All copper and earth tones this week

I don't seem to have been able to get my teeth into much new lately, all of my orders have been for re-makes of existing designs. Absolutely nothing wrong with that whatsoever, but you do get the creative itch to be doing something for the first time and my head is always bursting with ideas wanting to take form.

Lovely translucent oval Jade beads spiral wrapped in antiqued copper.

A young couple who have been my son's closest friends, for what must be something like 10 years, asked me to make a necklace for his Mum (and she's my friend too) for her birthday this week and wanted something in 'earth tones' for her. I showed them some designs and we honed it down to close to what they had in mind.

A smaller version of my spiral coils necklace - the coils are a slightly smaller gauge and shorter too - we thought that she might not suit the heaviness of the other ones I'd made, so I scaled it down a little. This one may well remain with me, I was promising to make myself one with some of these gorgeous blue green Indian Fancy Jasper lanterns.

But we were a bit up against it time-wise, so I suggested that I should make a few new pieces that fit their brief, from which they could choose the one they like best and the rest would simply be new stock for my shops.

Whilst digging through my bead stash for 'earth tone' beads, I found several that I liked but were too small for the designs I had in mind, so I fancied the idea of one with leaves and berries, so this necklace features a random toning selection of copper and earth green leaves and berries. I intended it to be a short length in the centre of a collar length necklace, but wondered if a heavier central feature bead might cause it to fall into more of a V at the neckline, so added this large Rhyolite coin in the centre with some rosy copper buds above it.

I've found that it's often quicker to work that way than try and thrash out all of the details before picking up the tools - just depending on the nature of the piece they want and how fixed the customer is in their ideas - and how many ideas I have!

Once I got into the zone for the colours and style they wanted, the ideas quickly flowed and I ended up with the 4 designs shown here for them to consider, which thankfully they liked well enough that they were stuck to decide and did indeed go for the one I had placed my little personal wager on.

The necklace they chose; with Indian Fancy Jasper lantern beads spiral wrapped between hammered copper washers.

They thankfully stated their preference a couple of days before they came to collect it, which gave me the opportunity to make a matching pair of earrings as my gift for her too.

The earrings I made to go with them. She doesn't often wear long earrings, so I wanted to keep them as short as possible, yet match the design, so I put them on a hammered paddle pin which allowed me to continue the spiral into a couple of wraps below the bead.

Talking of jewellery gifts reminds me to include a bracelet that I made for a Christmas gift - it was a variation of one of my standard and regular selling designs; a solid copper double wrapped link antiqued bracelet - which I normally close with a large hook clasp. In this case, I felt the recipient might struggle to fasten the clasp on her own, so opted for a toggle clasp instead.

There's clearly more time and work in making the toggle, which would certainly increase the price, but I think I might add this variation to my shop too. In fact, when I am more flush and can justify using the materials for myself, I'd like one like this in Sterling silver, I think it would make a good everyday 'go with anything' bracelet that would be easy to wear.

This weeks fixation is . . .

Further to my last post about the new teardrop pendant I'd been working on, as often is the case, I get somewhat fixated with a design idea or technique and work several variants of it in short order.

Please click on any of the photographs for a larger view.

I don't suppose for one minute that I'm any different from other designers in this respect - once you get attuned to working on something, your mind just runs away with it and the more you work, the more variants and ways you can use the element pop into your mind.


Thus is has been over the last few days. I've fine-tuned my method so that I can make them consistently and with a symmetrical shape and my head is full of ideas to work on - like it needed any more in there fighting for my attention.

The first photographs above are of what was the initial prototype I made from a soldered oval I already had on my bench. As the soldered join was a little untidy, I thought it might be nice to cover it with a molten silver nugget and make a feature of it. It was also quite small and didn't have much weight to it, so this will help it hang nicely. I'm going to keep this one myself and as I almost always wear pendants on a Sterling silver snake chain, the silver nugget will co-ordinate with that.


I also made some larger copper teardrops, more in line with the shape of the silver one - which had been my intended shape all along. I kept one highly polished and plain like the silver and another I adorned with an internal squiggle with hammered molten button ends, wrapped to the outer teardrop frame and supplemented with a couple of wrapped tiny copper beads - antiqued to enhance the textures.

It perhaps isn't evident from the photographs above, but the bails are at 90 degrees to the body of the teardrops , so that they hang perfectly perpendicular to the chain they're on. I'd photographed at angles to show the twist between the two loops of the teardrop and bail eye, but it does sit straight and central to the body of the pendant. I'll unfortunately have to leave my ideas for a day or two as I have other non-jewellery work to do.


