23 Apr 2010

This week I have mostly been working in copper

“The world is an old woman, and mistakes any gilt farthing for a gold coin; whereby being often cheated, she will thenceforth trust nothing but the common copper” Thomas Carlyle, Victorian essayist.

Hammered copper, heavily antiqued, spiral link bracelet.
Please click on any of the photographs for a larger view.

The last couple of weeks have been hectic – an assortment of commissions to complete, work commitments, domestic dramas, our visiting son (I’d like to think he comes home from university to catch up with his Mum, but in reality he was only availing himself of my fast broadband connection, as the dent in my bandwidth allowance will testify) and even some time away over Easter.

So if anyone happened to be so devoid of entertainment they were monitoring my publicly visible work rate, they’d perhaps consider me tardy of late – I haven’t seemingly had much to show for the long hours and exhaustion levels.

I spent a lot of time before we went away for Easter in preparing things to take with me to work on; part-made components to finish, components that I could make into ideas I had etc. – all in case of bad weather and the need to find things to do. I had enough materials with me to make a hundred pieces of jewellery. All I eventually managed was this necklace (with matching earrings) and another pair of earrings. Antiqued copper and green glass.

I quite liked the smooth look of the back of the antiqued bracelet above, where polishing off the oxidisation, left a pattern of colours on the smooth copper, from bright peach to a deep gunmetal type blue/grey. So I made another version without the hammered texture and will give this the same colour finish. I sometimes just like to enjoy them in their raw state before I give them their final colour.

A spiral wrapped Botswana agate bracelet in it’s raw copper just-tumbled state, which has since been deeply oxidised and extensively tumbled to a deep gunmetal warm grey.

But behind the scenes, like a little hammer-wielding gnome, I have been quietly (not that my hammering can ever be claimed to be quiet) producing several new pieces. But the making of the jewellery is the fun bit – that’s where I find my joy, peace from the world and my personal satisfaction – I get so embroiled with the details of shapes and the engineering of making things work properly that the world just passes me by and I often only come to my senses when the growling in my belly reminds me that I really should have had lunch several hours ago.

Hammered and elongated soldered chain link earrings, with rosy copper molten buds.

But once complete, after enjoying it for a short while on my own, I must present the result of my efforts to the world. I really can’t expect pieces to sell if they’re still sitting on my work bench unseen. And this is the part, like most artisan sellers and self-representing artists, that I find most tedious, time-consuming and plain disagreeable.

A pendant in progress, which has since been antiqued. I love to see raw shiny just-tumbled copper, so often take WIP photos at this stage. Just because the colour is so pretty.

As someone who has listed photography as a passion for an alarmingly large number of years, I do not find photographing my work to be in the least bit enjoyable. And despite having now done quite a lot of it and to have gradually honed my workflow to be about as efficient as I think I can get, it still seemingly takes an inordinate amount of time – far longer than it feels like it should or I’m happy to give it. And don’t even get me started on the process of measuring everything, working out a price and writing appropriate descriptions. I get through it by issuing myself with incentives – if I finish listing two items, I can work on the bracelet I’d started etc.

Large Serpentine beads spiral wrapped with copper into this bracelet with hand crafted hook and an adjustable chain closure and Aventurine dangle. The copper has been antiqued.

So, in the purely selfish interest of trying to make it look like I have actually done something of late, I present some of my latest pieces and the first photographs I’ve taken of them. I’ve also included some work in progress photos (WIP) as I often take photographs for my own reference and they don’t otherwise ever see the light of day.

Only another 25 pieces and several hours wrangling photo props and cameras and then manipulating images left to go!

27 Mar 2010

Bringing a piece of metal to life – part 2

Work in Progress (WIP):

There has been much discussion recently in various on-line venues – and directly with customers – about making buyers aware just how much you put into a piece to distinguish them from ‘assembled from components’ or mass produced items. Sometimes it isn’t obvious from item descriptions which of these it is and your only guide may be the price. It’s important to me that buyers should be able to make that distinction and make an informed purchasing decision.

