Picasso Marble Polished Pebbles (photo credit Blue Apple)
Picasso Marble was created about 100 million years ago when magma pushed its way through fields of limestone, creating colours and patterns which are similar in appearance to Picasso’s art (hence the name). Most Picasso Marble comes from Utah, USA.
Picasso Marble Rough (photo credit Great Rough)
Picasso marble is believed to strengthen self-control, clarity and stablilty; give total recall of dreams and assist in meditation. It apparently helps expand the mind, and aids in the manifestation of physical and material goals. It is believed to help to heal viral infection.
A big congratulations to the lucky winners of The Silver Forge’s first birthday earring giveaway! I’m very glad to announce that Debbie and Rachel were randomly selected to each receive a pair of Silver Forge earrings of their choice.
Debbie chose these:
and Rachel chose these!
Thank you so much to everyone who participated. If you missed out, and you’d still like to get yourself a pair or two, as a valued Silver Forge Blog reader I’d like to offer you an exclusive 20% discount until the 31st May. Head over to the earring section to shop to your heart’s content, and just use HBBLOG20 at checkout. If you’d rather visit my shop on MadeIt or Etsy, let me know and I’ll arrange a 20% discount for you there!
Don’t forget that subscribers to The Silver Forge Newsletter are automatically entered into a draw to win a pair of earrings each month, too! If you haven’t already, you can join the fun here.
Here’s to another peaceful, happy, fulfilling, successful year for us all!
My fascination with constructions in Brisbane continues! Not far from our house, and in the grounds of Flipside where my younger son and I go to learn circus skills, this divine brick chimney is all that is left of the brickworks which stood in Newmarket from 1912 to 1987. As a rare example of a load bearing chimney stack, it was allowed to survive when the Brisbane Brick Company was demolished, and is now heritage listed.
The chimney stands 50 metres tall, and when you look at it now, you can see where the opening to it has been bricked in. It is a remnant of an industry which struggled to survive in a timber-dominated building market. The brickworks was originally set up by a frustrated group of builders and architects who were unable to find good quality bricks nearby. It used the Hoffman kiln method of brick making. (If you’re interested to read more, there is a fabulous blog post on the history of Brisbane bricks here.)
(photo credit Trevor Bunning)
Mr Anderson, former Manager of Newmarket Brickworks, was the works foreman for the construction of St Andrew’s Church in Brisbane (pictured above), and he sourced the bricks from his old firm. The brickworks also supplied brick to the University of Queensland. During the war it was occupied by the Defence Force to make uniforms and other army equipment.
There are brickmakers in the distant past of my husband’s family, pioneers who came from England to Adelaide in the 1800s, and as I researched them I could only imagine what hard and yet satisfying work it must have been! I had given thought to bricklayers, but not to the people (and methods) that created the bricks themselves.
My photo doesn’t really do this beautiful chimney justice; it is a magnificent creation, built the way things used to be, with much care and attention to aesthetic detail. It was part of my inspiration for this ring, and the one below. I fell in love with this chimney the first time I laid eyes on it, although I had no idea what it was at the time, and still each time I see it it gladdens my heart.
Who can believe a whole year has gone by since I opened my little shop? Not me! I’ve been having such a great time – it is blissful to create silver jewellery; and to bring joy to others with my creations is an absolutely wonderful thing, and is the icing on this delicious cake.
As well as creating pieces for my lovely bespoke customers, and to stock my online shop, (and making the occasional piece for myself!) I am proud to have supported a number of worthy causes this year. I believe that helping the world in whatever small way we can is just plain good karma. Do you have a cause that is special to you? I’d love to know about it! Let me know in the comments below.
To say a big “THANK YOU!” to all you lovely people for your ongoing support, I am offering 20% off everything in The Silver Forge Shop until 27 May. Do have a little browse, won’t you!
As part of the celebrations, I am also giving away two pairs of earrings to two lucky winners. If you have a browse through the earring section of my shop, come back here and make a comment letting me know which are your favourite pair to the value of $30, you’ll be entered in the draw at the end of the week. If you’ve liked my Facebook Page as well, you’ll get a second entry!
A great big thank you for all of your kind words, Blog comments, Etsy treasuries, Facebook likes, re-Tweets, Newsletter clicks, Pinterest repins, purchases, worthy cause donations, and all the other forms of love and support you’ve shown over the last year! Happy days to you all. xx
A huge thank you to everyone who entered the earring giveaway. Thank you all so much for your good wishes, and your good taste! The winners were announced here.
When I first started silversmithing, I hadn’t made the connection, but I came to realise that I had become part of a family tradition of shaping metal with hammers and fire. There have been smiths in my family since the 1830s. My great-grandfather, great-great-uncle, and great-great-great-grandfather were all village blacksmiths in tiny villages in Kent and Sussex, England.
Great-Great-Uncle Bill Horton working in the forge c 1900 – Brede, Sussex, England
My grandmother, who is now 97, remembers her dad working at his forge first in Guestling Thorne, then in Icklesham, Sussex, making horseshoes and farming implements. He made the gates for Rambledown House in West Chiltington, West Sussex, where my Great-Auntie worked, which I believe may still be there.
