The winner of The Silver Forge Newsletter giveaway for June was Mattina. Mattina and I met at the Hear and Say Twilight Fundraising Market, where she signed up for the newsletter. How easy was that! Congratulations – the prize is a pair of fire engine red cube Czech glass earrings!
If you like the look of these earrings, and you’d like a pair, you can get yourself some here.
Next month’s prize will be a pair of emerald green Czech glass and sterling silver hoop earrings.
I actually love doing giveaways – I adore how exciting it is to get a little parcel in the mail, and enjoy spreading that feeling! You can either subscribe to the newsletter for a chance to win these lovelies, or if you can’t wait, head to the shop and buy some now.
I drew the winner of the May Newsletter giveaway the other day, and the lucky subscriber was Heather. Congratulations – the prize is a pair of these smokey grey Czech glass earrings!
If you like the look of these earrings, and you’d like a pair, you can get yourself some here.
Next month’s prize will be a pair of fire engine red cube Czech glass earrings.
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 in the newsletter next month.
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.
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).
What a pleasure it was to be interviewed recently by Kylie for a ‘Made-It Monday – Seller Interview’ feature on her blog. Kylie creates the most amazing Raw Toys – I really recommend checking them out if you have a little person (and even if you don’t!). My son spends hours playing with his beautiful rainbow (which you can see below in Kylie’s blog header), and I keep one of Kylie’s little wooden tree puzzles on the windowsill by my desk – it makes me smile each time I see it! My nieces are the proud owners of two of Kylie’s little fairy doors, which I believe are helping some flowers grow in their garden as we speak. Kylie’s toys are natural, well made, whimsical, and most importantly of all, stimulate the imaginations of our little ones beautifully.
Below is the interview in full – please do check it out over on the Raw Toys Blog as well, won’t you!
I love Made It. It’s a user friendly platform for me to sell my toys and it doubles as one of my favourite places to shop. Topping off the awesomeness of Made It is it’s lively, supportive and inspirational community of sellers. I’ve invited some of these talented folk to tell us a bit about what they do and share the story behind their favourite creation.
Out of all the people I’ve connected with on this creative small business pathway, Ruthie from The Silver Forge has to be one of my favourites! Ruthie is a brilliant artist whose work I absolutely adore and you won’t find many people more lovely. I’m sure you’ll love reading about what is involved in Ruthie’s work and viewing her incredible jewellery. A lovely giveaway is on offer too – enjoy!
My name is Ruthie, and I live in sunny Brisbane. I am a silversmith.
My shop, The Silver Forge, opened in May 2012. I have been smithing for over five years and last year, completed intensive vocational certification at a local dedicated goldsmith’s school. I feel very lucky, as I love what I do!!
My favourite item in my shop at the moment is this teal green drusy agate and sterling silver ring. (Available for purchase here).
I fell in love with drusy agate a few years ago when I found a gorgeous piece I used to create a ring.
The term “drusy” comes from the word “druse”, which is a rock surface covered with tiny crystals, like those found inside geodes. Drusy crystals take hundreds or even thousands of years to form – molten rock begins to cool with trapped gases inside. The gases create gaps in the rock. As ground water carrying dissolved silica is forced into these porous areas, tiny crystals form, creating sparking clusters. Amazing!!
Since then, I have collected a range of gorgeous drusy cabochons that I love to create gorgeous big chunky rings and pendants with. Because the stones are so full of beauty and colour, I like to keep my designs simple and elegant, letting the crystal speak for itself. I have a number of pieces in my shop.
I also offer people the option of choosing their own stone from my collection on my website.
This particular ring was created using sterling silver sheet. Firstly, I shaped the bezel (which is the part of the ring surrounding and holding the gemstone) using half round pliers, then I soldered that to the backing plate using a propane gas soldering torch. (Whoo hoo, flame!!!) I cut out around the bezel plate with my jeweller’s saw, then bent the ring shank (the part of the ring that goes around your finger) and soldered that to the bezel assembly.
Then, after some filing and emerying, I set the stone into the ring using my setting ball and my gorgeous setting hammer. Finally I gave the piece its final texture – a high polish this time! The whole process is a fairly industrial, noisy, fiery, tool-wielding experience, which sometimes seems at odds with something so delicate and refined!You can find The Silver Forge at:
A big thank you to Kylie for choosing to interview me for her gorgeous blog!
Ruthie has a fantastic newsletter that you can subscribe to either on the Silver Forge website or Facebook page. Just by subscribing, you enter the draw for a monthly giveaway – very exciting! Ruthie is offering a very special giveaway to one Raw Toys readers.. a custom made pair of Czech glass earrings! I have a gorgeous pair of these in green – they are just divine. Here is an example of the style:
Visit Ruthie’s shop and have a look at the earrings there. Pop back here and leave a comment to tell Ruthie your favourite bead and which shape takes your fancy. A winner will be randomly chosen on Friday evening.
Huge thanks to you for sharing your work here, Ruthie, I’m very honoured to have you!
Using the random number generator at random.org, I drew the second ever Silver Forge Newsletter giveaway, and the winner for March was Lesley. A big congratulations to her – the prize was a pair of these fanta orange Czech glass sterling silver triangle spiral earrings.
Just around the corner is next month’s giveaway – one lucky Newsletter reader will receive a pair of these seafoam cube Czech glass earrings.