Post script:

Famous last words above; I knew I wouldn't be able to help myself. I had to wait for a client to get back to me today before I could complete some work for them and I was able to finish this further variation that I started a couple of days ago. I've done various pieces with rosebud knots in the past and seeing (at the time) a rosebud knot piece in the 'I'm currently working on' box on the right, I wondered if it could be combined with the teardrop shape - which would rely on the knot retaining its shape whilst I made the pendant shape above it - which places quite some forces on the metal.

Thankfully, in this gauge of wire, it did and I was thrilled to bring two of my favourite recent techniques together. Even as I write that, I have a further idea to bring the teardrop together with another of my often used techniques - so it's off to the sketch book yet again.

This version is made from a single length of heavy copper wire, which hasn't been soldered in this instance, the knot holds it together.

All tied up in knots

I've blogged several times in the past about how working on one thing takes you down a particular design path - how one idea leads to another and you produce a series of related pieces, often on a theme. Thus it was this week. A returning customer asked me to make a pair of earrings for her that were an amalgamation of two designs already available in my shop - she liked one element of each design and wanted them combining.

Thankfully, with my recent discipline of keeping a detailed journal of my designs with sizes, gauges of wire used and the tools and methods I'd used to make a particular shape, I was easily able to re-create the elements in question, faithfully to the original design and without the very frustration that led me to that practice in the first instance.

Please click on any of the photographs to see a larger view.

The custom earrings I made this week - using the double looped rosebud knot, but with rosy buds at the bottom, where the originals had a wrapped stone dangling.

Once you've torn your hair out trying to re-make an old design and not been able to get it quite the same as the original, you realise the real value in disciplining yourself to maintain such records religiously. It was with some degree of smugness that I first flipped the pages to find my design 'recipe' for something I needed to re-make and a practice that has proven itself time and time again. The fact that my husband gave me a lovely leather bound book for just this purpose last Christmas has made it a particular pleasure to work in.

When I work, I always jot down the length of wire I cut and the diameter of any turns or loops and if I find I have too much waste, or struggle to finish the shape with too short a piece, I make the adjustment in my notes too. If I find that a particular method doesn't work and I find working from the back, or anticlockwise, for example, cures a problem or gives rise to a better shape, then this is also noted.

Whilst fiddling with my double looped knots, I wondered how well they would work as a single loop with a rosebud knot at one end and I rather liked the results.

We've all done it, had problems making something, found a solution, then come to remake it some time later, fall into the same initial difficulty and can't remember what we did to cure it the first time around. So my journal is used to note all such details, with sketches and diagrams where appropriate. I even note which tools I used if I found that one item worked better than another.

Having made a single loop pair of earrings (above), I wondered how heavy I could go with the wire and made this pendant in 1.6mm (14 gauge) copper wire. The loop is just over an inch (27mm) in diameter.

I've got into the practice of making scribbles on scraps of paper or in my sketch book as I work, which I treat much like we did with a 'rough book' at school - I do all my working out in that, then transpose my final version (which may have been amended or adjusted several times by the time I'm done) to my neater finished journal - so that it's hopefully easier to make sense of at some time in the future.

The matching set of rosebud knot loop pendant and earrings. I've oxidised the copper pieces and then tumbled them extensively to get a nice gunmetal colour on the dark areas, then polished just the rosebuds back to highlight them.

I tend to sit down after breakfast, whilst I finish my coffee, before the day starts to veer away from my intended plans, and transpose all my scratty notes into the journal before I lose them, or lose my train of thought. The investment of time in doing this has proven well worth it on many occasions. I also have this thought in the back of my mind that at some time a long way in the future, my great-grandchildren may find it a fascinating treasure the same way that I do my grandfathers old sketch book - a little glimpse into my life at this time.

Now I was on a roll I wanted to see how they'd look in Sterling silver. I didn't have the same gauge of wire, so these are a little more delicate than the copper version of the earrings, but I decided to leave these as shiny silver, rather than oxidise them.

And so it was this week with these custom earrings. I consulted my design journal to make the same knotted loop element again and once my fingers had remembered the technique required to get a nice even knot, I set about making several other pieces using the same elements, as above. Once you start with something, your mind just takes you where it will and I still have ideas left to try using the same techniques.

Recent work in progress, now completed

I apologise for not making a very meaningful post, but as I'm going to be out of action for a few days, I thought that I'd bring you up to date on some of the work I showed previously in progress. I'm always interested to read other jeweller's methodology when coming to a design, so thought I'd add some background on my own pieces.

