With Makers Central fast approaching, and knowing how much love my launch of my first limited Fordite jewellery collection received last year, I thought a new distinct selection was due


Following the success of my first handcrafted Fordite collection of jewellery at last years Makers Central, I thought I would come up with another new selection which would include rings, pendants, studs, earrings and cufflinks from these striking cabochons:
 

Currently I am going through a healing stone rough top/druzy phase and have been adding to my cabochon collection, which initially was just Labradorite, and I have just received some juicy lush carnelian druzy  stones with a gorgeous burnt orange colour and some banded Fluorite, which my inner magpie couldn't resist automatically adding to my to-make list on my jewellery bench:
 
Not everything worked out, between waiting for supplies to be delivered and other distractions, feeling the pressure of running out of time, I rushed a few things, which meant I made some really stupid mistakes resulting in not having the full collection I wanted, and the more mistakes I made the more pressure I felt to complete all my jewellery settings intime to clean up, polish, tumble and set the stones.

Makers Central is predominately an event attended by men, and so I wanted to create a few male pieces especially when you consider the origins of Fordite, namely cufflinks, which I didn't have last year.  The first cufflink I made with no problems:
 
However when it came to the second cufflink, in my rush, I wasn't paying attention to where the solder was on the previous chain links I created, which ultimately meant, that not once but twice I landing up soldering the chains together:
 
Soldering is always the bane to all metal smithers, where you are trying to get the solder to flow, without the melting the metal or splitting the previous soldered components, such sas the bezel wall.

In my case I had a number of pieces where the fine silver bezel wall split, before it soldered to the sterling silver back plate.  Sometimes you can remove the bezel wall from the back plate and start again, but in my haste I managed to melt both pieces of metal, so created more mistakes amd scrap!!!

The good thing about working with metal, especially silver (sterling and fine) is that it can be melted down and used in other jewellery projects so nothing gets wasted.

As to the cufflinks I was working on, they didn't make it as I wasn'y happy with the bezel wall as I noticed that it had holes/gaps

I am happy with the things I did create. including these fabulous statement rings, the cute heart one sold at Makers Central:
 
Feeling the love I made a small heart collection of fordite which included 3 pendants and the ring above:
 
My new supplier of Fordite, showed my this amazingly swirly kite shaped Fordite cabochon, which as soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to turn it into a contemporary pendant, which got a far bit of interest at Makers Central:
   
And for those customers who love earrings and studs:
 
I have to say that I'm really loving these new designs, what do you think?

I would love to hear your comments below

Joolz xxx

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May 17, 2024

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