The finished bracelet with my own toggle clasp – the design and engineering of which was quite a learning process.
Please click the photographs to see a larger version of them.

The idea of seeing pieces part-made and in progress, or studio photographs, appealed to buyers – to reinforce the wholly hand crafted nature of the work. Those that choose to buy hand-crafted work rather than off the peg on the high street do so because they like to feel a direct connection with the artisan that made their new piece. They seemingly enjoy getting to know the artist and about their work and are fascinated with the work that goes into making a piece directly from scratch from raw materials and enjoy seeing in-progress photographs, something I aim to do more of in future.

As someone who tries to make every element of a piece of jewellery myself – from earwires, headpins and clasps – it is important to me that potential buyers are aware of the many stages of this process and how this informs the price of a piece.

Hence I decided to chronicle this particular project in photographs as I worked. I did an earlier blog on bringing a piece of metal to life, but only retrospectively, without the benefit of in-progress photos, but in view of recent discussions, I took photos as I worked on this particular piece.

I actually made two bracelets largely the same at the same time, so the photos are from both pieces and the first incarnation of it had a different toggle design. But as often happens when working on a piece, the design gradually evolves as practical considerations are addressed and problems overcome. Sometimes you can only hone a design once it takes on 3 dimensions – you need to have it in your hands in solid form to test what works – and just as often, what doesn’t. In this case, the first toggle looked pretty, but didn’t work as well as I hoped. More of that below.

The links and clasp sections are hand formed and sawn from raw wire stock.

The links start life coiled as rings, sawn apart, cleaned and closed ready to solder closed. After soldering, they must be pickle-cleaned to remove the firescale and molten flux.

The circular rings are then hand shaped to the long ovals I chose for this design.

The links start as circular, are stretched to ovals, then the sides straightened a little more.

The links of the bracelet are hammered slightly for both stability of the metal and appearance.

The chain is assembled and all the links soldered closed.

The final stage is hand filing, shaping and polishing, for which there is no substitute for getting your hands dirty. Despite the messiness of it, it’s a very satisfying process and one that I don’t mind. It’s lovely to see the beauty and colour of the metal emerge after seeing how rough it looks in progress.

As you can see above from the Work In Progress (WIP) photos, there are many stages to creating something of this nature from raw materials, especially if you want to make something unique and ensure that all components balance and work well together and give rise to a piece that will withstand wear and last for many years to come.

The design of the toggle:

Designing a piece isn’t just about drawing pretty sketches of the finished article – of which I do plenty and have pages of ideas yet to see metal – it’s about engineering too. A piece of jewellery has to be attractive, but work and be wearable in a practical sense too. You don’t want sections snagging on clothing, earrings trapping hair behind a loose edge and functional areas like clasps – especially on bracelets – must be fasten-able with one hand and not come undone in wear.

So the lion’s share of my initial time on this bracelet was in designing the clasp. I wanted to make my own toggle from scratch – not just use a bought component – and yet it has to sit easily with the design of the rest of the piece – you want shapes to mirror the design and be balanced with the piece as a whole – the clasp shouldn’t be an afterthought, but an integral and important aspect of the design. My scrap pile is a little larger as a result of this particular design process. Sometimes your first idea is spot on, sometimes they need a lot of snagging and trial and error. Hopefully that effort will result in a better final result for your customer.

A clasp has to be an integral part of the design, not an afterthought. I try to match my closures to the style and weight of the piece, to reflect the shapes and yet work well in a practical sense too.


For this copper long link chain bracelet, I used the basic toggle design principle from a project in a book I have from the library and when finished, it simply came undone too easily in wear and clearly that was unacceptable. I did wonder if it might be like the old joke about how many rolls of wallpaper a neighbour said he used to decorate his lounge – “yes, I had 3 rolls left over too” – I wondered if I told the designer that it didn’t work, they’d say “no, mine didn’t work either”.

