Tools and finishes.

I love getting new tools to play with.

Recently I invested in some new polishes to give my jewellery an extra high shine finish with (hopefully) a little less mess than the standard rouge polish I normally use.

I got the luxi range (mainly because they were doing a starter pack on Cookson) and I'm so glad I did; they are great to use. Because they are water soluble, they clean up so much more easily than rouge. Definitely one to continue using!

But just as exciting as the ridiculously shiny shine appearing on lots of my goodies, is the satin finish i'm playing with too.

There's something very lovely about the soft matt shine you can achieve on silver, that satin finish. In the past I've used a very fine sandpaper or wire wool to put the sheen on the metal. But I splashed out on a couple of fancy tools for my pendant motor, and am loving the finish that I'm able to achieve. A scotchbrite attachment is great for a very subtle effect, but I've found the finish isn't particularly hardy. The other option is a flick wheel....

It sounds a bit violent, looks a bit scary and is also pretty expensive, so I've put off buying one for a while, but I'm glad I made the investment.

(high shine finish - initial pendant)

(satin finish initial pendant)

What finish do you prefer? I think I'm still undecided.

Fave tools.... my third hand

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

One of my all time favourite tools apart from my tumbler.... is my third hand.

The problem with soldering is that in my left hand I hold my torch, in my right hand I generally have tweezers holding solder wire, or a solder pick ready to assist the solder in going where I want it to go, and then I still need to hold in place the bit of silver I'm soldering (often an earwire or something which needs to be in just the right place). 

That's where my handy little third hand comes in. This special pair of tweezers in a on a ball joint in a stand. 

I just wish I really did have another hand, or even another pair of hands. That'd make life a bit easier for everything, not just soldering - even if finding tops to fit would be tricky.