLounge

I finally made it to a Cup Cake Decorating Class at The Make Lounge and enjoyed an expert session in piping and decorating from Cake Maker  Janine Rose.

Cake Making is another pleasure of mine but unfortunately I don't get to do it as often as I'd like - as much as I'd like to eat cake for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

In the class we learnt how to pipe and make sprinkles. I also made a rose out of marzipan!

Attending a class is a great way to pick up lots of useful tips they don't tell you in books!

I also learnt the many applications of edible glitter! Be warned though - it gets everywhere and sticks to your skin for days!

That was nice! 

We also got Janine's recipe to take home and now I know the secret of getting my cakes nice and flat without having to cut the peaks off! 

(You'll have to go to a class to find out!!!)

A fellow classmate's wonderful creations!

Wordless Wednesday!