Roses & poppies: now for sale

12 April 2008 by Simone

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 by Simone

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 by Simone

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 by Simone

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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