My Latest Projects

I've been working on some new additions to Dalkullan Jewelry lately. That, and a secret project, which is going to be a gift -- I'll be blogging about that after I've given it to the intended recipient -- don't want to spoil the surprise. :)

I'm planning on doing more jewelry in solid 14K yellow gold. Here's a picture of something that's currently available at Dalkullan, my Hammered 14K Solid Gold Earrings. I completely handcrafted these earrings, and its a lot of fun to anneal and shape the metal using a couple of my favorite hammers.

I'm working on a couple of pierced earring styles in solid gold, one will be set with gorgeous Tsarovite Garnets. Tsarovite Garnets are an incredible green color, simply gorgeous gems! I'm very excited to be offering these lovely and luxurious gems at Dalkullan.

There is also a genuine Ruby and Pink Sapphire ring, set in opulent 14K yellow gold on the drawing board. I'm thrilled with this ring, in fact, I'm making the first one for myself. Ruby is my birthstone, and I've always wanted a ruby ring. Maybe you've always wanted one, too. ;)

If solid 14K gold and genuine Rubies are out of your price range, no problem. Here's a pretty ring, with a lab created Ruby, set in handcrafted sterling, at a very affordable price. The Ruby and Sterling Ring.

There are other new adornments on the way at Dalkullan Jewelry so be sure to check back for the latest info.

Thanks so much for dropping by, it's been grand having you here!

We're having a sale at Dalkullan Jewelry!

I've never had a sale at Dalkullan Jewelry before, and decided now is the time. Well, I've had sales, as in sold jewelry, of course, but I've never marked down my prices on certain items before. I'm taking Dalkullan Jewelry in a different direction than I was charting originally. I'm going to be focusing on fabricating jewelry from precious metals, and incorporating precious and semi-precious gems. I'm very excited in the new work I have in my shop, and in the lovely creations still on my jeweler's bench and my sketch book!

This new focus brings with it a great opportunity for you to own some gorgeous handcrafted jewelry at a very favorable price. I've marked down all the beautiful flameworked bead jewelry, 9 different colors and styles of earrings, all with sterling handmade earwires. The entire Lifesaver Line, shown in the picture above, is marked down from $25.00 to $20.00, and the shipping to U.S. and Canada is free. They'll arrive in a jewelry box, gift wrapped, and ready to give to that special someone, or for you to treasure.

This is a one of a kind earring, and it's on sale, too. I bought these lovely flame worked beads at the Bead & Button Show in Milwaukee a couple years ago, and thought they'd make a gorgeous pair of earrings. Hope you agree!

Don't you just love that shade of green? So fresh and spring-like. And they ship free to the U.S. and Canada.

There are more earrings on sale, just drop by Dalkullan Jewelry to see them all.

Happy shopping! Wishing you joy today and always.

Second time on the Etsy front page

Dalkullan Jewelry had the wonderful experience of being on the Etsy front page for a second time! My lovely Hammered 14k Gold Earrings were in a Treasury that was featured.

Christine of dollcloset was the curator of the Treasury. Christine makes beautiful things for American Girls size dolls, drop by dollcloset for a fun shopping experience!

I didn't make a sale of the earrings, but did get 3 sales of other items, and the gold earrings garnered a lot of clicks and hearts.

As luck would have it, I was without computer access at the time, and missed all the excitement. It was quite a wonderful surprise when I could finally log in, though!

Thanks for dropping by!
Heather

Sterling Celtic Earrings

My latest design at Dalkullan Jewelry is inspired by Celtic symbols. I'm part Irish, and would love to visit the ancestral homeland someday -- some of my ancestors are from County Cork. But in the meantime, I have a lovely new pair of earrings to remind me of my heritage.

I made numerous drawings of the design before I settled on the one I finally crafted in sterling. I'd originally thought to put a cabochon in the center of each of the 3 silver swirls per earring, but that would have been too heavy. I toyed with the idea of using nephrite jade for the cabochons, but genuine jade is a darker green than I wanted for my design.

Aventurine is a lovely, spring green, with some darker inclusions. It reminds me of green connemara marble. It has such a wonderful contrast with the brightness of the sterling, I think they go very well together.

This is the first design I've crafted where the earwire is soldered to the earring -- it just flows from the main part of the earring. It's a graceful look; I like all the swirls and curves to the design.

If you would like to add Sterling Celtic Earrings to your jewelry wardrobe, I'd be happy to craft a pair just for you!

Sterling Buds -- Earrings

The newest creation, Sterling Buds, is up at my Etsy shop. I took the photos of them using my new lightbox, which I made myself from directions I found online. It's turning out to be very useful, because today is cloudy and rainy, without the lightbox I'd have been stuck as far as photography goes.

I've been learning how to set stones, so far I've done bezel setting, which involved carefully pushing around the rim of the metal cup the cabochon is nestled in, to rub over the metal and hold the stone in. It's definitely harder than it looks to do, and takes a surprising amount of force. That's how the lapis cabochons in Sterling Buds were set.

