Pantone Autumn 2018 colours guide came out, and somehow I missed posting about it! I’ve been pretty busy of late, but that was a bit of an oversight! You know how I like Pantone and the idea of seasonal fashion colours.
As always, I’ve got some gorgeous matches for you in my gemstone collection for the London colours. Everything from fabulous charoite to gorgeous chrysocolla.
If you see a gemstone you like the look of and you’d like me to create you a custom piece, let me know! Pantone 2018 autumn colours will still be relevant any time.
The colour of the year for 2018 was luscious Ultra Violet. So many fabulous amethysts and charoites to match that beautiful shade!
It’s all about earrings style! In part one of a series of tips about the basics of jewellery wearing we looked at necklaces, and in part two we looked at rings. Today we’re looking at those fabulous fashion items, earrings.
earrings style – lengths
You might have noticed that my earrings come in various shapes and sizes. One of the things that can make a big difference to whether earrings suit you is their length.
My current basic earring designs are anywhere between 3cm and 5cm long.
3cm is good for everyday wear and for people who like a subtler look, and goes well with a heavier bead so that there is less movement and tugging on the earlobe (I hate that pulling stretching feeling!).
5cm skims the jawline on most people (apparently the most flattering look, who knew!); and is great for making a statement. Also good for people with longer hair. The design of my earrings keeps the bead still so that there is still limited pulling on the earlobe – so comfortable it feels like you’re hardly wearing anything!
If you’ve spotted a bead that you love on my website, but don’t like the drop – let me know and I can make you a pair of earrings any length.
style – hooks
I like to design my earrings in different shapes and sizes – and the shape of the earring wire is one of the differences that can affect how comfortable you find your earrings!
I create a number of different earwire shapes. My personal favourite is the oblong. This shape allows the earring to balance comfortably across the hole in the earlobe and provides stability so that the earring doesn’t swing and drag on the lobe.
The curve shape suits some beads better, and is comfortable no matter what size your earlobe.
The hook shape is a modification of the curve shape, the small kick at the end giving slightly more security stopping the earring from coming out of the ear unexpectedly.
Round hoops are a nice earring shape to give more depth to the earring. Square hoops are the same. I usually wear mine with the right angle corner at the centre of the lobe, but you could wear them with the longer side flat through the lobe if you want.
Really, it’s a matter of personal preference. If you find a bead that you love on my website, and would like a different earwire style, let me know – I’d be happy to make your earrings with your preferred style!
style – materials
When deciding what material your earrings should be made from, sterling silver is a good choice. As well as being beautiful, it is usually hypoallergenic, so you avoid allergic reactions and green skin (problems usually brought about by the nickel in inferior quality metal).
I am a bit of a purist, so I like to use natural materials such as stone, glass and ceramic in my earrings. That’s not to say that I won’t one day embrace resin and plastic!
Earring size and shape is really a matter of comfort and personal preference of course. Tell me, what’s your favourite style earrings?
Pantone’s latest colour guide is out, and Spring 2018 is an interesting mix! As always, I’ve got some gorgeous matches for you in my gemstone collection for the London colours.
If you see a gemstone you like the look of and you’d like me to create you a custom piece, let me know!
The ever wonderful colour gurus Pantone have changed things up a little with their 2017 Autumn fashion colour palette. They’ve made a New York AND a London release! As I’m more of a London girl, I’ve found some fabulous matches for you in my gemstone collection for these great London colours.
If you see a gemstone you like the look of and you’d like me to create you a custom piece, let me know!
Have you ever wondered how to keep your Silver Forge pieces at their sparkling best? Well, the first place to start is with a silver polishing cloth. These are available at most jewellers, and provide a soft and gentle way to clean your silver.
before
after
What if your piece is quite tarnished? This happens to me quite a lot. (Perhaps it’s a touch of ‘the shoemaker’s children are never shod?’) Here’s what silver repairer and restorer Jeffrey Harman has to say about tarnish:
“Tarnish, in regards to silver, is a thin layer of corrosion that forms from a chemical reaction on the surface of an object. This layer consists mainly of black silver sulfide caused by the silver’s reaction with sulfur-containing compounds such as hydrogen sulfide in the air. Tarnish appears as a yellow, gray, or black film on objects. After tarnish forms, the corrosion process slows as the silver sulfide layer thickens.
Any sulfur-containing compound with the sulfur in a reduced oxidation state (e.g., hydrogen sulfide, sulfur, carbonyl sulfide) will cause silver to tarnish. Moisture also plays a role. The higher the relative humidity, the faster silver tarnishes (if sulfur-containing compounds are present). However, even if there is no moisture in the air but it is contaminated with hydrogen sulfide, the silver will still tarnish because there is a direct reaction (water not involved) between the silver and the hydrogen sulfide. So it is not good enough to remove only the moisture because the silver will still tarnish if there is hydrogen sulfide present (or other tarnishing gases). Clean silver will form tarnish more quickly than will tarnished silver.”
A note to say that humans have sulfur in our bodies, which contributes to our jewellery tarnishing!
