Sparkly things

[Patstone]

Hi, I thought you may like to see some of the stuff I have made fairly recently. Your comments on improving my finish would be appreciated.

[ps_bond]

The last 3 pictures are a bit small to make any significant comment - do you have any links to larger versions?

The rubover-set ring looks quite nice; is that a cab or faceted stone in it? And do you think it might benefit from bright-cutting the inside edge of the bezel?

How are you finishing pieces at the moment?

[Patstone]

The last 3 pictures are a bit small to make any significant comment - do you have any links to larger versions?

The rubover-set ring looks quite nice; is that a cab or faceted stone in it? And do you think it might benefit from bright-cutting the inside edge of the bezel?

How are you finishing pieces at the moment?

I am very sorry but my knowledge isnt that good, I dont know what you mean by bright cutting. I went to an evening class for one evening a week just about 18 months ago, the lady that was taking the course took over from the previous teacher who was taken ill, and she nominated her best pupil to teach the remaining months, which is where I started, and although she had been making stuff herself for quite a while, her knowledge was limited, for instance she had never set a faceted stone, so consequently I have never learnt to, so all the stuff is done with cabachons at the moment. I am saving up my pennies to go to the Jewellery School in Cornwall to do some of the more advanced stuff. I have a lovely faceted garnet that I have had several attempts to make a claw setting for, but failed miserably. Keep your head down and keep going.
Pat

[Patstone]

The last 3 pictures are a bit small to make any significant comment - do you have any links to larger versions?

The rubover-set ring looks quite nice; is that a cab or faceted stone in it? And do you think it might benefit from bright-cutting the inside edge of the bezel?

How are you finishing pieces at the moment?

Sorry I didnt answer your question, I have a website which is under construction by my teckie husband when he has time !!!

www.nine2five-silver.co.uk

You should be able to see some stuff there, but not sure what stage its at right now. My daughter and I have been to
two local shows and have sold about £100 of stuff each, the next one is in Sept. I had a couple of orders from people at the last show which have been sent off and the recipients are thrilled with and another order in the pipeline. I am having a bit of conflict with my daughter at the moment because she wants to keep the cost very low, and isnt really counting the cost of her labour, just the cost of the silver etc and £5 on top, whereas I think if its good enough quality to want to buy, you must pay the price.
Pat

[ps_bond]

I am very sorry but my knowledge isnt that good, I dont know what you mean by bright cutting.

My apologies Pat - I'm referring to refining the inside edge of the setting with a polished flat graver (or scorper!); it's sort of a combined burnishing/cutting action that tarts up settings quite nicely.


I have a lovely faceted garnet that I have had several attempts to make a claw setting for, but failed miserably.

Do you have a copy of Cogswell, or the newer book by Sonia Cheadle? Both of them cover a lot of settings quite well. It depends upon your learning preference, really.


Sorry I didnt answer your question, I have a website which is under construction by my teckie husband when he has time !!!

Oh yes, time... Heard of it :)


You should be able to see some stuff there, but not sure what stage its at right now. My daughter and I have been to
two local shows and have sold about £100 of stuff each, the next one is in Sept. I had a couple of orders from people at the last show which have been sent off and the recipients are thrilled with and another order in the pipeline. I am having a bit of conflict with my daughter at the moment because she wants to keep the cost very low, and isnt really counting the cost of her labour, just the cost of the silver etc and £5 on top, whereas I think if its good enough quality to want to buy, you must pay the price.

Argh! I'd fully agree with you - don't disregard the time this takes. You aren't - and shouldn't be - competing with mass produced jewellery, you're making hand-made items.

[mizgeorge]

Pat, just looking at your website, you really do need to hallmark a lot of the pieces shown - you're describing them as sterling silver, but I don't see any mention that they've been assayed.

As the site is live, and therefore needs to comply with the distance selling regulations, I'd also very strongly recommend you get some terms and conditions up there, and in particular you need to include an full postal address.

I did notice a lot of the pieces look very, very much too cheap for the amount of metal that appears to be in there. There's a great article on pricing here: http://www.ejrbeads.co.uk/pricingjewellery.htm that gives some excellent advice, but a lot of people simply double the cost of materials and add an hourly rate for their time to reach a wholesale price.

