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Posts tagged ‘gold’

Shiny and new handmade jewellery!

20 July 2010

Finally my new range of handmade jewellery has been released into the wild. Hooray!

You can find the new collection in my Australian handmade jewellery shop and also in my international handmade jewelry shop.

Below you’ll find some photos and details of a few of the new pieces.

Handmade chain in sterling silver

Handmade chain in sterling silver with gold and gemstones - detail.

This sterling silver chain is entirely handmade in sterling silver – a very labour-intensive process!

The links are smaller than in my original handmade chain, so there are a lot more of them, but are made with sterling silver of the same thickness. Each link has been formed, soldered and then hammer-beaten to give it a sparkly finish.

Handmade chain in sterling silver with gold and gemstones.

The handmade chain is finished with a hammered 14ct gold link which features four ametrine gemstone beads and one amethyst bead, each suspended from a 14ct gold pin.

I’ve made a version of this chain for myself and I must say that it’s a joy to wear!

Butterfly wing pendant on chain

Butterfly wing pendant on chain.

This butterfly wing pendant is the deluxe version of a design that has been one of my most popular for a few years now. The wing has been intricately cut out by hand in sterling silver.

The new design is slightly longer and is suspended from a delicate sterling silver chain – something many customers have requested over the years.

It also features a sparkly, hammer-beaten ring in 14ct gold which holds two ametrine gemstone beads and one amethyst, all suspended from handmade 14ct gold pins.

Leaf and bud pendant and earrings

Leaf and bud pendant in sterling silver with gemstones. Leaf and bud earrings in sterling silver and garnet gemstones.

These leaf and bud earrings and leaf and bud pendant were inspired by a leaf spotted at the gorgeous Mt Tomah Botanic Gardens near to where I live.

The leaves have been cut out by hand in sterling silver. They have been hammer-beaten to give an organic shape and texture and have been finished with a brushed satin finish. The buds are beautiful pear-shaped faceted garnets.

The leaf and bud necklace is suspended from a delicate sterling silver chain which features three small green aventurine beads as highlights.

Seed pods necklace

Pods necklace in sterling silver with natural pearls.

This lovely seed pods necklace was inspired by a branch of pods spotted at the Mt Tomah Botanic Gardens.

The branch has been cut out by hand in sterling silver. It is suspended from a delicate sterling silver chain and features five small natural pearls as highlights.

Maidenhair fern pendant and earrings

Maidenhair fern pendant in matte sterling silver with gemstones. Maidenhair fern earrings in matte sterling silver.

Inspired by a native fern, these maidenhair fern earrings and maidenhair fern pendant have been cut out by hand in sterling silver. The leaves have been hammer-beaten to give them an organic shape and texture, before being given a matte white-ish finish.

The earrings are finished with handmade sterling silver ear wires. The pendant is suspended from a delicate sterling silver chain which features three small green aventurine gemstone beads as highlights.

But wait … there’s more!

I’ll share some more pieces soon, but you can see the whole range in my Australian shop or my international shop right now!

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A little bit of gold for a whole lot of money

30 June 2009

Sometimes it feels a tad depressing to be working in a field where the cost of your materials is down to the sometimes extreme whims of a market which has absolutely nothing to do with what you make.

A small piece of 14ct gold in my hand.

At the moment both silver and gold are priced higher than they have been for a very long time. However, especially since the global economic crisis kicked off the price of gold has been going crazy as investors have been sinking their money into it, seeing it as a much safer bet than the stock market.

But as someone buying gold as a material to make jewellery with and not as an investment (or to make investment jewellery with), this is definitely unhelpful!

The photograph above is of a piece of 14ct gold (that’s 14kt for Americans) which is 0.5mm thick (0.02″) and 35mm tall and wide (1.4″). It set me back AU$245 (currently around US$200). Ouch!

Silver has also been going up and up for the past couple of years for all sorts of complex reasons. It is currently costing around double what it has done for most of my career. But to give an idea of how much more expensive gold is by comparison, 14ct gold is currently around 28 times more expensive per gram than sterling silver at trade cost.

Gold is a wonderful material to work with, but it does indeed hurt when a very small business like mine needs to purchase it.

As for what I’ll be making with my teensy little piece of gold … well I have a few ideas, but nothing concrete at this point. I have been using thinner gold as highlights in a few handmade jewellery pieces for a while now, but I would like to make some pieces where gold is more of a feature.

Stay tuned for details!

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New handmade jewelry – a sneak peek!

22 September 2008

A selection of handmade jewellery by Simone Walsh.Finally I have a new range of handmade jewellery almost ready to put into production! And I thought I would share a sneak peak of this work with you.

This work is primarily inspired by my fascination with Victorian-era aesthetics – the mish-mash of cultural and historical influences, a hint of modernity and a strong connection between words (or ideas) and visual design and art.

There is also the mixture of culture with nature which seems to be so much a part of aesthetics from this period – something I also find endlessly fascinating.

Handmade pendants by Simone Walsh.

These pendants have all been created in sterling silver, with some featuring an 18ct gold (or 18kt if you’re American!) highlight, some suspended on sterling silver chain and some on black natural silk.

Many of the pieces are etched with a variety of designs; printed text, handwritten text, a damask-type pattern, an engraved image of plants and more. Some of the etching has had the recessed areas blackened, while some have had these areas left a silver oxide white.

Handmade earrings by Simone Walsh.

The earrings are all made entirely from sterling silver, again with some of the etched areas blackened and some whitened.

In addition to the Victorian-inspired pieces, I’ve also created a pair of butterfly wing earrings to match my butterfly wing pendants – one of my most popular designs.

Unique handmade jewelry by Simone Walsh.

