Silver Leaf Design - Step by Step

Hi all! As some of you know I have been working with silver for quite a while now, making my own findings for my beads and making special silver jewellery pieces for commissions and special orders. The Etsy shop has taken a bit of a back seat as have been quite busy doing the silver (and my doggy work too.)

I thought it might be nice to show you a bit of the process of making these items starting with the silver leaf scarf toggles I have been making most recently.

As always, the usual starting point is a drawing of some sort. This vine illustration was provided by my lovely client Zoe. 

I then went out scurrying through the undergrowth for real ivy leaves for inspiration!!. You can see real leaves and scans of leaves that I have taped into my idea book.

Here's a close up... I try to really observe the detail and texture and start thinking about ways to replicate this in the silver...

What I did next was make a scale drawing of my chosen leaf. I liked this one's proportions. It was symmetrical to a point but each side wasn't completely the same so I thought it would look good when textured and shaped.

Next  comes the silver sheet. It's always scary cutting into pristine silver sheet for the first time on a new project. But we get the saw out and get cracking...

This sheet is 0.7mm thick. It will be sturdy enough to hold a shape but thin enough to be shaped and textured successfully...

I trace around the outside of my shape and carefully saw round

Sometimes I clamp the sheet in my vice for the tricky bits... (And always have a big cup of tea handy that you can see behind!!..)

Here is my favourite file and piercing saw that I use most of the time... These are my 'go to' tools. I would be lost without them!

 Finished shapes...all done!

Next - my favourite bit begins. I love to create the texture on the piece and bring it to life!!

I use a customised tool (which was once a screwdriver that I have sharpened, shaped and hardened through tempering,) to cut the vein lines into the silver.

I vary the impression depths to try to make the marks as life-like as possible.

Below you can see what's left of the silver sheet, but nothing gets wasted. I will use the excess in another project.

I come at the shape from different angles and make sure I am happy with the look as it is progressing...

The next bit involves a nice rawhide hammer and a metal hammer with a few metal punches and some curved soft surfaces to hammer on to.  At this point to are trying to encourage bends and curves in the metal which reflect the natural shape in the leaf. This is quite tricky as silver is much harder to subtly bend and shape, but bit by bit the shape appears... Baby steps!!..

(I don't have any pictures of this bit as everybody in the house had gone to bed the other night so I couldn't get any pictures taken!) 

I use the suede sandbag pictured a few photos up and hammer down into it to get more life like curves onto the leaf surface. I also use different sized ball bearings held in a vice and bend the silver around them...

It's also important to study the real leaves really carefully at this point and curl the edges over where they naturally curl in real life...

Once I am happy with the shape and movement of the overall leaf I use the mini blow torch to solder on the stalk to the leaf and the ring where the scarf will go through .

It's important to make sure that there are no rough bits and the added pieces are nice and secure and tidy looking...

Next I put the pieces through an oxidising or blackening process to bring out the veining and details more.

It involves turning the whole thing black using some very hot water and a 'liver of sulfur' solution which smells soooo bad! 

Then bit by bit I polish to bring back the shiny bits.

The final polishing phase comes next... I use a mixture of polishing papers, sticks and tools to bring the finish up to a lovely silvery shine.

The whole thing takes a bit of a while but I think it is worth it..;-)

The pictures below show the finished pieces.

 And here are my finished designs!

Many thanks for visiting my blog...

Next time I will get my photographer to stay up a bit later and get a few more shots!! xx

Blushing Beads

My latest commission has been fantastic because I have had lots of freedom to create a theme and produce 3 different pieces for a complete set. I also got to flex my silversmithing muscles as I created a Fantasy style necklace to complete the set that is to be worn with one of my mega charm beads

Ok so the brief was to create a set of charm beads to wear to a wedding in Las Vegas!! There needed to be plenty of bling, which meant I could use lots of inclusions in my glass like fine silver droplets, fine silver foil, cubic zirconias and I could use lots of glass because she wanted the charm bracelet bit to literally be dripping off her arm; but the colour of the dress my client was wearing is VERY subtle a kind of almost pink but not too 'rosy'. A bit 'champagne' but not too yellow....

