Lovely Laura recently commissioned me to create a matching ring and earrings for her friend as a wedding gift.
The stone in the ring is malachite, and the earrings are azurite/malachite.
Malachite is just such a wonderful stone – what an amazing natural colour!
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, here here and here about my processes. Happy reading!
As part of a bracelet I’ve been asked to put together, one of my clients wanted a special box to keep to tiny and precious booklets inside.
It is set with a carnelian, one of his favourite stones.
The piece will like a charm bracelet, filled with pieces that have significance to my client – what a great way to wear all those memories at once!
This brooch I created for a client is in the shape of his wife’s business logo.
The peach moonstone reflects the colour of the logo, and provides a nice focal point to the design.
What an apt and thoughtful gift!
Natasha and her partner Philipp were in need of some new wedding rings. These lemon quartz cabochons from my gemstone collection had a good feel to them, and Natasha had a number of designs that she gave me for reference.
We worked together to come up with the perfect rings.
It’s always a joy to create for someone who is like-minded, I feel very fortunate to meet such lovely people!
My gorgeous client Natasha commissioned me to make these amethyst, rose de France and aquamarine earrings as a wedding present for a friend.
Natasha always has such beautiful ideas, and chooses such lovely gemstones from my collection.
Thanks, Natasha, it is always such a pleasure to work with you!
Some very kind friends gave my client a Silver Forge gift voucher for her birthday.
This oblong shaped drusy cabochon makes a gorgeous piece!
My lovely client, Natasha, chose this cabochon from my gemstone collection, and commissioned me to create this labradorite ring for her mum.
The gorgeous stone is offset beautifully by the silver. I’m very happy with the end result!
Thanks, Natasha, it’s always a pleasure to create for you!
I caught up with a dear friend of mine recently after many years. It was so lovely to see him! Isn’t is great how you can have a lifelong connection with some people, and share laughs and stories as if it were only yesterday that you had seen one another? We talked about what we’d been up to, of course, and he was interested in my silversmithing. A while later he commissioned me to make him a ring.
I love the simple yet so effective design!
Thanks, my dear Max, for getting me to create for you. It was a pleasure!
My lovely client Natasha commissioned me to create this mookaite ring for her partner.
She chose the cabochon from my gemstone collection. Doesn’t the mookaite look great with a reticulated silver shank!
It’s always a pleasure to create with like-minded people. I’m so lucky!