Trivet made by Great-Granddad Robert Horton
Great-Granddad also made this gorgeous trivet (I presume for my Great-Granny), a horseshoe with little boots as the legs, which is one of my most treasured possessions.
Hook made by me
A few years ago, I did a weekend blacksmithing workshop at the railway yards in Ipswich. The first thing I smithed was this hook, and I am very proud of it. Building the forge fire using coke, maintaining it, heating the straight iron rod to red hot, and hammering it with a big hammer on a huge anvil was very exciting. I had to adjust to the idea that the metal had to be glowing red, as if you heat silver to that state, it means it’s melting! Although I got covered in black coke dust, and was pretty worn out by the end of the weekend, it was immensely satisfying and something that I mean to do again some day.
I wonder what my great-great-great-grandfather would have thought of my endeavours? I hope he would have been pleased!
Some new Silver Forge earrings have arrived at Gataker’s Artspace in Maryborough. Gataker’s is a community artspace which displays the work of local and regional artists and craftspeople – they also have musical performances in their courtyard, and every month they open one Saturday night for music, wood-fired pizza, coffee, art and artisans. If you’re up around Hervey Bay way, stop in to 311 Kent Street, Maryborough!
Random.org did the work, and drew the third Silver Forge Newsletter giveaway for me. The winner for April was Ryan. Hooray! Congratulations – the prize is a pair of these seafoam cube Czech glass earrings!
There are now only two pairs of these lovelies left, so if anyone else loves them and needs a pair, better get in quick! 🙂
Next month’s prize will be a pair of smoke grey faceted Czech glass earrings.
If you love these, and wish you had a pair, you can either subscribe to the newsletter for a chance to win them, or if you can’t wait, head to the shop and buy some now! 🙂 (Subscribers will also get a chance to buy them at a discount next month).
One of my fellow MadeIt sellers, Belinda from Studio Astratta, recently lost her Dad to Motor Neurone Disease (MND). She is raising funds this month to assist the Motor Neurone Disease Association of Queensland to provide essential equipment, care and support to people and their carers living with MND. These support services are crucial to enable people with MND to remain active for the longest possible time.
MND is a group of related diseases affecting the nerves in the brain and spinal cord. These nerves are known as motor neurones. As the nerves become damaged the muscles they control weaken and waste.
The muscles first affected tend to be those in the hands, feet or mouth and throat, depending on what type of disease it is. MND does not generally affect the senses, so sight, smell, touch and hearing remain intact, as do the sphincter muscles that control the bladder and bowel. Other areas that are not usually affected are sexual function and intellect. MND is not contagious.
Motor neurone disease is a progressive, life limiting disease and the rate of progression varies greatly from one person to another. There is currently no cure for this disease.
For the rest of May, The Silver Forge will donate 10% of all sales to the Motor Neurone Disease Association of Queensland via Belinda’s fundraising page at Everyday Hero. Do what you can to help this worthy cause by purchasing yourself a little something from The Silver Forge shop, or by going to the Everyday Hero page and making a donation directly.
There are many pieces of equipment that are essential to the creative silversmithing process, and one that gets used in practically every piece is the jeweller’s saw. From cutting through fine chain links, to carving out an entire pendant, the saw is a very useful piece of equipment!
One of the first things I learned when I started smithing was how to saw – first straight lines, then curves, then around corners. There is an art to sawing! Jeweller’s saw blades come in many sizes, the tooth count varying depending on the job you need to do.
Saw blades are replaced when they become blunt or more often when they break – which happens all the time. Inserting the blade correctly, holding the saw upright, not applying pressure and letting the blade do the work will all help. “Doh! Another one!” is still a frequent cry around the workshop though!
Saws can also be used for piercing. First a small hole is drilled, the saw blade is fed through the hole, and then tightened into the saw.
I have two saws, my old faithful that I’ve had from day one and my newer Green Lion Studios saw, which has a deeper frame and can be used for larger cuts. I have different sizes of sawblades in each one, and they are both some of my favourite tools!
Don’t forget, if you’re in Brisbane on Friday 3 May (today or tomorrow, depending on when you’re reading this!!), head over between 4.00 and 7.00pm to the Twilight Market being held by the Creche & Kindergarten Northside Family Day Care Educators Association at ‘The Community Place’ on Teevan Street, Stafford. As there are three children in our Northside Family Day Care community who are hearing impared, the market is being held to raise funds for Hear and Say. One of these children goes to Carmen’s Family Day Care with my son, so this is close to our hearts!
The aim of Hear and Say is to help deaf children to hear, listen and speak so they can attend a regular school, have wider career choices and can more fully participate in the hearing community. Hear and Say interfaces state-of-the-art hearing technology (digital hearing aids and implantable technology such as cochlear implants) with the Auditory-Verbal Therapy approach.
I am setting up a Silver Forge stall at the twilight market, and will be donating 10% of all sales made during the market to this very worthy cause. There will be food stalls, art and craft, a playground, face painting and much more. Come and have sausage sizzle for dinner, let the kids race around, and be home in time for bedtime and a nice cup of tea! Make sure you stop by the stall and say hello – I’d love to see you there!