I'm not going to comment on the pieces shown, simply because I can't see them well enough to be helpful. I wonder if you need some more lighting for the photos?

[Melanie De Castro Pugh]

I did notice a lot of the pieces look very, very much too cheap for the amount of metal that appears to be in there. There's a great article on pricing here: http://www.ejrbeads.co.uk/pricingjewellery.htm that gives some excellent advice, but a lot of people simply double the cost of materials and add an hourly rate for their time to reach a wholesale price.

That is a VERY useful site, it's so hard to know how to price your creations...

Pat, may I suggest showing photos of your creations from several different angles, and also closer up to see more detail? More lighting, as George suggested, would be good. You don't need an elaborate setup, (although I do have more elaborate kit for my other persona of photographer) I just take pictures in front of a bright window with a homemade reflector made by glueing some crumpled and flattened silver foil to a piece of card. I can get as good a result for the web using that with hubby's compact as I can with an enormous pro camera, light tent and bouncy flash. Does your camera have a macro setting?

I've just ordered a copy of the Sonia Cheadle book, looks like it will be a valuable addition to my shelf! Thanks for the recommendation - I did look for the Cogswell one, but can't find a copy for under £45 anywhere (all the usual suspects like eBay, Amazon and Abebooks), so hopefully the one I DID get will do the trick :-)

[Patstone]

My daughter and I are going to get things assayed and are in the process of doing so. We haven't advertised our website and haven't given the web address out apart from to friends so they can look to see the things we can do, rather than to sell things yet, and there is no facility to pay for anything anyway, but realise that is another issue that needs addressing. I am new to forums too, so I thought that Peter was the only one that could see it - it was for his eyes only !!!! whoops.

This jewellery thing started out as a hobby, and its getting a bit out of hand, hubby suggested that I sell some of the stuff because I was collecting rather a lot, originally it was meant for meeeeeeeee, hence the website. Sam, my daughter suggested going to a few local shows to sell enough to pay for the silver, and thats sort of where we are at the moment until someone mentioned the assaying, because we both thought it was for heavier stuff than ours, naive or what!!!!
Well you learn by your mistakes, and ours is quite a steep learning curve at the moment.

The photo's were taken by my Samsung Galaxy S2 phone, but the lighting is an issue and we are going to try to get some more light on them, none have been touched up, they are all as they are. I have tried with my 5 megapixel camera but the phone (which is 8 megapixels) ones are better, I am hoping to get my dad to do some for me as he used to teach photography in evening courses at the Exeter College many years ago. At least to glean some information from him, if nothing else.

All your help is really appreciated because we are both complete novices at doing this sort of thing, and dont know of the rules and regs required, especially as we were sort of rushed into it, and never intended it to be anything more than a hobby, never dreamt that anyone would want to buy our stuff anyway, but hey ho they do so it has sort of grown.

[Melanie De Castro Pugh]

I take a lot of pics for my Facebook page on my phone too, Pat, handy beasties! Does yours have an app where you can give the picture a little oomph by upping the saturation? I use the Adobe Photoshop Express app on mine, it's freeeeeee! I usually increase the exposure and saturation on my shots, and crop to the item as far as possible before adding a nice border. It does well enough for most webby things.

[mizgeorge]

Pat, it doesn't matter if you haven't given the site address out, if it's live, it can be found. The only way of avoiding that is to put it back into maintenance / offline mode while it's being worked on.

And you are already set up to accept payments. You have paypal 'add to cart' buttons by each item, and a functioning paypal cart, with a named account for it to go to, which means that anyone can buy right now.

[Melanie De Castro Pugh]

If you google nine2five silver, yours is the first site that appears, Pat! The paypal cart works for me too.

[Dennis]

Your comments on improving my finish would be appreciated.
Hi Pat,
I hope you won’t feel nagged to death if I chip in with some ideas on finishing. It’s a good idea to try all different tools to see which suit you best.

In your second picture, what looks like a peridot cabochon is covered by too much metal, so creating difficulty with finishing the edges. For this one I would have raised the stone with the same diameter of jump ring, which does not have to be soldered closed, or soldered in place. If you start with 1.0m mm round wire you can repeatedly rub it down until the stone looks just right before setting it.

