Sue Lane

Contemporary Jewellery and Courses

Sue Lane — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:08:18 +0000

Sue making jewellery.

Well the weather has been good, and the sun is blazing through my jewellery studio windows! We have the last jewellery making course of the year on Saturday 31st July. We will be making silver bangles using cold forging techniques with Georgina Franklin. This course is fully booked but we will run it again in 2011, dates will be here soon.

Last Saturday, Bronwen Tyler Jones taught a jewellery workshop about making lockets, including hinges and catches. The images from the day can be seen on the student’s gallery page.

August is the time for me to be making and bringing together ideas to add new pieces to my jewellery collections in preperation for Goldsmiths’s Fair, soon after followed by Dazzle and The Hereford Contemporary Craft Fair. I will add images of the work in progress on my twitter page, so do follow for all news and info. I will be adding new pieces of jewellery to my online contemporary jewellery shop in the coming weeks ahead too.

Contemporary Silver Locket

Sue Lane — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 09:43:53 +0000

On Saturday 24th july Bronwen Tyler Jones taught a locket making workshop, here at the studio. It was a great day, everyone had some experience of making jewellery already so were interested to find out more about hinges and catches. Everyone made a very nice finshed piece, some students choosing to add more detail when they returned to their studio. Here are some images from the course.

Getting started, Bronwen demonstrates using the fly press to make the shapes.

One of the locket samples for students to follow and one halfway through.

Nadine, Rachel and Michelle preparing to press the silver forms.

The shapes are drawn around with a pen to help see the cutting line, and a lip is left to attach the hinge to.

Rachel exploring using letter punches within her design.

One of Bronwen's samples that students could make, including a simple hinge and clasp.

Tube is cut for the hinge, soldering 2 pieces to one side of the locket first, then soldeirng the 3rd tube to the other side of the locket. This can be a bit tricky!

Soldering the tube, using a piece of brass as a riser to get the hinge to just the correct height.

Soldered tubes in the correct position, now the locket is pickled to clean away the oxide that built up during soldering.

Crimping the hinge to hold the wire in place.

The open locket.

Nadine's finished locket.

Maxine's locket, she was going to add more decoration when she returned home, she was really interested to learn the skills and do the rest at home. I would love to see it when it is finshed!

Inside is as good as out!

Michelle's locket.

Rachel put the detail inside and planned to add beading when she got home.

Handmade Individualised Gold Wedding Ring

Sue Lane — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:19:12 +0000

Back in March, I blogged about casting in the jewellery studio when I recycled some rings for a couple who wanted to make one new wedding band reusing the metal. To make the ring even more special, the couples family visited my jewellery making studio and all had a hand in applying a finished texture. Here are some images of the family all adding their individual mark!

Checking the wedding ring to make sure it is a good fit.

Applying a planished finish to the wedding ring.

Again, applying a planished finish to the wedding ring.

And again, applying a planished finish.

Watching the work take place.

The finished wedding ring.

Make hay while the sun shines…

Sue Lane — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 09:01:53 +0000

The weather has been lovely, and a few days ago it was hay making time here…

My Dad checking out if the grass is ready to cut.

The grass has been cut and left for a few days in the sunshine.

Baling the hay into small square bales, though some large round ones too.

Reticulation and Fusing Workshop

Sue Lane — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 08:53:44 +0000

On Saturday 3rd July Georgina Franklin taught a workshop about reticulation and fusing. I am always interested to see what everyone is making, and therefore am always on hand to help out if needed! The jewellery course was very relaxed, making an enjoyable day, with everyone working on different projects. The day began with Georgina explaning the techniques and going through the many samples she had made, followed by a demonstration. It was then the students’ chance to plan a design and get started. Here are the images from the day.

One of Georgina's samples that students could make. A fused silver ring.

A sample of lots of small pieces all fused together to make a pendant.

Lots of silver squares were cut with snips, layed out and fused. During fusing you get the lovely reticulated surface.

A reticulated silver sample.

Georgina demonstrating fusing, hence the bright red colours!

Annealing the silver between 5-6 times before heating to get the texture.

Wendy's piece on the soldering block ready to solder the granules in place.

Georgina had only just had an operation on her foot a few days before the workshop, hence the big foot and krutches! She was a star and coped really well.

Nadine fusing a piece of copper wire to reticulated silver.

Georgina showing different techniques.

Jerry making her necklace.

Wendy's finshed pendant.

Nadine's reticulated silver hook earrings.