I liked how this toggle looked, but it simply didn’t work well in practice. It fastened well, but wouldn’t stay that way!


Even commercially made toggles don’t always work, I have several that I’ve bought that are either too tight or fiddly to fasten one-handed, or come undone too easily and cause the bracelet to fall off. So toggle design is seemingly especially critical in terms of size and shapes – where the hooks and rings I do more often are much more forgiving. I found very little information about the basic engineering of a toggle to guide me, tutorials either give exact sizes for the particular design, or skirt the issue entirely and must give rise to a lot of unsuccessful results and frustrated makers.

In this case, I wanted the toggle to reflect the long links of the chain, but in practical terms, it had to be wide enough to let the toggle bar and the first links of the chain adjacent to it to pass through to fasten it, so in order to make it wide enough to allow this, it would have needed to be much longer than it is shown if I wanted to keep the same proportions as the chain links. Which would then require the toggle bar to be much longer too in proportion – longer than I decided would look nice or be comfortable to wear. So I compromised on widening the loop slightly in order to keep it to a more modest loop length and to balance overall with the weight of the rest of the chain.

The toggle bar itself needed much consideration too. It needs to sit nicely against the loop, hopefully as flat as possible, but also be easy to manipulate when fastening one-handed – and remain securely fastened and also securely attached to the chain itself.


So this too went through several incarnations. In this instance, I worked on several versions of both elements of the clasp until I was entirely satisfied they were just what I wanted – and now that I’ve done that process, it’s a design I will no doubt use often – and an important stage for me is in taking detailed notes and measurements as I work for future reference. But they are vitally important learning processes and sometimes you have to get it wrong to learn why it doesn’t work and to learn how to overcome those important practical considerations. I spent more time on this project than I’d intended, but the learning process was well worth it to me and I hope it reflects in the quality of the final result.

I think I prefer this sort of practical lesson to just being told how to do it – one of the advantages of being entirely self-taught and working independently.

3 Mar 2010

Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes . . .

I’ve wanted to make rings for quite some time and do get asked for them a lot at craft fairs, but simply not being appropriately equipped to do so, I’ve resisted the temptation to date.


But it is something I really want to try. I have a head full of ideas waiting to take form and as a favourite library book will have to go back soon, I wanted to try a couple of the design projects from it before I must part with the book. I will however purchase my own copy as it is the one I want to keep to hand.

I had in mind that I’d like to make something simple that I can make quite a lot of to keep in stock in different sizes (the sizing issue is one of the reasons I’ve thus far resisted) to give a good selection at a lower price point for fairs. I fancied silver, copper and bronze and some of ideas would be in mixed metals too.


The book in question – one of my absolute favourites is “Tips and Shortcuts for Jewellery Making” by Stephen O’Keeffe, published by A&C Black. You have no idea how many pennies have dropped looking at his book – just from browsing the excellent photographs – I’ve learned so very much from it – the tools he uses and suggested improvisations have especially struck a chord with me – I never like buying over-priced tools if something can be improvised for free.


One of the ring designs features a folded ripple section in the middle (as shown above) and he suggests that it makes it much easier to size the ring as it’s got some inherent flexibility in the design, so I thought this might have potential for being able to tweak in person at events to get a good fit. Having made it, I suspect that won’t be as easy as I might have hoped (once the metal has been hardened and polished), although it does make it easy to start with a basic blank ring and finish it in different sizes, which is certainly of interest.

So armed with some ideas and Mr O’Keeffe’s project details I decided to try it initially in copper – for 3 reasons – firstly, I didn’t actually have much spare silver of the right gauge to tinker with. Secondly, copper is easier to work and more forgiving, so ideal for ‘prototypes’ of this nature. As it was a learning exercise and I was going to work in slightly heavier wire than the project suggested, copper was ideal. And thirdly, I actually just like working in copper, so tend to reach for it first.

