Have just been playing with yet another new piece of kit that I have just acquired - a barrel tumbling machine complete with compounds for finishing jewellery. Basically you just load your jewellery in the rubber barrel with the mediums, switch it on and it does the polishing and work hardening whilst you are free for other things. We have one in class and it really is a great piece of kit.
'Bluebell' is done and very pretty now that I have added the final tiny size 15 beads around the cabochon and added a lovely sterling silver clasp. I think it captures the feel of a bluebell wood quite nicely and the curlicues of wire were a great way to refer to the curly ends of the petals.
Just starting out on my first experiments with enamel and resin, my desire to have colour in my metalwork is leading me in this direction. Here is a rough sketch of my next piece with the metal roughly cut.
Next stage is annealing and hammering some texture before I get busy with the soldering torch. It's all go. I've got a nice crème brulee in the fridge so that if I get peckish I can use the little torch to melt the sugar topping. Yum!