September's birthstone - Sapphire

Well September might be just about over, but there's still time for me to sneak in a little post about one of my favourite birthstones.

September's birthstone is sapphire. I did a little post about sapphire, back in 2013 - when I hardly had any sapphire goodies to show you. Well, in the last two years I've incorporated a load of them into my range....here are some of my favourites. (Click on the links for some more information!)

Sapphire studs 

Sapphire trillion ring

I think this is one of my all time favourite rings that I've made.

I use lab created sapphires in most of my designs as sapphire is a precious, rather than semi-precious stone and therefore a lot more pricey than other gemstones. Lab created sapphires have all the same chemical and structural properties as "real" mined sapphires, but they are made in a laboratory environment rather than over eons beneath the earth. As such they're more reasonably priced, and near perfect in colour and composition.

Check out the rest of the sapphire jewellery in my range.

I found some other lovely handmade goodies on the September theme... (click on the pictures to go through to the shops!).

Sapphire journal by BOUND on Folksy

I do have a bit of an obsession with notebooks, and this one is rather lovely.

Congratulations Card by Angela Chick on Folksy

How could I not love this card? Perfect. 

Moonlight hedgehog birdbath by Jo Sara on Folksy

I love this birdbath too - such brilliant work. And those gorgeous blues are just wonderful.

Challenges for July

Well, it's half way through the year... all my New Year Resolutions are long forgotten. 'Bout time I made some new ones.

First up I saw this Green Smoothie challenge... and thought - yeah why not. I do like a smoothie. And I find all these healthy, beautiful, beaming Americans quite entertaining so I signed up. I wonder if here are any UK based sites like this. I can't imagine I'd be so willing to sign up without the American-ness.

Anyway, day 1 went..... ahem..... a little badly. My food processor wasn't that keen on the frozen spinach I threw in and decided to spit it all out. Really. All over the kitchen. Maybe the lid wasn't on that tight either. Hmmm.

Day two is a lot better though. Today I tried a blueberry concoction that I'm supping as I type which  is very tasty (oh and fresh spinach from the garden this time).

The second of the challenges is to list one new item daily.

Every. Single. Day.

Aaaah.

I've signed up to a little listing club on Folksy in order to make myself feel bad if I don't list. Sadly the other "July Lions" are quite a friendly bunch and I doubt they'll tell me off too much. But now at least I don't want to let them down.

It will be very good to get some new stock made and listed before the summer holidays. Because you know what comes around pretty quickly after the summer holidays. And if you don't know I'm SO not telling you, but you can click here to find out if you really have to. (sorry)

I'd love to hear any half year resolutions, or challenges you're doing!

The story of a ring (part 2)

Setting the stone.

The first part of making a ring was all about the ring shank, once that's done it's time to get the setting for the stone made and soldered onto the shank, and then set the stone.

In the first part I was showing you some rings I was making for Trudi, but then I forgot to take the photos of the setting part - DOH!

So here's a little london blue topaz ring I made for Cheryl. It's a square stone cabochon cut (called a cushion cut) - which means it's flat at the bottom and this one is facetted on top. This is one of my fave stones, so I've got one for me to keep too!

First of all, the bezel wire, which is fine silver needs to be measured out. It's soft and pliable so I usually just wrap it around the stone and make a mark, and cut it to size. Nothing too complicated or mathematical.

Then I make sure the bezel wire fits together nicely, file the edges to give it a nice straight line and solder it together. 

(Do you know how tricky it is to take a photo of yourself soldering!! Must get an assistant next time!)

Then I check that the bezel wire is still a good fit for the stone, by fitting the stone into it. This also helps make sure the shape is correct before I cut out the base of sheet silver and solder the bezel wire to it.

 (Here's the sheet of silver that I'm using for the base)

(And all soldered into place!)

As you can see the silver base sticks out a bit, so at the point I'll saw, or file it off (depending on how much there is). This extra silver goes into a little tub I have and will be recycled - often into little silver balls to add to designs. 

For this setting I then cut the height of the bezel wire down to the right size. It needs to be high enough to keep the stone in securely, but low enough to show off the stone and look good. This can be fiddly! I measure using my digital callipers, and scribe a line in the correct place, then saw it off. Sometimes I'll cut the wire as the first stage - I've no idea which is the right way to do it!

Once it's cut to size, the edges need to be filed nice and smooth. Then it's time to solder onto the ring shank. 

I file the shank a little in the place that the setting will sit to make sure there's a good fit between the two..

Then there's some pickling and cleaning up to be done. It's at this stage that all of the polishing should be done. I often use different grades of sanding paper, or rouge (which is a polishing compound). I've just bought some new polishing compounds that I might switch to in the future. 

