Bah Humbug BoB

Bah Humbug BoB
Originally uploaded by Murano Silver

BoB chillaxing after helping me pack up some of the Christmas orders...(trying to convince me he workezd really hardz)
Definately showing some cat-ittude, maybe it's his new uniform ;^)
Nic xxx

BoB kitten gets wet!

Wet-BoB
Originally uploaded by muranosilver

Today BoB lost a little of his fascination with water......he fell in the bath while investigating hubbie washing his feet.
This is when he spied the hairdryer ~ it was not a good morning for BoB, lol. (Happy kitty now though, all dry and fluffy with some of his favourite treats)
Nic xx

Armloads of Bangles

Just a few of the custom bangles I've been making this week :)
It's lots of fun & a great honour to make so many gifts for special Birthday and Anniversary occasions. So I can make them to tight deadlines, I get them hallmarked as flat sheet then add the text after :)
Nic x

My First London Show!

 "Treasure" — is an exhibition of the country’s most exciting contemporary jewellery designers & it returned to London Jewellery Week (7–13 June) with a three-day showcase in Bloomsbury. This year I've become a member of the Association of Contemporary Jewellery and was lucky enough to be chosen to participate in their showcase.

There were about 30 designers and each of us got to choose three pieces to exemplify our work.

 

My choices were "Abstracto Shield Necklace" (above) with agate and two of my hammered spinner rings ~ one gold and silver, one oxidised silver (below).

 

The show's preview night went amazingly well with a really high turn out!

And the best possible news of all?? As well as my work being showcased with some of the best independant designers in the UK my Abstracto Necklace SOLD!!! *snoopy dance* & Hoorah for the Red Dot of soldness ;)
Couldn't be more happy with my first "showcase" & it all bodes well for my plan to one day have a stand at one of the Big shows like IJL!
Happy Creating
Nic xx

Buyer Beware - Internet Shopping Scams

A bracelet was brought into my shop with some charms that the customer had purchased off the internet....they wanted me to solder on the charms. :)

Needless to say I soldered all the charms on, then popped the bracelet in the pickle pot to clean the flux etc off. 1/2 hour later I came back to find the whole bracelet had been coated with copper (as had some earrings I'd made too!)

The earrings were very pale but the bracelet was bright orange with a thick copper coating -horror!! This had only happened to me once before, it was due to steel in the clasp...(strangely that was also on a similar job, fixing someones "bought on holiday" necklace).
Fixing The Problem

I decanted my pickle mix into a safe container and mixed a new batch of pickle to which I added a little Hydrogen Peroxide. The earrings went in first and a few minutes later they were bright clean and shiny silver again - all traces of their accidental copper plating removed....

The bracelet, (minus clasp) went in next but it just wouldn't return to it's colour...I removed the charms and tried them separately - they went to pale orange but still had a trace of copper.

So I polished them by hand until only a few traces in the indents remained.
Later today I have to tell my customer that the internet bracelet is a fake.....sadly for me the hours of work, safety pickle etc will have to be written off (I'm not the sort of person that would ask her to pay).

In the interests of good customer service I have some genuine solid and lovely bracelets~ so if she wants one of those I'll probably offer to re-solder all the charms (again) at the same price.

Cautionary Tale:The trouble with the internet is that with a good looking website, a search engine ranking and a few convincing graphics its very easy to get drawn into thinking you are buying the real thing.

This is the THIRD time that someone has brought in a bracelet for me to fix or alter that has turned out to be fake....

I'm seriously considering a policy of not fixing or altering anything that isn't purchased from my own shop. Maybe in the current climate of fakes and poorly made items it's the only way to guarantee I don't have to face a customer and tell them the bad news....

To others thinking about buying from "too good to be true" sites ~ buy local, buy from someone you trust, support the hand crafters and artisan jewellers & most importantly don't let yourself get ripped off!

Love & Kind Wishes

Nic xx