Cocktail rings and more

Last week I went back to the London Jewellery School for an evening taster class in cocktail ring making. A couple of years back, I'd learnt how to make cluster rings using ring findings but I still wanted to do this class because it uses wire wrapping to create the ring shank.

There was a lovely bunch of ladies on the class that night and Helen Stay, our tutor, was brilliant! We all managed to make at least four rings in the course of the evening, so it definitely was a great use of our time! I would recommend this class to anyone who fancies making a bit of jewellery. Because they're so quick to make and the raw materials are relatively cheap, these type of rings will also make a great addition to my Christmas market stall project.

I had some opened clay left from my Metal Clay course and conscious that it might dry out and go to waste if I didn't make use of it soon, I decided to try my hand at making another ring, but all on my own this time.

I had a number of ideas in mind but eventually I settled on something pretty simple, an open ring with some artificial rubies set in the open ends. Basically, I just made a sausage, wrapped it around a ring mandrel and then set a couple of stones in the ends.

Because of the shape of the ring, smoothing the clay once it was dry was the hardest part, I was so scared of breaking it! I then fired the ring with a little butane torch, and in the process found out my oven timer doesn't do seconds so I made a mental note of buying a digital timer for next time.

Once the ring was cool, I burnished then polished it (again no mean feat with that shape!) et voilà! My first metal clay ring made all on my own! Ok, it's not as perfect as I would have liked but hey, it's mine and it's a first!

Metal Clay intensive - day 5

Whilst many people were crowding Central London or were glued to their telly to watch the royal wedding, Emma (the tutor), Paula, Elisa (my fellow classmates) and myself were concluding our 5-day metal clay adventures. 

The focus of today was adding gold to metal clay using different methods. We made another three pieces, in my case a pair of earrings and two pendants. 

I'm not a huge fan of gold but I must admit that used as an accent on silver, like this, it is rather pretty. 

I am sad the course is over, I had such great fun the past few days! It was well worth it though, not only have I come home with a real loot of beautiful jewellery pieces but my creative mind is exploding with ideas and I now have the confidence to carry forward on my own. 

I've made a huge dent in my budget buying all the required material so now I just need to make sure I keep some time aside in my busy schedule to keep practicing and creating!

Metal Clay intensive - day 4

A day late but as I went straight from yesterday's metal clay class to supervising a lampshade making class at the Make Lounge, I couldn't post yesterday's work any earlier!

So day 4 was all about making rings, my favourite piece of jewellery ever. It was challenging, making a ring shank without breaking it is really quite an acquired skill! Also gaging how much the ring will shrink is tricky and unless you use special equipment, I guess there is no foolproof method.

There were three different types of rings on the programme but Emma, the tutor, was kind enough to take us through a fourth project.

We made, from left to right, a nested ring (one ring split in two parts that can be worn individually or together), a garden ring, a stone set ring on a wire shank and a pearl ring (the extra curricular project).

Here's a little close-up of each:

I'm really chuffed with those, especially the leaf and the pearl rings, they just look stunning! I don't think I'll ever buy a ring again, I'll make my own from now on!

Metal Clay intensive - day 3

I had another fun and creative day at the London Jewellery School, exploring the wonders of stone setting in metal clay, shame it ended with a thumping headache for me :-(

We made 3 pendants using different methods of stone setting. I'm particularly fond of my rose quartz pendant which is heavily inspired by my pagan beliefs. A perfect piece for the fast approaching Beltane!

The other two pieces are made using a glass cabochon and a cubic zirconia (sorry for the bad quality pic, my iPhone isn't coping very well with very small pieces). It was meant to be a blue cubic zirconia but it turned yellow when I fired it! Am I upset? no, it's organic, it has a life of its own, you can only guide it so far... and that's why I love it!

Tomorrow is the day I am most looking forward to as we'll be making my favourite piece of jewellery: rings!

Metal Clay intensive - day 2

A slightly more challenging day today focussing on the making of beads and hollow forms.

I managed to make 5 pieces in total: a textured pendant, a filigree pendant, two "Pandora" style bead (which are still in their clay form in the picture) and a wrap triangle which doesn't appear here as it was still in the kiln when I left the London Jewellery School. I may or may not post a pic of that one later, I wasn't highly impressed with the clay version so I'm not sure I will want to feature the finished product...

I adore the filigree and the round pendants, I'm not a huge Pandora fan so we'll have to see how those beads turn out after they've been fired...

Tomorrow, stone setting on the program!

Metal Clay intensive - day 1

I decided to make the most of the consecutive bank holiday weekends by taking a creative break. I have enrolled for a Metal Clay five-day intensive course at the London Jewellery School. And of course, what better place than my blog to show off my creations at the end of every day?!

Today being the first day, we had a thorough introduction to metal clay, how to work it, how to fire it and how to finish it. I was amazed that we managed to make three pieces throughout the day: a set of textured earrings, a simple wrapover ring and a stone set pendant.

Metal clay is great to work with, very organic so perfect for me. I can't wait to see what we get to make tomorrow!