This is a guest project designed by Tansy Wilson. Tansy is a professional jeweller and runs her business from beautiful rural Somerset. She also teaches a jewellery evening class at her local college. Tansy has a BA in 3-D Design and has been in the design industry for 20 years. 

“There is an array of textured surfaces that are already incorporated onto hammers now. This means you can easily create a range of fabulous textures on your chosen metal without having to make a patterned stamp first. I have used sterling silver to create this bangle, combining the use of a textured surface against a smooth surface to give a good contrast and make a detail in the design.”

Create these striking textured bangles to wear together or on their own!

You will need:

• Silver Sheet 
• Saw Frame
• Texturing Hammer
• File
• Soldering Block
• Borax Cone and Dish
• Silver Solder
• Hand Torch
• Pickling Unit
• Emery paper
• Bangle mandrel
• Polishing cloth

STEP 1:  Planning

Plan your design to scale and draw onto your silver sheet. Planning is essential as mistakes can be expensive!

STEP 2: Piercing

Pierce out your strip of Sterling silver sheet 20mm wide x 180mm long. Then pierce out the diamond pattern.

STEP 3: Annealing

Anneal the diamond section only.

Please note that you can buy sterling silver sheet already fully annealed so this step would not be necessary.

STEP 4: Texturing

Texture the diamond section only, hammering evenly across the piece back and forth.

STEP 5: Getting straight

Texturing may have altered the edges of your piece so file any edges that are to be soldered, so that they fit exactly flush together.

STEP 6: Preparing to solder

Degrease areas to be soldered and place onto your soldering block so that you solder on the back of your bangle. Flux along all the joins and place small squares of silver solder (paillons) along the joins approx 8mm apart.

STEP 7: Soldering

Heat the metal evenly, build up the heat until you are able to melt the solder and make it run through the join. Carefully place in a cleaning pickle.

STEP 8: Cleaning up

Rinse clean and using a range of files from course to fine, clean off all traces of solder so the back of your bangle is smooth.

STEP 9: Drawing to shape

You will probably need to redraw your bangle shape onto the metal as during texturing and filing the shape may have been distorted.

STEP 10: Perfecting shape

File and use emery paper to get all the edges of your bangle smooth and straight.

STEP 11: Polishing

Polish all surfaces of your bangle. Next wrap a piece of soft material around your bangle mandrel to protect the inside surface of the bangle when shaping.

STEP 12: Bending

Finally bend your bangle around the bangle mandrel, lightly hammering into shape. Lightly re-polish if needed. You have completed your project!

You can also find this project in Making Jewellery Magazine! Hope you have enjoyed the project.

 

 

Joanne Varney gives her tips and ideas to help maximise your sales this Valentines. She holds a BA (Hons) in Jewellery and Silversmithing and is part of the Cooksongold Team.

Valentine’s Day is upon us and represents one of the few sales opportunities during the early part of the year. With jewellery being an obvious choice, here are a few ideas to help maximise your sales and to guide those uncertain male customers!!

‘Love Tokens’ –  Gift Vouchers are a great option for those who are uncertain of their partners taste, but can sometimes come across as a little lacking in imagination. However, dress a gift token into something a little more interesting e.g. ‘Love Token’, couple this idea with an attractive card and I think you will provide a useful option for many shoppers. After all, many people may know their partners favourite designer, but may not be able to choose one piece. This is the perfect solution.

Sales Incentives – Just because most of us run small scale operations doesn’t mean we can’t make use of some of the sales incentives used by the large companies. For example, try offering a free gift wrapping service. It’s surprising just how many customers (especially men) will take advantage of this, particularly those shopping at the last minute. Offer a free Valentine’s Day card with every sale in the 2 weeks prior to the big day. Again it’s taking the hassle out of shopping for people and saving them a trip to an overcrowded card shop. Yes it means a small outlay but this could be minimised by designing and printing the cards yourself. Finally a 10% discount off of the next purchase is always well received and brings customers back to you helping to build a relationship of trust.

Although Valentine’s Day is traditionally a day for proposing, most customers won’t be looking for rings. In fact many men would avoid buying them on principle in case their partner was to get the wrong idea!! For the most part it is preferable to steer customers in the direction of items which don’t need sizing. Earrings and pendants are fairly safe options, but offer a longer length chain. (You don’t want disgruntled ladies returning pendants because the chain was too short!)

