Watch Movement Pendants - Timeless

After a small hiatus to finish university, I managed to get some extra stuff sourced from the the rock gem and bead show at Event City in Manchester, such as new beads, findings and general knowledge from the vendors.

My main find and interest though has been the internal workings of watches. This would preferably be pocket watches but for my first find I bought some rather dainty and lovely wrist watch internals from Timemill here on Etsy.

I immediately turned one into a pendant and put the picture online on my Facebook page, and I already got two of my friends buying two of similar style straight away. So I have decided to put the one below and another two on Etsy very soon.

Now I know my work should be based around gemstones, but using these old watch movements caught my eye and drew me in so much that I had to make something with them. Oh, and technically, the real or synthetic rubies that allow the gears to move with little friction are the gemstones part to the work. These small jewels also add a subtle drop of colour to the mainly metal body of the naked wrist watch.

Finally, the name. I have yet to give a name to any collection of items I've made yet, but I had to with these. I've chosen 'Timeless' because these watches no longer work, and are void of any time that they once had.
Visit my Etsy page here to buy one of (or all if you're feeling nice) the 3 remaining pendants. Use code 'timelessoffer' to get 10% off!

I'm going to strip down some larger pocket watches that I have bought recently from online and antiques fairs and use these parts to create something new to the collection. Let me know what you think of the pendant above and the name of the collection.

Wire Weave Dreamcatcher

Two posts in the same week?! Yes it is true, and not an April Fools. I made the following for Beth, my girlfriend, for her birthday.

I had an idea to create a dreamcatcher using wire and a few gemstones, and also thought this idea was not around on the Internet in any form. However I was wrong. Camille and her YouTube channel full of great ideas on jewellery making, using wire wrapping and weaving techniques, had already made one. So I decided to follow her guide and create my own:

I need to collect a few more supplies that I didn't have, such as 2mm thick copper from Fred Aldous for the main loop, and green satin ribbon to wrap around it. I also bought a bit more 4mm copper-silver wire to do the weaving, however I think after struggling to weave this wire perfectly, I will be getting thinner (3mm) for the next time. The main issue is due to the 'knots' made when weaving and the fact that they do not want to behave and wrap around properly if the wire is too thick.

After adding a couple of amethyst chip beads and a rose quartz inner round bead, I made sure to keep a small hole in the centre like a normal dreamcatcher.

I am almost fully content with this first attempt, but would like to make the weave cleaner by using thinner wire in the future. I'll showcase these when I have made them.

What the dreamcatcher can be used for is up in the air to be honest. It could be a pendant, but may be too big for some and could be hung up in a bedroom as an actual 'above bed' dreamcatcher.

Let me know what you think in the comments below and tell me what you would use the dreamcatcher for.

And I'm Back

Well first I must apologise for the absolute silence over the past few months. Anyone that knows me personally will know that University has been a mini hell on earth, and so that had to be over before I could do ANYTHING else.

But, as of the 23rd March, I have pretty much finished! I'm now ready to set off a new 2012 post with something quite different to my usual handmade experiments.

One of the first things I did when setting up Gems and Junk was to create a logo that was simple and modern. In the end I figured I'm not very good at that so asked for the help of my friend Katie. She created the logo you see above, on Etsy and the Facebook page.

During University, I wanted to make sure I didn't go insane and had a break from coding and turned to 3D modelling (technically still coding). One of my units is 3D virtual modelling, and I thought I could use it to create a new piece of jewellery and then get it 3D printed at Shapeways.

Seems like a lengthy process? Well take a look below:

 

I took my knowledge of 3D modelling and applied it to the logo. After adding a little hoop at the top myself to be able to create an actual pendant, I sent it off to Shapeways for verification and printing in stainless steel. I'm pretty pleased with the result except for the roughness of the metal. However this couldn't really be avoided as the print was too small for the medium that Shapeways uses to smooth rough metal.

I want to do more in the future of my own designs to either become jewellery, ornaments or other things that I could use as part of a gemstone creation.

The blog will be updated more regularly now I have more time. I hope that myself and Belle Femme Jewellery (see my review of them here) will soon be able to go to a craft fair for the first time. Keep an eye out for updates.