Theme Competition July 2016 - Summer

Hello all,

With the weather hopefully taking a turn for the better, that must mean one thing - Summer has officially arrived! That's why for this month's forum competition, we have decided to go with Summer as the theme for your designs.

The winner will get a £100 Cooksongold shopping spree - just submit your design on this thread by midnight, 31st July to enter.

Good luck!

Terms & Conditions:

The closing date for the competition will be at midnight GMT 31.07.16.

The judging will take place on 01.08.16. The following criteria are used to determine the winner: design, the technique used and the overall finish of the piece. The Cooksongold judging panel will make the final decision.

The winner will be announced and notified via the forum by 05.08.16. The winner must redeem their shopping spree (up to the value of £100 excluding VAT) using their own Cooksongold account and within 2 months of receiving their winner notification email.

In the case of the winner's shopping spree exceeding the value of £100 (excluding VAT), the winner is liable to pay for any amount over the value of £100.

The competition is open to all Cooksongold customers aged 18 years and over. Only one entry per person.

Employees of Cooksongold, their agents and families are excluded from the competition together with any person connected to the competition.

To enter the competition, simply comment on the relevant forum thread with a photo of your themed design. No correspondence will be entered into.

All designs submitted must be the original work of the individual submitting them and must not infringe the rights of any other party. Cooksongold reserves the right to contact an entrant for further clarification if necessary.

Cooksongold reserves the right to disqualify any entry if it has reasonable grounds to believe you have breached any of these terms and conditions.

In submitting your design, you give your permission for it to be included in any marketing or any other promotional material connected with this draw, and for Cooksongold to upload your design to Instagram and Pinterest if it is chosen as the winner. Copyright for all images submitted for this draw remains with the respective entrants.

Entry into the competition is deemed as acceptance of the rules.

Cooksongold reserves the right to amend these rules at any time and to cancel or amend the competition if for any reason we believe it cannot be conducted fairly or in accordance with these terms and conditions.

Imagery associated with this competition is not representative of the exact prize, and is for marketing purposes only. Cookson Precious Metals Ltd reserves the right to change the prize for one of equivalent value.

The promoter is Cookson Precious Metals Ltd. Please note that competitions and promotions featured on this page are in no way sponsored, endorsed, administered by or associated with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest.

You are providing your information to: Cookson Precious Metals Ltd, 59-83 Vittoria Street, Birmingham, B1 3NZ, United Kingdom.

The information you provide will only be passed to external partners e.g. couriers to enable the awarding of prizes.

No purchase necessary. There is no cash alternative.

These terms and conditions shall be governed in accordance with English law.

Hello all,

Don't forget to submit your entry for this month's competition! You have until 31st July to enter your Summer themed designs, we can't wait to see what you have in store :)

Good luck!

Jen

In the absence of any entries I'll set the ball rolling with a ring I just finished for my City Lit course.

As it doesn't seem to be coming to us anytime soon, then what better than to wear a bit of Summer on the finger to carry round with you? When not being worn, its flat base allows it to double as a miniature vase of flowers.

The stones are tube-set 2mm CZs; two of the flowers are made from silver (as is the rest of the ring with the exception of the fake grass) and three flowers are made from 9ct gold I melted down from a broken watch chain which belonged to my grandfather.

Attachment 9118Attachment 9119Attachment 9120

The ring itself is hollow, so not as heavy to wear as it looks.

I had a lot of fun designing it and although it took me out of my comfort zone quite a few times I really enjoyed the challenge of making it too.

Susieq

What a splendid idea, using a hollow ring as a flower box. I hope you got some praise for it at City Lit too, Suzie. Dennis.

That is lovely Suzie!

I shall enter my little sunshine earrings, even though there has been a disappointing lack of the real thing this summer!

Silver with 22k gold plate, citrine tube set centre stones and citrine briolette drops.

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Haha bring your own sunshine. Very nice Lauren.

Loving your ear-rings Lauren - do you do your own plating?

Lovely entries both. I had a nice walk in the sunshine this morning, cool breeze off the sea, perfect summer weather down here in Pembrokeshire - but don't tell anyone...
Alan

Quote:

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Originally Posted by susieq

Loving your ear-rings Lauren - do you do your own plating?

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Thanks Susie :) I get stuff plated at Elliot Fitzpatrick. I did toy with the idea of doing my own, but the baths take up a lot of space. Also, scary chemicals!

Blue skies, Bombay Sapphire and for fans of "Breaking Bad" a reminder of Walter White's infamous product... These are made from recycled glass from Bombay Sapphire gin bottles, broken up into chips and fused, 2 or 3 together, in a kiln to make these crystalline chunks, then drilled and mounted to make simple earrings. They look lovely in the sunshine! (The wire is argentium, great for making balled headpins and good for ear wires because it's better than sterling for sensitive skin, less likely to cause allergy/irritation.)

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Alan

Beautiful colour Alan and I guess emptying the bottle was fun too. Dennis.

To be honest, Dennis, if I'm going to buy gin I go for Aldi's cheapo "Cromwell" brand - it beat Bombay Sapphire, Hendricks, Harrods and others in a blind tasting by gin experts last year and is a fraction of the price. Fortunately I have friends and relatives with more money than sense who empty lots of the blue bottles for me and I have a large stash waiting to be smashed up and melted for various things - they make lovely little bowls, for example.
Alan

The glass in those earrings is a glorious colour Alan. Very pretty and fresh.

I was told that Bombay Sapphire bottles were often just plain glass colour-coated and the coating burned off during firing - obviously not the case!

Susie

Quote:

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Originally Posted by susieq

I was told that Bombay Sapphire bottles were often just plain glass colour-coated and the coating burned off during firing - obviously not the case!

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That's right, Susie, that's the true colour of the glass. You have to make sure it's really clean to begin with and avoid firing too long or too hot, otherwise it has a tendency to devitrify - the surface turning rough/matt/cloudy as the glass breaks down chemically. One nice feature of the bottles is that down the sides there are little pictures and descriptions of the "botanicals" (herbs and spices) used to flavour the gin which appear to have been applied with white enamel. They remain on the glass pretty much unaltered by firing - I've avoided those bits for these earrings as I wanted just the blue glass, but they can add a quirky element to some fused pieces.
Alan

Hello,

We are now over halfway through this month's competition - and with the sun making an appearance over the weekend, there's no better time to get making and entering your Summer themed designs!

Best of luck everyone :)

Jen

what lovely entries so far this month. Susieq I love your garden on a finger, such a modern and quirky design. Shinylauren I adore those little earrings, so covetable! Just gorgeous. Alan What a great idea to use the beautiful coloured glass like that, they've captured the feel of some exotic sea somewhere. They're all lovely.
Sue

Hi all,

This is your last week to enter our Summer themed competition - make sure you submit your design before it's too late!

We look forward to seeing what you have in store :)

Jen

Hi everyone,

Thanks to everyone who entered this month's Summer competition!

I am happy to announce the winner of our themed competition is susieq with the following entry:

Attachment 9170

We loved the quirkiness of this design and thought the different coloured CZ stones used were ideal for the Summer theme. Well done!

Please email competitions@cooksongold.com with your contact details and Cooksongold account number so we can arrange for your prize to be sorted.

Congratulations again!

Jen

Congratulations Susie, well done. Dennis

Well done Susie, I thought your bunch of flowers were beautifully executed and a delight to see.

Congratulations Susie! Your flowers were really lovely :)

Well done Susie - nice original piece!
Alan

Well, I have been lurgified for the past week so a lovely surprise when I logged in today. Thanks for all your kind comments about the flower ring - I really had fun making it.

Susieq