So the beads that I made could not argue with the dress at all and the colour palette had to remain really subtle otherwise the jewellery would completely overpower the dress!

Here is the dress and a close up of the fabric. You can see that what ever jewellery is worn with it has to work with the colours of the fabric itself and the colours of the shadows that naturally fall as the dress is in two layers. The holes are quite defined on the bare skin part of the dress as well which means that my client's skin tone will also alter the look of the colour too.

(My client has a good tan at the moment which means there is a more caramel look to those parts of the dress which needed to be taken into account).

This was the colour palette that we chose at the start of the project. Later on, we warmed it up with a bit of amber and caramel added in...

Here are the beads one by one with a bit of detail about each of them:

I bought in these Swarovski bricolette charm beads to complement the set. They bring an extra bit of sparkle to the bracelet...

Here is the finished bracelet shown from different angles. I took these pics in sunlight to catch all the sparkle I could! The bracelet is shown complete with a number of specially chosen Trollbeads and Redbalifrog silvers to finish it off to a tee...

And here are the earrings and mega charm pendant bead shown on a classic necklace and on the new Fantasy style necklace that I made.

We went very simple with the earrings. I chose some simple Swarovski Crystal beads and made them into earrings using sterling silver earwires.

This bead is over 20 mm in diameter. It's got lots of colours and spirals going all the way round.

I delicately put the necklace together using 100cm of sterling silver chain. I soldered the important parts that needed strength, then oxidised the entire piece and polished it back. I love the result! I can make more of them if required at a fraction of the price of what the big guys charge...

That's all for now. Thank you for taking the time to browse my blog... x

New Glass Dragonfly Pendants

I have always loved dragonflies and I wanted to use them as an icon for my glass work as they stand for lightness, elegance, freshness and colour which are the kinds of values I want to imbue in my glass.

Meadowhawk was perfect as a brand name for my company. I loved the sound and connotations of the word 'Meadowhawk' on it's own. It's all about naturalness and the countryside and outdoors but more importantly a meadowhawk is a kind of dragonfly. We call them 'Darters' here n the UK.

For ages I have been working on a little side-project which is to get a nice design for a dragonfly pendant. Here's where I have got to so far....

Here is my workspace set up for dragonfly making...

Here are my dragonfly colours and tools...

First all I have to make a selection of wings.

Sometimes I make them totally clear, other times they have wispy bits of black in them and other transparent glass colours to suggest the little veins in the wings of a real dragonfly.

They don't look much like wings yet do they? Hee Hee!

This little guy has a bit of a stubby tail I think. But he's still cute

This one is the middle size one in the family. I like the way the metallic glass on his back has fumed onto the blue glass making a hazy green metallic effect....

 This one is a bit bigger and looks rather elegant on:

I hope you enjoyed my dragonflies. More coming soon xxx

Memorial Beads

Hi there! 

The other day I got a little commission request for a memorial bead, so I thought that it might be nice to show some of my memorial beads and explain a little bit about them.

When someone loses a close relative or a beloved pet there is a real need for some people to keep a little memory of them close to their heart. 

I know this all too well as when my beloved Dennis died (our eleven year old chocolate Labrador) I kept his ashes under my bed for a year before I finally decided to do something with them. I just felt happy knowing that he was near me every night when I was asleep. It gave me the connection with him that I still really needed even after he had passed away.

It is possible to encase fragments of cremated ashes within glass and I have some beads that I've made in this way here to show you. By doing this a little piece of your loved ones can be kept near you at all times and any time you want to you can look at them and remember them. It's also nice because they give you a tangible reminder that you can actually hold in your hand and touch which is very comforting! 

The memorial pieces don't have to necessarily be jewellery. 

Men for example might prefer a little glass pebble that they can keep in a drawer or even in a pocket. or little bead on a string or ribbon which is simply intended as a keepsake rather than a bead to be worn.

That's enough chat. I will let the beads do the talking for the most part!

This is a colour-changing 'Silver Glass' pendant. You can see the little swirls of ash encircle the bubble.

Here is the same pendant with a matching set of charm beads.

