Tag Archives: style

Burgundy Drusy Agate and Sterling Silver Ring

Rusty, the artisan behind the beautiful ‘Vance’ guitars, commissioned me to create a ring for his daughter’s birthday.

Burgundy Drusy Agate and Sterling Silver Ring

 

He chose the stone from my collection, then sent me a copy of a chart on which he’d measured the size of a ring from her ‘little gripper’. (Hehe, ‘little gripper’ made me laugh when Rusty send that to me!)

Burgundy Drusy Agate and Sterling Silver Ring

It was such a pleasure to set this beautiful stone for someone lovely to wear.

This is one of Rusty’s guitars: exquisite workmanship, and (apparently, from all who tell me) totally awesome to play. If you’re interested in owning one of these beauties, let me know, and I’ll put you in touch with him!

Vance Custom Guitars

Thanks so much for the honour, Rusty. I really appreciate it!

Lodolite Garden Quartz and Sterling Silver Ring

I bought two divine lodolite bullet shaped cabs a while ago, and I spent some time contemplating how to do them justice. I was waiting for inspiration to strike me, and it eventually did! 

Lodolite and Sterling Silver Ring

Lodolite is commonly known as Garden Quartz.

Lodolite and Sterling Silver Ring 3

It is clear quartz with inclusions, which look like a landscape scene – garden or underwater garden!

Lodolite and Sterling Silver Ring 2

I feel the organic vine-like nature of the ring complements the beautiful stone.

Lodolite

 

I’m looking forward to making another ring with my second gorgeous piece of Lodolite!

Peruvian Blue Chalcedony Castle Ring

Peruvian Blue Chalcedony Sterling Silver Smokestack Ring

For a while now, I’ve had a design for a ring in my head. In part inspired by the power station we drive past a few times a week; and in part inspired by castles and towers, minarets and mosques, factories and smokestacks – I seem to have quite an industrial/architectural theme running through my head lately.

Peruvian Blue Chalcedony Castle Ring

 

The stones are Peruvian Blue Chalcedony Briolettes, which I turned on their ends. Divine colour, don’t you think?

Peruvian Blue Chalcedony Castle Ring

I learned how to flange chenier, which was fun! The briolettes remind me of puffs of smoke.

Peruvian Blue Chalcedony Castle Ring

 

I have some little pear shaped free-form orange carnelians in my gemstone stash, and I think there may be another ring in this style coming along in the future!  What do you think?

Sterling Silver and Garnet Crown Set Ring

The very last piece that I made in my training course last year was this sterling silver and garnet crown set ring. It’s a bit of a departure from my normal style, but I like it!

Garnet Crown Set Sterling Silver Ring 2

I specifically chose a garnet because my lovely sister who lives on the other side of the world has just turned 50, and she likes garnets.

Garnet Crown Set Sterling Silver Ring 3

Happiest of birthdays, dearest Christina! xxx

Flipside Fiesta Raffle Winner!

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!

Unakite and Sterling Silver Ring 2

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!!!

Unakite and Sterling Silver Ring 1

Congratulations, John and Robby, well done on supporting such a great and worthy cause; and Robby, I hope you enjoy wearing your ring!!

Bright Orange Drusy Agate and Sterling Silver Ring

Maria, whom I previously created a gorgeous ocean wave jasper ring for, wanted a drusy agate ring too.

Bright Orange Drusy Agate and Sterling Silver Ring

I was happy to show her the stones I have available! She chose this divine orange one.

Bright Orange Drusy Agate and Sterling Silver Ring

Thanks Maria! I confess I love this piece of drusy so much, I bought a similar stone in the same colour to make a ring just for me!

Sterling silver and titanium chenier hinge pendant set with blue quartz

The brief for our seventh project for the course I’m doing this year was to create a piece using chenier hinge as a feature rather than a function.  (Chenier is hollow tubing, in case you weren’t sure!)

Titanium, Blue Quartz and Sterling Silver Pendant

I designed this pendant so that it could be worn both horizontally and vertically.  The six plates rotate around a centre rod. There were a few challenging moments to my usual sadly limited patience during the construction of this piece. Titanium is an interesting but hard metal to work with.. physically hard rather than mentally!  It’s a dull grey colour, and very hard to cut, file and especially drill.  The gorgeous colour is achieved by heating very carefully, so it has to be riveted on rather than soldered.  I added the titanium mainly because I fell in love with the blue quartz bullet stones!!

Titanium, Blue Quartz and Sterling Silver Pendant 2

Once in a while, my fellow students and I agree, you make something that has many challenging stages in it, and many learning experiences. By the end of the process you are pretty over it – so you pop the piece away for a while, and when eventually you bring it out once more, it usually is much more pleasing than you remember!  This is one of these pieces! 🙂

Navy Blue Drusy Agate and Sterling Silver Ring

Big Navy Blue Drusy Agate Sterling Silver Ring

I made this drusy agate ring for Leesa. I took it down to her yesterday evening, and she was really thrilled! Navy Blue Drusy Agate and Sterling Silver Ring

Everyone who saw this stone before I set it coveted it, so definitely a good choice, Leesa!

Navy Blue Drusy Agate and Sterling Silver Ring

It’s so lovely when the person for whom you’ve created a piece loves the work you’ve done.  Leesa is keen to have another one, this time in gold, so stay tuned!! 🙂