Yesterday a box of supplies from Rio Grande, a wonderful source of jewelry making things, arrived. I'm excited about it, but also have a certain amount of trepidation, because I'm going to branch out into a new method of stone setting, tube setting. It involved drilling out the end of a tiny piece of sterling tubing, just the right size for the gemstone to sit down into the hole, and then rubbing the rim down over the edge of the stone. I'm going to be working with 3mm faceted gemstones, which are pretty tiny, so please wish me luck, and steady hands! I'll keep you posted how things are going.

Moon and Stars -- Sterling and Pearls

Moon & Stars, in sterling with pearl dangles, is a completely hand fabricated design. I begin with a sheet of sterling, and punch out two disks. The next step is trickier, taking out the central disk, to leave the hole in the first disk.

I have a heavy sheet of plastic, with holes of various diameters cut out in it, and line up the correct size hole over a sterling disk, until I have it just right, then mark the location with a Sharpie. I use that mark to line up the disk in the cutter, then punch out the hole. I could also use a jeweler's saw to make the disks, but I prefer to use a disk cutter -- it makes perfectly round disks every time.

The next step is to metal pieces of sterling scrap for the round sterling balls. I put the scrap on a charcoal block, and melt the silver with a torch. It's a lot of fun, the metal gets shiny, and then begins to curl up on itself, until it forms a nice round ball with a flat bottom. If I want to make a completely round sphere of sterling, I'd just scoop out a little hemisphere in the charcoal block to place the scrap sterling in before melting.

I do the finishing of the disk before I solder the sterling balls on. It's much easier to file, sand, and texture the disks beforehand, which is something I've learned from experience. I used a coarse file to create the texture on the disks, suggesting the surface of a moon after oblique meteor impact.

After sweat soldering on the sterling balls with medium solder, I attach the two jump rings using easy solder. Since the medium solder needs a higher temperature to melt than easy solder, the sterling balls stay securely soldered.

The final steps are attaching the freshwater pearl dangles using wire wrapping -- pearls are too delicate to take the heat of soldering, and adding handcrafted sterling earwires. And voila! A new earring design is complete, ready to be photographed and listed at Dalkullan Jewelry.

Etsy Gift Guide

A pair of my wire wrapped sterling earrings were picked for an August Etsy Gift Guide -- Shades of Peridot. Peridot is the birthstone for August, and my Silver Cherry Tree leaves come already wrapped in beautiful Swedish paper. If you know any ladies with an August birthday, they'd make the perfect gift!

I crafted the Silver Cherry Tree Leaves earrings from sterling silver, and embellished them with genuine semi-precious Peridot and the soft gleam of freshwater pearls.

Please drop by my Etsy shop, Dalkullan Jewelry, to see more pictures of these gorgeous earrings, and also my complete line of handcrafted, original designs.

Moon and Stars -- Mixed Metal Earrings

Just listed these at Dalkullan Jewelry.
The lovely color variations on the brass disk are the result of heating the brass.
I made the shiny balls by melting sterling with my trusty torch, and then soldered them onto the disks.
I've been thinking about this design for months, but needed to get the right tools, and hone my torch skills, so that I could make them. Thanks for dropping in and taking a look!

Sterling Disk Earrings

These earrings were fun to make, with the added plus that I learned a lot. They're the first pair of post earrings I've made, and soldering on the wire took a bit of doing.

But, first things first. I started by using my trusty disk cutter to punch out .5 inch circles from sterling stock, and then textured the disks with the sharper end of a riveting hammer. My sweet hubby was kind enough to file and smooth the rivet hammer so it makes a nice impression on the metal. And first impressions are so important, don't you think?

I marked the center and drilled a hole part way through the back, to provide a little pocket for the tip of the earwire to fit. This makes a stronger join than just soldering the wire tip to a flat metal surface. I fired up my little torch, and soldered on the earwires to the disks, and also melted a couple pieces of sterling into nice round balls.

Alas, the little round balls didn't stay round for long! I put them on my bench block and pounded and textured them, too. Then they were sweat soldered (that sounds a bit disgusting, but it's just melting the solder on the back of one piece, laying it solder-side down on another, and then heating it to soldering the two together) and I followed up with a bit of filing and sanding.

Then a few hours jostling in the tumbler, and they were ready for their photo shoot. Hope you enjoyed reading about how the Sterling Disk Earrings were made, and thank so much for stopping by!

Hammered Brass Earrings

Here is the finished project. I decided against adding the bronze dyed freshwater pearls, I think just the two metals look so lovely, and the simple elegance of the design doesn't need any more adornment.

