golden bunnies and crosses... (birthday gifts and boredom)

so.... the end of year dawned upon me... it brings the end of my acedemic year and my birthday, which incidentally is also my younger brothers birthday (2nd birthday, thanx mom, can we get a refund?) So before I lost acces to a mayor big workshop, only until mid January though...

I did the following:

For those who have seen my portfolio from 3rd year might remebr my bunnie rings...

anyway I made a master of it and made a large amound of them (as seen above)

cast these into silver and treated them.....

The one above I gold plated, some I polished and the others I sandblasted or oxidised....

They don't look half bad, gonna sell them soon...

So coming back to my brother (and my birthday) I decided to make him a rosary (I never give him a present btw, and vice versa). the rosarie is the same as Ive made before, which he liked and just made it with black tourmaline... think of it as a belated 21st present....

renderings... for clients...

So these are renderings I did for clients... It's a pair of rosaries... Made for a couple for their aniversary The trick with this is the guy is a Pagan, so his has pentacle as the main piece and the first prayer bead is replaced with a cross. His girlfriend is Christian, hers has a cross and the bead is replaced with a pentacle... The actual pieces are in sterling silver with black tourmaline beads.... they came out stunning.... and it's a beautifully symbolic piece...

so I was bored....

So I was a bit bored... and as I haven't modeled something up in ages...
I went and did a rendering on Rhino of my rosarie...
(See earlier posts on it)
But basically it's a rosarie with a 2ct Sapphire in..
And I just felt like rendering it up...
Looks pretty decent I think...

cufflinks....

So these are a pair of cufflinks I made for a client (my mother).
I took longer to make them than I should have, this I owe to being out of practice...
thank you sickness...
They are hollow ovals with 2 blackened lines running over them in sterling silver.
They look so amazing when worn... Such a simple design, so effective...

How to make a six claw wire setting [Student support]

This is my latest project, an ongoing student support system for the early years of making jewellery. Research material is sometimes very difficult to find, so this is for those student who like to do their homework... enjoy

Cut 7 pieces of .9 mm wire (15 mm in length)
Bind them together and push the middle wire out.

Drop a silver ball into the middle and solder it.

Put this in your pendant motor and cut a groove into the wires (1.5mm deep) with your saw frame.

Completely pull out the middle wire and push open your claws (the groove helps you with this)

Solder the cuts closed, to stabilise your setting.

Measure your stone and jump ring. The stone must just be bigger than the inside of your jump ring.

Measure where the stone sits in your setting and file grooves into your jump ring. Your jump ring must sit just under where your stone sits, allowing your stone to rest on the jump ring.

Solder your jump ring in.

Now file and clean-up your setting as to how you need it. Remember to leave length at the bottom if you still need to file it for your shank.

so I do this for fun...

So yes... this is what I do for fun... I make rosaries... and experiment with metals...

these are a set of four for me, and 3 friends...

each of the crosses has a different flaw, metallurgically speaking...

such as bubbled metal, pitmarks, porosity and discolouration...

yes, they were all on purpose.... experiments...

they are set with cabachon garnets and strung with garnet beads...

Lovey dovey... bitchy posey....

This is my greek... Metaxia's website...

go have a look she's got some awesome stuff.... quirky stuff....

www.metaxia.com

yes we have a love hate thing... she just molested my armpit...