As I mentioned in my previous post on Flipside Circus, I was happy to donate a custom made handcrafted sterling silver and drusy agate ring for the recent Flipside Fiesta fundraising raffle.
John was the lucky winner, and he unveiled the prize for his wife Robby at Christmas time. I recently visited them both in their lovely home, and Robby chose her favourite gemstone from my collection – it wasn’t drusy after all, but I didn’t mind a bit!
This gorgeous stone is Unakite – I’ll do an in-depth post about that later. For now, it’s a natural stone, and isn’t it pretty!!!
Congratulations, John and Robby, well done on supporting such a great and worthy cause; and Robby, I hope you enjoy wearing your ring!!
There’s no doubt that the work done by Ruthie at The Silver Forge is eye-catching and beautifully done. Swirling in silver, these jellyfish earrings are filled with gentle, graceful movement.
But take a step back. Ruthie creates all of her own components, everything from bezel settings to ear wires. And let’s take things back even a step further: she starts by “throwing” her own silver, a procedure which takes it from pellet to sheet or wire through a process of heating, pouring, and molding.
I love the way Ruthie pairs the silver with such varied and interesting elements. From the clear topaz beads in the earrings above, we go to bright blue titanium as a contrast to the gorgeously textured silver in this pendant meant to evoke the scale of a sea creature.
In this pendant, a rich piece of unakite has been nestled into a setting echoing the roundness of the stone. The off-center placement is accented with still more circles of silver to create a cohesive, compelling whole.
Read on to learn more about Ruthie’s inspiration and process!
Curator V: You’ve studied goldsmithing extensively. How did that come about? When did you know you wanted to make jewelry?
I have loved silver jewellery ever since I was a child. I remember being mesmerized by the collection of huge silver and gemstone rings my best friend’s mum had, and I certainly did my fair share of buying beautiful pieces! Around 2005, I stumbled across a short evening course in silver jewellery making being held at a local college. It took place in the Industrial Arts area, so we were working amongst some huge unrefined equipment! As soon as I walked in, I knew I’d found my niche. (I can still remember the lovely oily smell of that room.)
I kept trying to find other courses, but it wasn’t until I moved to Brisbane that I found a dedicated goldsmithing school, which I have been attending since 2008. Last year I completed intensive vocational certification, which covered many aspects of smithing from art and technical design drawing to lost wax casting and tool making, all of which helped improve my skills and knowledge immensely.
Curator V: You make all of your own component pieces. What made you decide to do that?
There are many pre-manufactured ‘jewellery findings’ available, such as earring hooks, gemstone bezels etc. however for me, the true nature of ‘handmade’ is that everything is crafted completely by hand from start to finish. It’s part of keeping the art alive. The only commercial components I use are the neoprene chokers I supply with pendants, which are more for people who don’t already have a favourite choker or chain.
Curator V: In your About page, you say “Each piece starts life as a throw of silver”. Can you explain what that means?
Once it’s been dug out of the ground and refined, silver is usually provided in pellets. These are heated to melting point in a crucible and poured into a mould, creating either a plate or a bar of silver. These can then be rolled into progressively thinner flat plates or extruded into wire. This heating, pouring and moulding process is called a ‘throw’.
Curator V: You’ve recently added some druzy agate rings to your shop. What about working with that stone appeals to you?
Druzy agate is a great stone to work with – it’s unique, unusual, and every piece is guaranteed to be different! I love the large, colourful cabochons (smooth cut stones). The idea that they come from a hollow geode that water has seeped through for thousands of years to create tiny sparkly crystals is fascinating to me!
Curator V: How would you describe the woman you design for?
She’s funky, stylish, interesting; likes one of a kind statement pieces; has great taste, and is aged between 17 and 97. That’s my lovely customers so far! I also think she’s attracted to a fusion of modern with old world charm.
Curator V: What can we expect from The Silver Forge in the future?
My mind is so full of designs I can scarcely begin to make them all! In the works right now are more amazing druzy rings and pendants, a new range of gorgeous domed pieces, and a new line of earrings. Then there’s the Valentine’s Day collection!
If you’d like to keep up to date with what’s happening at The Silver Forge, you can follow my blog and/or my Facebook page .
Ruthie is offering a $50 Gift Certificate as her giveaway prize! To enter, visit The Silver Forge, then come back here and leave a comment with your favorite item. One winner to be chosen at random next Sunday, January 27th.
Thanks so much for having me, Violet! There were one hundred and six entries into the giveaway. Congratulations to Maeghan for winning! Be sure to pop over to EtsyStalker to keep up with the fabulous goodies Violet finds next.
Back in November 2012, I was happy to be featured in an interview on Lilly’s Life – a blog hosted by the lovely and amusing Lilly.
For a giveaway prize, I offered two gift vouchers to the value of $35 each. Although it’s over, you can read about the giveaway here.
The lucky winners were Abby Lee from Western Australia and Vicky Westra from Minnesota in the USA – congratulations to both!
Abby chose this Seaglass and Sterling Silver Pendant as her prize.
Vicky chose these Sterling Silver and Swarovski Crystal Earrings.
Vicky has a blog, Westra World, which chronicles her daily life as she undergoes treatment for breast cancer. She is a brave and amazing woman. Best and warmest wishes go out to her.