I tend to make much of my jewellery in a fairly organic way. I generally do a only a few very rough sketches of an idea and possibly a little bit of design problem-solving on paper. Then I launch into making, using the process of sitting at my bench and working with materials to refine my ideas and finish problem-solving.

Poppies and roses rings, earrings and pendants prior to being tumbled and finished.

I’m sure some of my former lecturers would be horrified by my minimal drawing and lack of comprehensive design work beforehand, but for most of what I make it works very well for me. I really enjoy making this way and have lots of happy accidents.

Close up of poppies and roses jewellery after tumbling and finishing.

But a couple of months back this process failed me, as it does every now and again. I made some little cup-shaped flowers out of sterling silver - an idea I’d been sketching and thinking about for a while.

But while the little flowers themselves turned out really well, I found myself unable to satisfactorily resolve the finished pieces of jewellery I wanted to make with them.

Ever since the little flowers have been sitting on my bench amongst my ‘bench junk’ (partly finished pieces, experiments, interesting pieces of scrap, etc.), looking at me reproachfully for never having made them into anything.

Until today!

Before I start work on the larger range I want to create in the next few weeks, I decided my little cup-shaped flowers had to be resolved. After some more thinking, drawing and playing with the flowers, I decided to make them into poppies and roses … and successfully made them all into new pendants, rings and earrings.

Along with sterling silver, I’ve also used some 18 carat gold as a highlight in a couple of the pieces. I have blackened (or ‘oxidised’) some of the silver, but have finished them in a way which leaves them a really lovely shiny metallic grey, which I’m really pleased with.

Once I have the new pieces properly photographed and listed in my jewellery shop, I’ll post the new images and links right here!

As promised in my previous post, here are some ‘proper’ photographs and details of the new work I’ve created in the last week or so.

Much of the new work is now listed in my jewelry shop - and you can find more photographs in my Flickr.

This simple cutout flower pendant has been intricately cut out of sterling silver to leave the outline of a flower. The pendant is suspended on deep red natural silk with handmade sterling silver findings.

There is also a cutout flower pendant on black silk (and I can generally change the colour of the silk to something else if people prefer), along with a pair of cutout flower earrings.

To date I’ve not used a lot of gemstones in the work I sell online, however, I’m starting to play with some stones again and hope to have more in future.

Recently I fell in love with these elegant and not-too-flashy facetted quartz crystal briolettes. I’ve created a few simple designs which I hope have just the right balance between being subtle and ‘organic’, while also being sparkly and eye-catching.

The above necklace features three of the briolettes which have been placed on loops of sterling silver. The loops have been soldered closed, hammer beaten for texture and then oxidised a rich black. The loops are suspended from a simple sterling silver chain with handmade findings.

I’ve also created variations on this design using a black silk necklace and silver loops, along with quartz crystal earrings using both the oxidised and non-oxidised loops.

Cameos have fascinated me for a long time and for ages I’ve been thinking about creating my own interpretations of what is a very traditional theme in jewellery making. And here is my first design along these lines - a cameo pendant.

The traditional cameo profile of a woman’s head has been sawn out by hand from a piece of sterling silver which has been etched with my favourite detailed damask-style pattern. The silver has then been cut into a circle and domed to give it a rounded surface. The metal was then oxidised black and then sanded back leaving the raised areas of the patten a brushed but shiny silver.

The cameo pendant is suspended on natural black silk with handmade sterling silver findings.

The above etched leaves earrings are a variation of the leaves designs I created recently. This time the teardrop shaped and slightly domed panels with a dense leaf pattern etched onto the surface are suspended from curvaceous ear wires. The panels will swing eye-catchingly as the wearer moves.

I’ve also been creating some simple bead pieces for holiday shopping, including using some of my lovely stash of German glass vintage beads which were created by a company which closed down in the 1970s - the beads I’ve got date from the ’40s through the ’70s.

These stylised flower beads used for these vintage bead earrings have a ripple running around the edge of them and are a really lovely duck egg blue colour. To create these each earring I’ve placed three beads on handmade sterling silver pins which have then been wrapped to hold the bead in place. The three beads are then suspended from a handmade sterling silver ear wire.

To go with the earrings I’ve created this simple vintage flower bead pendant. Again the beads are placed on handmade pins and wrapped. They are then suspended on a hammer beaten loop of sterling silver, which is in turn suspended from a natural black silk necklace with handmade sterling silver findings.

And there are some other pieces besides … You can find these and other pieces, new and old, in my handmade jewellery shop - and soon on Mintd and already on Etsy.