Silver and Glass Pendants

Hello there :) Today I'll be writing about silver pendants with glass set into the silver. These were made using the skills I've acquired from the silver class I attended down in Fife. 

When I got back from the silver class I made it my mission to order dichroic glass so I could make more of these amazing pendants.  

 Working with silver is the best part of making jewellery, I sat at my workspace and began to roll out the silver clay. Once I got the clay to the thickness needed I then transferred a pattern onto it, and once the pattern had successfully been added I cut the clay in half. 

On the first part of the clay the glass was placed in the centre, with the second part I cut out the circle

The silver before it is kiln fired

because the two bits of clay have to be sandwiched together with the glass in the middle. Before joining the clay together I added moisture to the silver so that it could bond together. 

After all this was done I had to wait for the clay to dry, this is the part were I become impatient, usually I'd wait a day or two for it to dry but this time I decided to put it into the oven. That was a good idea! No it really was because instead of waiting all that time the silver was dry within thirty minutes... yay! 

After the oven had dried the clay I let it cool down; even in its organic form precious clay is still very hot. Five minutes of cooling I then sanded away the rough edges and fill any gaps that

After being kiln fired and polished

may have occurred during the drying process. When all the sanding was done I then started on the bail for the pendant.

 I could have just drilled a hole in the top of the pendant but I really didn't want to do that and attaching a bail to the back would keep the pendant elegant in design. That and I just learnt how to make a professional bail so why not use that skill!  Waiting for the bail to dry naturally didn't take long, I let it air dry because the silver was wrapped around a

The bails that I learnt to make in
the silversmith class

plastic straw so it could retain its shape; therefore it couldn't go into the oven. So when the bail had dried I then bonded it to the pendant, waited for that to dry, then sanded all the rough edges away. 

Kiln day! Yay for this day! Every person who has worked with silver loves this part of jewellery working because this is the part were your silver is in the final stage. When the silver was done being fired I opened the kiln door and couldn't wait to brush off the frosty white top coat and reveal that beautiful silver. I'm sure I was a pirate in a past life my love of silver and jewels knows no bounds!  

I really enjoyed myself  when making these beautiful pedants, a lot of time, hard work, patience and money went in to making these. I will put these up on my Etsy page in the future but just now they will be tucked away until I get some sake chains to finish them off.

I plan to make more silver pendants in the future but just now it will just be maybe two or three pendants a month. If you wish to see more of my jewellery (even the stuff I haven't put in my blog) you can click on the links below :)  

Facbook Frost Raven Jewellery

Twitter Frost Raven Jewellery

Frost Raven Jewellery Pinterest page

Frost Raven Jewellery Etsy page

Hope you enjoyed reading this and Keep It Spooky Children Of The Night!

           

Jewellery Day Class

Hello there :) I was at a metal clay workshop last week, learning how to set glass into silver, kiln fire it and how to set semiprecious gemstones on to silver and gold plating silver jewellery. The class was awesome and the teacher is very knowledgeable and down to earth which makes her easier to speak to. She also doesn't mind people asking her questions, I'm full of questions and always want to know as much as I can about working with silver. There are plans to go to more classes, one I really want to attend is the ring making class. I've always wanted know how to make rings with silver there are so many kinds of rings I want to make. I'm not going to go in depth with the techniques as I think they are best kept to workshops or classes. 

Silver Semi-precious Pendant 

So here are some of the pendants I made at the class, this first one was how to put a bezel cup on to the silver. The technique I found quite easy to do and closing the bezel around the semi-precious stone was again quite simple. The teacher did say that sometimes the gemstone can fall out if not done correctly but because her instructions were very clear making this pendant was easy to do. I transferred a pattern on to the silver before I put the bezel cup in place.  

Silver Glass Pendant

The second pendant that I did was this one, I have to say this pendant was one of my favourites to make because I learnt so much just making it. From repairing the silver when a piece brakes to learning how to make proper bails and adding moisture to the clay when two pieces peel away from each other. When making this pendant I learned how to make professional jewellery bails from the silver. I even amazed myself! 

Gold Plated pendant

I was going to take a photograph of this pendant but because I wasn't to liberal with the gold it didn't show up to well on the silver. After the pendant had come out of the kiln the teacher did say I should have used more and not to be intimated by the gold, because gold is expensive. She did say you paid for the class so if you do want to make it again just go for it and put a good lot on the silver.

Along with going to a silver workshop I am also pleased to announce that I now have an Etsy page! 

I am currently planing my wedding so I had to take my jewellery out of the shop that it was in because my money is going towards my wedding. My sister set up my Etsy page and offered to run it while I plan for my wedding so a big thank you to her. I will pop a link below :)

My Etsy Page

Keep It Spooky!

Silver Clay Jewellery Course, A Long Time Of Learning.

If you have ever read my older blog on this silver course. You will know I had a bit of trouble trying to get to grips with some of the techniques. One would be making the silver bead. Trying to make the bead was hard work. It frustrated me to no end. The course is eighteen months long, so I had time to perfect the design of the silver and just relax, because no one learns these kind of techniques over night. If that were the case I'd have passed by now! 

Detailed Silver Pendant

It's amazing how a white bit of clay can be moulded in to something like this. PMC or silver art clay is made up of small silver particles in an organic binder. When the piece of PMC silver is fired the binder burns off and you are left with the silver. 

This pendant was made from silver art clay. A silver clay that I didn't like when I first used it but now I do like. As you can see

this is just a simple pendant design. I rolled out the silver and just cut this simple shape out (free handedly). I transferred a pattern on to the silver. I also used badger balm to stop the motif from sticking to the clay. After the clay had dried completely I then added the vine like detail with an art clay syringe. Syringe detailing can be difficult but with patience and steady hand, or as steady as possible it can be done beautifully. When I completed this pendant I sent it off to get fired and polished. I really enjoyed making this pendant :)  

Silver PMC Bead

Ah yes! The silver bead of doom! Not really, I had three failed attempts at making this bead. Ah but on the fourth attempt however I got the round shape that is needed for the course.  In my older

Older bead as you can see it's uneven
and not round in the least.
(still pretty though)

blog I used cork clay to make the base for the silver to be wrapped around. The cork clay I just couldn't work with as it was mouldy and wouldn't keep a round shape, but wood clay I can work with. Wood can be sanded cork can't! I shaped the wood clay in to a round ball and waited for it to dry. I rolled out the silver clay so it was about three cards thick. Then covered the wood bead with the silver clay. A lot of blending and sanding later I got the perfect round shape. With some of the clay that was left I made some donut ends for the bead. I was looking

A closer look at the new bead
(sorry for the picture quality my
camera at the moment can really pick
up the silver or it's detail very well) 

at the bead and it looked rather plain. So I added some leafs and vines to add some ooomf to the bead. 

Even though I complained about this bead in one of my blogs and how difficult it was, it can be done. I used my frustration and

New silver bead as you can see
it is much rounder.

annoyance to fuel me. I pushed myself because sitting on your backside complaining doesn't help you succeed in what you are doing. Even if that is making a tiny bead! It's still an accomplishment even if it does seem like a small one :)

As you can see I have put up the new silver bead and the older bead for comparison. You can clearly see how uneven and distorted the shape is. 

I hope you enjoyed reading this, I had fun sharing with you.

Keep It Spooky!