Showing posts with label silver spoon jewelry. Show all posts

Monday, November 8, 2021

New Broken China Jewelry & Silver Spoon Bracelets In My Etsy Shop

I have been busy in my workshop all week! Here are a few of the new pieces of broken china jewelry that I listed in my Etsy shop last night.

I still have more to list and hope to get them up later this afternoon. Then it will be back to the workshop again to create even more new pieces!

If you see something you like, don't wait. Many of you have heard about the shipping delays which seem to have carried over from last year - it's true. Although some packages are delivered straight away without delay, many are taking longer than usual to arrive, so if you see something you like, especially for a gift or for the holidays, don't wait. Purchase and I usually ship within 24 hours, excluding weekend days when the post office is closed.

I've had to suspend my international shipping due to the very long delays - you can contact me through my shop if you have any questions about this and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. I might reinstate shipping to Canada for the holidays, or do it on a per-request basis. I'm still thinking that over.

In the meantime, Happy November! I hope you enjoy looking at these and be sure to check back later for more...

With kind regards as always,

Laura

All pieces can be found in my Etsy shop, Dishfunctional Designs

Friday, January 29, 2016

Treasure Hunting Thursdays: There's A Secret In These Spoons

I've decided to devote Thursday blog posts to treasure hunting. If you're familiar with my blog you probably figured out right away that treasure hunting for me means thrift store shopping, flea markets, used book sales, the occasional auction or estate sale, and even eBay finds. Yay!

So from now on I am going to try to make it a point to reserve Thursday blog posts for sharing my most awesome finds and treasure hunting tips and adventures. Of course, not all treasure hunting days are a win, but there's always something good in every day; interesting and funny things I find along the way, so I will share those things here. And I want to hear about your own treasure hunting travels too! So please be sure to leave comments after the post, and do share with us your best and most interesting treasure hunting finds. More about the spoons pictured above in a little bit...but first...

This past weekend we had our first snow storm of winter (finally!) We got over 30 inches of snow!

This was the view looking into my front yard during the storm. It looks like powdered sugar!

I had my daughters for the weekend and we planned to cook and bake lots of great things. These were what everyone wanted: Elephant Ear Cookies! I hadn't make them for a long time and I think they disappeared instantly! I'll post the recipe in the next day or two. If you've never had them you're missing out, because they are an amazing combination of cinnamon and sugar mixed with a yeast dough pastry, and the texture is just out of this world! So get a pack of yeast and some parchment paper for baking and check back in a day or two for the recipe. (find it here)

During the storm I found Sam asleep on top of a tall bookcase in my workshop. My cats follow me around all day and love to hang out with me when I'm working in my workshop. I just love how he covers his face with his paw when he sleeps :)

Now back to those spoons...

Here they are. Five of them. Ornate handles. Perfect for making into jewelry. Or are they?

I bought these spoons in an eBay auction that was a box lot of maybe 15-20 pieces of various patterned silverplated spoons and forks for about $10.00. I bought them a long time ago and stashed them away. Then later pulled them out to maybe make them into some jewelry. But on closer inspection...

I found they were solid sterling silver! Wow! I had no idea, and apparently neither did the person who sold them to me. I'm guessing they didn't bother to check the marks on the backs of the spoons.

They are marked "International Sterling". "International" is the manufacturer name, and "Sterling" is well, sterling silver. Flatware cannot be marked "sterling" unless it is solid sterling silver. Any other flatware is silver plated, coin silver, or if its modern, is most likely stainless steel. Also, just for a bit of trivia, there is no such thing as "sterling silver plated" because something cannot be marked sterling unless it is sold sterling silver through and through.

The value of these five spoons? Around $200.00!

Lesson for the day: if you're selling something, always check first to make sure it not a valuable antique. Same goes for if you are going to use something that is old as a craft material!

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Laura

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Article copyright ©Laura Beth Love 2022 and may not be republished in print or other media without express written permission from the author. For any link updates or corrections leave correct info in comment area

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Jewelry Tutorial: Pretty Silver Spoon Handle Pendant Necklace

I love the patterns on old silverplated flatware! If I'm lucky, I can often find one or two orphaned spoons or forks when I am out cruising the thrift stores or flea markets. What to do with a pretty old spoon? How about turning it into a unique necklace pendant? Follow along and I'll show you how to do just that!

Here are the tools and materials you will need:

One vintage silverplated spoon or fork with a pretty handle

One 2" headpin

A few 4-6mm beads

Bench vice grip secured to a workbench or table

Jeweler's hand saw with blade

A metal file

Hand drill with small bit (about 4mm) and wood block to drill into

Two lengths of jewelry chain in whatever length you desire. I used two 10" lengths of chain.

A lobster-claw style clasp

Three 6mm jump rings

Two pair of jewelry pliers (chain nose or rosary pliers work well)

Jewelry side cutters

1. Choose a spoon or fork that has a pretty handle.

2. Secure the spoon or fork in your bench vice so that it stays firmly in place while you saw it. (I also have my vice clamped to my workbench so that it does not move around while I am working.) Determine where you want to cut. You can make a mark on your spoon with a marker if that makes it easier for you. I simply eyeball it and cut a little bit below where the bulk of the design stops.

3. Use your jewelry saw to cut off the end of your spoon or fork. Hold the saw vertically and saw in an up and down motion. The size of saw blade isn't super important here, as we are simply cutting the end off of the spoon.

4. Use your drill with bit and drill a hole into the end of your spoon handle at the end where you made the saw cut. I like to drill my holes about 1/8" in from the end. Make sure you drill into a block of wood.

5. Use a metal file to smooth down any sharp or pointy edges from the cut end of your spoon handle.

6. This image shows the chain assembly. Use one 6mm jump ring and thread it through the hole in your spoon. Thread one end of each of your two lengths of jewelry chain onto the same open jump ring and then close the jump ring. Scroll down and take a look at image 16 if you do not know how to open a jump ring.

7. This image shows the chain assembly with the chain attached and jump ring closed. Now it's time to add some beads to our pendant to give it a little bit of color!

8. Get out your beads! For my pendant, I used two small beads that were each about 5mm in size. I used a silver bead and a turquoise bead.

9. Thread your beads onto your headpin.

10. Grip the headpin above the beads and use your chain nose or rosary pliers (pliers with a rounded end) to form a loop in the head pin above the beads.

11. Thread the end of the head pin through the jump ring that you used to attach the chain to your spoon pendant.

12. Use one pair of your pliers to hold the head pin at the loop that you just created. Use your second pair of pliers in your other hand to grip the tail end of the head pin wire. Wrap the head pin wire around the "neck" of the head pin between the beads and the loop.

13. Continue to wrap the tail end of the head pin wire until you run out of room on the neck. Twice is usually sufficient.

14. Use your side cutter pliers to cut the remaining tail end of wire from the head pin. Use your chain nose pliers to tuck in any pointy end of wire into the previous wire wraps.

15. This image shows the assembly for the clasp. Chain end, jump ring, clasp, jump ring, and other chain end. Open the jump rings (see step 16 below) and thread on the chain ends and clasp in the order as shown in the photo and then close the jump rings.

16. The correct way to open a jump ring is to use two pair of pliers

(I had to take the photo with one hand so my image only shows one!) Hold the jump ring seam-side up. Grip the jump ring with one pair of pliers on each side of the seam and use a twisting motion, turning the pliers opposite directions of each other to open the jump ring at its seam. Close the jump ring by using the same motion, bringing the end of the jump ring back together.