Sterling Silver Jewellery

This week I've been busy making bridal jewellery ready for the Wedding Fayre in March. It's been interesting just concentrating on one type of style, and not normal everyday jewellery that can be anything.

On the bright side, this week I've found out I'm going to be a World Book Day Book Giver, and I get to give out my first choice. It's a Judge Dredd graphic novel, so I'm happy about that.

My husband says I've been working too hard on the jewellery business, so at the weekend we had a date day, and that was lovely.

So here's my new makes this week, not all have been listed yet because I'm experimenting with when I list items.

 The gold pearl and hand faceted Citrine necklace and earrings with gold plated sterling silver findings just screamed at me to be made.
 
 

 

The hand faceted ruby and white cultured pearl did take longer than normal to create. When I had finished making it, I really wanted to keep it for myself. It is very pretty in real life.

 

I decided to make something with the left over pearls, added some rose quartz, and this is the result.

 

 For a change, I wanted to make something with plastic beads and came up with these very dainty chokers. I think these would be ideal presents for bridesmaids. These can be made in any colour and any size.



New Website and Steampunk

This week I to finish building my bridal accessories website. It took a long time to get it exactfinally managed ly how I wanted it. I've put a link to the website in my tabs at the top of this blog, or you can click here to access it.

I wanted it to be clear and simple to follow. I have divided the accessories by colour because when I was a bride I just wanted to find red accessories. I have also added a prom section, for the more unusual colours. A sterling silver section with gemstones seemed appropriate too.

It was suggested that I make some steampunk wedding items on #wedchat on Twitter. You may ask what is steampunk? Think Victorians having our modern technology but their technology is run using clockwork and steam engines. It started as a fiction genre and now is a big design trend. I had planned to make some, but not quite this soon. I researched what else was around and realised that there's not that many pretty steampunk items out there. The first thing I made was a hair comb, I decided on a valve motif to be a bit different.

I then decided to do a tiara with the same look. It turned out a lot prettier than I expected it too.



I thought I may as well do an entire set, so made a cute pair of valve earrings to go with the tiara and hair comb.

 

 

I am happy with the way they all turned out.

 

In other news, the first items that I  made back in October 2012 have now run out on Etsy. I have decided that any jewellery that runs out on Etsy will now be put on Folksy. The good thing about Folksy is that you don't have to register to buy anything on there. So far, some mobile phone charms and necklaces have been added to Folksy. I suspect the list will grow every week.

 



Bridal items

This week, I've mostly been concentrating on Bridal Jewellery and Tiaras. I've booked my first Wedding Fayre. It's on March 17th at Tabley House in Knutsford. This is apparantly a really nice old fashioned mansion type house that hosts weddings. Looks very pretty from the photos, and I am looking forward to it.

So I designed two new tiaras this week. The first was supposed to be a 1920s flapper style, but kind of morphed into a vintage Victorian style tiara. It still looks very pretty though, and I am really pleased with how it turned out. Especially seen as I was really worried halfway though making it because it was not 20s enough, just goes to show that you should always finish a piece you start as you may be pleasantly surprised.



 

The 2nd tiara I created used a variety of green beads, and I twirled the twisted wire to give a slightly different look. Instead of using beads on the headband, to finish I used a zig zag piece of silver plated green wire to give the tiara a modern look. I think it worked quite nicely. I call it a green and white tiara, because it is an uncomplicated style.

 

The jewellery I made speaks for itself really. See below for photographs of them.

 

Rainbow Moonstone and White Cultured Pearl Necklace

Rainbow Moonstone and White Cultured Pearl Sterling Silver Earrings

 

Peach Cultured Pearl Gold Plated Sterling Silver Earrings



 

In with the new

I had a bit of a play this week, trying out a few new techniques and I got a light tent. A lot of people have commented that I needed to improve my photos. So I got a cheap £25 set from Amazon that included 2 lights as well. This does make the difference, unless you're photographing tiaras. For some reason, tiaras look really flat if you use the light tent.

The reason I was re-photographing my tiaras was that I intend to have my own bridal tiara and jewellery website soon. I've been building it on Weebly this week. So watch this space for more news.

I've made 2 bracelets, 2 pairs of earrings and 1 necklace this week. The first bracelet was my attempt to do something for men. When I saw the black and white jasper, I knew this would work, and the chain gives it a more rocker feel. I even managed to persuade my husband to model it.





I then decided to go to the other extreme and do something very pink. And I mean, very pink.

 

My main piece of work though was slightly inspired by a spiragraph. I wanted to do something different with Howlite skulls, and came up with this. I won't lie, this took me a while. I made a coil and used 3 types of wire. I am very pleased with the result and I did make some earrings to go with it.

 

In other news, Jewellery Maker Tv, have showed my blue flower wirework sodalite and white quartzite necklace on their Wall of Fame. Not only that they used it to promote their jig. They said "These beautiful flowers have been made by Angela. Angela Finch. Thank you Angela, we're using your work as a classic example of how to use the jig. And look how regular and how beautifully sized these flowers are. Look at how symmetrical they are. Look how the designs the same to that flower, to that flower. You can get really beautiful designed uniformed sized flowers on an incrediable design like this. Just Gorgeous. Thank you Angela for sending it in."