Charms – Charms make a perfect Valentine’s Day gift for both men and women. They don’t need sizing, can be attached to bracelets or necklets and best of all they can reflect any occasion, hobby or interest you can possibly imagine. Hearts are an obvious and popular choice and can be simply made using either wire or sheet.  Add interest with different textures and finishes and hang together in groups of three with perhaps a Swarovski Heart crystal to create a great cost effective gift. They will work out more inexpensive than other branded alternatives and suit more customers’ pockets.

On that subject I would just like to reiterate a point that I’ve made in previous articles. Make sure you have items at a good range of price points, low to high, to suit all budgets.  Ensure your cheaper items are easy to get to so as not to put people off and perhaps most important of all, smile and try to encourage customers to be romantic!

And if for some reason you are not feeling the romance of the occasion, grit your teeth and pretend!!

Happy Valentine’s Day xx

It was while doing a one year 3D foundation course that my tutor suggested I might be good at jewellery. I had grown up in an engineering background and although I hadn’t considered jewellery before, I am very grateful for her insight, as she was right!

I applied and was amazed to be accepted to do a degree in ‘Jewellery, Silversmithing and Allied Crafts’ at Sir John Cass in London.  The course included two placements in the trade.  I graduated with an honours degree in 1987 and was invited to work for one of the jewellery manufacturing  firms I had done my placement with.  I worked as a goldsmith there for several years, doing all manner of work, setting, polishing, occasionally designing.   It was while I was there that I was held up in an armed raid and although I was physically unharmed, it has had a bearing on the person I am today.

After being married for a couple of years I sadly suffered an early miscarriage and decided to leave the environment of the jewellery company as chemicals are a necessary part of jewellery production and I didn’t want to jeopardise any further pregnancy.  I continued to make jewellery from a small bench I fashioned from a plank screwed to the wall at home, but only for myself and friends.  I even took jewellery classes so that I could have access to equipment, but ended up helping out the class tutor!

I did indeed have a daughter and jewellery took a back seat until we moved to Devon when she was two. A couple of years later I had my son. Then I gradually started making again, I did jewellery parties for friends, and bought myself some equipment; my bench and a polishing machine.  I still had all my old tools, several handed down from my father, a treasured Archimedes drill and an ancient tool box.  I was determined to continue without borrowing money, which restricted my progress I think.

I started sketching again, photographing everything that caught my eye, getting out and about in the beautiful surroundings.

This pendant was inspired by the small stones jammed into a pebble on the beach.

I took a job data inputting for few years to help make ends meet, but for someone creative it was mind numbing.  I started doing local craft fairs at weekends, all the time getting my old skills back up to scratch.

This Nobble ring was inspired by a rubber finger protector I used while data inputting!  I always kept a notebook, or envelope handy to sketch ideas.

Then a work friend heard of someone looking for a local jeweller to be part of a co-operative gallery.  It seemed a good opportunity for me to make a go of it with my jewellery so I handed in my notice and thought I was back on track as a jeweller.  I got my jewellery into various local galleries and worked one day a week in the co-operative.  The beginning of a recession was never going to be the best time to start up as a jeweller!

I took my jewellery up to London for Liberties ‘Open Design Call’ which was an experience and one that I am glad I did.  I had a positive response although it didn’t lead to anything.

I was doing regular craft fairs but often not covering the cost of the table.  Which meant I had less to spend on the next fair and so on. I found some occasional ’piece work’ with a local jeweller, which got me back into the small factory set up again, which felt rather like home.  So my work skills have grown as I can work on items all the way through the casting process from model making, mold making,  waxing to finished set and polished casting.

Pair of silver rings over laid with 18ct gold and set with a 3.9ml diamond

I love what I do, I am always making something, often with bits of scrap.  I have a website which performs poorly, despite my best efforts, yet again hampered by lack of funds to invest in a better one.  I have concentrated on enlarging my web presence in the last year and am active on social websites, which has seen interest in my designs grow.  I enter any competitions I can find and have just recently won a new pendant dill, courtesy of Cooksons’s Gold forum theme competitions.  Just in the nick of time as my old one was about to pack up completely!  I work very much in the old fashioned way, no flashy computer design for me, I prefer a pencil and a bit of paper.  I do the occasional commission, and last December I made my first engagement ring, which was a joy to do.

Hand cut and formed baby and flowers engagement ring, set with two diamonds.

 

Pierced 9ct gold mistletoe and vine necklace wit silver berries.

I am not sure what this next year will bring, but having come so far and tried for so long, I don’t want to give up on something I enjoy doing so much.

To see more of Kim’s beautiful designs, visit: www.stylesdesign.co.uk