Tuesday 3 November 2015

Hi @NicoletteDawn1 sounds very organised! 😀


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November 03, 2015 at 08:11PM
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Hi @Frankie_Buttons I've just raced back from Pilates 😀😀


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November 03, 2015 at 08:10PM
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Hi @buck_lj yes I find it hard too, and making everything from scratch. I'm planning packaging at the moment, boxes, price tags #dorsetteam


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November 03, 2015 at 08:09PM
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Hi @thedorothydays good thanks! 😀


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November 03, 2015 at 07:41PM
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Autumn Colours from the Dorset Team by Studio Pickles https://t.co/JQcBz4OEkK via @Etsy


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November 03, 2015 at 12:21PM
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Monday 2 November 2015

Will be busy back in the studio after half term, getting ready for @DorsetTeam Xmas fair 5th dec #Dorsethour https://t.co/UOjsEZ6sdP


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November 02, 2015 at 08:13PM
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Hi @studiopickles yes, but first catching up on the hunt from last night! Fantastic filming, #dorsetteam #Dorsethour


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November 02, 2015 at 08:00PM
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Monday 19 October 2015

One day workshop 'make a pendant in a day' Friday 6th nov #dorsethour https://t.co/6HJPxebQ4t https://t.co/OOBRJqY7cv


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October 19, 2015 at 08:14PM
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Hi @DorsetTeam hoping to pop down and buy at this fair for a change! 😀😀


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October 19, 2015 at 07:57PM
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Monday 12 October 2015

One day Jewellery & Silversmithing workshop coming up in november #dorsethour http://t.co/6HJPxebQ4t http://t.co/iJklQlD9nC


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October 12, 2015 at 08:07PM
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Good luck! @SimplyLoveArt @DorsetHour 😀😀


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October 12, 2015 at 07:49PM
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Yes @Dorset_Social @Dorset_Hour particularly beautiful at the moment!


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October 12, 2015 at 07:44PM
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Hi @Dorset_Hour someone has been enjoying the sunshine at the studio recently #dorsethour #dorsetteam http://t.co/EvaPe6ifeX


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October 12, 2015 at 07:39PM
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Tuesday 29 September 2015

Looking forward to the @dorsetteam fair Etsy Made Local Stallholders 2015 curated by DorsetTeam on Etsy http://t.co/LXnnISnHlh via @Etsy


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September 29, 2015 at 03:23PM
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Wednesday 23 September 2015

Salibury Festival & a studio move


After a busy summer of work I finished the holidays of with the Salisbury Craft & Heritage Festival 4th-6th Sept. It turned out to be a glorious weekend full of visitors. It was a busy few days of sales and chatting to lots of old faces, I bumped into some of my students from my first teaching days at Bournemouth & Poole college - 10 years ago!


The quality of work was great, and even though there were a lot of jewellers all of the work was very different. The grounds are beautiful and it made for a very picturesque venue.




                                                         Part of my display at Salisbury


Over the summer I was finishing some new work and setting some glass and paper pieces for the Festival.




In April we got the news from our landlord that he was wanting to turn our property into residential accommodation. We were initially devastated to have to move, but after spending a couple of months looking at properties we found a lovely property in Millhams street in Christchurch. It is very quirky and has an industrial feel to it, so fits in very well with the work we do.
Unfortunately Anne Marie from Meninafeliz, who was sharing the Church street studio with me decided she wanted to work from home. I am lucky that another friend Connie found the new property and wanted to share the studio space.



We've had the stove looked at, and after a chimney sweep it will be good to go in the winter!
Really pleased with the size and the layout, and after painting the walls and the floor we installed the benches
and equipment.






Classes have started back this week. Trying to find where I've put everything and get used to the new layout, but all going fine.



Early Summer

 Early summer kicked off with a visit to the V&A and The Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty exhibition.
I've followed McQueen's career with interest over the years, as we studied at the same college, Central St martins over a similar period of time- and there any connection ends!
I found the exhibition more of a theatrical experience with a series of installations, that were very atmospheric and thought provoking. The quality of the work was mesmerising in the flesh, and was amazing to see up close. Over the years I have seen a lot of McQueens work in magazines and publications, but was pleased to see so many pieces that were undiscovered for me.

The jewellery pieces were a collaboration between McQueen and jeweller Shaun Leane, and featured many works that are very much a part of the body or face. The spinal piece below was one of my favourites.

