Jewellery Making Supplies Blog

It is that great period again: FREE POST is here!! Within the UK*, for any order over £50* which you place in the next 10 days you will benefit from our Free Post!! When we say it’s easy, we mean you won’t even need any codes or vouchers: just select “freepost” as the delivery  method at checkout and enjoy the experience!!

In case this is not reason enough to order, we hope to entice you with some of our great offers:

• Gemstone Extravaganza: 10% off selected stones. We have over 400 gems in a beautiful multitude of sizes and shapes – you’re sure to get your eyes on something!
• 25% OFF Top 20 Essentials: some of you are going back to school and some of you will only look to renew your tools, kits & accessories collection, in any case the bigger this is, the better! We have great prices on our Hand Torch, the Student Starter Kit, Starter Soldering Unit and Solder Block, PMC, Silver Chains and more!
• Our NEW Reflections Collection:  our great NEW Silver alloy, which we think it might even inspire you for your new piece! In case you need help with it, our team is there to guide you so just try something new!
• Moreover, there are new products in our Art Clay and Creative Metals at Cooksongold and always a great variety of over 11,000 jewellery making products. Just one stop and your jewellery will get the best treatment!! You’ll get fabulous prices and FREE POST!! Free Post ends on the 3rd of October at midnight, but don’t forget you can claim it more than once: make the most of it!! Click here to check out some of the products we thought you’ like!

We’d love to hear what you thought or what you bought so don’t forget to leave a comment!

THE JEWELLERY GUIDE

We’ve just launched the 32-page Jewellery Guide for those of you who are going back to work, starting work or just looking for new pieces to buy for your workshop!!  It contains the essential products to every jewellery maker’s workshop: machinery, clay, starter kits, books, chains and bullion are amongst the many products you will find in this useful catalogue.  Our Top 20 Essentials at discounted prices -UP TO 25% OFF – will most likely catch your eye too! It’s sure you’ll find something you love or need for you next piece!!

and the best part…COOKSON TECHNICAL INFORMATION BOOKLET

What makes this guide even better is the booklet inside, which you can download here or order for FREE here (where you get the whole mini catalogue for a change). The booklet includes useful data sheets and answers frequently asked question on various techniques like soldering and polishing. It provides you with the best hints &tips you’ll want to know before starting to make an art piece.

We’ve been in the jewellery industry for quite a while and now you can benefit from Cooksongold’s resourcefulness even further by login onto http://www.cooksongold.com/technical/. Here you’ll find the jargon used in the trade explained, even more data sheets and instant conversion calculations. Our knowledge base is easily accessible: you can search specific words and you  can almost instantly view “Hot topics”, “Top 10 Frequently Asked Questions” or “Latest articles” .

If you have a question that hasn’t been answered already (or to which you simply cannot find the answer) you can always opt for “ask a question” and you’ll quickly receive a personal response!

So what do you think of it? Have you used it already? If so, is there anything else you would’ve wanted to see in it?

Enjoy our weekend promotion: 5% OFF all our PMC PRODUCTS and 10% off our fantastic ART CLAY range!!

For as little as £7.13 for PMC or £7.07 for Art Clay you can start modelling your great piece of art today!!  There are 30 products to choose from! Our range includes: Art Clay 650 Slow Dry for a more elastic feel, Art Clay Cooper, Precious Metal Clay + and Precious Metal Clay 3.

Free your imagination this weekend! This offer is only valid until Monday, the 13th of September 2010 at midnight so hurry up!! And if you stopped here, we would love to know what you thought of our products!

It’s FREEPOST at Cooksongold on ALL UK orders over £50 this weekend ONLY! FREEPOST is valid from Thursday 1st to Monday 5th April Midnight – so what are you waiting for? Save £££’s on P & P and place your order online NOW.

Claim FREEPOST this Easter

Don’t forget FREEPOST is now even easier, simply spend £50 or more and select ‘freepost’ in the delivery options menu – it’s as easy as that! We will then select the delivery method most suitable to your order. Click here for information on our couriers and their delivery times.

If your order doesn’t quite reach £50, here are a few more suggestions which might just tempt you!

For PMC beginners the most confusing thing is, “What tools do I need?”, so here are a few suggestions to help you along the way:

PMC Suggested TOOLS:

A roller – used for rolling out the clay

A rolling surface – Non-stick as possible e.g. a glass board or polished tile

Spacers or playing cards – for getting the depth of the clay even

Cutting blade, scalpel – For getting straight edges and making your shapes.

A small lidded pot – to put filings & tiny offcuts into so you can save them for making silver clay paste or slip

Various grades of sanding pads - or get a 4 way nail filing block and strip the sides off.

Badger Balm or Olive Oil for stopping the clay sticking to your hands and tools.

Tools for Precious Metal Clay

FIRING METHODS:

For Hob firing, stainless steel mesh with protection net.

Torch firing – Handheld torch and a firing brick (asbestos substitute not a household brick )

Kiln – If you can get access to a kiln then use it, the metal is normally denser and the results more consistant.

Stainless steel or brass brush – for brushing off the white post firing and leaving you lovely silver.

