Camali Design Jewellery Blog

It’s been a while again! I have been really busy leading up to the Christmas events that I am doing down here in Cornwall. I have done Christmas markets at Falmouth, Fowey, Trelissick Gardens, Truro Late Night shopping and now remains only this weekend coming. On Saturday I will be at the Christmas Street Market in Truro and on Sunday at the Last Chance Event at Lemon Quay, also in Truro. After that I will have a lovely break over Christmas, which I am spending with the family in Sweden and then I will be in Austria for a week over New Year, also with family.

I wanted to show you some of my latest pieces that are made using only sterling silver, which is a bit unusual for me, being an avid fan of all the gorgeous gemstones available. It is always, however, nice to do something different every now and then and here is the result of this from the past month or so. I have had great feedback on these pieces and most of them are now sold, but I will be doing many more of these all silver designs in the New Year.

The Silver Petal earrings and pendant are simple and modern. They were made from silver sheet which was cut into petal shapes, then lightly domed using a dapping block and finally hung from hand made silver rings onto a modern ball chain. The silver has been oxidised and hand brushed and polished to obtain the gunmetal grey earthy patina that I love so much. I will be doing loads of new designs similar to these as soon as I get back in the New Year.

I have also been making some simple loops using thick silver wire that has been shaped, planished and hung simply on hand made earwires. These Loop Earrings are great everyday staples and again, more of the same will come soon!

Finally a pair of earrings that I absolutely love myself (would have kept these for myself had I not sold them before Christmas…). The Graffiti Earrings were made using tabs of silver sheet that I made holes in, textured with an interesting pattern and assembled together with hand made silver jump rings. They are hung on simple hand made earwires and have lovely movement when worn due to the “hinged” effect that the rings give. As usual the silver has been oxidised to bring out the  texture and add character.

Well, since I doubt I will have time to blog any more this year, I will take this opportunity of wishing you a Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you in 2009!

I have this thing about Swiss or London blue topaz… They have the most fantastic colour and just beg to be worn! Being a very expensive stone, I don’t usually have many, but I had a couple of Swiss blue topaz faceted heart briolettes that I wanted to make something with. So I decided to make one of them into a simple but elegant pendant, to really show off it’s beautiful blue colour. As I have mentioned before I have been learning a few new things from talented American wire artist Eni Oken and so I used her techniques as inspiration for this pendant.

I started by making a simple U-shaped component in thick silver wire, hammered it a little for strength and made a simple bail to hang the pendant in. I sized the component so that the topaz would fit neatly in the middle and then wire wrapped the stone onto this component using fine silver wire. Next, I made a larger silver component to go around the first one. This one I wire wrapped with tiny fine silver Hill Tribe beads attaching it to the inner component in the process. That all sounds very simple, but it takes quite a while, as it’s very fiddly to get it right and since there is not much room to work with between the silver components!

Everything is oxidised as usual and then hung on a simple popcorn chain. This is how it turned out!

I am very pleased with the way it came out, the stone is vibrant in the middle and the silver doesn’t take anything away from it, merely frames it and grounds it by using only silver beads and by the patina applied. This pendant is now available to buy in my online jewellery shop! More similar ones to come soon…

I recently learnt a few new techniques from extremely talented American jewellery artist Eni Oken. I have admired her work for a while and since she generously enough sells her tutorials I thought I’d try a few. I am trying to use her techniques in my own designs rather than making the exact pieces in the tutorials. I think it’s more of a challenge and much more fulfilling to adapt a technique into something new and something that you can call “your own”.

I have been making rings in the past month with the aim of adding those to my range this year. I have been using the popular so called “nest ring” tutorial with various different gemstones set in silver. In doing so, I realised that the technique could be translated into pendants and earrings too. So here are a few examples of what I call “nested” pendants and earrings. All of which are available to buy in my online shop of course! I have already sold a few and they seem to be very well received and I hope they will prove a popular design this year.

Cheers,
Carin

I don’t usually do men’s jewellery, not because I don’t want to but because there is so much else I want to do as well! Therefore I have never really given it a whole lot of thought. But, when I was approached by a customer to make a custom piece for her boyfriends 30th birthday I jumped at the opportunity!

The lady wanted me to create a pendant necklace using the logo of a music club that her boyfriend manages. She sent me the logo and after some work in Photoshop I had an idea of what we could do with it. I sent a picture of the proposed pendant to her and we agreed I would make it from silver, hang it on thick leather cord, and potentially add a few beads as well.

So, I started by cutting out a backplate out of thick silver sheet that I then added some grungy texture to, with a metal stamp. Next up was cutting (sawing) out an overlay in silver sheet which was quite fiddly, because, as you can see in the picture, it has quite a few awkward turns in it. Then I did some additional shaping and filed it smooth, making sure the 2 layers were a good fit to solder. I then sweat soldered them together which made a solid pendant where the textured backplate showed through the cutout top layer. I then cut and shaped 2 little corners to the pendant (I had left the top corners on the back piece especially for this) and drilled holes in them to attach the rest of the necklace. So, that was the actual pendant finished.

Making jewellery for men is a little bit of a challenge I think, as it needs to look masculine and so choice of materials is very important in my humble opinion. I wanted it to look a bit “rough” and “industrial” and remembered that I had some smooth river pebbles in a grey/brown colour. I fitted one either side of the pendant and then on to thick black leather cord. Finally I made a simple hook clasp from thick silver wire. Just like all my other jewellery, I also oxidised the silver and gave it a good rub with steel wool to give it depth and a well worn look.

So, the result is, as you can see, a gunmetal grey silver pendant with the textured background showing through the smooth logo cutout, combined with pebbles and leather, in a pendant that I think looks every bit masculine. I have to say I was very happy with it myself and I might even consider adding men’s jewellery to my regular range in the future.

As you all probably know it can be hard work doing a commission, depending on the complexity of the project and the nature of the customer. In this case I have to say it was a pleasure as the client was very positive about all my ideas, worked with me through the design process and trusted me enough to let me get on with. So, all in all, a very successful commission for me and wish I get many more like it in the future!

Oh, and the boyfriend loved it too! Phew!