As with many new ideas, I made some errors and decided some stages could be done differently – largely adaptations due to ether not having the same equipment or in one instance, having something I thought worked better. One of my swerves from the true project path gave me some new ideas as to how the design and technique could be deliberately adjusted to give different results. Another moment of design serendipity that leads to something new entirely.

The silver ring shown was also based on ideas in the book – not in this instance a direct working of the design, but an adaptation from one. I made it rather small to fit my pinky finger. Having balled the ends of some heavy silver wire and formed the ring, it was soldered into this fixed position and heavily polished. I contemplated leaving it a little more rustic and antiquing it, but decided on a glossy-ish finish on this occasion.

So, having grabbed the bull by the horns and made my first ever properly forged rings – I made 2 in one day and can hardly wait to try some more – as is often the case, working on something new has only served to open the floodgates to new ideas and my sketchbook has already seen much action today.

11 Feb 2010

Why I include ‘shipping’ in my on-line prices

This subject comes up often in forum discussions and the way I do things and my thought processes is seemingly rather different from most other sellers. I include the shipping costs in the displayed prices of my jewellery pieces for sale. And this is why.

Be it out of laziness, or I’d prefer to think, ease of working, I use a very simplified method that I feel sure works well for me – I’ve done it this way for many years of on-line selling and am happy to continue with it. I’m not talking here about pricing formulas for individual items based on materials and time, that is well covered on-line already, but rather the methodology and thinking of what to include and where in the calculations – this is very much my personal approach. For the scope of this blog, I am only concerning myself with retail sales direct to customers – wholesale pricing is a whole different can of worms.

Many sellers are hobbyists and aren’t as concerned with covering every business expenditure, but some of us rely on the income as an important part, if not all, of our earnings. In my case, making and selling jewellery is one of the things I do professionally to put food on the table. My discussion is therefore on the assumption of a more business-footing approach of this nature.

I sell jewellery in several real world and on-line venues and each one has its own inherent costs. Over time and with experience, I feel fairly confident in saying that no matter where I sell a piece, it costs me a sum of money just to complete that transaction – to even put myself in a position where someone might buy it has cost implications. The process of making the work available and hopefully completing a transaction – in any venue – therefore costs money – in some cases it will even be more than the raw materials used for the piece.

In some cases, the packaging and costs of selling will be more than the raw materials.

For me, it is important to consider the direct costs of actually selling the piece alongside the actual materials used to make it – I suspect that not as many sellers as should, actually do this. The less obvious costs of presentation materials and packaging can seriously mount up if you want to make your sold items look good and arrive safely and it’s just as important that these costs are accounted for as the direct materials in the jewellery.

As an exercise some time ago I did actually work through the individual costs of selling in different venues, accounting for every sheet of tissue paper, adhesive tape, labels, business cards and transaction fees – along with an average, per item sold, amount I’d paid over a period of time for postage (my average orders are for 2-3 items). I wrote a list of the direct materials used and other direct costs for selling a particular example piece in different venues – from personal callers to on-line venues like Etsy.

The costs were surprisingly similar – or at least close enough for me to be happy to average them and use this calculation across all venues, for consistent pricing. I often see discussions on-line of different pricing policies, say for craft fairs as opposed to on-line. I don’t feel as though offering items at different prices in different venues is especially polite to customers – I’ve always felt that if I did this, it would somehow come back to bite me. If at a particular venue you feel you can secure a sale or multiple purchase by offering your customer a financial incentive, then you still have that option available on a per-sale basis – but only starting from the position of ensuring your costs are already covered secures you this potential option.

At craft fairs you have a multitude of costs to cover, although some of them can be attributed for marketing purposes.

All venues have their own costs:

If I sell to personal callers, this generally involves more of my time, possibly refreshments and they may write a personal cheque which needs to be banked and incurs fees – along with gift wrapping and carrying bags. At craft fairs I have table fees, liability insurance, display materials, parking, petrol, business cards and leaflets and carrier bags. When I sell mail order from my own site I have site and domain hosting fees, PayPal fees, presentation packing, thank you notes, packing materials and mailing cartons and postage. To sell on other venues like Etsy, I have their transaction fees (usually a combination of listing fee and percentage of the sale price) in place of my own web site costs.