The following items were individual charm bead commissions:

(There is a lovely swirl around this one)

This one has a kind of Galaxy/Space kind of feel about it.... It was made big enough to be worn as a pendant on a cord or leather thong. Alternatively it can be worn on the wrist like a regular charm bead.

This one was such a beauty, I couldn't leave it out!

The next set of beads are more 'Organic' in style and more natural and earthy looking:

This picture shows a pretty good close up of what's going on inside the bead. I love the design that the ash helps to make inside. Each one is so individual and unique.

The last set shown here are much more simple in style and the ash particles are more visible in some cases. These ones I like to call 'Clarity'. Even though they can be made in all kinds of colours I think blues, greens and purples look the best.

These show various levels of visibility of the ash. Some people like that the ash is almost fully hidden so only they know that it's there. Other's like it to be fully visible...

The little bubbles seen here are a natural part of the process...

This one is a pretty bluey/pink colour.

This one is an interesting mix of turquoise and amber transparent glass:

This one is a more pure watery blue with clear encasing. This means that you can see pretty good detail of the ashes particles:

I hope you have enjoyed having a look at these.

Best wishes to everyone! xxx

Dotty Glass Pebble Glass Bead Bracelets

I have been having a little fascination with these pebble beads recently. Ive made three different sets using the same technique and I don't think it's out of my system yet!

It's quite neat as you use 3 colours only (in this case Turquoise, Black and bright Red) Then you use them in rotation to make a set of encased beads. 

I love the way the ringed dots 'float' on the surface of the clear and give the bead more depth and shine.

Here's the whole set!

I loved the shape of this pendant. A lovely cylinder with curved edges!

Here's the brightly coloured chunky pendant. It looks stunning on the wrist!

This was the alternative pendant. A more characteristic pebble shape with a bit more texture on the outside!

This one was the one everyone fell in love with. The colours are Ivory, Stone and Ebony! It looks very classy on the wrist!

(close up)

And the other thing I did was to add a beaded extender - so it can be worn as a necklace! Clever eh?

The last one for today was made around the time that Princess Charlotte was born. This bracelet is made up with a pure sterling silver clasp and findings and it's good old patriotic Red, White and Blue!

Thank you for reading my blog - feel free to suggest more 'three colour options' for more sets like this!! I think I will be making more!!! ;-) xx

Bluebell Walk..

So just a few sunny days ago, I took the most glorious walk around the woodland trails at Cliveden which is a National Trust treasure of a place near me.

The woodland was full of these beauties. The air was so fragrant with their scent; it was quite magical!

I was captivated by the colour of the bluebells the mauve and blue tones merged almost imperceptibly but still I was aware of the two lovely colours and the many shades of those colours that made the bluebells so stunning.

Just had to try to capture the colour, depth and shading with the glass! I used layers of lilac, dark lavender, light blue transparent, intense blue transparent and touches of Thomson enamels, CIM jellyfish and crocus plus a bit of periwinkle opaque glass. I knew that in some frequencies of light the dark lavender and crocus changed the way it came across.

It sometimes looks mauve/pink and in other lights looks completely blue/grey.

This in the set under tungsten light. you can clearly see the gradation in the middle bead from lavender to pink, but in the next picture on the  the same bead looks completely lilac. It's the same bead..Funny isn't it?

I was very pleased with them - so much so, that these little ones are keepers!!!

I know...... naughty aren't I ;-) ?

Here are some more glossy photos. But in order to light them up properly I had to use my studio lights which meant that some of the pink tones were lost. Anyone who has some really good camera knowledge could maybe tell me how I could have done it better and managed to retain the pinker hue?

(Incidentally, I also tried to photograph them in sunlight and a more dull natural light, but the vivid pinky mauve only seems to be visible with a yellower tungsten bulb.. I don't really understand why...)

Here they are individually:

This one was pinky mauve on the inside with a tiny dusting of enamel on the surface and the bobbly one was pinker inside and blue on the outside to get the dual tone.

I love the sparkly one below. It also has two layers. You can see as the light passes through it that the pinker/mauve shines through.

..And here they all are on bracelet with the photo that inspired them:

 I hope you enjoyed reading the blog

Thank you x