Jewelry in Britain at the turn of the century differed from the French because it was more backward-looking and still owed much to the Arts and Crafts. The British decorative motifs featured primeval figures and floral tributes combined with interlace patterns of Celtic origin. These pieces were made in finely crafted silver enriched with polished [...]
Read the rest of Art Nouveau Jewelry in Britain
Making badges and brooches out of clay is slightly more difficult than the basic techniques used for making beads. However, by using simple modelling techniques anything from strikingly modern designs to more traditionally elegant pieces can be made.
To make the Jewelry Badges
First find your motif. For first projects it is better to stick to simple [...]
Read the rest of Jewelry made of Clay: Beautiful Badges and Brooches
Whereas some costume jewellers of the late 20th century are happy to exploit artificial materials to create a contrived and sophisticated look, the dawn of a growing awareness of the value of natural products — like wood, paper and leather – means that strong references to all that is natural are now influential too.
Inseparable from [...]
Read the rest of Jewellery Designing Sources continue…
Flowers make ideal subjects for clay jewelry. Their delicate and fragile structure can, with a little practice, be fashioned into delicate pieces to be fitted onto brooch mounts or on a smaller scale onto ear-ring or ring mounts. Make them to match fashion’s romantic mood of the moment and to complement your prettiest clothes.
The rose [...]
Read the rest of Modelling flowers
Is an art in and of itself. The right pieces are a terrific fashion investment and will live in your wardrobe forever. Cheap and glitzy or real and elegant, the right piece can pull together your entire look.
Golden oldies, fabulous fakes can be inexpensive and just plain great! Big, bold pins, wild, dangling earrings, colorful [...]
Read the rest of Hunting for Jewelry
To fix a jump ring
When your stone is firmly secured to its bell cap and the glue has thoroughly dried, open wide a suitable jump ring by twisting both ends of the ring sideways with two pairs of jewelry pliers. Now hook one end of the ring through the eyelet of the bell cap and, [...]
Read the rest of Findings for tumbled stones part 2
Plastic is a lightweight material that comes in an exciting variety of forms and colours and is very easily worked. It is often considered solely as a substitute for materials such as glass, wood or metal but, in fact, it has properties that make it totally unique as a crafts material.
It is made up from [...]
Read the rest of Plastic Jewellery
Spacers
Shell jewelry often looks better when the shells are separated by spacers, which can be turned ivory, wooden beads, nuts or seeds, or mother-of-pearl.
Pieces of mother-of-pearl (see below) can be turned on a lathe or made by cutting oblongs of pearl shell 2.5cm (lin) long by 6mm (tin) wide.
Make up two square wooden boards, about [...]
Read the rest of Shell jewelry continue…
Gold is a beautiful metal to work with. It has a special quality and really comes alive as it is bent, stretched and moulded into shape. Golds above 14 carat are both malleable and resiliant, and the quality of colour makes them unsurpassable.
Pure gold, like pure silver, is generally too soft to use for any [...]
Read the rest of Working with Gold