Then finally, I get to set the stone. The stone is pushed gently into place - it should be nice and snug. And then I use a bezel rocker to push the bezel wire over the stone to keep it in place. I finish by using smoothing the edges of the wire down. And it's all done. One stone set ring.

A bit of a disclaimer... I'm self taught and I'm definitely not saying that this is the correct way to do it. It's just the way I do it. And I know lots of you are interested in how things are made, so thought this might be of interest. The whole ring from start to finish can take hours and hours to make; as you can see there are lots of fiddly stages and things don't always go to plan! 

The story of a ring....

(or three).

I know lots of you like to see my work in progress; I always loving seeing other people's WIP - how things come together is fascinating. And it's especially nice to see when the work in progress is destined for you; so this one is for you Trudi.

First of all, I measure out the wire I need for each ring, to the millimetre, using my digital calipers.

The wire is shaped into a rough ring shape, and where the two ends of the wire meets I file and sand to make a perfect fit. It takes a little time to ensure that the ring ends meets together snugly and smoothly. These joins are then covered with flux (a liquid which helps the solder to flow), and rings are then soldered in place.

(I didn't mean to make it look like a suprised ring face - honest!)

The rings then go in a pickle pot - a chemical which takes off the heat markings and cleans up the silver. I use an eco-friendly pickle. After ten minutes in this, and a good rinse and clean, the silver is nice and silver again. The rings are then placed on a mandrel and each hammered into a perfect circle.

Then I double check the size - (fingers crossed - phew R1/2 as planned)... and have to saw through the join, remove some of the wire and repeat the process above if it's too big. Luckily thanks to a bit of careful measuring at the start - the size is usually okay.

At this point I usually have a look at the soldered joins, and clear up any messy bits! Thankfully more often than not these days, I tend to use the right amount of solder and don't have too much excess to file away (which takes aaaaages to files, and sand back down to a nice finish). But it hasn't always been the case, and I still do have those days! 

Then we get to the fun bit... adding the settings......(look out for part two coming soon....)

Blogging and birthstones.

I was so excited to be in print this week. And I mean really excited. As in, having to stop myself showing the cashier at WHSmiths.

I was interviewed by Make and Sell Jewellery, about blogging for their March issue (available now from all good magazine shops). It's definitely worth a read for all bloggers, not just for my bit obviously; there were lots of top tips for jewellery designers or other small businesses. So a big hello to anyone who's popped along to this blog after reading their feature. Do say hello back in the comments.

Meanwhile, once I stopped beaming about my 5 minutes of fame (hopefully another 10 minutes to come someday) I got to work on more stacking birthstone rings... lots of new cabochons arrived ready for setting..

pearl, peridot, garnet, and sky blue topaz stones for setting

and here are some of the finished rings...

ready for photographing and popping onto the website. Hopefully next week!

It's oh so quiet...

Wow, it's quiet around here today.

The dog seems a little depressed too.

But at about 3.25pm it'll all go crazy again. I can't wait to hear all about their days, and how incredibly different Year 4 and Year 2 are to last year. No really. It's so much harder.

In the meantime I've been keeping busy, I've finished these bold brass beauties off.. how shimmery are they!?

And I'm making another of those lovely garnet rings... (nearly finished!)

Also, big thanks so much to everyone who entered, and spread the word about the blog end of summer giveaway. What a phenomenal response.

The winner is Sarah Louise Gray.

Sarah, drop me a line at hello@beckypearcedesigns.co.uk and I'll let you have your prize.

Hope all the other kids (and of course, teachers) out there have had a good return to school.

September birthstone - Sapphire

A maiden born when autumn leaves
Are rustling in September's breeze, 

A Sapphire on her brow should bind; 
To bring her joy and peace of mind.

The birthstone for September is Sapphire.  And the most famous of sapphires is known as the Princess Diana ring after .... well I'm sure you can figure that out. It's now worn by the Duchess of Cambridge. Not really my usual style if I'm honest, but I wouldn't say no. 

Did you know that sapphires come in all sorts of colours, ranging from clear to brown (except red - that is the closely related Ruby!). The most popular colour however, is that lovely, deep cornflower blue that we all think of when we think of a sapphire. One of the hardest gemstones next to diamond, the sapphire is perfect for use in jewellery. 

Sadly my sapphire jewellery isn't in the shop yet (school summer holidays put pay to that.. but I'll edit this post later in the month with some additions) But in the meantime I do have some sapphire blue crystal jewellery which is a beautiful alternative.

Enjoy!