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Thank you for your comments on my last post. You have confirmed what I thought - silver is best. It may be expensive but it's worth it. Nicer to work with and the finished article is really special.
I think the answer is to find ways of using less in a finished piece.
With that in mind I made this bracelet using some rose quartz beads I'd just bought.
I like it so much I'm going to make a necklace to match.
But first I'm off to Yorkshire for a week.
Bye for now....
There have been quite a few blog posts around recently about the price of silver. It is really skyrocketing and I'm trying to find ways of cutting down on the amount of silver I use. It's not just expensive to buy, mistakes are costly as well! But also customers really don't appreciate how much silver now costs and are unwilling to pay the extra.
As an alternative I decided to experiment a bit with copper. And made this bracelet today out of silver and beaten copper.
I'll put it in my next Aldborough Creative display and see what the customers think.
The bonus is it might help their arthritis as well as the contents of their purse!
A self indulgent post really. Sorry. The sunsets at Lounge on the Farm were beautiful. Here are two of the best pictures I took.
And just in case you wonder what it was really like, here is a video someone put together of the weekend. I love the music on this and the editing is great.
Anyone wanting to put together a music video could learn a few things from this.
Well happily I'm on the make again.
I cleared a path to my workbench rather than actually tidying the shed. But it was enough to get me started.
I made a paid of earrings and strung up a couple of necklaces. I'll post up photos later in the week. Below you can just catch a peek of the ancient Roman turquoise beads I threaded up with silver twists. Gosh they were tiny little beads but it has made a very pretty delicate necklace.
I wanted to put a dob of superglue where I was crimping the ends of the tiger-tail and where I tied another necklace to jump rings to make sure the knot didn't come unravelled....and....yes you've guessed I couldn't get the top off the superglue. It had very effectively glued its own top firmly shut.
Finally I cut the bottom off the tube and out spurted the glue - everywhere. Not ideal.
How does everyone else cope with this problem?
The past few months have taken their toll on my workspace. The final straw was when I invested in a big zippered bag to store the dog food and it got dumped on my stool along with a load of clutter from my mother's house.
Just look at the state of it. I can't get near the bench to do anything! Serious tidying is in order.
For the first time this year our cherry tree had some cherries on it that actually ripened. But it's a Morello cherry tree so the cherries themselves are rather bitter.
I found a recipe for Morello cherry gin on The Cottage Smallholder so I have made up a small batch that should be ready in about three months.
I'll post up some pictures of its progress.
In a couple of hours I will be setting off to Lounge on the Farm with my friends for a few days of music, comedy, sub-standard toilets ----- and fun.
Four nights in a tent in a field with thousands of others.
I'll be sure to bring some stories and pics back.
Bye for now!
At last I have made something new. I was beginning to despair that I would ever get down to any silver work again. My workbench has disappeared beneath a sea of detrius from my mother's house. That's not quite fair cos a lot of it is jewellery that I will have fun making into something else for our next Aldborough Creative.
But here are the earrings that I made this week. It's not an original design, I followed one of Jo's tutorials over on Daisychain Designs. They were a bit fiddly to solder but have turned out ok. Jo's are a lot neater than mine. I think I probably need to do a bit of sanding and polishing, rather than just throwing them in the tumble polisher!
Now to tidy them up and make some more.
