April 12th, 2010
- Gold Plated Bracelet With Polymer Beads
Two mediums that I like working with are polymer clay and wire. I use various types of metal wire; silver, copper and gold of varying thickness. The wire can be used to make earrings, pendants, rings and bracelets and I usually choose the wire to match the colour of the piece I am making.
Polymer clay is a perfect medium for fashioning beads and pendants of varying size and shape. In its raw state the clay has a consistency of plasticine, it can be shaped and moulded by hand and colours combined without running into one another. Once it baked it can be drilled, sanded an polished.
The bracelet to the left is from a collection entitled “flower garden”. It was made with 0.8mm gold plated wire and the square beads were fashioned from different colours of polymer clay. The collection consists of a pendant, earrings and bracelet. If you would like to see the collection or any other jewellery I have made using wire and polymer then visit
The Silver Jewellery Workshop Store and browse. I hope you enjoy the experience.
Posted in Polymer Jewellery, Wire Jewellery | No Comments »
Tags: bracelet, earrings, gold, pendant, polymer, wire
April 2nd, 2010
Pendant Made With Silver Art Clay & Dichroic Glass
An exciting new product that has just appeared on the market is glass clay. The clay is used in a similiar way to pure metal clay and is fired in a kiln at high temperature.
For those not familiar with pure metal clay the following may be useful: There are various types of metal clay; silver, bronze and copper being the most popular. Of the three the most widely used is pure silver clay otherwise known as pmc or silver art clay. The clay is a mixture of organic binders and particles of pure silver. In it’s raw state the clay can be worked, sculpted and shaped . It is then dried and can be filed and shaped further, making almost any shape or form possible. When the piece is fired in a kiln at high temperature it “sinters” i.e. the binders burn away and the particles of silver fuse together to form a solid piece of silver. The fired piece can then be sanded and polished to achieve a dull matt or shiny gloss finish.
The pendant above was made using art clay silver and dichroic glass. Several pieces of dichroic glass were fused together in the kiln and then the pendant was shaped from the silver clay. Once I was happy with the shape of the pendant the dichroic glass was placed on the pendant and silver clay was syringed around the glass to hold it in place and form a setting. The pendant was fired in the kiln ,the pure silver particles fused and the resulting 99.9% silver pendant was formed. One of the exciting things about working with art clay is that I never really know how a piece is going to turn out when I first start working with it, I go with the flow and see where it all leads. The introduction of glass clay makes the possibilities even greater. I have ordered my first batch and cannot wait to start working with it, I will keep you posted.
Posted in Dichroic Glass, Silver Art Clay | 2 Comments »
Tags: art clay silver, Dichroic Glass, glass clay, pmc, pure silver
March 24th, 2010
Silver Ring With Abalone Cabochon
Many people know that the term cabochon relates to a stone of some kind but I often get asked what exactly is a cabochon. A cabochon is a gem stone that has been shaped and polished usually creating a shape with a convex top and flat bottom. Transparent stones, due to their hardness, are usually shaped by facetting while softer opaque stones are cut and polished as cabochons. Some gemstones which are particularly soft can scratch easily and so are polished as cabochons making scratches and blemishes less evident. As stated, the usual shape of a cabochon is a half moon; this shape is used as the eyes find it harder to detect slight imperfections in the half moon shape as opposed to a full, round stone. An exception to this are the round cabochons often found in watches.
How Are Cabochons Made? Firstly a slab of rough rock is cut and using a template the rock is trimmed using a diamond blade saw. Once the piece is trimmed it is mounted on a handle to assist manipulation. This is done by attaching the stone to a length of wooden dowel using wax. The piece is trimmed further until the desired shape is achieved, the back edges are sometimes bevelled and the top is sanded and polished to a uniform dome.
At bespoke jewellery and our sister site The Silver jewellery Workshop there is a selection of jewellery incorporating different cabochons. Why not click on the links and have a look.
Posted in Gemstones | No Comments »
Tags: Cabochons, Gemstones
March 18th, 2010
Hello and welcome to the first post of The Bespoke Jewellery Blog. Here we hope to create interesting articles, discussions and tutorials relating to the world of handcrafted jewellery. If you are interested in handmade jewellery then join us as we talk about jewellery made in sterling and pure silver, bronze, copper, polymer, glass and crystal. If you are interested in the world of silver and Pandora style jewellery then why not have a look at the blog of our sister site at The Silver Jewellery Workshop. Thank you for visiting and we hope to see you again soon.
Posted in General | 1 Comment »
Tags: bronze, copper, crystal, glass, handmade jewellery, polymer, silver