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! 

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

Wordless Wednesday!

French Knitting Masterclass with Teri Howes

I have been on a couple of Teri's Courses before to learn how to Crochet with Wire - so when I heard Teri was doing a French Knitting Class I was in!

(Photo  above Courtesy of Teri Howes)

My only previous experience of French Knitting was one of those Child's Learn to Knit (with Wool) Kits many years ago now! 


But even if you haven't had any experience at all this class is fine for a complete beginner.

The class covered all aspects of French-Knitting with Pure Silver for the purpose of jewellery making!

We learnt how to use the wooden spool and a Crochet Hook to work the stitches. It only took a few rows to get the hang of the technique.

We were then confident enough to add beads to our knit - this was achieved by placing them in the middle of the spool or by threading them onto our wire and working them in.

The shape of the knit can also be manipulated by stretching it as with Viking Weave.

Below is my finished Bracelet!

Get in touch with Teri Howes if you are interested in any of her classes.

Better still - if you pop along to one of the Cockpit Arts Open Studios  this summer, you can meet Teri in person along with lots of other Designer-Makers and get to see behind the scenes. 

You can also buy stuff directly from the designers themselves!!