For the bezel, I prefer to get the top edge perfectly level and bevelled to a knife edge before finally inserting the stone to set it. Once the stone has been set , my favourite tool to finish the edge is a half-round escapement file, which is quite small. The edge nearest to the stone is ground and polished, so that it won’t abrade the stone. Then using the flat side of the file, I go round several times taking care not to slip.

As for those triangular concave parts, I would tackle them with Micromesh, which is dark grey on one side and looks like abrasive paper, but is fabric backed and much softer. You want several grades of the sheet not the pads and your work will come up a treat. An alternative would be a selection of radial wheels for flex-shaft. Just coarse and medium-fine would do to start.

Regards Dennis.

[Joe]

Oh Dennis, can you share a picture of your modified file?

I'm getting quite a dab-hand with my flat-graver finishing the edges of settings, but a super-safe-edged file sounds very handy...

[Patstone]

If you google nine2five silver, yours is the first site that appears, Pat! The paypal cart works for me too.

Hi Mel, thanks for your input, I didnt realise that the Paypal bit actually worked, because when I questioned hubby about it he said that although the account is there it isnt active. I went into the site this morning early, and put a pair of earrings in the basket and tried to pay but it came up with "this website may have moved" etc. Not sure if thats just because its mine and somehow clever computer knows its only me. Sounds stupid when I read this back, but not very good at the technical side of things, give me the practical side of things any day. Quite good at DIY tho. hahaha

[Dennis]

Oh Dennis, can you share a picture of your modified file?


There is not a lot to see on a photo Joe. I bluntened the edge of the file first wth the stone and then with the rubber until it was smooth. I have tried it with other files, but this remains the favourite. Regards, Dennis.

[Joe]

Ah, just the edges of the file are smooth! Brilliant idea!

Thanks you!

Joe

[ps_bond]

The suggestion during the setting course was to stone the edges off a 3 square file and use that for filing (specifically claws in this case); 1 cat, so many ways to skin it :)
Oh, and cover the stone with a fingernail so that if the file slips, you're filing your nails not the stone.

[Patstone]

What nails, most of mine are either sawn, or sanded off, have yet to drill one, but as they are short anyway, A & E is only a stones throw away and my car knows
the way now.

[Melanie De Castro Pugh]

Hi Mel, thanks for your input, I didnt realise that the Paypal bit actually worked, because when I questioned hubby about it he said that although the account is there it isnt active. I went into the site this morning early, and put a pair of earrings in the basket and tried to pay but it came up with "this website may have moved" etc. Not sure if thats just because its mine and somehow clever computer knows its only me. Sounds stupid when I read this back, but not very good at the technical side of things, give me the practical side of things any day. Quite good at DIY tho. hahaha

Well, I went as far as I could without spending any actual money ;-) Doesn't sound stupid at all, my pc and the interweb seem to know what they are doing better than I do on times...

On the plus side, it's VERY good that you appear so high in Google search rankings for the name of your website, because there are an awful lot of variations of the phrase "925 silver" out there...

[Patstone]

Hi Dennis, the ring you are talking about was the first stone I set, so I am a bit better now, but I sold it and had to get it back to take a photo, hence the scratching, didnt realise it was so bad until I had given the ring back and loaded it up to the computer. May be able to make another one like it as it was one of my favourite pieces so far. Just out of interest, I have some very nice needle files sent to my from Oz by my cousin who I didnt know existed until 2 years ago, his great grandmother and my grandmother were sisters. He is in his seventies now, and his grandmother was sent to Oz in disgrace for getting pregnant before marriage, I had no idea my gran was one of eight children, I was sixteen when she died and assumed that she had just the one brother that she talked about, anyway I digress from the story, she used to make silver jewellery too how about that for a co-incidence.

[Patstone]

Yes, I wanted to call it Isca silver but got overruled by my daughter, Isca is the roman name for Exeter, but my daughter Sam thought that anyone outside Exeter wouldnt know that and so wouldnt remember. How could they not remember meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

[Melanie De Castro Pugh]

Yes, I wanted to call it Isca silver but got overruled by my daughter, Isca is the roman name for Exeter, but my daughter Sam thought that anyone outside Exeter wouldnt know that and so wouldnt remember. How could they not remember meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

I like the sound of that, Isca has a nice ring to it. Sounds like you are "unforgettabubble" :-D I do my stuff with my mum too, and I tend to do the overrulling in our little collective, mwahaha.

