Tutorials by K S Jewellery Designs

Tutorials by K S Jewellery Designs
(Click on the pictures for more details)

Saturday 23 August 2014

*** BARGAIN OFFER FOR TEN CUSTOMERS ONLY ***

*** BARGAIN OFFER FOR TEN CUSTOMERS ONLY ***

http://ksjewellerydesigns.co.uk/ourshop/prod_3480887--BARGAIN-10-customers-only-ALL-12-TUTORIALS-FOR-12-save-24.html

To celebrate having a wirework tutorial published in Making Jewellery magazine this month, I am offering 10 customers the chance to buy all 12 of my wirework tutorials at a BARGAIN PRICE of only £12 (normal price of a tutorial is £3 each which means a huge saving of £24 if you were to buy them individually!).

Follow this link for the offer... http://ksjewellerydesigns.co.uk/ourshop/prod_3480887--BARGAIN-10-customers-only-ALL-12-TUTORIALS-FOR-12-save-24.html

Friday 22 August 2014

I've been published!

I've been published.... in Making Jewellery magazine (September issue 71).  I've written a short tutorial entitled 'Falling Leaves' which shows you how to make leaf themed jewellery (earrings, necklace and pendant).


It was a lovely thing to be asked to do this but I did worry about being limited to only 9 photos!  For those of you who know my wirework tutorials, I like to include lots of photos as I think 'learning by seeing' goes a long way to helping 'learning by doing'. 

As a side note... I personally am not very good at just 'learning by listening or reading'... my mind just wanders away and I find I've missed some of the facts. Like when someone gives you directions.  After they've said 'Take the first left and go right at the lights', I've already forgotten the first instruction.  However, give me a map or a drawing and I'm a happy girl!



Anyway, back to my tutorial, I spent a long time selecting the 9 photos I thought would help the reader understand how to make the designs.  I was also restricted to a word limit per step which was also a challenge.

Here's the final pieces I made whilst creating the tutorial.  I used sterling silver wire and beautiful green kyanite beads:





N.B. Check out page 44 too as the very talented Tracy Smith of Cinnamon Jewellery has written a fab tutorial on how to torch enamel copper.  You can read her blog post about it here: http://cinnamonjewellery.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/my-first-torch-enamel-project-in-making.html

Monday 18 August 2014

Pebble Framed Jewellery

I have been working on a new flower design and co-ordinating rings by framing gemstones in little silver balls.  This has certainly been a technique that I found needed practice but I think I'm getting there!

Rainbow Moonstone Pebble Blossom Pendant

My first couple of attempts were really frustrating, as when I placed the little silver balls (handmade from scraps of silver wire and sheet) around the bezel soldered onto a circle of silver sheet, I would get to a certain amount of balls and couldn't seem to place any more without others falling off.  I felt a bit like a rubbish sheep herder whose sheep keep running around the place instead of in the pen!

I also discovered that it is important not to have the balls too big or it's really difficult to set the stone... you can imagine at what point I found that out!  Oh well, 'you live and learn' is my motto at the moment and I am loving this journey and can't expect to get everything right first time.

Next time I tried sanding the bottom of all the little balls to make them have a flat area to sit on and to make them a little shorter around the bezel.  This was very fiddly and time consuming.  However, this didn't really make any difference to the little balls slipping off as more got added around the bezel.  Grrrrr......

I then discovered if I fluxed around the bezel before placing the balls, that the flux held the balls in place.  Yay!  The only downside to this is that when I heated up the bezel and balls, the flux bubbled and expanded and I spent quite a lot of time replacing and repositioning the balls.

Rainbow Moonstone Pebble Frame Ring

This final method has been the most reliable and, with some patience and careful handling of the heat of my torch, I have had success.

I have been pondering variations of this design and here is another Pebble Blossom pendant I made today where I filed and sanded down the little balls for a 'flattened' finish.  I really like this effect.

Amethyst Pebble Blossom Pendant