If you have a plain silver piece, or some of my Czech glass earrings, you can use the old-fashioned method of lining a bowl with tin-foil, placing the pieces in the bowl and sprinkling some bi-carb soda on them, then covering them with boiling water. This really works – just make sure your pieces are all touching the tin-foil.
WARNING: A very few pairs of the Czech glass beads in my earrings (like the pairs below) do NOT like to be cleaned this way – if you’re in any doubt, email me and I can tell you if it’s safe or not.
Hagerty’s Silver Foam was recommended to me by my goldsmithing teachers, and I use that as my next stop.
Easy to use, it will clean your piece in no time, with a minimum of fuss!
There are other methods employed to clean silver, some of which you can read about on Jeffrey Harman‘s most excellent website, but these three are the ones that I stick with.
A note about gemstones – some gemstones do not take kindly to cleaning methods – check before you clean a gemstone piece. There’s a handy guide to gemstone cleaning from the International Gem Society here.
Lastly, if you have a Silver Forge piece that needs some TLC and you’re not wanting to take on the task, please contact me – I’d be happy to help restore it to its former glory!
Valentine was a third century Roman priest who got caught marrying Christian couples. Assisting Christians was a crime at the time, so they arrested and imprisoned him. The Emperor Claudius took a liking to his prisoner, until Valentine tried to convert him to Christianity. Claudius subsequently condemned the priest to death. A beating with clubs and stones failed to kill him, so they beheaded him. He was later martyred for his troubles. Poor old St Valentine!
It wasn’t until the fourteenth century that Valentine’s Day as we know it was born. The famous poet Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the poem ‘The Parliament of Foules’. This included the popular notion that birds paired off to mate on 14 February each year. Also referred to in this poem were some Valentine’s Day traditions such as sending anonymous love letters. Exchanging token gifts with your lover was also mentioned – my vote is for jewellery of course!
As well as love, young people and happy marriages, Valentine is also known as the patron saint of beekeeping and epilepsy.
I like to think that Valentine’s Day is now a celebration of not just romantic love, but love of any kind – including loving yourself. Love makes the world go round, so Happy Valentine’s Day!
St Dunstan’s College in Catford, London, is a school attended by various members of my family since the early 1900s. Recently my Granny told me that St Dunstan was the patron saint of silversmiths. I hadn’t known that!
St. Dunstan was born 909 and died 19 May 988 AD. There is a full story about him on Wikipedia, which tells us that Dunstan became patron saint of English goldsmiths and silversmiths because he worked as a silversmith making church plate while he was living as a monk at Glastonbury Abbey, where he took holy orders in 943 AD. He is also the patron saint of blacksmiths, locksmiths and musicians.
His Feast Day is 19 May, which is why, before the restoration, the yearly span of London Assay Office hallmarks ran from 19 May one year to 18 May the next, not the calendar year. This was changed at the restoration of Charles II in 1660 so that the hallmarking year began on the King’s birthday, 29 May.
There is a story that Dunstan nailed a horseshoe to the Devil’s hoof when he was asked to re-shoe the Devil’s horse. This caused the Devil great pain, and Dunstan only agreed to remove the shoe and release the Devil after he promised never to enter a place where a horseshoe is over the door. This is claimed as the origin of the lucky horseshoe.
Also, according to a late 11th-century legend, the Devil is said to have tempted Dunstan and to have been held by the face with Dunstan’s tongs; hence blacksmith’s tongs have become a symbol of St Dunstan.
Thanks to my little granny for bringing this interesting fact to my attention. I wonder what her dad (my great grandfather), who was a blacksmith, made of all that!
Lots of people like to know the process behind the creations I produce, and I sometimes forget – just because I know how I do this, doesn’t mean everyone does! These lovely dangly gemstone earrings were a wedding gift from my friend and client Natasha to a dear friend of hers.
Natasha found these sparkly amethyst, Rose de France and aquamarine rose cut cabochons in my gemstone collection.
First I shaped the bezels. A bezel is the part that goes around the stone and holds it in place on the piece. I take a strip of silver, bend it into shape with my half round pliers, and solder the join. Once the bezels have been immersed in pickle (an acid solution) to remove the buildup of borax and the oxidisation, I rinse and dry them and hammer them into shape with a mallet on my ring mandrel.
I solder the bezels onto a silver backing plate. After I pickle, file and emery the bezel settings, I check that the stones all fit nicely into their little housings.
Then it’s time to add some links to join the bezels together. I create the links, line them up and solder them on.
I add the ear wires. As always, I am amazed that something that looks so unappealing will soon become something beautiful!
After some more cleaning up, I mount the earrings in sealing wax to hold them still while I set the stones with my engraving ball and chasing hammer.
After yet more emerying and finishing, the earrings are ready to go off to their new home!
In case you want more, I have written before here, herehere and here about my processes. Happy reading!
Pantone’s Autumn colours for 2016. are here. I love the idea of classifying and naming every colour in the world, and I also love to show you which stones in my gemstone collection match the latest in fashion choices!
If you see a gemstone you like the look of, and you’d like me to create you a custom piece, let me know.
Meanwhile, how cute are these Pantone board books? Gorgeous!
