Handmade By Sarah

My Studio!

June 27th, 2010

I haven’t posted anything for a while because I have been converting my outhouse into a workshop/studio. It was a big job and there are still bits to do but here it is so far:

Fruit Bowl

June 27th, 2010

I needed a new fruit bowl but couldn’t find one I liked in the shops. Luckily I have a friend who is an awesome ceramics artists. Everything she make is hand built rather than thrown. Anyway, she let me come to her studio to make myself a bowl. It was a lot more difficult that I first thought! I’m glad I was after something organic looking!

Wooden Pendant & Ring

May 27th, 2010

I made this pendant and ring out of sapele (hard wood) and inlaid it with brass. I intend it to be worn in the Summer months:

Sterling Silver Cuff

May 23rd, 2010

This weekend I made this silver cuff with textured finish and rolled edges:

Saatchi Gallery ‘Collect’ Exhibition

May 18th, 2010

On Saturday I went to see the ‘Collect’ exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea. There were 10 rooms with so much inspirational work! It took several hours to walk round. There were objects and vessels made from glass, metals, ceramics etc and amazing jewellery made from everything you could possibly imagine using all sorts of handmade processes. I highly recommend a visit!

Unfortunately I couldn’t afford to buy anything from the exhibit but I did buy a couple of books which have inspired me to start experimenting with different materials to make jewellery. I made the ring and bangle below from acrylic and laser ply and then went on to experiment with acrylic to make a collection of rings:

Skyline knuckle duster:

Silver Pendants

May 9th, 2010

I used a range of techniques such as doming, drilling/piercing, balling silver, sawing, planishing and attaching silver wire. I created a row of hearts pendant and a design based on a sea urchin:

I am thinking of designing a range of jewellery that combines silver with textiles. I experimented with sewing the red heart on the pendant below. I’m not sure I like the effect on this piece but I think the idea still has potential.

Hammered necklace & ring

May 3rd, 2010

I am interested in applying different textures to silver. I made this necklace and ring set by using the end of a ball pein hammer:

Silver rings

May 3rd, 2010

I took advantage of the bank holiday weekend to use my last bits of silver wire to make some rings that I have wanted to make for a while. I was really pleased with how the stone setting turned out (I used smokey quartz), they make a nice set of stackable octagonal rings:

I wanted to also make a bracelet but only had a short piece of wire left so I made this simple ’snake’ ring:

Stone Setting

March 28th, 2010

First I formed a strip of silver into a ring and soldered it before using a doming block to put a curve on it (like a wedding band). Then I used a 0.3mm silver bezel strip to cut and form a tiny circle in which to set the amethyst cabochon. It was very fiddly and I think a 0.5mm bezel strip might offer more rigidity in future:

Wirework rings

March 21st, 2010

Last weekend I created these wirework rings and I’ve recieved lots of positive comments about them since I’ve worn them:

I made this ring by using the the technique of crochet. I created this ring by hand but intend to use a crochet needle next time to create a neater look, perhaps to make a multi-strand necklace.