[Dennis]

she used to make silver jewellery too how about that for a co-incidence.

It's in the blood, Pat. Any Swagmen in your family? Dennis.

[Patstone]

No Aussie in my blood, Devonian in fact through and through. There wouldnt have been any connection with Oz if the lady concerned had not "had to get married" to an Oz soldier. She was shipped out in disgrace and told never to come to England again, and she passed that on to her children and they didn't either. Great grandson decided to come to find where she originated from, and left a note on the Exeter website that he was trying to find his ancestors, at the same time I was looking for the house that I had been told by my gran that they lived in as children, and hubby suggested I type the house name into google, I did and this chap from Oz came up looking for ancestors. I contacted him and he sent me a few photos via email, and one was of my grans wedding which was quite a big affair (very wealthy family back then) and I had seen a pic of it on my grans piano, then he proceeded to send me more pics, but he didnt know the people in the photo's, this is where my 93 year old mum came in and was able to tell us who her grandmother and grandfather were. When I asked her her grandmothers christian name, she didnt know, we always called her grandmother was her response. We found out with further investigation that we were second cousins, and neither knew of each others existence until 2 years ago. I was totally unaware that I had any other relatives, let alone a whole colony in Oz.

[Melanie De Castro Pugh]

It's in the blood, Pat. Any Swagmen in your family? Dennis.

I'd second that, Dennis - I got in touch with my birth mum last year after 36 years (I was adopted as a baby) and we both make silver jewellery too! So now we've set up our little collective with another friend and we make stuff together!

[Dennis]

That's Magic.

[Melanie De Castro Pugh]

That's Magic.

Spooky more like! In our case, nature certainly beats nurture when it comes to character traits between me, me mum, my half brothers and even my aunties. Accent apart, we all sound very similar on the phone too. Hobbies, interests, tastes, sense of humour (evil), opinions, and even the way we curl up at the end of the sofa. Like a pair of bookends...

I don't know if jewellery is in the blood, but there's often a bit of blood in the jewellery :-D

[Patstone]

I think thats wonderful Mel. Had to laugh at the blood on the jewellery, I dont get blood on mine, but I do keep burning myself. I lost my eye in a cataract op that went wrong three years ago, and the next year I started making silver jewellery - it was more of a bad things happen but you have to get on with life as best you can, but you lose the distance vision in as much as you cant tell how far things are away from you (just close one eye and try to pour water into a glass from a jug - do it over the sink tho). I am still nursing a blister on my thumb where I got my thumb in the way of the torch, not realising it was as close. Ouch and a few choice words !!!!!!

[gemheaven]

I think thats wonderful Mel. Had to laugh at the blood on the jewellery, I dont get blood on mine, but I do keep burning myself. I lost my eye in a cataract op that went wrong three years ago, and the next year I started making silver jewellery - it was more of a bad things happen but you have to get on with life as best you can, but you lose the distance vision in as much as you cant tell how far things are away from you (just close one eye and try to pour water into a glass from a jug - do it over the sink tho). I am still nursing a blister on my thumb where I got my thumb in the way of the torch, not realising it was as close. Ouch and a few choice words !!!!!!

I have both my eyes and yet I still burn or even saw my fingers ~ we have a joke in my family that my fingerprints are now non existant!!

[GoneMad]

nice - like that yellow saphire ring, looks like the kind of thing i'm aiming at.

[wheely]

Just to add my two penneth to the discussion, there's not much incorrect but you need to watch your spelling. You want people to admire the shiny things, not frown upon little mistakes.
Hope I've not caused offence.

[Dennis]

Hello wheely, where've you been? What are you doing now? Regards, Dennis.

[medusa]

I know this is quite an old thread, but I have to say I think the prices are still far too cheap. I'm also envious of the perfect, narrow rectangles you cut out of some of your pieces. after doing it dozens and dozens of times, I still don't manage such a neat job!

[Dennis]

Yes, I have admired the professional rectangles in Pat's work too. It certainly separates the sheep from the goats. Dennis.