the night that was pop shop

A successful pop shop was had.
They came, they drank, they bought.

Special thanks to Liz for the amazing bunting and extra organising!

pop shop super sale!

If you're local to Melbourne town and want to grab something for yourself or some other lucky person for Christmas then come along! 

granules

There's nothing like 18ct yellow gold.  Here's a couple of new rings now stocked at Arbor. 

Rough diamond .65ct and 2 brilliant cut champagne diamonds

anticlastic raising

I was recently asked to make one of these bangles in a specific size for Small Space. 

 

 It had certainly been a while since I'd made of these so naturally I was a little bit nervous as to whether I could still do it, whilst being 7 months pregnant no less!  

The technique used to form this type of bangle is called 'anticlastic raising', which was something I experimented with during my final year at Tafe - as I said, it had been a while.   

Luckily I had documented the process well so I had great notes to refer back to, and I had made at least 5 of these when I first finished studying for various orders and stockists so I had a bit of practice up my sleeve.

This time I decided to photo document the making, as I wanted to better express the process to anyone interested, and also to show just how involved it is!  Here's a few snapshots of my anticlastic day in the studio...

flat sheet bangle before forming

the forming starts on a hardwood specially shaped stake

before each annealing (of which there are so many) the piece is covered in a boric/borax/metho mixture to protect it from firescale...

and set on fire.  Flambé!

more forming continues, starting to take shape now

the curve is deepened now on a metal stake in at least two more stages, always annealing in between of course

here you can see the effect of the deepening of the curve and the decreasing width of the bangle

more annealing, always annealing

now forming the edges further over to form a deeper curve

flattening the egdes and working out any inconsistencies

folding the edge right over, working from each side in equal hammer strikes

closing the edge tight so the central gold ring can spin freely

almost there!

cleaning up the edges, after the ring has been soldered in.  After cleanup the oxidising and polishing and then all done :)

A rather involved process as you can see, but nice to know I can still do it after a few years!

 

october already?

Well it seems that the entire month of September eluded me, so sorry about that!

Here's some of the new pieces I've made lately, off to Arbor and Small Space for the impending festive season.

gold stamped earrings in 18ct

single loop studs in sterling silver

wattle african style ring in sterling silver

And a lovely commission just finished also,

ceylon sapphire in 9ct rose gold textured setting and 9ct grey gold band

nuevo

Some new rings made it off my bench this week, all heading off to Arbor to be seen and tried!

Two larger sized wedder style rings in two-tone silver and 9ct rose and yellow gold...

And one Australian green Sapphire in a fantastic olive colour, set in 9ct rose and grey golds...

And here's the proof they didn't just materialise out of thin air...

 

green and gold tones

I don't believe in that saying "gold and green should never be seen", or blue and green also for that matter.  In fact, green and blue stones look incredible in the richness of 18ct yellow gold, a perfect tonal combination.

I finally got around to making something out of my one-in-a-million natural Parti Sapphire, it's been a while in the making!

Combined with an amazing emerald, this is definitely my new favourite piece of the moment - and it's all mine!  There has to be some perks to being a jeweller right?