I textured the brass part of the earrings with a ball pein hammer, and then annealed the metal. Annealing is heating with a torch until the crystalline structure of the metal becomes malleable again. When metal is worked, it becomes harder and brittle, but annealing it makes it easy to bend again. Then I did a final dapping, to shape the earrings. With the addition of handcrafted sterling earwires the earrings were finished.

The background in the photo is a pottery piece I inherited from my Aunt, the same Aunt from Dalarne in Sweden that Dalkullan Jewelry is named for. My Aunt owned an inport shop in Chicago called Dalkullan, which means 'girl from Dalarne' which she was, and I chose the name to honor her memory, and my Father's, who was also from Dalarne.

Fabricating Metal Earrings

I'm working on a new earring design, and it's one that I'm fabricating from sheet metal and wire.

The picture to the right is a piece of brass sheet metal, and you can see the holes where I've punched disks out. Using a disk cutter, I slide the sheet metal into it, strike a couple blows with a household hammer on the cutter, and out pops a lovely round metal disk. It's a lot easier and more accurate than the way I used to make circular metal disks, using a jeweler's saw.

Next I cut an addition hole out of the first disk, this one off-center. Then I hammer the metal with the ball end of a ball pein jeweler's hammer, to texture the metal. And finally I give the metal a rounded form, using a dapping block and punches.

A dapping block is a heavy piece of steel with hemispherical depressions tooled into it, and the corresponding punches are bars of metal with spherical steel ends that mate up with the holes in the dap. Using a dap makes it possible to evenly round a piece of metal.

The earring still needs to be filed and polished, and have an earwire attached.
I'm going to use a sterling earwire, and maybe a bronze colored freshwater pearl. As you can see, it's a work in progress, but I hope you've enjoyed getting a little glimpse into how I make jewelry.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Lifesaver Earrings

I'm working on a new line of earrings, which will be called Lifesaver Earrings. They'll be in lovely pastel colors, with hand soldered wires, using the skills I picked up in my recent soldering course.
I bought the beads at the Bead & Button show, they look a bit like lifesavers candy, and have a frosted appearance like beach glass. I'm really excited about the new earring line, and hope you'll like them too!
The earrings will be in my etsy shop this week, and I'll put some photos up here, too!

Soldering Class

Last week at the Milwaukee Bead & Button Show I took a class in soldering. I've done some soldering before, I've made a couple pairs of earrings for myself and one of my daughters, but wanted to improve my technique. And this was definitely the class to do just that.
The class was taught by Mr. Joe Silvera, you can reach him online. He crafts amazing jewelry, and also teaches jewelry making classes. Joe is very patient, encouraging, and explains things clearly. He provided a lot of demonstrations in different aspects of soldering, which I really enjoyed. It's always fun and relaxing to watch someone else work, and to learn something too is a definite plus.
We melted sterling wire to form little balls of silver, learned to solder jump rings closed, and to solder jump rings together. In class we completed a pair of soldered sterling earrings, with a hammered and soldered motif at the bottom. Unfortunately I was a couple hours late to class, but I did manage to finish the project during class time. Overall I'm pleased with the outcome, I met my objective in learning more about soldering, and saw some wonderful demonstrations. The hammered motif on the bottom of the earrings has some symmetry issues, but the soldered joints look really good, and they're strong, which is what I was focusing on. With more practice I feel confident that I'll soon be incorporating soldering into my designs for my shop, and that's exciting! There are so many ideas I have which I really need to solder to execute. Jewelry crafting is a creative adventure, one that I'm enjoying immensely.
The earrings were a lot of fun to make,and I'm looking forward to crafting my own designs, and perfecting my soldering technique.

Etsy Showcase

Today I have a showcase running on Etsy.com, featuring the earrings pictured above. If you want to see it, go to etsy, click on showcase, then select 'gift guides' from the pulldown menu.
I'm hoping that buying this showcase time will increase my site traffic, and hopefully net me that elusive first (hopefully more!) sale. So far I have noticed more traffic than usual, but not a lot. It will be very interesting tomorrow to see what Google Analytics has to say.
It's hard to get noticed online. There are so many people selling stuff, and it seems like most of them are selling jewelry. I keep improving my website -- etsy is really tops in providing information on how to do that! -- and working on creating new designs.
I've got high hopes for the showcase spot. If the numbers look good from Analytics, I think I'll buy a slot on the main showcase. The gift one was $7 and the main one is $15, so it's a pretty big investment, but versus having a brick and mortar store, it's very cost effective. At least that's what I keep trying to tell myself. Having a 100% negative cash flow is worrying. I spent a couple hours in the middle of the night laying awake in bed wondering if I'm doing the right thing in pursuing this.
I just bought a tumbler, more sterling wire, and mixed stainless steel shot for the tumbler. It takes a lot of expensive equipment to be able to fabricate jewelry, and so far my husband has been very supportive, but I do feel increasingly guilty about the amount of money I'm spending.
Maybe the middle of a major recession isn't the best time to try and start a small business, lol.