Silver polish & Cloth – for getting the final buffed up shine.

Some Optional Extras:

For ring making – A sliding ring guage, A wooden ring mandrel, and ring papers (to stop clay sticking to the mandrel).

For Better finishes – A small set of metal files for neatening edges quicker than sanding them down.

Long Tweezers – For holding / moving the pieces when firing

Liver of Sulpher – For antiquing or bringing out fine detail

Burnishers & ultra fine sanding pads – Post firing for a REAL shine!

Cutters & Shapers – Using pre-shaped cutters e.g. hearts will same time and give you more consistant shapes

Tiny drill bits – you can twist them in your fingers to drill through the unfired clay & make jump ring holes & hanging points.

Texture Mats/plates – Roll the clay out on these and you’ll have fabulous patterns straight away!

Letter Stamp Set – For stamping words into unfired (rubber stamps) or fired clay (metal stamps).

Why not check out our ready-assembled Starter Precious Metal Clay kit packed with everything you could possibley need to get started with PMC. Alternatively, if your not a PMC novice click here to view our full range of silver clay kits including our Art Clay kit and complete silver clay accessories kit, tumbler kit and tool kit.

Starter Kit for Precious Metal Clay

This December has seen the launch of the Cooksongold  Deal of the Day event! Each day throughout the month during the build-up to Christmas Day Cooksongold will bring you a NEW fantastic daily offer. These offers will not only feature great savings on individually selected best selling products of up to 35%, but will also feature great savings on entire selected product categories up to 25% OFF, so make sure you stay in the know and visit www.cooksongold.com to be sure you don’t miss out! 

Cooksongold's Deal of the Day

If you missed Monday’s official Deal of the Day launch e-mail then click here to find out what fantastic offers we have in stall for you over these first 5 days. If you don’t already receive our weekly e-mails detailing all our daily offers, then click here to sign-up right away! Also, why not claim your FREE Christmas is Here mini catalogue packed with new products, perfect presents and stocking fillers!

FREE Mini Catalogue

Make sure you stay especially vigilant at the weekends as we will be hosting some suprise offers to make your Christmas online shopping that bit easier! Why not check out our first 5 days worth of daily deals below, but remember you’ll need to keep checking back to find out whats coming up for the remaining days before Christmas.

Fantastic Daily Offers

Monday 30th November  – 10-15% OFF Hobby Drill Kits
Tuesday 1st December – 15% OFF Starter Tool Kit
Wednesday 2nd December – 10% OFF ALL Gems
Thursday 3rd December – 10% OFF Art Clay & 5% OFF PMC
Friday 4th December – 35% OFF Starter Bench Pack
Saturday 5th – Christmas day – Remember, the offers just keep getting better in the build-up to the Big Day!
(Please notes these displayed offers will expire 04/12/2009)

In the meantime, why not check out our fantastic festive themed web pages full of incredible gift ideas including jewellery, kits, tools, clay, packaging and more…

Workshop Treats
Christmas Kits
Stocking Fillers Under a Tenner
Gifts Under £20
Top 10 Presents
Say it with Silver
Midas Touch
Finished Jewellery
Perfect Packaging
Creative Christmas
Christmas Reads
Tis the Season to be Red
They’ll be Green with Envy

If you’d like to make a comment about this article, or post a question please click here

We’ve all been fans of silver clay since we launched our range of Precious Metal Clay (PMC) last year, but since this launch we’ve been inundated for requests for Art Clay. We’re now pleased to say that Cooksongold is stocking both Art Clay Silver 650, alongside Precious Metal Clay (PMC).

So what is ART CLAY? Art Clay is a precious metal clay which looks and feels like ordinary sculpting or porcelain clay with fine particles of pure silver mixed with a non-toxic organic binder. The binder burns out during firing, leaving a pure silver item. It is an amazing material which gives the artist the freedom to create an object in clay, which when fired results in a pure, fine silver piece. The skill set required is more that of a model maker/sculptor/designer than those normally associated with a professional jeweller.

This Art Clay is known as Silver 650, simply because it can be fired at 650°C. In fact at this low temperature it can be fired with sterling silver, dichroic glass and natural stones. This 650 version of Art Clay is slightly brighter than other clays. It shrinks by around 8% to 9%. Fire at 650°C for 30 minutes or 780°C for five minutes. Only use the higher temperature if the piece does not include sterling silver or glass. The object must be dry before firing.

Our Art Clay range includes :

• Art Clay – the main product used for creating your piece.

• Art Clay Slow Dry Clay – ideal for intricate modelling,

• Art Clay Paste – for gluing parts together and repair work & for texturing

• Art Clay Syringe – used for fine decoration

• Art Clay Paper – great for folding or embellishment

• Silver Oil Paste – used after firing to repair cracks or glue fired pieces together

If you are new to Art Clay why not take a look at our Art Clay Starter kit which includes clay, DVD and a 12 page instruction book plus a selection of essential tools all for only £36.95!

CLICK HERE TO MAKE A COMMENT, POST A COMMUNAL QUESTION OR ASK THE COOKSON TEAM A QUESTION

Art Clay Starter Kit, click here