This week I’ve been undertaking a series of experiments to attempt to create a variety of colours on a variety of metals.

Patination experiments

This has involved using various chemicals, stamping my experiments so I know which is which later, taking copious notes as I work and using Top Secret (!) recipes which take anywhere from three seconds to two or more days to get the desired results. It really has made me feel ever so slightly like a scientist!

I still have some more experimenting and testing to do, but so far I’ve had some interesting results, as you can see above.

In my experiments I’ve been using a variety of chemical recipes to try to achieve a wide variety of colours on a few different alloys, including sterling silver, gilding metal and shibuichi. I’ve also been testing the finishes to see how well they will survive general wear and even being coated to help preserve them.

So what’s this all for? Well it’s a start on the new range of work I plan to have completed in a couple of months and which will be sold in my handmade jewelry shop. I’m using my trip to Ubud in Bali as inspiration and really want to bring some more colour into the work to reflect the vibrant nature of the place. I’ve also wanted to start using some different metals in my production work, so this is a good excuse to test the ways in which they can be used as far as patination goes.

I’ll write more about the development of this range as I move ahead with it. For now, you can see some of the photographs I took during my trip on Flickr: here, here and here.

Rose pendant

Most of the making work I do for my business is what I’d term ‘production work’ - creating items which are not one-off designs and which are intended to sell and be worn by my customers.

Back when I was a student I used to see production work as a necessary evil - or at least a necessary not-so-interesting thing to do. My intention was always for my production work to help fund my other ‘more interesting’ work. It was a way to bring in some income by doing what I love, even though the work itself I didn’t think was as engaging as the one-off jewellery and object artworks I created which were far less likely to find a market and were much more about exploring ideas.

But things have changed, particularly in the last couple of years. I’ve come to realise that I now really love the process of creating production pieces to sell in my jewellery shop and elsewhere - both re-making designs, along with the process of developing with new designs which are intended to sell.

I think in part this is to do with coming to even more fully appreciate the actual process of making jewellery at least as much as completing something that I feel pleased with.

I’ve written before about how in recent years I’ve started to particularly love the process of saw-piercing metal, which is just one example of the fact that I now find a great deal of enjoyment in undertaking and perfecting these sorts of processes, even when it comes to creating the same design or components over and over - although of course in the world of the handmade, no piece is ever really identical to another.

Additionally I’m also developing even more of an appreciation of the materials that I work with, of course this means silver in particular, but I’m keen to expand into using other materials more regularly as part of my production work.

There is also a challenge in creating pieces which are mostly intended to be worn as every day items and which aren’t too complex to re-create, particularly given that selling online means that pieces need to fairly closely resemble those I’ve photographed previously. This sets up a particular set of design issues to resolve for each new idea I develop. And of course I have to actually like the designs myself, which adds another dimension to the process!

These days I rarely have the time to devote to one-off conceptual pieces for exhibitions - or even just for my own benefit as I explore an idea. I do definitely miss being able to do this as much as I would like to, but at this stage that’s outweighed by my newly discovered love of the process of making and developing production work.

I’m sure this is all helped by the fact that I’m now able to spend a chunk of my working life doing something that I love and also that this work is now a very major part of me making ends meet. That’s definitely something to be happy about!

But of course there are times when production work can be a bit more of a trial. I often find this to be the case after I’ve come up with a new series of pieces to put into production. I’ll finish the design process with one of each new piece made and lurking in my mind is the thought that I’ve completed the process … and isn’t that great! Except of course that’s just the start.

Each piece needs to have numerous photographs taken of it - which always takes longer and is harder work than expected - which all then need to be organised and edited. Each piece needs to be priced properly, which can sometimes be an agonising process. Then descriptions need to be written and the pieces need to be listed in various online outlets. All of this takes a considerable amount of time.