As yet, none of this work is listed for sale in my handmade jewellery shop. There’s still a fair bit of work to do to get to that point: creating a few more pieces, photographing each piece of jewellery properly, selecting and editing the photographs, pricing each item and – finally – listing it in various outlets.

I’ll let you know right here once they’re ready for sale. But for now you can see more images of this new work on my Flickr.

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A busy weekend at the bench

26 August 2008

Yes, I have spent a lot of time at my bench over the last few days! Not to mention slaving away over a pot of etching solution.

Handmade jewelry by Simone Walsh.

I thought I would share the result of this hard work with you as all of this jewellery looks like an impressive amount all bundled up together! And this isn’t all of it – some has already been sent on its way in some orders.

Handmade jewellery by Simone Walsh.

Not all of the pieces are finished in the photographs – some of them have now been blackened or given a silver oxide finish. And of course various pieces need to be completed by being made into necklaces, hung on ear wires, etc..

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Roses & poppies: now for sale

12 April 2008

My new mini range of poppies and roses jewellery is now properly photographed and listed in various of my handmade jewelry shops.

Handmade rose pendant (detail) by Simone Walsh.

This rose pendant is made with four layers of disc-shaped pieces of sterling silver to create the petals. The discs have been beaten, shaped with a variety of hammers and domed. It is attached to a delicate silver chain with handmade findings.

Rose earrings by Simone Walsh.

There is a matching pair of stud/post rose earrings which have three layers of petals.

Handmade rose ring by Simone Walsh.

And there is also a matching rose ring, which features a rose the same size as the pendant.

Poppies necklace by Simone Walsh.

This poppies necklace features five blackened poppies which move freely around the delicate chain. I’m really pleased with the shiny black and silver finish on these pieces.

Poppies ring by Simone Walsh.

There is also a pair of matching poppy earrings in this style, along with the above poppies ring, which features two poppies which move freely around the band of the ring. I really like the tinkling sound the poppies make when they hit against each other.

Silver and gold poppy ring by Simone Walsh.

This silver and gold poppy ring features a centre of 18ct gold (or 18kt gold if you’re American!) as a highlight.

Silver and gold poppy pendant by Simone Walsh.

There is also a matching sterling silver and 18ct gold poppy necklace.

You can find all of this work in my handmade jewelry shop, along with my other online outlets.

Handmade rose pendant by Simone Walsh.

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Poppies & roses: new handmade jewelry

7 April 2008

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 - detail - handmade jewellery (unfinished) by Simone Walsh.
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.

Poppies & roses jewellery (finished) by Simone Walsh.
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.

Cup flowers - jewellery components.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.

Poppies and roses jewellery by Simone Walsh

Until today!

Rose pendant detail by Simone WalshBefore 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.

Poppies & roses jewellery (finished) by Simone Walsh.

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.

Poppies and roses - detail - handmade jewellery (unfinished) by Simone Walsh.

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

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A couple of rings

24 February 2008

In the spirit of working less and getting a bit more balance into my life, I spent the weekend … at my bench making jewellery! Which probably sounds I’m failing on the whole ‘working less’ front, however, I do of course work with metal because I enjoy it and this weekend I actually made some pieces just for me – which makes a very nice change indeed!

Ruby ring with free-moving settings

This ring is made from a hammer-beaten sterling silver band and settings with two lovely deep pink lab-grown rubies.

The idea behind this ring is something I’ve been wanting to play with for a while now. The two stone settings are not actually attached to the band of the ring. Instead they have loops at the back through which the band passes. This means the stones move freely around the ring and change position as the wearer’s hand moves. So far I’m really enjoying fiddling with them!

Domed ‘buttercup’ ring

This domed ring is made from sterling silver and 18k gold. The circle on top has been heavily textured with a variety of hammers and given an organic, petal-like edge before being roughly punched into a domed ‘buttercup’ shape. A beaded piece of 18k gold has been soldered into the centre and the inside of the cup has been blackened. Finally the ring was tumbled, which has given the interior of the cup a glossy, metallic grey sheen.

Ruby ring - worn   Domed ring - worn.

And here are my two new rings being worn. I’m likely to put similar versions of these rings into production to sell through my handmade jewelry shop at some stage – even though I’ve been putting off selling rings because the sizing issue is such a pain.

My new handmade rings!

So keep your eyes peeled for these designs and some other new pieces I’ve got in development.

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The pain of precious metal

22 February 2008

Anyone who works in precious metal of any type will be very well aware of what sort of pain I mean.  In the last 18 months or so the price of metals – especially precious metals – has skyrocketed.  Every time you think it can’t get any more expensive … it just does.

Currently I’m paying about AU$0.97 a gram for sterling silver – that’s around double what I’ve paid for it throughout most of my career (US$0.89 at today’s exchange rate).

Even worse, today I purchased some 18k gold for the first time in a very long time.  I remember the days where I used to gasp over it being around AU$9 a gram.  Today I paid AU$35 (around US$32).  Ouch!

Small piece of 18ct gold.

And here is what AU$187 worth of gold looks like!  Yep, it looks pretty piddly – especially when you consider that it’s only 0.3mm thick (0.1″ or around the same as 30 gauge wire).

Of course everyone who knows a thing or two about precious metal prices is wishing that they’d stocked up on kilograms of the stuff a few years back!  Although some people will tell you that those reading this post a year or so in the future will most likely wonder why we didn’t buy it in bulk right now – many people think that the prices are going to get much higher again than they are already.

Ouch.  OUCH!!

Anyway, I just felt the need to have a little whine about that!  And buyers of jewellery and other precious metal objects should feel free to whine too as of course ultimately they are now paying more too.

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