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On Friday 17th February, Kate and Tim joined me to make their wedding rings. Kate has lots of previous experience of making jewellery, so Tim had a lot of pressure! Kate made a 4mm wide palladium ring for Tim who made a 2mm platinum wedding ring for Kate. Both metals are worked slightly differently to gold and silver and require more work than usual to make them to a high standard.
By the end of the day both had made absolutely perfect rings, finished to a standard I would be happy to sell.
On Thursday 2nd February I was joined in the workshop by two ladies who are good friends. Both ladies have been before and wanted to spend the day doing something different together: so we focused on making earrings. After demonstrating various techniques, it was time to get started. Here are some images of the day.
Sample earrings, silver wire and books to get the workshop started.
Margaret annealed the silver then rolled it with fabric to give a lovely texture. Here she is cutting the strip into small squares to make the earrings.
Texture samples using the rolling mill, punches and hammers.
Joanna made lovely hoop earrings with a hammered texture, and did a brilliant job of soldering stops at the ends and adding the posts.
Margaret soldered 18k gold wire to the top of each earring, and then added the posts. Plenty of soldering practise!
And finally Joanna rolled a feather with silver to give a lovely subtle texture, cut out circles, domed them and made a lovely pair of earrings. The image doesn't do them justice!
Perhaps the title is a little over the top, but it was certainly cold for a while. I took some images of the frozen rain that had created lovely effects in the garden, turning even the most mundane objects into something beautiful. My favourites are from seed heads and flowers. The frozen water seemed to encase and protect them. It also made everything sparkle and glisten, and even magnify the tiny details… so lovely.
Frozen rain on a seed heads
Frozen rain on a seed heads
Frozen rain on a lavender head
Lavender
Another seed head
On Saturday 11th February I helped Abi and Ant make their own wedding rings. It was a really lovely day, and much enjoyed by the students too. Using 9k white and 18k yellow gold they made beautiful rings for each other. The largest compliment I could receive was from Abi at the end of the day “The rings are beautiful. An even better result than we could have imagined. I never thought they would be so professional!”
Here are some images from the day.
9k white gold and 18k yellow gold
Starting to shape the metal
Trying the ring
Cutting the metal
Soldering
Working on each others rings
Final mirror polish being given to the inside of Ant's wedding ring
The finished rings. Well done!
More images are on my facebook page.
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I am a contemporary jewellery designer maker based in rural Herefordshire. My collection is subtle and pure incorporating clean lines and a soft finish. I pass on my skills through teaching jewellery workshops from my jewellery making studio. All designs are handmade.