And then straight away the process of production work needs to start all over again - I need to make multiples for my own stocks and I generally need to make more for any bricks and mortar outlets I think the pieces are suited to. This means that I often need to make quite a number of a particular design at this stage, which does sometimes get a bit frustrating and exhausting, especially when - as in the pieces photographed above - the pieces all require very similar components to be made repeatedly in order to complete them.

On the day I took the image above I would have been happy to never need to make one of these little cup shapes again! Each one needed to be punched out of metal, beaten with different hammers to build up the right texture, annealed, drilled, domed and then the edges needed to be softened - and that’s before any of them were put together to form an actual piece of jewellery.

But I’ve recovered from that now and have been enjoying the process of re-making those same pieces as required - just not in the same quantity all at once!

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Sign up to my mailing list in the month of April and you’ll be in the running to win a US$50 voucher to spend in my handmade jewelry shop!

I’ll be randomly drawing a name from the list of subscribers on 1 May 2008 and will announce the winner right here.

By the way, I definitely will respect your privacy and promise not to be spammy! And you will be able to easily unsubscribe from my list.

So run off and subscribe now!

Before I take myself off to bed I wanted to let you know that I am alive and (kind of!) well.

I’ve been working hard on all sorts of things, including a web project which has eaten up vast amounts of time over the last month.

Plus I came very close in the last several weeks to packing my whole life up and moving it to another city … only to realise that right now simply isn’t a good time to be going anywhere for complicated economic reasons.

So that I can help myself to feel okay about staying put, I have also managed to do some sorely needed re-arranging at home. In particular I wanted to have far more functional working spaces, seeing as I work entirely from home. I’ve found spending so much of my life working in one little and very cramped room isn’t really doing me much good.

I’ve now successfully separated my office from my jewellery studio by moving the office into the lounge room … which probably doesn’t sound like I’m heading for a more balanced life as I’ve been intending!

However, so far it’s working really well and surprisingly the lounge room - which previously had a lot of wasted space - actually looks better for it. Plus I’m finding it great to leave my work on my desk and go and sit on the couch in the other part of the room if I want to take a break, rather than taking work with me to the couch as I have in the past! It’s making me feel more functional and now that my little workroom/studio is vastly less crowded, I can easily open the curtains and window and that makes working a lot more pleasant too.

As part of changing and reorganising things, I’ve also painted some furniture, bought new cushion covers and art for the walls and in all home is looking more homelike. Although there is a lot more of that sort of thing to do and I also have to organise for a painter to come in to repair and paint the walls, which unfortunately are worst of all in my jewellery studio. I see a messy and irritating few days in my future …

Anyway, I hope to have some photographs of my new working spaces once I have everything finished. If you’re interested in seeing my bench and workroom as it has been in the past, you can find some images on Flickr.

In other news, I will soon be taking some time out from other projects to get to work on a new range of handmade jewelry that I have had bubbling away in my mind and have been idly sketching in my notebooks for ages now. I’m really looking forward to sitting in my revamped space and getting to work on some brand new pieces. So keep your eyes peeled!

And now it’s goodnight from me … and goodnight from … me.

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!

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!

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.

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.

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

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!

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.

Yes, Christmas is almost upon us! And things are rather overwhelming at Simone Walsh Central (aka my place!). But I thought I’d take a quick break to fill you in on shipping deadlines and more re my handmade jewellery shop over the next couple of weeks.

Shipping

Orders outside of Australia: The earlier the shop, the more guarantee you have that items will arrive before Christmas. However, if you order by 14 December then you should be fine in terms of delivery. After that date, orders may well still arrive, but you will be pushing your luck!

Orders within Australia: You will be fine to order up until 20 December for delivery within Australia. However, from 17 December at the latest you should select Express Post to ensure your items arrive on time.

Find out more about shipping.

Gift certificates

If you do run out of time or you’re really not sure what to get someone, I now have gift certificates available in various amounts.

If you purchase a gift certificate I will email it to you as a PDF that you can print out in either colour or black and white to give to the recipient - so you can buy them as late as you wish.