First try..

First ring, originally uploaded by lazygiraffe.

I made my first ring this week!
I have been wanting to make rings for the shop and I couldn't wait to try them out once I got my ring mandrel. This one is from a tutorial on MacFarland Designs blog (where she also has lots of other tutorials, I am trying out earwires next) for a simple rosette ring.

This was also spurred on by the loss of one of my rings down the floorboards the other day (I am cursing the landlords inability to lay them without 1cm gaps).

Its good for a first go, the wire wraps could be neater and the back is a little warped, but I love it all the same! I did this using 24g silver plated wire, not brave enough to use the expensive sterling wire yet ;)

I am hoping to introduce some simple beaded wire wrap rings to the shop, made with vintage beads and different kinds of wire. I think copper would be lovely.

oxidizing silver - with eggs

So I had a go at oxidizing silver at the weekend. The total stingy person in me couldn't bear to put eggs on nice sterling silver but I tried it anyway!
I tried it with a couple of hard boiled eggs with two pairs of earrings, using this technique here

The victims:













The process:

Two hard boiled eggs, boil for about 15minutes.
Get a couple of sealable bags and put a pair in each, bash egg lightly with a wooden spoon or a small cup. Making sure the egg yolky goodness gets on to the metal. Til it looks like this:














I left mine in for about 3 hours, turning every hour or so and squishing the egg yolk closer around the earrings a bit more.
The findings - headpins and jumprings - oxidized quite quickly but the earwires were more of a pain and didn't really oxidize black.

Finished result:














Not bad for a first go, but I think I will try to source different earwires next time to get a better patina. The rest of the findings came out really well so I'm pleased with those.