sterling silver tree bark pendant

I made a pendant using a bit of tree bark. I thought it would be a great thing for the guy who chops trees, or works with wood. You can see the texture on the silver, it is made from sterling silver.

If you are interested in one for your self, contact me.
This one will run you about $ 55.00
Keep in mind no two will ever be the same, I make all my items by hand.

BOHO sterling silver Bracelet

BOHO style bracelet, sterling silver.

Infinity, heart. 

If you are interested in one for your self, contact me.
This one will run you about $ 35.00
Keep in mind no two will ever be the same, I make all my items by hand.

Sterling silver Gun

Oh my gosh! It's a sterling silver gun!

No it doesn't work, it's not for sale. But I thought I would share it with you. It's so cute!
My husband cast this peice. He is very talented with the casting. Would you believe this was his first large job? The handle was made seperate from the body of the gun, he then soldered it to the body of the gun.

Sterling silver tail

Sterling silver tail.


If you are interested in one for your self, contact me.
This one will run you about $ 75.00
Keep in mind no two will ever be the same, I make all my items by hand.

Silver Shark tooth

This sucker is as big as you see it in the picture.
It was made by casting, it's solid sterling silver. Not hollow, which means it's heavy.
A great peice for a man. It was made from wax carving, no sharks lost and teeth in the making of this item.

If you are interested in one for your self, contact me.
This one will run you about $ 145.00
Keep in mind no two will ever be the same, I make all my items by hand.

Silver Heart bracelet

Sterling Silver heart bracelet.

If you are interested in one for your self, contact me.
This one will run you about $ 30.00
Keep in mind no two will ever be the same, I make all my items by hand.

New Heart Ring

This was made for a friend, it's an open heart shaped ring. She told me to just create it how I wanted.
This is what I came up with. Sterling Silver ring.

If you are interested in one for your self, contact me.
This one will run you about $ 50.00
Keep in mind no two will ever be the same, I make all my items by hand.

Formula for Cabochons

Do you need to figure out how much material you need to make them cabs?
Here is a formula I ran across, I do hope it helps. I have tried many ways to get the right sizes, wrapping a string around the stone, or just wrapping the wire around and cutting it hopeful that it will work. But here is the math of it all.

Formula for oval cabs:
Add diameter to width, divide by 2, then add thickness of collet material and x 3.142
eg 14 x 10mm cab with 0.5mm bezel wire: 14 + 10 = 24, halved is 12, plus 0.5 = 12.5 x 3.142 = 39.28mm
23 x 15mm cab with 0.5mm bezel: 23 + 15 = 38, halved is 19, plus 0.5 = 19.5 x 3.142 = 59.70mm

Formula for oval faceted:
Add diameter to width, divide by 2, plus half thickness of collet material x 3.142
eg 10 x 8 oval faceted with 0.5mm bezel wire: 10 + 8 = 18, halved is 9 + 0.25 = 9.25 x 3.142 = 29.06 mm

Everyday house hold items Jewlery making

Want to use easy kitchen products for your jewellery? 

I have tried these and must say, they work rather nicely. Yes some things may sound silly. But try it for your self.

Flux.

Simply go to a hardware store, such as Bunnings, Home Depo, What ever you have locally. Look for Borax. It comes in powder form. Pour a little into a clean glass jar add a little water and make a paste with it. When you use it mix up the paste and dab a little on your brush your all set. 

Pickle solution. 

Gosh this one is very easy to mix... 

Use a cup of vinegar and about 3 heaping table spoons of salt.

Mix together into a glass crock pot, I use a old coffee maker. 

Set my silver into this to clean off the carbon from the item, it is less dangerous then some of the other products out there. Plus you can tip it down the drain with out killing off the environment. 

Fire scale sprays

Use a teaspoon borax powder into a spray bottle of rubbing alcohol. Spray it onto your piece before soldering, flick it with a flame and when it burns fa your ready to go. 

Oxidise your work

You can use that stuff you buy looks and smells like rotten eggs. It's expensive. Or you can boil up an egg, put it into a plastic zip bag with your item. Then break the egg and let it sit for a hour or so. When you take it out toss the bag away. Don't eat the egg...

Wash off your item and use your steel wool to finish up, give it a nice polish and your set. 

Use soap... 

Well if you have a tumbler, use regular dish soap in it with a bit of water.. I use hot tap water with mine, I square a bit of soap into my tumbler and toss in the items, let it run and when it comes out its nice and pretty. 

Ring sizer chart and tips

Ring sizes

Sizing a ring is so easy. I found this chart a while ago. 

What you will need to size a ring up the way I do it is to take the inside diameter of the ring using callipers, 

write that down. Measure the height of the metal, say if it is 2mm you add that to the number you wrote down. 