I also know from experience that my average sale is for more than one item and at real-world venues like craft fairs, time spent with a customer, or handing out leaflets, won’t always secure a sale that day – but may well do so at some time in the future – so some of those costs would be considered as marketing too.

So as you can see, each venue has costs that balance out surprisingly evenly on a per-item-sold basis. When I make a piece and am working out the selling price, my price comprises three main elements – each of which is arrived at through other calculations:

  1. The materials directly used to make the piece;
  2. an hourly rate for the time taken to make it;
  3. and the direct costs of selling it.

The materials I simply work out depending on what I paid for them and the amount used – I round them up a little to allow for wastage and for incidental materials like polishing materials and solder. My hourly rate is arrived at by determining how much I want to earn, how many hours I will work on this aspect of my business and any direct overheads this aspect of my business incurs, like the jewellery specific insurance policy I hold, tool repair and replacement, a share of utilities and indirect costs like marketing.

For personal callers and craft fair sales I use branded gift bags.

The direct costs of selling are therefore an averaged amount I add to every piece comprising likely fees, some for wrapping materials and packaging, postage etc. I also include a small rounding up amount for self-insurance. Some orders I might lose a little, some I might gain. Over a year it works out incredibly close. If someone orders several items on-line, I have the capacity to upgrade to a premier postage service at no extra cost to them – or if that’s not suitable for them, refund any over-payment – I’ve done both several times.

The postal service in the UK does not cover for losses of jewellery sent through regular post, recommending the much more expensive Special Delivery for such items. I therefore decide on a per order basis which is more appropriate – the expense of the upgraded system, or to send at my own risk? I consequently send most items in the regular post, saving the customers the higher postage fees of routinely using Special Delivery, but bearing the risk of loss myself – which legally is my risk to bear. On the very odd occasion where something does go adrift, I have a small virtual fund available to cover the loss. I do offer Special Delivery (and international equivalents) as an upgrade option if the customer prefers the security of a guaranteed delivery date or tracked service.

My jewellery pieces are wrapped in tissue paper and then placed in my own hand made gift envelopes and sealed with ribbon.

As a piece is completed, I work out a price and place a price tag on the piece. This is therefore the price of that piece no matter where I sell it, as the costs of doing so are already covered.

It is a policy which receives a slightly mixed reaction – customers report that they love the ease of knowing that the price they see on the page is what they’re actually going to pay – they don’t have to worry about cumulative shipping costs if they add several items to their basket or trying to dig through the site to see what the cost implications are for shipping methods available. This transparency of my system is well-received by customers.

I am able to keep postage costs down by using postal cartons that protect the work very well and come inside the large letter pricing band.

But it has been questioned (by other sellers) that not knowing what hidden costs are allowed for shipping, if they’d potentially be over-paying. In the early days, I used a shipping-inclusive price for all buyers; domestic and overseas and this was certainly questioned – domestic customers felt they were subsidising the higher airmail postage costs for my international customers. In reality, I was largely just taking the hit on the overseas sales – in those days there were significantly fewer than now.

But on that reaction, I changed prices to include packaging and domestic-only postage and added a small supplement for overseas buyers for the difference in postage only. This now averages to a little over a pound per item after the PO re-structured their pricing based on size as well as weight – the differential between domestic and overseas mail closed slightly for sellers like me. I also settled on using fixed-sized rigid cartons (shown above) for my orders, that provide really good protection in transit and predictable and lower postage costs. On balance, for me, this is fairer and has worked out well.

This is certainly not a model that will work for everyone, but the consistent size and weight of my work leads to predictable packaging and postage costs that happen to balance out pretty closely to the costs of alternative selling venues. So for me, it makes sense to simplify things and sell at the same price in all venues, which for on-line sales, means that displayed prices include my shipping costs.