Posts tagged ‘jewelry’

Tumbling away

I spent some time at my bench this weekend making some jewellery for one of my consignment outlets along with for my own stocks. And the results of my labour all needed to be tumbled in steel shot to become bright and shiny.

Handmade jewellery fresh from my new tumbler.
A batch of handmade jewellery fresh from my new tumbler.

Recently I purchased a sparkly new Lorotone tumbler to replace the wonderful but now old and slightly decrepit tumbler my Dad made for me years ago using bits from his shed).

It’s taking me a while to get used to the ways of my new tumbler. Because I’d used my old (and rather eccentric!) one for such a long time I knew exactly how much shot, water and tumbling compound it needed and exactly how long my work needed to be tumbled to get the result I wanted.

Of course my new tumbler is different and it will take me some experimenting to get those things right.

It’s been making me think about how very familiar we all become with the tools and equipment we use extensively. Changing those things can be a bit disorientating at times. But of course change can be a good thing!

New sale items & a reader bonus

Forget-me-not necklace with red silk.I’ve just added some new handmade jewellery to my sale section, including this forget-me-not necklace. Plus I’ve further discounted some older pieces already on sale.

Everything in the sale section is being retired from my range – something I need to do from time to time to make the range more manageable. So once they’re gone, they’re gone!

As an added bonus for blog readers, if you purchase anything in my shop, use the code extra1 when you checkout to get a 15% discount – including on items already on sale. This discount will expire on 27 March 2009.

This is valid in both my Australian jewellery shop and international (US$) jewellery shop.

Gosh, is that the time!?

A succulent from the garden in Port Broughton. I can hardly believe that we’re already half way through January 2009! I think somebody needs to invent something which makes the world slow down a bit.

As for what I’m doing with my new year, well this time of year is usually when I try to regroup – I rest up to recover from the frantic Christmas selling season, start making plans for the rest of the new year and generally try to sort my life out a bit.

This year is a little bit different as I also have two freelance web projects to complete over the next few weeks, so those projects have been taking up a fair bit of brain space, not to mention time. It will be good to have them done.

However, I am also working on personal things, most notably going through every drawer and cupboard in my home (there are a lot of them and they’re all jam-packed!). Everything is being taken out and re-organised – and I’m being ruthless in terms of what gets thrown away, with anything still useable being set aside to be donated to charity.

This is with a view to moving over the next few months – and wanting to avoid taking too much excess ‘stuff’ with me when I do. My plan is to have a go at living in the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney. I have a hankering to live in an actual house with a garden and space to have visitors. I also want to be in a place where there are lovely walks to go on (my current situation in suburbia is hardly inspiring in that regard!). Doing any of this within Sydney isn’t really an option for me.

I’m not positive that the Mountains will be where I will stay, but I have incredibly itchy feet and I figure I may as well give it a go. And maybe one day I’ll finally manage to figure out where ‘home’ is for me!

In addition, I’m also making plans to buy a shiny new car. I’ve managed to get by without a car for around 14 years now, having always lived in places where it hasn’t been essential to own one. However, over the last few years I’ve been a bit further from the city and it has been a pain not having a car. Also if I’m to move out of the city entirely, I really have no option but to get one. But it will be a teensy one and I still hope to live close enough to shops and cafes that I can walk to them as much as possible.

In terms of jewellery, I’ve been taking a break from making work having completely worn myself out closer to Christmas. However, in the next few days I need to get back to my bench to start catching up on stock, particularly with Valentine’s Day looming.

So that is where my life is up to! I hope all of you are having a good new year so far.

A new shop for Australian & NZ customers with AU$ prices

Cameo earrings by Simone Walsh. To ease the pain of the very sudden and severe decline in value of the AU$, I’ve today set up a brand new handmade jewellery shop just for Australian and NZ customers.

This shop is identical to my main shop, but it features a fixed pricelist in Australian dollars (meaning it won’t constantly fluctuate as the exchange rate changes). Prices are based on my original US$ pricelist, but have been calculated at a currently much more favourable exchange rate.

Another benefit is that Australian customers can pay in their own currency and not risk attracting fees from their bank for currency conversion – yay!

An opening discount!

To celebrate the opening of my Australian shop, I’m offering a 10% discount on all purchases through this shop. Just enter the code aud when you checkout to receive your discount. This code will expire on Tuesday 4 November 2008, so get in quick!

More about the new shop

Not only will this stop Australian and NZ customers from being penalised by the current situation, but it also helps me to better organise my business locally. And of course customers elsewhere are still paying the exact same US$ prices as before. So it’s all good!

Note that only orders being delivered to either Australia or New Zealand can be purchased through this shop.

Customers from other countries will need to make their purchases through my original handmade jewelry shop, where deliveries can be made to anywhere in the world.

Learn more about the two shops and the reasoning behind them.

Note that links I provide to products or to my shop from this blog will most often go to my main shop rather than the Australian shop. However, Australian and New Zealand customers can easily go to the Australian shop by clicking on the Australian flag icon near the top of the content on each page in my main shop.

So, to make it clear, the two shops are:

Exploring my inner scientist

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

Patination tests on sterling silver, gilding metal and shibuichi.
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.

Patination tests on sterling silver, gilding metal and shibuichi - another view.

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.

Roses & poppies: now for sale

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.

Win a voucher for my handmade jewelry

Detail of damask pendant by Simone Walsh.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!

Why yes, I am still alive!

Butterfly wing pendant by Simone Walsh. 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.

A couple of rings

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.

The pain of precious metal

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.

Sneak peek at some new handmade jewelry

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.

Partially finished handmade jewelry by Simone Walsh
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.

Join my mailing list!

I confess that I’ve been a bit slow to set up an email list for my business, but it was one of the jobs I managed to complete when I redesigned my website recently. I plan to use this mailing list sparingly, but will let subscribers know about new work, subscriber specials and any major developments for my handmade jewellery shop and business in general.

You can sign up on the home page for my website at www.simonewalsh.com (the form is on the right-hand sidebar).

I’m using a professional service to manage the list, so your details will most definitely be kept private and of course you will be able to unsubscribe if you wish. And I promise not to be spammy!

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