Oxidisation

I've had a play around with some Liver of Sulphur on the surface of some silver pieces I made recently.

This one was dipped and left until it turned black - except for the 18ct Gold details which do not oxidise.

This ring was quickly dipped in and out of the solution and then dipped in cold water. The colours are a nice mix of green, red & brown.

Adding patination in this way certainly can change the whole look of a piece of silver.

The Parkshot Gallery

If you visited Desire recently you will not have failed to notice The Parkshot Gallery on your way through.

photo courtesy of The Parkshot Gallery

 It will have stood out as it is jam packed with the amazing work of Staff and Students of Richmond Adult Community College. What a great showcase for the College, demonstrating the quality of the Courses on offer.

So if you are visiting Richmond Upon Thames do pop in, perhaps buy a unique little gift?!  Failing that please 'Like' The Parkshot Gallery's Facebook Page and help spread the word.

Porcelain and Silver

Porcelain in Jewellery is very effective - look at the work of Ruth Tomlinson and her beautiful Flora Collection. I recently had a go and found it quite tricky to work with, due to drying out and cracking.

Drying out for Biscuit Firing

I made various pieces using leaves and stamps to produce different effects.

Biscuit Fired Pieces dipped in a Blue Celadon Glaze

 Once Biscuit Fired the pieces can be glazed or oxidised depending on the effect you want. I opted for a traditional Porcelain Glaze - Blue Celadon. After Firing it turns a lovely Duck Egg Blue.

Finished Pendant accompanied by a PMC Silver Leaf.

Ceramic Jewellery by Joy Bosworth

Ruth Tomlinson's delicate rings are on the cover

If you are interested in Ceramic Jewellery this is a good book to start with containing lots of examples of Jewellers and Artists who work with this medium.

Would you like to see my Etching?

Hello Dear Neglected Blog! How life has a nasty habit of sidetracking us! I have been busy learning new skills and creating new pieces. I found a use for a piece of silver which wasn't quite big enough to form a Bangle. It turned into a Cuff instead and fits so snuggly you hardly feel you're wearing it!

Blacked out off-cut of Silver with design scratched on

The Etched design out of the Acid Bath

Ready for a good hammering

The Finished Cuff

Back Soon I hope! Have a great Christmas everyone! 

Cake Pops

I find myself on a break from Jewellery and indulging in my other passion CAKE! I recently made a novelty cake and found myself wondering what I could do with all the wasted sponge without instantly eating it with my Coffee! What to do with all this waste?

Lovely Sprinkles!

First - put it in the freezer until I'm ready to use it! Someone suggested Cake Pops. I must say that to me Cake Pops seemed like the equivalent of reformed Ham and I'm a Vegetarian! Not really what I'd like to eat but it's for the Kids!

I purchased the Queen of Cake Pop Bakerella's Book, conveniently titled "Cake Pops". There are some great ideas in there but it's an American book with ingredients which don't easily translate. Everything is made with American ready box mixes and Sweets and so on....Thought I'd have a go anyway and blindly continued.

Well here's what I learned from my first attempt:

1. Make sure you Crumb your cake very finely

2. The mixture must be moist and not too dry

3. Your Chocolate Coating must be nice and runny

I used Wilton's Candy Melts

4. Make sure the Cake Balls aren't too big

Uncoated Cake Pops with Sticks inserted

5. don't remove cake balls from fridge too soon

Cake Pops in my Homemade Holder

6. don't ignore all the above as it may lead to your cake Pop falling apart!!

Friday Treat for the kids when they get home

I started with 10 cake balls and by the end had 6 complete Cake Pops - only 4 casulaties! I'm not in too much of a hurry to make them again!

Sea Glass

I love Sea Glass but have never had much success finding any, until now. 

My small stash of finds

I'm probably looking in all the wrong places! I was thrilled to find a handful of pieces on a Dorset Beach more renowned for its Fossils than anything else! They are not great Specimens but they are still the first bits I found myself! My treasure.

Sea Glass for those of you who don't know are pieces of broken glass which have found their way into the sea long long ago. They have been tumbled through time becoming a smooth pebble and an opaque thing of beauty! They are the Jewels of the Sea and can come in many different colours.

Fossils in Dorset

I like the idea of recycling Sea Glass into Jewellery pieces. Turning something that was once discarded as rubbish into something beautiful.

Tweet! Tweet!

I made myself a Twitter Bird Pendant out of Silver sheet. Looking forward to finding the time to make more! Maybe bigger more elaborate Birds! Small steps....

Wax Carving Continued

My first attempt at Wax Carving wasn't that successful, the wax ending up snapping into pieces! That's the one on the right (below) prior to it's destruction.

 One of my rings did work. It isn't a world class piece of symmetry, I like to think of it as a more 'organic' piece. In fact I'm falling in love with organic shapes as they don't call for such perfection and mathematical accuracy! So here is  my ring now it has been cast in Silver.

I am going to stick at the Wax and learn a little more as I only scratched the surface (literally and metaphorically speaking!). I can see the possibilities...

I did manage to put the Resin to use after saying I probably wouldn't do it again! I made a Cake for Red Nose Day which was auctioned off to Staff at my Husband's place of work. I made a little Logo out of Resin to decorate the cake with. Not sure this is the correct use of Resin or that it met health and safety standards, but I can assure everyone nobody died as a result of eating my cake and it raised some cash for a good cause!

Red Nose Day Cake