Unfortunately some of the pieces I'd like to show you, that are responsible for quite a bit of my time recently, are custom items intended for gifts, so I need to keep them under wraps for the time being, I obviously don't want to spoil any surprises.

I've been doing some work with copper sheet and showed two pendants in their finished but raw metal state. I've now oxidised them and decided upon a final finish.

The pendant and earring set shown below was cut from copper sheet and given a hand finished texture. Then shaped and polished and the smaller pieces drilled for the earwires and a tube bail soldered to the back of the pendant - I wanted to keep the front of it plain without interruption from a jump ring or other bail structure.

Please click on any of the photographs for a larger view.

I gave the upper surfaces a high degree of hand polished shine so that once oxidised, it would take on a nice gunmetal style sheen. I polished the oxidisation back a little from the surface to reveal the texture.

I'd originally intended soldering solid earwire hooks to the back of the earring pieces, but decided at their size, they might hang a little low and without articulation. Coming up to winter when ladies are more likely to wear coats and scarves, it might cause them to get pushed upwards during wear, so I went for a long stright drop earwire through a drilled hole instead.

Seeing them finished this way I know it was the right choice, as they move nicely and the sheen on the surface gives rise to more interest as they jiggle in wear. But I think next time, I'd split the difference and solder a loop to the back of them and then attach that to an earire, to keep the front surface plain, as I'd originally intended - that didn't occur to me until after I'd drilled the holes.


I posted earlier that this particular pendant had proved troublesome - sometimes the plainest looking designs need to the most work to keep them that way. I didn't feel that the resulting finish was up to the standards I am happy with, so this one will be mine. I had given the front surface of the copper a brushed satin finish and wasn't sure whether to oxidise, antique or leave raw. I do love the gunmetal sheen of highly polished copper when fully oxidised, so went with that option, tumbling it extensively to burnish the flat surface. I hand polished the Sterling silver nuggets to contrast against the darker background.

This pendant too has a tube bail soldered on the back and I think I'll probably wear it on my Sterling silver snake chain. I like the simple contemporary lines of it and hope to apply what I learnt in making this one to something similar to sell.


These earrings aren't a new concept for me by any means, I have made several pieces featuring these wrapped copper buds, but a customer wanted something long and dramatic, so these deep teardrop shapes were born - and I made an extra pair for the shop.

I've oxidised the earrings and then polished back just the wrapped areas to accent the texture there. The hammered teardrop loops have been left dark and smooth to contrast the textured details at the bottom. The buds were left a rosy copper and whilst these aren't as red as some I've done, they still have a pink glow to them. I've hung them from wrapped earwires to mirror the texture.

The evolution of a design

I talked in my last blog about how designs come about and that I see the design process rather like a tree - ideas branch out and grow and sometimes overlap other ideas and merge with them.

The design process for me is one of evolution, one thought often cannonballs into another and takes you in another direction - often without any conscious intention or control whatsoever - in fact, for me, this process is sometimes so energetic that keeping it under some modicum of control is the tricky part.

The spiral links I'd been working with previously, in a smaller gauge of wire and size, hammered smooth and highly polished. Here worked in Sterling silver for earrings.

It would seem very unlikely for me to ever be heard uttering the words that 'I'm stuck for inspiration' or ideas or 'don't know what to work on'. I must have hundreds of sketches yet to take form and variations of pieces already made waiting for realisation, that my biggest problem is deciding how to prioritise on what I give my time. I spend much of my life in perpetual frustration where I have ideas I want to work on and are spilling out of my mind, but other things I just have to do first.

A single spiral link in an intermediate size, used as a connector in these leaf themed earrings. I adjusted the wire gauge to give rise to a leaf spiral around the same size as the glass leaves I wanted to use. Antiqued smoothly hammered copper.

I don't think, perhaps beyond the age of about 12, I have ever uttered the words "I'm bored". The concept is totally alien to me. I must have about a million things on my 'to do' list - things I want to work on, things I want to try, things I want to learn, books I want to read, places I want to visit - that life is way, way too short to squander any of it in being bored.

That's how it has been this week design-wise - one idea morphing into another and some ideas I had on the back burner, bubbling away in my subconscious, suddenly gained momentum when brought into contact with some new thought.

I'm still not entirely done with the spiral links I've done a lot of lately. It's such a versatile unit to work with that they take on different guises depending on the size you make them and the finish you give them. This week I went much smaller with them than the links I'd used in bracelets and they come out lovely and delicate and deliciously fluid when worked together and finished and polished to a high degree.

