Alteration & Additions

Turning a bracelet reduction into matching earrings

I met Wendy at my Dad's Open Studios event. He's a Potter and hosts other Artists for the weekend. This included Ian, a talented painter and his wife Wendy. Ian had this gorgeous bracelet commissioned for Her years ago, and it's always been a little bit big.

We got to talking and on hearing I make jewellery, enquired about an alteration.

"It's too long. Can you shorten it and make me an earring from the spare link?"

Yes Wendy, I can, and it'll look brand new when I'm finished with it.

I sketched Wendy a few ideas of what we could do with the spare parts. She confirmed her choice and I got to it....

This job would require silver wire, plier work and a steady hand. I'd be making two earrings from the spare parts. Being very different shapes, I worked the wire into drop down segments, choosing lengths that felt balanced.

The first task however was to shorten the bracelet and re-attach the clasp on the end.

I soldered the spare pieces (they have to be cut to be removed).

Then, on low heat, I assembled the earring components. Every solder join then gets filed and fine sanded in preparation for oxidising and polishing.

Polishing any kind of chain incurs a risk.

I don't like to film it as high concentration is a must. This time I did document the polishing machine process, including all the other methods listed above in the video below....

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/08f10a_9e10f485f09d49feb06d7b348b0a42b6/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Should you have an alteration in mind, do get in touch. Send a photo and description of the work you need to isabelwhite@hotmail.co.uk and i'll get back to you wIth a quote,

Thanks for reading :)

Isabel