Apologies for no new posts for a while but we were working constantly towards the opening of our new workshop in San Fulgencio, Spain. After several weeks of delays, disruptions and typical Spanish red tape the Workshop opened on Saturday and the first course took place this morning at 10am;  spiral silver bracelets made with silver and coloured copper wire. Courses will run every Monday during the summer and I am hoping to run a kids polymer clay course on Saturday mornings during the summer holidays, details to follow soon.

Silver Earrings Made With A Jig

The latest silver jewellery workshop was on Monday 31st May in the Gran Alacant area on the Costa Blanca in Spain. The course was an intermediate level lesson focusing on the use of a jig to create silver wire jewellery.

For those not familiar with the jig it is basically a metal plate perforated with holes drilled evenly through the plate. Metal pins are placed in the holes to create varying designs and patterns and then jewelllery making wire is looped around the pins to make the shape required. The advantage of using a jig, especially with earrings, is that the shape is uniform with the twists and curls in the wire nice and tight. It is much harder to create uniform loops using a pair of pliers.  The course was well attended and all the students successfully made two sets of earrings using their jigs. Photos will be put in the photo album soon.

Silver & Gold Wire Bracelet

One of the things I love about working with wire for jewellery is that the number of variations and different types of jewellery that can be made using wire are virtually limitless. Firstly the wire comes in different strengths varying from soft to hard depending on what type of jewellery project you are undertaking. The wire can also be bought in different thickness from 0.2mm to 2mm. My favourite thickness to work with when making coiled and spiral wire jewellery is 0.8mm or 0.6mm.

Silver Ring With Abalone Cabochon

Many people know that the term cabochon relates to a stone of some kind but I often get asked what exactly is a cabochon. A cabochon is a gem stone that has been shaped and polished usually creating a shape with a convex top and flat bottom. Transparent stones, due to their hardness,  are usually shaped by facetting while softer opaque stones are cut and polished as cabochons. Some gemstones which are particularly soft can scratch easily and so are polished as cabochons making scratches and blemishes less evident. As stated, the usual shape of a cabochon is a half moon; this shape is used as the eyes find it harder to detect  slight imperfections in the half moon shape as opposed to a full, round stone. An exception to this are the round cabochons often found in watches.

How Are Cabochons Made?          Firstly a slab of rough rock is cut and using a template the rock is trimmed using a diamond blade saw. Once the piece is trimmed it is mounted on a handle to assist manipulation. This is done by attaching the stone to a  length of wooden dowel using wax. The piece is trimmed further until the desired shape is achieved, the back edges are sometimes bevelled and the top is sanded and polished to a uniform dome.

At bespoke jewellery and our sister site The Silver jewellery Workshop there is a selection of jewellery incorporating different cabochons. Why not click on the links and have a look.

Hello and welcome to the first post of The Bespoke Jewellery Blog. Here we hope to create interesting articles, discussions and tutorials relating to the world of handcrafted jewellery. If you are interested in handmade jewellery then join us as we talk about jewellery made in sterling and pure silver, bronze, copper, polymer, glass and crystal. If you are interested in the world of silver and Pandora style jewellery then why not have a look at the blog of our sister site at The Silver Jewellery Workshop. Thank you for visiting and we hope to see you again soon.