Hammering them smooth and then polishing them gives a reflective, tactile chain that you just want to stroke. They can be used singly as connectors with interest, or collectively as a chain. See photos above.

This was meant to be an experiment to see if the idea I'd sketched would actually work, but I quite like how it turned out as a finished piece in itself, so I finished it off by antiquing. The beads are unakite.

I'd seen some fabulous work in copper this week using lots of wire wrapping - this is something I admire, but perhaps don't have the patience or technique yet to work on anything extensive, but I had some ideas I wanted to work through too - my initial idea was to make a large spiral link, as above, but wrap the bottom open section with beads.

I was trying to ascertain a methodology for attaching beads around the outside of the shape with wire wrapping and wanted to work with balled head pins and came up with this technique, which I worked out on paper first and seeing that there were flaws in my original ideas, they needed working out. The pendant above was the result of that process - the pins needed anchoring in some way to prevent them from being too easily bent away from the master shape they were wrapped around.

This pendant was the next incarnation along my ideas branch. It was made initially as a leaf (soldered and hammered into shape), that I was going to wrap with small green aventurine beads like the round pendant above, but I decided it was going to come out too large with beads as well, so wrapped it with just the ball ended pins and connected the fine chain in the wrapping as I went.

Having suspended it on the chain the way that I have and without the green beads I was intending, it now looks rather more like a heart than a leaf. I'd made the ball pins as a rosy colour and deliberately allowed this to remain as I antiqued and polished the piece.

Continuing along my branch of ideas, these earrings came about after working the heart/leaf without beads, I sketched some shapes that would work well with that particular wrapping technique - it needed smooth round outer curves or straight lines ideally and this shape allowed me to get a 'circle' without soldering, as I wanted to only part wrap the shape and this balanced the bottom detail and intense texture with further interest at the top.

I decided that to balance the round earring, the earwires needed to either be round in shape, which didn't work as nicely as I hoped, or in some other way reflect the details. So I went with a long straight drop earwire, to drop the wide earrings well below the ear and mirrored the wrapping with a wrapped loop rather than an eye to connect the earrings.

After oxidising, I decided to only polish back the wrapped details and leave this highlighted against the darker gunmetal finish of the scroll and I also highlighted the wraps on the earwires too. I think, having taken that particular evolutionary journey this week through these designs, this is the one I like best.

This week I have mostly been working in copper

“The world is an old woman, and mistakes any gilt farthing for a gold coin; whereby being often cheated, she will thenceforth trust nothing but the common copper” Thomas Carlyle, Victorian essayist.

Hammered copper, heavily antiqued, spiral link bracelet.
Please click on any of the photographs for a larger view.

The last couple of weeks have been hectic - an assortment of commissions to complete, work commitments, domestic dramas, our visiting son (I'd like to think he comes home from university to catch up with his Mum, but in reality he was only availing himself of my fast broadband connection, as the dent in my bandwidth allowance will testify) and even some time away over Easter.

So if anyone happened to be so devoid of entertainment they were monitoring my publicly visible work rate, they'd perhaps consider me tardy of late - I haven't seemingly had much to show for the long hours and exhaustion levels.

I spent a lot of time before we went away for Easter in preparing things to take with me to work on; part-made components to finish, components that I could make into ideas I had etc. - all in case of bad weather and the need to find things to do. I had enough materials with me to make a hundred pieces of jewellery. All I eventually managed was this necklace (with matching earrings) and another pair of earrings. Antiqued copper and green glass.

I quite liked the smooth look of the back of the antiqued bracelet above, where polishing off the oxidisation, left a pattern of colours on the smooth copper, from bright peach to a deep gunmetal type blue/grey. So I made another version without the hammered texture and will give this the same colour finish. I sometimes just like to enjoy them in their raw state before I give them their final colour.

A spiral wrapped Botswana agate bracelet in it's raw copper just-tumbled state, which has since been deeply oxidised and extensively tumbled to a deep gunmetal warm grey.

But behind the scenes, like a little hammer-wielding gnome, I have been quietly (not that my hammering can ever be claimed to be quiet) producing several new pieces. But the making of the jewellery is the fun bit - that's where I find my joy, peace from the world and my personal satisfaction - I get so embroiled with the details of shapes and the engineering of making things work properly that the world just passes me by and I often only come to my senses when the growling in my belly reminds me that I really should have had lunch several hours ago.

Hammered and elongated soldered chain link earrings, with rosy copper molten buds.

But once complete, after enjoying it for a short while on my own, I must present the result of my efforts to the world. I really can't expect pieces to sell if they're still sitting on my work bench unseen. And this is the part, like most artisan sellers and self-representing artists, that I find most tedious, time-consuming and plain disagreeable.

