FIRST BABY METAL STAMPED KEEPSAKE JEWELLERY

Customized metal stamped jewellery, a set on Flickr.

I have made this little book pendant for a lady who recently came to my first jewellery teaching workshop. I know her mum and decided to make something as a surprise.

This is the final result. A little two page book in aluminium. I cut shaped filed and sanded the pages, punched holes, hammered the front page and stamped baby name and two hearts and hung an unusual sterling silver heart jump ring from the top.

I then on the second page stamped baby feet and date of birth and stamped a four leaved clover leaf for good luck for the future.

I am quite liking the pendant myself. It took me a while to design and work out what i wanted to do - practice makes perfect.

Jenny

Stamped metal personalised bookmarks

Stamped metal personalised bookmarks, a set on Flickr.

I have been busy for the last two weeks creating about 15 different metal stamped bookmarks with lots of different themes. I have really enjoyed making them and being creative in my thinking and hope you enjoy looking at them.

Let me know your thoughts or any other ideas or themes you may have.

Jenny

WOWTHANKYOU very much

I am so excited tonight.  I've just set up a new shop on WowThankYou.  Only 6 items listed so far though as new but will be adding to it gradually.  Its so easy to navigate too and there are no forums to go on! so just craft and put on, obviously promote too if you want your items to sell.

All i had to do was work out how to change pixel size of photos to upload. 

You see since setting up shop on Folksy i am becoming a techie. 
I had never blogged, never twittered, never facebooked,never chatted on forums, now i do all of it.

What a funny old world.

Jenny

Metal stamped personalized bookmarks

I've been really busy this week using basic metalwork skills (new challenge) and have made some personalised bookmarks. 

I used 1mm aluminium metal sheet, cut,shaped,filed,sanded and metal stamped designs.  I plan the following designs.  Spiders,Religious,Hearts,Stars,Celestial,Butterflies,Princess crown with hammered framework,football,garden theme,dance,sleeping cat and paw,dog face and paw,best mom.  I am making up a whole batch so when i go to workplaces to sell jewellery i can do custom order and have them all out on display as i think they look better in a batch rather than odd ones - she says hopefully. 

Let me know what you think of my first few here.

I've also made this little aluminium stamped sleeping cat pendant with "shhhh" dont wake him theme.  Quite cute.  First effort okay and set on sterling silver chain.

I have given myself 2 days to finish off about another 6 designs and bead up the bookmarks then can list on my http://www.folksy.com/shops/LittleRedRobin shop.

Ta ra for now

Jenny x



Copper metal stamped whimsical plant herb markers for the garden

I love gardening but its been on the back burner for a while now as i've been so busy with jewellery making and family life.

However, i've purchased some metal design stamps and have made this set of whimsical style copper plant herb markers.   I used copper metal sheet handcut and shaped and stamped and oxidised herb names onto the plant markers.

I think they would look nice in the garden and make a great gift.   Let me know your thoughts?

Jenny

Little Red Robin Jewellery workshop day in Bristol

Today, Little Red Robin held their first Jewellery teaching workship in Warmley Community Centre, Bristol.  There were 7 students most who were new to jewellery making.

The students made some earrings using spiral headpins, eyepin connected earrings, hammered headpin beaded earrings using ball pein hammer and steel bench block (they enjoyed hammering the metal) and designed their own custom earrings too.

We then went onto making and designing a wired necklace with beadalon 7 strand wire some chose focal pendant and others symmetrical beaded necklaces to design.  We used crimps, crimp covers, wire guardian and findings to finish them off.

A short lunch break then back to our jewellery with the students finishing off with a copper or silver charm bracelet using techniques already learnt throughout the day. 

This was a very enjoyable day with all the students choosing lovely colour combinations and designing lovely items of jewellery. 

Next time i will take more photos with jewellery made by students and show as a gallery here on the blog. 

The bonus part of the day was that the community centre had an open day so tea,coffee and cakes were all available at any time!  and if you look closely you can see at the front of the picture my packet of cheese and onion crisps!

I hope the students enjoyed the day and that they may be inspired to be creative through jewellery or other hobbies (as some already do other crafts such as cardmaking and cross stitch) and return to future workshops i will run next year using other techniques.

I thoroughly enjoyed my day, it was quite relaxing, laid back and i was very impressed with their designing and colour combinations and their concentration to take it all in too, so well done to them all.

Jenny x

WHICH DIRECTION TO GO

Hmmm i havn't blogged for ages now.  I have been busy with little jewellery ventures selling some jewellery.    Now i have a lull for 2 weeks and then my first jewellery teaching workshop aaaaargggh. 

I seem to have lost a bit of momentum with the Folksy clarification on "handmade" and "hand assembled".  Although our shop all bar one item was acceptable in our jewellery lines it has made myself and my twin sister think long and hard about what exactly we are going to make and design with our jewellery.

My jewellery started with 6 week jewellery course with different projects and so i have leaned towards beaded jewellery and some woven jewellery which i quite like too.  My sister has attended silversmith courses and enamel and her leaning is towards silversmith techniques which she will still be doing along with some other ideas she has.

I am now thinking along the lines of more metalwork in some of my jewellery cold connections but making my own from sheet metal to begin with and expanding my skills gradually.  All this requires new tools!  I do have a vision of what i hope to be able to achieve in say 6 months to 1 years time which is totally different to what i am doing now which i find challenging and quite exciting although i will keep my hand in with other techniques too.

I would also like to blog more frequently with tutorials and blog on my experiments too it just all takes time.

Hope to be back soon with more news
x

Jenny