We have had our end of term party and our class has adjourned for the summer. On the bus home I saw a young woman wearing a small key as a pendant, which looked very pretty. It has been in my head for a while to make a more fancy one, maybe with a stone. Traditionally they were given for a twenty first birthday, as believe it or not, you did not get your key to the front door until then.
This lead me on to thinking about which of my ideas have turned out to be successful and which have been ordinary and what is the key. Well you get a very good indication when you first see someone wear what you have made and then whether it draws any comments in Sainsburys. Or you can go by sales, but unless you are famous you will have to scale down your work to reduce costs. Look in a jeweller’s window to see what that can do.
Here is one of my fist efforts, a simple piercing called the Dawg, which lots of friends wanted. I wear one as a brooch on my winter anorak . It is made from very thin 18 ct yellow, sweated onto silver, rolled down to twice the size and textured. The Dolly brooch, a more recent effort is taken from the detail of an old poster. The pattern on the dress is faux Keum Boo, made from very thin slices of 18ct yellow tubing, soldered with tiny crumbs of solder and rolled down with gauze. Dennis.