Woodland Walking

After a busy morning getting lots of jewellery ready to hand deliver to Art Parade and Kath Libbert Jewellery Gallery, it was a welcome break to take a walk with friends and family in nearby Hirst Wood and along the canal and river. Its a beautiful spot and we spotted the first of the bluebells.

We were rewarded at the end of our walk with the sight of our local heron in flight over the River Aire. You can just about see it in this rather grainy phone picture.

Having an Easter break in Sunny Kent for days but I'll be back at work on Wednesday. 

Hope you all have a restful break with lots of chocolate!

Annual Alternative Wedding Show at Kath Libbert Jewellery Gallery

I'm looking forward to Sunday 13th April when Kath Libbert Jewellery Gallery will be launching The 13th Annual Alternative Wedding Show 2014 - A Marriage Made in Yorkshire. 

My jewellery will be in the company of some amazing jewellers, especially the four special ladies that work there, Bex, Sally, Cathy and Emily. 

Here is a selection from my collection.

Making balls

Just thought I would share some of my processes that I use to make my jewellery. Don't know if you ever noticed the 3 little balls in the centre of my flowers? Well, I make these individually. I find this quite therapeutic and usually make them when I'm not in the mood to make anything else but still need to be productive. It can be quite fiddly, but then again I like fiddly!

It's an age old process called granulation, and it's great for using up scraps of silver that are too small to be used for anything else. Here I'm using spurs I've cut off some castings.

Heating them to melting point turns them into little balls.

Then I apply them to the centres of my flowers.

It was nice to discover they made great little 'everyday' earrings on their own.

These are now for sale in my etsy shop

Silver Owl

As commissions go this was one of the more unusual ones! I love it when jewellery I make develops its own personality and this little owl somehow looks a bit indignant! Or cross, as my customer put it.

Hand cut and textured sterling silver with a gold beak and goldplated feet, and lovely sparkling Moissanite eyes, I hope he made someone smile!