Wedding Cufflinks for the Groom

The last of my Christmas orders has now been posted and the last present wrapped (which is extremely organised for me). This is my last blog post before Christmas and so I thought I would share with you a recent custom jewellery order that I made. This is for a lovely Christmas wedding that is due to take place a couple of days after Christmas day. The bride to be wanted a pair of cufflinks making for the groom and the cufflinks were to incorporate a small sample of her wedding dress.

Wedding dress cufflinks for the groom

And these are the cufflinks that I made for her. They are sterling silver and the wedding dress material has been set within resin within the silver flat cups. As always the resin has brought out the texture of the material and I think they are a lovely gift for her husband to be. I really do need very little wedding dress material for making these; approximately one inch square of fabric is ample. The tricky part is cutting the fabric into perfect oval shapes to fit inside the cufflinks but I have had plenty of practice! I hope the couple have a lovely winter wedding and that the groom treasures his cufflinks for years to come.

I wish all my blog followers, fellow crafters and customers a very Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year.

Best Wishes

Mick

Horse hair Bangle

You may remember a recent blog post where I announced the lucky winner of my horse hair jewellery giveaway. Well this is what she won; as part of the giveaway I asked the horse owner if they could send me some long lengths of horse tail hair for me to make a new range of horse hair jewellery. Well Louise kindly sent me some long strands of hair from her new pony and I made them into this horse hair bangle for her.

Horse Hair Bangle

I love the effects of the hair twisting around within this handmade resin bangle and can’t wait to make some more of these.

I have had quite a few commissions of horse hair jewellery over the last few weeks leading up to Christmas. I particularly liked this order for a matching set of jewellery.

This bracelet is sterling silver and the horse hair has been set within each charm in a criss-cross pattern. I have also engraved the back of each charm with the name of the horse and have included fine amber glitter within each charm (although you can’t see that within the photograph).

Horse Hair Bracelet

My wife likes the bracelet so much that she would like one too; even though she isn’t a horse owner! To match the bracelet I made these horse hair earrings. Again sterling silver and the name of the horse engraved onto the back of each earring.

Horse Hair Earrings

And to finish the set of jewellery is this sterling silver pendant engraved on the back and hung from a leather thong style necklace chain.

Horse Hair Necklace

I love the effects that can be achieved by using horse hair within jewellery and if you would like to see more examples please visit my horse hair jewellery website gallery.

Mick

Custom Jewellery - Microchip Cufflinks

I am often asked to preserve some very interesting items for people within my custom made jewellery and last week was one of those occasions. I was contacted by a UK company who specialise in the design and manufacture of wireless microcontrollers. These microcontrollers are used in many applications such as controlling smart lighting for homes, offices and even street lighting.

The lady who contacted me was organising a retirement gift for an employee and asked if she could send me some of their microchips (the electronic component type, not the McCaine type) for me to place within silver cufflinks. The microchips are part of the microcontrollers that the company manufacture, are 4mm square and paper thin. I encased them in resin onto a pair of sterling silver cufflinks and this was the result.

Microchip Cufflinks

It was the man’s retirement day today and I hope he liked his gift; I think the microchip cufflinks are certainly a very thoughtful gift by the company and I am sure they will bring back very fond memories for him.

The Daisy from the Glass Jar

I live everyday by the slogan on my website ‘...more than just jewellery...’ because I truly believe there is far more to my jewellery making than just creating pieces of jewellery. I am often asked to help people who are going through difficult times, for example with my hair keepsake jewellery. Other people have a story to tell and want a keepsake making as a reminder of a moment in their lives.

This became evident this week when a lady purchased a daisy necklace from my website shop and left the following story after receiving it. It is extremely moving and I thank her for giving me the opportunity to share it.

“When I was a little girl, winter nights were filled with terror because of my father, so I picked a daisy in the summer (nature was where I took my comfort) and sealed it in an opaque glass jar, so that when things got bad again, I would be able to open the glass jar and see and feel the daisy.

Daisy Flower

I waited and waited until things got so bad it was difficult to bear and I opened my glass jar. I was so excited. I peeled the Sellotape off of the lid, strip by strip in anticipation. When I finally opened it, the daisy was black and mouldy. I think my heart broke.

Now all these years later with beautiful children and grandchildren of my own, my daisy is back. It is such a wonderful feeling to know that the heart break of that night all those years ago has been healed and the past re written.

I know this is possibly too much information for you, and I apologise for taking your time, but you should know how powerful this has been for me and how grateful I am to you, your skill and your Art.

This is my daisy from the glass jar. Bless you and thank you again”.

Daisy Flower Necklace

This story means more to me than anything and I feel very honoured to have brought such joy from the things that I do. I will continue to follow my website slogan and comments like the above continue to make the things that I do extremely worthwhile!

Mick