Now whip out that calculator! Take that number and times it by  3.141 or just use the Pi symbol. That number is where you will cut to make the ring the proper size for making your ring. 

Here is that chart. 

Inside	Inside	Inside	Inside	Number Sizes	Wheat Sheaf
Diameter	Diameter	Circumference	Circumference	US/Canada	British	Japanese	Swiss
(inches)	(mm)	(inches)	(mm)	Standard	Irish	Equivalent	Equivalent
					Australian
					Equivalent
0.458	11.6	1.438	36.5	0
0.466	11.8	1.463	37.2	1/4
0.474	12.0	1.488	37.8	1/2	A
0.482	12.2	1.513	38.4	3/4	A 1/2
0.490	12.4	1.539	39.1	1	B	1
0.498	12.6	1.564	39.7	1 1/4	B 1/2
0.506	12.9	1.589	40.4	1 1/2	C
0.514	13.1	1.614	41.0	1 3/4	C 1/2
0.522	13.3	1.639	41.6	2	D	2	1.50
0.530	13.5	1.664	42.3	2 1/4	D 1/2
0.538	13.7	1.689	42.9	2 1/2	E	3	2.75
0.546	13.9	1.714	43.5	2 3/4	E 1/2
0.554	14.1	1.740	44.2	3	F	4	4.00
0.562	14.3	1.765	44.8	3 1/4	F 1/2	5	5.25
0.570	14.5	1.790	45.5	3 1/2	G
0.578	14.7	1.815	46.1	3 3/4	G 1/2	6	6.50
0.586	14.9	1.840	46.7	4	H	7
0.594	15.1	1.865	47.4	4 1/4	H 1/2		7.75
0.602	15.3	1.890	48.0	4 1/2	I	8
0.610	15.5	1.915	48.7	4 3/4	J		9.00
0.618	15.7	1.941	49.3	5	J 1/2	9
0.626	15.9	1.966	49.9	5 1/4	K		10.00
0.634	16.1	1.991	50.6	5 1/2	K 1/2	10
0.642	16.3	2.016	51.2	5 3/4	L		11.75
0.650	16.5	2.041	51.8	6	L 1/2	11	12.75
0.658	16.7	2.066	52.5	6 1/4	M	12
0.666	16.9	2.091	53.1	6 1/2	M 1/2	13	14.00
0.674	17.1	2.116	53.8	6 3/4	N
0.682	17.3	2.141	54.4	7	N 1/2	14	15.25
0.690	17.5	2.167	55.0	7 1/4	O
0.698	17.7	2.192	55.7	7 1/2	O 1/2	15	16.50
0.706	17.9	2.217	56.3	7 3/4	P
0.714	18.1	2.242	56.9	8	P 1/2	16	17.75
0.722	18.3	2.267	57.6	8 1/4	Q
0.730	18.5	2.292	58.2	8 1/2	Q 1/2	17
0.738	18.7	2.317	58.9	8 3/4	R		19
0.746	18.9	2.342	59.5	9	R 1/2	18
0.754	19.2	2.368	60.1	9 1/4	S		20.25
0.762	19.4	2.393	60.8	9 1/2	S 1/2	19
0.770	19.6	2.418	61.4	9 3/4	T		21.5
0.778	19.8	2.443	62.1	10	T 1/2	20
0.786	20.0	2.468	62.7	10 1/4	U	21
0.794	20.2	2.493	63.3	10 1/2	U 1/2	22	22.75
0.802	20.4	2.518	64.0	10 3/4	V
0.810	20.6	2.543	64.6	11	V 1/2	23
0.818	20.8	2.569	65.2	11 1/4	W		25
0.826	21.0	2.594	65.9	11 1/2	W 1/2	24
0.834	21.2	2.619	66.5	11 3/4	X
0.842	21.4	2.644	67.2	12	X 1/2	25	27.50
0.850	21.6	2.669	67.8	12 1/4	Y
0.858	21.8	2.694	68.4	12 1/2	Z	26	28.75
0.866	22.0	2.719	69.1	12 3/4	Z 1/2
0.874	22.2	2.744	69.7	13		27
0.882	22.4	2.769	70.3	13 1/4	Z1
0.890	22.6	2.795	71.0	13 1/2
0.898	22.8	2.820	71.6	13 3/4	Z2
0.906	23.0	2.845	72.3	14	Z3
0.914	23.2	2.870	72.9	14 1/4
0.922	23.4	2.895	73.5	14 1/2	Z4
0.930	23.6	2.920	74.2	14 3/4
0.938	23.8	2.945	74.8	15
0.946	24.0	2.970	75.4	15 1/4
0.954	24.2	2.996	76.1	15 1/2
0.962	24.4	3.021	76.7	15 3/4
0.970	24.6	3.046	77.4	16