T3 Week 4 - Claw setting - made from scratch

Handmade claw setting. Well this was another interesting week and frustrating.

You would think by now just soldering a few pieces of wire on to the side of a piece of silver tube would be easy. Apparently not!!

melanie chatfield26 December 2022engagement ring, fancy ring, claw setting, claw stone setting, Maisy Eve designsComment

T3 Week 3 - Granulation (balls!!)

Week 3 is all about granulation, or using up your scrap metal, in a really fun way. I really like granulation as you get to play with fire (safely of course). You basically raid your scrap metal pot and then melt the metal until it forms itself into a granule (ball).

melanie chatfield22 December 2022granulation, silver balls, little silver balls, melting silver, granulation jewellery, barrel polisher, pickle pot, soldering, Maisy Eve designs, ring, pendant, moonstone, silver pendant, Dorset jewellery

T3 Week 2 - Cast Setting

This week is all about the bling, and I love bling!

This week we were tasked to make a ring and a pendant using cast settings. Cast settings are the little baskets that hold the Cubic zirconias or high end gemstones. This style of jewellery is classed as ‘fine jewellery’ .

melanie chatfield22 December 2022 Comment

T3 WeeK 1 - Chain Making

And we are back into the routine of the diploma. I am going to miss this once I am finished.

I have to say, I have thoroughly enjoyed my day today. Watching the videos, they showed us 3 different projects for chain making.

melanie chatfield28 July 2022silver diploma, silversmithing, silver pendant, collet setting, tapered bezel, stone setting skills, stone setting, bezel punch, dainty pendant, birthstone pendant, cubic zirconia, ringComment

Week 9 - Working with Gold part 2

Absolutley loved this week and I can’t wait to get these rings back from marking so I can wear them.

I did procrastinate most of the day with these as we had only a smalll amount of gold to work with and it is quite easy and quick to mess it up and it turns into a melted gold puddle.

melanie chatfield29 April 2022silver diploma, silversmithing, silver pendant, collet setting, tapered bezel, stone setting skills, stone setting, bezel punch, dainty pendant, birthstone pendant, cubic zirconia, ringComment

Week 7 & 8 - Copper Trinket box

We are skipping a week as week 6 was a business week and not a making week.

Again, I totally under estimated this week and how tricky it was going to be, I am glad we had two weeks to do this project and of course the big beast torch.

melanie chatfield29 April 2022silver diploma, silversmithing, silver pendant, collet setting, tapered bezel, stone setting skills, stone setting, bezel punch, dainty pendant, birthstone pendant, cubic zirconia, ringComment

Mother's Day Gift Guide

Treat your mum to something special this Mothers Day from our hand picked selection.

melanie chatfield11 March 2022

Week 5 - Stone Setting - Collet setting

Again, I totally under estimated this week and how tricky it was going to be.

Having already done different sized bezels, flush setting and tube setting, I thought this was going to be a great week and I was going to really enjoy it. Well that wasn’t the case and in fact as I am writing this, the second collet is only just finished and I am due to start week 9 on monday!!!!

melanie chatfield5 March 2022silver diploma, silversmithing, silver pendant, collet setting, tapered bezel, stone setting skills, stone setting, bezel punch, dainty pendant, birthstone pendant, cubic zirconia, ring Comments

Week 4 - Stone setting in wax

I wasn't overly looking forward to this week because the last time we did wax (in term 1) Covid had hit the household (my husband and daughters) and my focus was severely lacking. As a result my last pieces were very simple and I didn’t push myself so this time I decided to be a bit more experimental on the ring.

melanie chatfield27 February 2022Maisy Eve designs stone setting, wax casting, wax setting, wax ring, learning new skills, silver diploma, education, blog, silversmithingComment

Week 3 - Torque Bangle

This looked like such an easy project. I had seen some of last year's students bangles and have been looking forward to it all year. Well this week did not go according to plan, I just couldn't get enough heat into the wire to successfully solder the smallest of bits of wire to the longer length. So I had to purchase a bigger torch aka ‘the beast’!!!!