Over the weekend I once again spent lots and lots of time at my work bench, a fair bit of which was pinning down and completing some new designs - but as usual I spent some time catching up on making existing pieces as well.

New and existing partially complete jewellery components.

… And today I’ve spent a chunk of time taking a whopping 370 photographs of completed new work.

I now need to sift through the images and delete those which are clearly no good. And then it’s a matter of opening them all up in Photoshop in batches, choosing the best variations for each piece and editing them ready for listing, before finally calculating pricing for the pieces and writing descriptions. Once all that is done, finally I can list them.

Which goes to show that creating new work is about a lot more than just creating new work!

Once I’ve edited the images I’ll post some of them here to give you a better sneak peak of what’s about to be listed in my jewellery shop.

I spent much of my weekend sawing out pieces of sterling silver, some of them into very intricate designs. While working I thought about the process of saw piercing and how much my own perception of it has changed over the past year or so.

Finished handmade jewelry and components fresh from the tumbler after a weekend of making.

I suspect it’s no accident that many courses teaching jewellery making from a metalworking perspective often have beginners start out by learning to saw shapes out of sheets of metal.

Of course many pieces of jewellery require saw piercing as the first step in making them, but I think more importantly saw piercing requires seemingly boundless amounts of patience, especially when starting out. And if there’s one thing that jewellery makers need to have in buckets it’s patience, along with a healthy dose of perseverance.

A day’s worth of broken saw blades. Thanks to Shoshona Snow for this gorgeous little dish!

Saw blades used in a jeweller’s saw frame are incredibly fine. Even if beginners are started out on what more experienced makers would regard as thick blades, they are still much finer than most people will ever have used before. Also, sawing out shapes for jewellery very often requires the maker to saw out intricate and fluid designs with complex curves and sudden changes of direction.

Left: A 5/0 saw blade against my hand to give an idea of thickness (or lack thereof!). You can see a close up showing the tiny teeth of the blade on Flickr. Right: Sterling silver scrap caught by the pouch in my bench after a few days of saw piercing and other jewelry making work.

The result is broken saw blades - lots and lots (and lots!) of broken saw blades.

Of course beginners will break blades a lot more frequently than more experienced jewellery makers, but it’s something that still happens often no matter how much experience you have. As a beginner you will either learn to live with this and keep going or you will decide this world of jewellery making isn’t for you and will find another outlet for your creativity. And realising this sooner rather than later is always a good thing!

Obviously as a beginner I stuck with it, despite the large mounds of broken saw blades and the frustration of seemingly endlessly replacing them as I was learning. Patience is definitely one of my personal strong (and weak!) points, so jewellery making and me seem like a good fit.

However, I still didn’t exactly love the technique of sawing metal. It was something I had to do as part of making many designs, but I was never exactly fond of this aspect of my work and would avoid doing it when I could.

Then I read one little line in a technical book which changed my perception of saw piercing. It was simply that a saw blade is effectively like a tiny sliver of the cross-section of a file and that to a degree you are kind of filing metal when you are sawing. This led me to go off on a tangent and suddenly see saw piercing as being a little bit like carving - and I love the process of carving! I find it easy to get into ‘the zone’ with this sort of work and for me it’s a very fluid, organic process, which I very much enjoy.

So this simple change in perception completely turned my thinking about saw piercing on its head. Pretty much immediately I started to work on much more intricate pieces where the technique is really the focus of the finished jewellery. And of course my skill in this area of work continues to improve as I push myself.

Sterling silver butterfly pendant.

One example of this in my current handmade jewellery range is the butterfly pendant I have been making in recent months - an extension of the butterfly wing pendant I have been making for a year or so now.

I now also often prefer to leave evidence of the saw piercing process in many of my pieces. For example, the marks from the saw blade can be seen in the pierced out sections of the butterfly wings. I like my work to look handmade and I love to leave traces of the process of making in my jewellery, and this is one example of doing so.

So as a result of one sentence in a book, for me saw piercing now really is a joy instead of a chore.

Except of course when I’m having one of those off days where I seem to break about ten times more saw blades than seems reasonable and even my patience is worn very thin! In which case it’s a good idea to simply do something else.