Nadine fused copper to a piece of reticulated silver and made a brooch fitting.

Jerry's pendant, including reticulation, granulation and soldering.

Make your wedding rings

Sue Lane — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:34:48 +0000

On 25th June 2010, Francis and Gemma spent a day in the studio with me making their wedding rings. We began with strips of 18k yellow gold oval wire, annealled, shaped, cut, soldered and polished and ended the day with two beautifully finished rings.

The starting point - 18k yellow gold wire.

Francis and Gemma starting to shape the rings with half round pliers.

Francis cutting through the metal to make a perfect joint for soldering.

Gemma cutting through the metal to make Francis' ring.

Trying for size!

Adding the solder

Preparing to solder the joing together.

Gemma applying a matt finish to the ring.

The finished rings, Gemma has a polished finish while Francis has a matt finish.

More information about making your own wedding rings..

Craft Market at Ledbury Poetry Festival 2010

Sue Lane — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 10:03:32 +0000

Earrings - now £25

On Friday 9th July I will be at the Ledbury Arts Market taking place in conjunction with Ledbury Poetry Festival 2010. It is on the High Street from 10am – 5pm and I am one of around 20 makers taking part. I will be selling my past collection pieces, samples I have made to demonstate techniques to students and slight seconds. All jewellery is priced very reasonably and needs a good home to go to!

I have been teaching quite a lot recently and you can see some of the work in the students gallery. My last jewellery course for this year is at the end of July, and then I turn my attention to making jewellery. From August onwards I focus on making new work alongside my current collection for shows in the run up to Christmas. I will be running jewellery courses again from January 2011, and dates will be posted here in September.

Silver and diamond ring sets.

Sue Lane — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 15:35:32 +0000

Today I have put another of my popular silver and diamond rings in my online jewellery shop. Last year I began to make several of my designs a little more delicate which has been very successful. I am now looking at ways of putting them together to create interesting sets… more on the way…

Silver and Diamond Ring

Two rings, one set with the diamond in yellow gold and one set in white gold.

One diamond and silver ring with a silver and aquamarine ring.

The weather has just been beautful, here is the view from my work bench across the veggie plot.

View from my bench.

Pat, Anne and Sandra’s day in the studio.

Sue Lane — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:33:29 +0000

I had the pleasure of running a jewellery workshop for three lovely ladies on Saturday. We based the day around making rings and they very quickly decided on their designs. Both Pat and Sandra loved the same design, while Anne wanted to make a ring that worked with her own bangle and represented the members of her family. We enjoyed the hot summers day by sitting outside for lunch before returning to the studio to finish the rings. I managed to get some photographs, but as usual we were so busy I forgot to capture the early part of the day. The rings they made were lovely and everyone left the studio delighted!

Sandra's ring. At this stage we had reticulated the surface of the silver, soldered the gold wire to one end, then used the pliers to shape the ring.

Anne preparing to solder the 3 rings together.

A piece of solder sat on the join of the gold ring before Anne soldered it.

Pat is filing the ring to give the edges a clean sharpe look.

Sandra filing the ring before soldering the final gold edge.

The second gold bar was soldered in place, then they where cleaned up before oxidising.

Anne polishing the small gold loop to give it a high polish.

Pat is gently rubbing the surface with a pad to remove some of the oxidised surface to reveal the silver below.

The finished rings!

2010 – Sandcasting Workshop

Sue Lane — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 09:26:11 +0000

On 19th June I ran a sandcasting workshop with 4 great students. Everyone had several attempts at casting and sweets seemed to be the order of the day! We had one stubborn key that we tried to cast several times, but it was a little on the thin side for the size of casting. Most students soldered jumprings and fixings to their castings and applied polished or matt finishes. Some pieces were left unfinished for be worked on at a later date.

Everyone getting started by making the first sand mould.

Helen compressing the sand in the wooden mould with a hammer.

Melting scrap silver until it is molten and then we pour it into the mould on the right.

Gina making her second mould of the day.

Mark adding the sand to the mould.

Opening the mould to remove the shapes and add air release holes.

Alex at the bench filing and sanding one of her castings.

Here are some of the finished pieces.

Helen's castings. Some are finished and some still have the sprue left on, where she poured the silver into the mould.

Mark's castings. Unfinished as he is able to work on them at home and was just interested in learning the process.

Gina's pendants and charms made from the decorative end of a key.

Alex cast a large button and made a brooch fixing and a sweetie pendant!