(belated) Happy New Dragon Year!

uh-oh! is it february already?

Happy 2012! Happy Dragon Year! may your dreams and wishes come true, and should some things turn out to be hard or sad, that you will still be able to pick yourself up and find the strength to carry on...

oops, that sounded a bit depressing, that last bit. anyways, it s what i tell myself... no yin without yang, yet no yang without yin either.

sorry i ve not been able to post anything, but i have been struggling with the piece i m working on at the moment.

i haven t even been able to take photos of the darn thing, because i was either trying to get it soldered, or trying to piece it together again.

oh, did i actually mention what i m working on exactly?

it s a necklace, an 'inverted round' necklace like the bracelet i made last year... it was something i worked on in-between projects and finally i had enough length on it to start working on the locket and the finish.

but it s kinda working against me. after having made the end pieces and pickling the whole thing, i saw that a few rings had opened again, and while trying to solder those, the solder flowed thru to other rings, which ofcourse stuck those together, and then i nearly burnt the necklace trying to let the solder flow so i could loosen the rings... aaaaaargh!

it is a work of patience.

which i have...

sometimes...

soon, soon it will be finished and i ll be able to show you what it looks like.

on another note: my friend loved her bracelet with the little rose clasp, yay!

here s what it looks like

and here s a few variations on the 'rose' (that s me, get me started, and i often can t stop)

tadaaa!

multifunctional...

so, next post will be about that new necklace.

i hope.

can't stop

hello there! may i wish you all a very HAPPY NEW YEAR! apparently one is allowed to say that until the end of january, so...

it s been a while since i last posted some work, but that doesn t mean i haven t been busy. school was out for the Christmas holidays, but i ve been working on some new bracelets, as i said, variations on the jump-ring weaving thing with which i ve been obsessed of late.

also worked on a helix chain with beads and a glass bead from Hieronimus Glass-Jewelry.

i will be working on my entourage ring this evening in class, hope to have it finished by my birthday, which is in 3 weeks time (nudge, nudge, wink, wink).

oh, by the way, we had a bit of a windfall, not a big one, but always welcome, so i was able to add that to my savings for buying a new camera! Sam chipped in as well, so i got myself a CANON EOS 1000D, yay! hoping to be able to take a lot of good pics of my jewellery now, although my compact PENTAX E60 worked a treat, it s so much more fun to be able to look thru the lens instead of at a tiny little LCD screen. hope you ll see the difference too!

slightly obsessed

just finished my "Möbius" bracelet.

since i made that Byzantine bracelet as a school project, i ve been a little obsessed with making jumprings and weaving different chains.

this one is something i saw in a magazine, and quite liked the look of, so here it is. if i may say so myself, i also like the way the toggle clasp worked out.

next one is a Jenspind chain... and then a spiral chain, a Turkish round and an inverted round... and someone will probably then tell me the combinations are endless!

ps. was a bit nervous this week, so i postponed further work on the entourage.

done!

allow me to gloat for a few moments:

two days ago i finished my Byzantine bracelet!

so happy with the results... although, i ve been surfing the net a bit and realize that it s not such a big feat apparently (what with all these expert jewelers around) except for the fact that i did solder the jumprings one by one, and my teacher said that i did do a good job, hehehe

also made the toggle clasp myself, so now i have a bracelet, completely and truly handmade

i really felt like a little kid in school when i took the bracelet out of the polishing tumbler, all shiny, a big smile pasted on my face that i just couldn t wipe off even when i got home (Sam thought it was all very funny)

amazing feeling, to think that i only started metalsmithing last september... and so much more to learn! YAY!

i have an idea for another ring now...

Byzantine bracelet

finally, the new school year has started... and how! no exams! for the first time in the past 6 years i will not have to pass a specific exam, although the practical work i do in the classroom will count for everything...

whoever would ve thought i would enjoy going to evening classes this much, i was so tired of going to school in my teenage years!

no worries though, i am enjoying myself immensely, mp3 player on, and concentrating: first school-project: a Byzantine bracelet.

which means: making the silver alloy, pulling round thread to 1mm diameter, making 4mm jumprings, weaving and soldering the rings one by one... i m taking my time, the soldering still makes me a bit nervous, but it seems to be working, can t wait until Christmas (although today it feels like summer) so i can wear it.

can t wait till tonight either so i can get behind my workbench!