Enamel by Ashley Heminway

Sliver enamel brooch
Originally uploaded by Ashley Heminway

Piece of work by Tutor of April 1 day enamelling course

Enamel Piece by Ashley Heminway

Sliver enamel brooch
Originally uploaded by Ashley Heminway

Work by tutor of enamelling course

International Jewellery Exhibition

IJE at Earls Court from 2nd to 5th Sept, Sun to Tues 10am to 6pm, Weds 10am to 4pm. I have phoned them to see if students can go, as it says trade only on the website. There are some interesting British jewellers exhibiting as well as trade, plus demonstrations. Lady on phone tells me to just register on the website, as a student, doesn't matter that Cross St students are not at a college. I am going to see if I can register and go, let you all know on Thurs. Website is www.jewellerylondon.com Have a good weekend, Caroline

Jewellery Extravaganza London Trip

I am going to London July thursday 12th. First to Hatton Garden (jewellery hub with tool shops, stone dealers etc). Then I will take you to Lesley Craze contemporary jewellery gallery, a really beautiful selection of international jewellery pieces. Finally we will visit the Jerwood Space for the Jerwood Prize, which this year is jewellery. There is no fee for this trip ( just pennies to buy me sustaining chocolate cake!), come along all you just need is your train fare.

Etched Enamel Pendant by Wendy

Cleaning the etched silver ready for enamels.

Wet packing enamel into etched cells.

Grinding back the enamel to reveal silver edges.

I wanted to get pics of Wendy on the blog before she leaves us to go to Greece!

Jane's last week before leaving us for London

The etched silver before annealing and the finished bangle. See last weeks post for the bangle being prepared for etching.

Jane's last week before London

Jane's finished ribbon bangle. This is a textured silver bangle with silver tipped ribbon fastening.

Tamsyn and Jane at the bench. Tamsyn's interlocking silver bangle.

Finally It's Done!

This was a complicated project, but well worth the effort. A pendant with 3 stone settings and much labour.

You can see Paul preparing silver sheet ready for reticulating next week. It has been heated, pickled and scrubbed with wire brush 5 times.

Caroline at the Bench

Selection of Caroline's texture samples. She has used a variety of hammers to produce these textures. It is a great idea to keep samples and notes like these. You can refer to them at any point in the future.

Silver sea horse brooch by Caroline with silver wire detailing and hammered texture.

Silver pendant, etched, enamelled and riveted. This was a commission piece and the central section is articulated and hold in place by jump rings.

Paul's Work

Bangle with blue stone was made by Paul last September, this is the first chance I've had to get a picture of it.

He made the etched necklace at home in his workshop set up he has there.

Maybe we will get a bunch of photos of everyones benchs' soon up on the blog!

Jo's Sketch Book

Some design ideas in Jo's sketch book for a necklace of silver repeated shapes.

Jump ring necklace

Julie playing with composition for her necklace of irregular jump rings.

Gemma's Bangle

You can see progression here from last weeks picture of the newly formed jump rings. Next week - Finished Bracelet!

Etching in the Studio

These pictures show Jo's sketch book and the inspiration and resulting copper samples. Not everyone wants to keep sketchbooks but they can be a great way of collecting inspiring material and notes.

Etching in the Studio

Gemma's finished silver etched bird brooch.

Etching in the Studio

Etched silver pendant, Letraset has been used a resist on the silver.
This piece is by Julie

Etching in the Studio

Hania's silver rod before etching. She has painted
the piece with stop-out and it is going to form part of a 3 piece ring set.

Suppliers Info - Finally!

Here is a list of suppliers to help you find tools, materials and generally help you spend all your money. If you have more please add a post.

Specialist jewellery suppliers
Cooksons
Bloomsteins
H S Walsh
Suttons
Rashbels
Euro Findings

Bullion
Bloomsteins
Cooksons
Euro Findings
Blundells

Hobby Tools
Kernocraft
Proops
Squires
K & M

Special techniques
Tirantis sculpture and casting tools
Vitrum Signum enamelling tools
W. G. Balls enamelling

Jane's forged this piece from a 4mm thick piece of silver which has doubled in width and length since she started it. It is to be finished with a ribbon fastening with silver ends.

Paul is working on his silver stone set pendant. This piece has 3 settings, 2 claw and 1 bezel. The body of the pendant has been etched with texture. We should be able to show finished piece next week

Alison's silver and 18ct gold bangle. This has only taken her 2 weeks to produce!

Caroline is carving a recess in her wax ring form ready for casting. She is using burrs and hot wax carvers to give a smooth finish.

Jane's lovely bird pin, picture does not do it justice, I will try to get another one soon!

Julie has designed an organic shaped necklace using irregular sized and shaped jump rings in silver.Here she can be seen flattening some soldered jump rings.

Gemma's textured and formed silver pin and the beginings of her jump ring bracelet.

Coming Next Week

I will be posting a list of suppliers for tools, metal, enamelling equipment, hobby tools and maybe more!

Alex in the Studio

Alex wearing her copper and silver forged bangle.

The copper has been forged, formed and silver wire applied to give a decorative surface to front of piece.

Silver ring created by Caroline

Silver and amythyst ring, created by Caroline. This is the result of many hours of work.

Alison and her silver ring

Silver ring designed and made by Alison.

Alison wearing her completed ring. It has been textured using a ball pein hammer.

Etching in the Studio

Silver for a bangle with resist painted on awaiting the etching process.

Wendy cleaning up her silver etched pendant. Silver was etched with Ferric Nitrate. In the background you acn see a copper sample with bitumen resist waiting to be etched.

Wax Carving Day with Amanda Doughty

Veronique and Hilary shaping their wax blanks by filing and piercing . This is only done after a design has been decided upon as accurate measuring is best done on the unfiled blank.

Steel tools can be pressed into the surface of wax to create texture, or as seen here letter punches are used to apply text to the surface of the piece.

Waxarving Day with Amanda Doughty

Here Paul is working with hard green wax blank which he then adds soft pink wax detailing to, see left.

Wax Carving Day with Amanda Doughty

Caroline sketches her ideas, then begins to file her blank to these designs.

Wax Carving Day with Amanda Doughty

A day in studio with Jeweller Amanda Doughty. This was a small class of students learning the ancient technique of wax working for jewellery.
A selection of materials and tools needed for wax carving and wax moulding. Some of these are specialist tools, while others are adapted from typical jewellery tools.
Here you can see rubber moulds and cast silver pieces on the left and some soft pink wax samples before casting. You can see from this picture that both organic and geometric forms can be achieved using this method of production.
Setting up dividers to mark out wax blank, seen on table. The blank is hard green wax which is strong and ideal for carving.

Exhibition - Jerwood Applied Arts Prize - Jewellery

Check out this website for details of Jerwood 2007.
A must see exhibition in London of contemporary jewellery.

Check out forthcoming workshops

You can click here for info on workshops!