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Monday 14 September 2015

Have been busy moving into new studio for classes starting next week #dorsethour #dorsetteam http://t.co/6HJPxebQ4t


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September 14, 2015 at 07:56PM
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Great week thank you @PrimrosesKit but more sunshine would be good 😎😎


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September 14, 2015 at 07:53PM
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Tuesday 8 September 2015

Busy painting new studio after @SalisCraftFest #DorsetTeam #newstudio http://t.co/RiHdIWoJyD


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September 08, 2015 at 01:15PM
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Sunday 6 September 2015

Another busy day @SalisCraftFest and the sun has been out all day 😀😂 http://t.co/3UOrXeYVX6


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September 06, 2015 at 02:21PM
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Saturday 5 September 2015

Beautiful view of the cathedral last night #SalisburyCraftFest http://t.co/YoatrapTZk


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September 05, 2015 at 02:15PM
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Friday 4 September 2015

Set up and ready for the @SalisCraftFest #SalisburyCraftFest http://t.co/s1SzhAEzSM


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September 04, 2015 at 07:21PM
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Wednesday 2 September 2015

Finishing of last setting jobs for @SalisCraftFest in 2 days 😀😀 http://t.co/viw2xKI6Ch


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September 02, 2015 at 11:18AM
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Monday 31 August 2015

Enamelling today #dorsetteam #dorsethour https://t.co/sCsKbzds8Q


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August 31, 2015 at 08:03PM
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Monday 24 August 2015

Great @thedorothydays @DorsetTeam a bit sporadic this summer but starting to get work done again have @SalisCraftFest coming soon exciting 😀


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August 24, 2015 at 08:30PM
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Thursday 20 August 2015

Have been in holiday slumber back in studio now trying new pieces for #dorsetteam Fair in dec 😀 http://t.co/6Ixf5nXeLC


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August 20, 2015 at 11:35AM
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Saturday 15 August 2015

One of my favourite properties in Morzine #France #lovemorzine http://t.co/FE9H9ukg4i


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August 15, 2015 at 07:53AM
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Thursday 30 July 2015

Drawings and pieces for @SalisCraftFest that I'm working on this week http://t.co/9Yiw6Jxscb


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July 30, 2015 at 08:57PM
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Friday 3 July 2015

Ibiza paella 😎 https://t.co/BgipBGzcre


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July 03, 2015 at 05:03PM
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Thursday 2 July 2015

Great time at Ibiza's hippy market, lots of great finds #handmade #jewellery #hippies #art https://t.co/RpHyNwtGUr


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July 02, 2015 at 12:37AM
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Wednesday 24 June 2015

Lovely oxidised silver ring finished in classes recently #jewellery #silver #handmade https://t.co/xCZALIJw7f


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June 24, 2015 at 01:13PM
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Friday 19 June 2015

Stone settings coming out of my ears this week! #gemstones #glass #jewellery https://t.co/4l6G8eHBQI


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June 19, 2015 at 01:27PM
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Tuesday 16 June 2015

A week of stone settings http://t.co/HV1CIdNPZS


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June 16, 2015 at 04:14PM
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A week of stone settings


Hi I've been working on bezel setting this week, sterling silver and 9ct yellow gold. In my last post I was writing about a similar setting that we used in one of my classes for a Turquoise stone.
When you have to make a bezel setting for a cabochon stone it is so much easier to buy the bezel strip, or sometimes known as 'pancake reel', which is already a super thin gauge of 0.3mm thick and comes in a strip of either 3mm or 5mm high. And order as much or as little as you like.

The silver strip is so soft that you can manipulate it easily with your fingers at first, and then snip of the excess. It is so much more straightforward to get a good fit, without much fuss, rather than using a strip of silver sheet. I find that you can quickly get the metal into shape when wrapping it closely around the stone without having to adjust it several times, because of too many gaps.
The only pitfall can be when soldering the setting closed, and when you solder in it's place, is not getting it too hot. Because of the thickness it is easy to melt the wall of the setting. I still stick with a hard solder, as I find it behaves better compared to medium, or easy.

I am a bit of a fan of original products! I still like to use a borax cone and dish for my flux and strips of solder cut into tiny squares. You may prefer to use a paste of flux and solder in a syringe, if you find it flows better for you, and you have got to grips with how it works... I would say stick with what you know, and what works for you!

The setting that I've made here is for a small 5mm round Chrysoprase cabochon. The pretty pale green stone looks really nice next to the yellow gold finish 


Polishing of the ring is completed first before setting the stone. Being so thin the bezel strip is easily pushed/rubbed over with a burnisher, which won't mark it as a stone setting tool would, or' bezel pusher'.






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Thursday 11 June 2015

Finished a gold & Chrysoprase ring #jewellery #gold #gemstones https://t.co/CtHiWS6ns0


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June 11, 2015 at 03:22PM
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Monday 1 June 2015

Recycling old Jewellery : Melting down gold and making something new!