A pendant in progress, which has since been antiqued. I love to see raw shiny just-tumbled copper, so often take WIP photos at this stage. Just because the colour is so pretty.

As someone who has listed photography as a passion for an alarmingly large number of years, I do not find photographing my work to be in the least bit enjoyable. And despite having now done quite a lot of it and to have gradually honed my workflow to be about as efficient as I think I can get, it still seemingly takes an inordinate amount of time - far longer than it feels like it should or I'm happy to give it. And don't even get me started on the process of measuring everything, working out a price and writing appropriate descriptions. I get through it by issuing myself with incentives - if I finish listing two items, I can work on the bracelet I'd started etc.

Large Serpentine beads spiral wrapped with copper into this bracelet with hand crafted hook and an adjustable chain closure and Aventurine dangle. The copper has been antiqued.

So, in the purely selfish interest of trying to make it look like I have actually done something of late, I present some of my latest pieces and the first photographs I've taken of them. I've also included some work in progress photos (WIP) as I often take photographs for my own reference and they don't otherwise ever see the light of day.

Only another 25 pieces and several hours wrangling photo props and cameras and then manipulating images left to go!

Design or serendipitous accidents?

Or . . . "today I haz mostly been working with copper"

Just depending on the combination of what needs to be done, available materials, customer commissions etc., my work tends to go in phases. Some weeks I'm perpetually soldering silver, melting blobs or wrapping loops. Other weeks, as this last one, my work has been fairly exclusively as metalsmithing copper.

An intermediate, pre-oxidising, stage of
some twisted rope necklaces I'm working on.
Please click on the photos to see a larger, sharper version.

I do love all sorts of different types of work - and I suppose that the very variety of what I end up making keeps me perpetually interested. Sometimes the therapeutic rhythm of joining rings for some of the loose chainmaille designs I do is just what is needed, other times I love to shape and form raw metal - I just love expending the energy and getting dirty hands. On another day, I love to lose myself in the still and clean work of some fine wire wrapping.

I like to make all my own raw components, that way
I get just what I want, in terms of workmanship and design.

And some days, like today, nothing hits the spot better than getting thoroughly dirty by shaping metal, hammering, soldering, pickling and oxidising - I find myself totally lost in the work and oblivious to the passage time and outside world.

I've tried keeping clean as I work and it's just not possible. You need the fine control and touch that no tool can do better than your bare fingers - you need to feel the metal, you need to become intimate with every twist, turn and edge and you consequently end up thoroughly grubby. But nothing cleans dirty fingers quite as effectively as some nice soft moist fresh bread. It's a tad alarming to get to the end of your cheese and tomato butty and realise that your hands are now thoroughly clean and moisturised.

These soldered copper rings are destined to become a bracelet,
inter-spaced with round buttons of spider web jasper.

A friend recently brought my attention to a design award that she thought might be of interest. Which whilst it was very flattering to come to mind when thinking about design, I never really think of my work as 'designed'. It isn't really, it largely just happens.

I perpetually have a head full of ideas waiting to take form - shapes and techniques vying for my attention - and as I work on one thing, it then sets off a whole new tangent of ideas - I always have far more ideas than I have time to work on - and every day as I learn and stretch myself, the world of possibility opens even wider. I've already scribbled several ideas down over breakfast this morning.

The twisted hammered ring in this pendant arose from a different idea
entirely and the curiosity to see if it would solder successfully. Which it did.

The finished and antiqued pendant, hung on belcher chain.

I often start off with an idea and then the metal takes me somewhere entirely different. Some designs end up exactly as I drew them - but more often they just don't. The best pieces are often a serendipitous accident - sometimes an idea just doesn't work how you'd envisioned it - either the metal doesn't behave how you expect, it doesn't look as nice as you'd hoped, or the proportions are wrong for what you had in mind, so it becomes something different. Sometimes that result itself opens up a whole new area of possibilities.

Twisted copper earrings that started out as a different idea entirely.

The earrings and pendant shown nearby are one such serendipitous result. I was twisting wire for some rope necklaces, as shown at the top, and in an attempt to get a twist as thick as I could, I tried twisting two strands of a heavier gauge - which wasn't going to be suitable for the rope I wanted to make, but hammering it flat to open the twist right out gave an entirely different result than the idea I started with. My next version will combine silver and copper together and I have another sketch to work featuring twisted copper with silver nuggets. So watch this space . . .

The earrings in their raw polished copper form,

they've since been antiqued to match the pendant, see below.