Finally this week I made myself complete a project which has been on my list of things to get done since the start of the year - creating a housing unit for my buffing machine.

Let me start out by saying that I hate buffing metal. This is partly because I’m no longer all that keen on a mirror finish to the work I create, but also because it’s dirty work and is perhaps the most dangerous work I do in my home studio. If I find my mind continually wandering while I’m buffing I generally stop and do something else in case I suddenly find myself without a hand or an eye or something - it’s one of those things where you have to be 100% ‘there’ to do safely.

Another reason I’ve been avoiding buffing for ages is that I’ve simply not had a proper housing for my old machine, which it needs for safety reasons (to catch anything which the buffing mop grabs from my hands - without throwing it back into my face and ideally without damaging the piece!) and to try to reduce the mess and the dust I inhale (so the housing should catch this too).

I live and work in a rented home and my small studio doubles as my office - I’m lacking in space and I can’t set up anything permanent. So I figured a box in which I can keep the machine when I’m not using it and which can be moved to a suitable space when I am using it would be ideal.

So here is what I came up with. It’s a very cheap Ikea bedside table which has an upper and lower shelf and is open at the front and back.

I bought some slightly ’sticky’ and paddd vinyl which is used to hold tablecloths in place and to protect tabletops. I tacked a panel of this across the back of the box on the outside and another larger panel into the interior from the front of the bottom of the top shelf all the way around to the bottom, providing plenty of padding.

This means there’s a double layer of the vinyl where the most grime and fluff will end up - and where my work is most likely to hit if it’s grabbed out of my hands. Plus the machine won’t move around given that the surface has some grip to it.

Then I threw a bit of fabric over it to keep the ugly machine and brown vinyl hidden from view when its not in use - plus of course the top can be used as a shelf and the interior can hold my mops and buffing compounds.

And that’s it! It’s obviously not as a good as a floor mounted housing unit with an extraction fan, but it’s a great solution for now - and an extremely inexpensive one. All I need to finish the job is a lamp which will clamp to the top of the box to give me a bit more light.

Don’t forget that any reader of this very blog can get a 15% discount in my new jewelry shop - but only for a couple more days.

The code to use when checking out is: makeme. The discount will end on 10 October.

You can learn more about the launch of the shop right here.

For the month of October I have a ‘table’ (aka a web page) at the Poppytalk Handmade online street market (or craft fair if you prefer).

Poppytalk is a rather lovely blog and is behind the idea of an online street market.

It’s well worth having a good look around at the stalls - you will find some very nice handmade items. You can also check out the Poppytalk Handmade blog, where you will find the list of those participating in October’s fair - and keep your eye out for further fairs into the future.

None of the items showcased are for sale directly from Poppytalk, but instead links go to the items in the respective shops of each seller. In my case, that would be here - and you can find my Poppytalk Handmade table right here.

And while I really am pleased to see you, no I don’t have a pistol in my pocket!

But last night I did spend a chunk of time sorting out my packing area before the onslaught of Christmas starts in earnest. I was then inspired by my good friend Jodie of Meringue to share this with you after her blog post about what’s involved in getting one of her lovely bags from not existing at all to the point of being on the arm of her customers.

So here is my newly organised packing station. While of course it’s only a small part of the story, if you place an order with me, this is where I get everything packed up ready to ship to you.

Buying this little computer desk has really helped enormously in terms of being more efficient in getting orders out. It has a slide out keyboard shelf which I can use for extra packaging space and it’s also where my wrapping paper is kept, meaning it’s always at my fingertips.

The multi-coloured gift boxes are where my stock is kept - each box contains a different ‘category’ of handmade jewellery so I can easily spot which one contains what I need when an order comes in.

Last night I finally got around to building a second set of little Ikea drawers which has helped me to be a lot more organised than I was. In particular I was able to pull out bags full of lurking packaging materials and other bits and pieces which were piling up under the little desk and actually put them away.

Plus I folded up, signed and stuck the return address on around 80 of the little boxes I use to ship most of my orders, signed a few customs forms and found a spot for an in tray which I can put print outs of current orders needing to be shipped as they come in.

