A Gorgeous New Ring

I loved doing this special commission that was the birthday present for a beautiful girl from her mum.  It is hand forged sterling silver, with a tube-set green sapphire.  Difficult to tell from this picture but the ring was v-shaped at the shoulders to show off more of the stone.  Gorgeous and sparkly.

Seasonal Update

The tree is up at home - thanks to a very eager 3 year old.  Nothing to do with her mum, hoho no.  The shop is still getting stocked up, and I'm so pleased that the orders are pouring in!   A very happy first shop Christmas.  I'm delighted to have been asked to make several custom items...

A guitar pick in fine silver with initials:

Some sapphire raindrop pendants again in fine silver: 

and several others that I must keep under wraps, I'm told.  But I did promise an update on the handprint cufflinks that I made recently, and I hear that they got the oohs and the ahhs that they deserved.

Demantoid Garnet

OK, I am now well and truly speechless.  I thought I knew what my favourite stones were, and could just get on with setting them into lovely pieces of jewellery, and along comes this baby and throws my mental list of plans into disarray:

Demantoid garnet.  A little gem rarity - diamond-like (demantoid, ta-da!) sparkles dance as you move, and it is such a joyful green that it can't help but make you smile.    The picture really does not do it justice.   I have big plans for you little green garnet.  Oh I do.

Shop's Open!

The shop is finally here!!   Click, click, click now!!

I'm pretty proud of this shop, seeing as I have done e-v-e-r-y-thing myself, from the websites (including some crazy coding), the photos, the making - and all this with a still-busy home life and knowing that this time last year I could not have guessed if I'd had a million tries what I would be doing now.   Sure there have been compromises.  Some of the ranges I really really want to be in the shop have to wait a little bit because I want to get them just right.  I'm still learning.   And if I'm not entirely happy with a piece, I cannot bring myself to sell it. This past year has brought me more failed attempts and scrap pots full of precious casualties than I can bring myself to admit.  Maybe I should have listened to the people that used to say "practise on copper!"...  So I have brought back some assembled pieces and have sourced some beautiful pendants and charms, and will continue to practice late into the night so I can bring all those ideas to the shop in the coming weeks.

Make sure you visit, and let me know what you think.   And with Christmas just around the corner, I'm sure there will be plenty to inspire some thoughtful gifting!

Jasmin x

Coming Up For Air

It feels like I have been away from my online world forever - you must really excuse me, I have been locked in a cave working on many new pieces - want a sneak preview?

Shop opening soon - stay tuned!

Work in progress

A special order for a very lucky grandad:

I'll show you the finished product when they have been approved by the two willing helpers!

In case you could not tell, they will be a pair of cufflinks with the grandchildren's actual handprint embedded into fine silver.   Ok, actual handprint is a bit of an exaggeration - I follow a process to make their actual handprints into a miniature stamp which can then be pressed into the soft clay.   Clay?!   Indeedy.  If it does not look like silver (let alone 'fine') in the photo, it is only because this is Art Clay Silver, a soft, mouldable material that needs to be fired so that the binder and the water holding on to the silver particles can burn away and those lovely silver particles can sinter to produce a solid silver piece.    It's [almost] magic!

I've flown!

This is one momentuous week.  This is the week that I have given up my job to concentrate on my jewellery work.  This is the week that hopefully, will imprint itself on my memory as THE professional turning point.  This is the week that will also be remembered as one of the most exciting, scariest and busiest ever. 

And it is also a little bit of a sad week, so many goodbyes to so many lovely people...