How to design your own necklace - great for Christmas presents

Well it's been a while....!

I'm afraid that for the past few months life has rather taken over & jewellery has had to take a back seat - I've just moved house (finally left home at the age of 24 and am now living out in the country with my boyfriend). So everything has been rather hectic with house-hunting, packing, un packing & generally getting used to living away from home for the first time.

At last though, I am starting to unpack the boxes & boxes of jewellery & start making & selling again.
Below are the photos of my latest idea (& possibly my favourite yet!) The idea behind them is that they are affordable yet special, fine silver on sterling chains with Chinese crystals to add colour, you can buy them as I make them, or choose your own names, messages, colours & charms.

Prices are either £20 for a ready made necklace or £25 for a personalised one.
Please call or email me to order ready for Christmas

New pictures

New Pictures of Silver jewellery just arrived from the fabulous photographer (!) ready to create my portfolio so next time someone asks to see what I have available it's all in one folder - let the orders flow in!!

SOLD

Gift Vouchers Now Available

Gift Vouchers are now available for my fingerprint jewellery - please email me or come and see me at the Mr Bees summer fete on Saturday...

Glass Beads

I picked up my beads today from Ferri Glass & I am so proud of them! They are a bit random as the idea was to experiment with as many techniques and colours as possible so next time I make some I have a better idea of what I can make..... the picture below shows some of the beads, although (rather stupidly) not my favorite ones because they are already on my best charm links bracelet so I could show them off when I went out with some friends the other evening!!!

Glass Beads

I have had the best day today!!!
I learnt something new today & I also had brilliant fun doing it!! I went to a one to one workshop just down the road - it was run by Bev Ferri of Ferri Glass & I finally got to learn how to make beautiful lampwork beads. It took me a little while to get the hang of making the beads round (believe me there were a few wobbly attempts to start with!) but I think I got there in the end - I made several experimental beads to learn how to mix colours & add designs & detail to the glass. Obviously my favorite bit was adding silver to the beads but then I love anything that has silver in it!!!

Working with Bev was loads of fun - it was so inspiring to look at her work - which is really wonderful (I would recommend everyone who gets the chance have a look at her creations!) and it was such a treat to be able to make some beads that were a combination of her ideas and mine - I find it is always interesting that given the same materials 2 people can produce something so completely different!

Bev runs 2 different workshops - a 2 day course on glass fusing & a separate 1 day workshop on lampwork beads and I think the best thing about her workshops is that you could enjoy doing them if you had no experience of jewellery making or even if you had no intention of ever making jewellery again - it's a great day out and you get to take home some beautiful pieces of jewellery at the end of the day! Or you can use the day to learn an new skill to incorporate into something you are already interested in.

I cannot wait to pick up my finished beads once they are fired....!

Commissions

I love it when someone trusts your judgment and it pays off - one of my friends asked me to make her a necklace, not an uncommon occurrence, but she gave me no design ideas, no requests and no guidance as to what I was supposed to make. Just "Emily will you make me a necklace? you know what sort of things I like...."

So this was the result....


... and then she asked for a pair of matching earrings ...

Fingerprint Jewellery

Fingerprint Jewellery is becoming more and more popular across the country with parents and grandparents wanting individual jewellery made and stamped with their child's fingerprints. This is a service widely available through various national websites, however there are no companies in the King's Lynn area who are able to offer this service meaning that parents wanting a piece of fingerprint jewellery made will have to request a kit be sent to them so they can make the moulds themselves ready for the stamps to be made. Arranging for jewellery to be made in this way can take the personal touch out what should be a very special and individual gift, it also allows minimum input into the jewellery design.


One of the workshops I have done in Art Clay Silver involved making silicone moulds of objects - and also of fingerprints so as to be able to make fingerprint jewellery - since I first mentioned to someone that this was something I could do I have had a lot of interest from people with young children, and also from people who are looking for a present for someone who is about to have a baby.

I'm heavily advertising the service in this area - sending out posters to nursery schools and trying to make sure that everyone with young children gets to hear about what a brilliant idea it is to have your children's fingerprints kept forever in fine silver.

Art Clay Silver

A few years back I went to a workshop to learn how to use Art Clay Silver - metal clay was something that had really interested me since I saw the PMC stand at the Knitting and Stitching Fair at Alexandra Palace. I wish I could say that I looked into the 2 types of metal clay and decided that Art Clay Silver was a more suitable product for me...but in actual fact the decision was made simply on the location of the workshop!

Charm Bracelets

I have very limited space to work in - all my tools & findings & materials live in half a cupboard in one room, everything has to be so neatly packed away that it takes ages to get everything out & set up before I can even start making something - which is really frustrating if I'm feeling creative & want to get on with things..... So my favorite jewellery to make is my charm bracelets - they require very little "kit" & all I need to is an idea for a colour theme & I'm off! I can make a bracelet in a relatively small space & can do a bit & go back to it to finish later if I don't have hours of free time to play with.The only trouble with my charm bracelets is that I love them so much & sometimes I can hardly bear to part with them - It's a good job they're so popular or I'd end up keeping them all for myself!!!

The Beginning.....

I have been making jewellery for years....the only problem has been finding a way to show it to people. I didn't realise until after I had left school & got myself a job that this is what I wanted to do so I never went to university or college & studied art or jewelllery design. If only I had known I could be a qualified silver smith or famous jewellery designer, as it is I work for an insurance broker and I make jewellery in my spare time. I fit in jewellery workshops whenever I can and try to learn as many different techniques as I can.
Now that I have a blog the plan is to make beautiful jewellery and then tell people about it - no more hiding it in a cupboard until the next craft fair comes around, or until we decide to open the house to people so they can browse & buy... now people can see what I make all year round & find out what my latest projects are!