So while I’m not remotely feeling on top of things as the festive season rush looms large, at least I know that I’ll be packing orders as efficiently as I can.

And, yeah, my shelves are chaotic - especially after having to move everything recently to get the walls plastered. But one day they might get sorted out too!

I’m thrilled to announce the rather sudden and slightly unexpected arrival of my very own online handmade jewelry shop … along with an extensive redesign of my website at www.simonewalsh.com.

To celebrate the launch of the jewelry shop I’m offering blog readers a 15% discount on purchases for a two week period. When you purchase just use the code: makeme and your discount will be calculated when you checkout. The code will expire on 10 October 2007.

Why now?

The job of redesigning and rebuilding my website, along with adding a fully functional shop to it has been on my list of things to get done for an age.

However, I’ve been increasingly losing confidence in one of my selling venues for a while now. As of last week this reached crisis point for some reasons which have been made public elsewhere, along with a few things going on behind the scenes. This made me realise that I need to be more self-sufficient in terms of my business, along with focussing on other venues.

Given that I reached this decision so close to Christmas, it prompted me to decide last Friday that it was imperative for me to drop absolutely everything to redesign my website and get my own shop up and running as quickly as possible.

And I astounded myself that after only three days of (extremely hard!) work I had entirely redesigned the site, rebuilt it from the ground up, got it working in Internet Explorer (with much ranting and muttering of course), had it validate as standards compliant and had the shop design built and the basics of the cart set up. Phew!

Now it’s a few days later and the new content is finished and the shop is full of my handmade jewelry.

Other venues

If you feel like shopping for other handmade or indie design items along with any from me then I highly recommend Mintd.com, where you will also find me at simonewalsh.mintd.com.

I’m a big fan of Mintd and would encourage you to put it high on your list for buying handmade and indie design items this festive season.

To be transparent and as I’ve previously mentioned, I do work with Mintd to help promote the site but I’ve taken on the role because I like it and think it has a bright future, so I do recommend it personally quite apart from any professional involvement.

Plus I have some work available on Bouf (prices in Pounds Sterling) and at the lovely Moose (prices in Australian dollars).

And of course you can still find me at Etsy - I’m not going anywhere at this stage and will continue to operate my shop as usual.

I’ve started listing my new work in my jewelry shops, so I thought I’d give you a bit of a peek here.

My favourite new piece from my handmade jewellery range is this damask pendant, inspired by a detail in a highly decorative damask pattern. The pendant has another damask pattern etched into its surface. It’s made from sterling silver, which has been heated to form a white silver oxide in the etched areas, while the raised areas have been sanded back to leave a shiny silver finish.

I have created a version of the damask pendant which hangs on black natural silk thread. I have also made a version suspended on a fine sterling silver chain, which I’m yet to list for sale.

After cutting out the damask pattern I loved the silver shapes I was left with and decided they’d make a perfect pair of earrings. So here are the matching damask earrings.

This small and simple sterling silver pendant also has a pattern etched into the surface, this time a detail leaf pattern. Again I’ve used the technique of building up silver oxide on the surface and sanding back the raised areas to create a shiny silver contrast.

The etched leaves pendant has been domed slightly to give it a more organic shape and is suspended on brown natural silk thread. I also have an etched leaves pendant on green silk thread.

To match the pendant, I created these etched leaves earrings using the same techniques above. These are post earrings which are entirely made from sterling silver.

These strawberry earrings are the result of a fun experiment after making some flower shapes in sterling silver and then trying to figure out how I was going to make use of them. I put them together with these large Czech glass beads and made a strawberry!

And here are the flower shapes again! This time in the guise of three pendants suspended on a strand of lovely rich purple natural silk thread. There is one larger flower with two smaller versions. Each has been cut out by hand and then domed.

You can find the five petal flowers neckace on purple silk in my Mintd shop. There is also a flowers necklace on black silk in my Etsy shop.

As you can probably see, I’ve made quite a few changes in the way I’m photographing my work, in large part brought about by getting a much smaller light tent, meaning my lighting is a lot closer to my work. I’ve also been experimenting with backgrounds to give a bit more depth to the images. Let me know what you think.

You can see more images of the above new handmade jewelry and more on Flickr.