Hi, in the past week I have been busy in the studio with a particular commission. The brief was to use some sentimental pieces of jewellery, that were unworn and gathering dust, and make something new!
So many of us have pieces of jewellery that we have bought or acquired and they become out of date and in some respects unwanted, yet we are loath to get rid of them as they often hold special memories for us.


I was given 3 yellow gold rings that were 9 carat and 1 white gold ring. The first job was to remove the stones from 2 of the rings, then very brutally snip the rings into smaller chunks for the big melt!







Keeping the white gold separate, the yellow gold is placed in a 'crucible' and using my gas and oxygen torch and heated to a temperature of around 800 centigrade.






The metal will melt and take on an almost liquid state, like mercury in a thermometer.
When the metal reaches this state it is poured into the ingot mould. As soon as molten metal is poured it is instantly cooled by the cast iron and starts to solidify. The white lump you see in the image, above the poured gold, is a scrunched up piece of wet kitchen paper. The wet paper helps cool the metal and serves as a barrier to prevent the molten metal from spreading itself too thin in the mould, keeping it in a nice thick strip.





Don't quench the metal, leave to cool, as it will stress the metal if cooled suddenly in water. The strip will then need to be put through the rolling mills.


I tend to roll the metal approximately three times before I then anneal. Melting metal down puts stress on it and it can become brittle, annealing is important to save any stress fractures or cracks.

The gold is rolled out methodically, annealing when hard and adjusting the rollers, to slowly thin the metal. I was aiming for a strip that would be at least 75mm long to enable me to make it into a UK size V, and is approximately 1mm thick. The band is approximately 10mm wide at the front, tapering to 5mm at the back, making it comfortable as a thumb ring.

The metal is then tapped around a ring stick/mandrel to shape into size, and soldered with a 9ct solder and flux.

I then needed to think about the texture required for the design. Using a ball burr in the pendant motor I practised the effect on a scrap piece of copper.



A bit of filing is need on the inside and the sides


Really pleased with the textured effect in the gold!


Classes before half term break

A lovely silver and Turquoise ring finished in class. The stone was a nice cabochon approximately 10mm round with a prominent vein through it, and only a couple of pounds to buy!
We made a rub over bezel setting, which was quite quick to do as we used a 3mm sterling silver bezel strip or 'pancake reel'. The strip is only 0.3mm thick so super thin, but very pliable.You can shape a lot of your setting with your fingers, cutting off the excess with a sharp pair of snips, which is a better option to using a saw that will buckle the metal.
As long as you are careful with the soldering, melting it being the biggest hazard (because it is so thin!) it is much quicker to work with. than making your own setting from silver sheet.





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Tuesday 12 May 2015

Platina Jewellery, blogging about my Silversmithing work, and the classes that I run





Hi, welcome to my new blog. I will be blogging about what goes on in my studio each week, whether it be telling you about pieces that I have been working on myself, or what my lovely students have been up to in my day and evening classes.
Some of the ladies that come along have been real steadfast learners and have been attending since I moved to my current studio nearly 3 years! And they can't stop making!
 Lovely sterling silver earring made by Ruth in Tuesday morning classes. Simple silver rings with a hammered
finish, neatly soldered together create a stunning piece of jewellery. Ruth was a beginner when she first came
to the studio over 2 years ago, but with a keen attitude, and fondness of all things handmade she has made some amazing pieces of the last few years.


The jewellers bench is an exciting place, just a few tools can get you off and running with your first pieces , but there are always new tools and techniques to discover and the possibilities are endless!

Recently I have been tweeting about my workshop using the hashtag #dorsetteamtools along with my Etsy Dorset team mates. The pictures help to give followers an insight into our workshops and studios where our crafts are born!


Whenever I'm not teaching I often have company in the form of Flick, the Parson Russell terrier. Classes are so sociable, that it can often feel very solitary in the workshop without her! Although the snoring can be off putting.





 Enamelling is something we have been trying recently in the workshop. I love introducing colour into my work with Enamels. Last week I finished an Alice in wonderland inspired pendant for a competition to celebrate 150years of this fabulous story.
The competiton is being run by Etsy in conjunction with The British Museum. You can view the listing via my Etsy shop at etsy.com/uk/shop/Platinajewellery


Alice in Wonderland, Rabbit pendant, Enamelled Silver Necklace


I have recently been tweeting with my Dorset Etsy team mates www.twitter.com/platinajewellery
using the hashtag #Dorsetteamtools.  Members have been tweeting images of their workshops and studios giving insight into the workspaces where their crafts are born! Please check out our tweets for an inside view into our working day.
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