A big hello to Helmut who asked me how I cut the tiny circles from a china plate.

There’s two ways really.

1. Some people use a drill with a Diamond Hole Saw Bitand a Diamond Coated Circular Drill Bit. I have bought the drill bits but haven’t used them yet.  I am concerned that the china glaze may chip but have yet to experiment.
2. The method I use is to first cut out circles from masking tape.  I place a circle on the area I wish to isolate.  I use a Tile Nipper to break the plate.  The first breaks are a little unpredictable but with care and patience you can get very close to the final cirular shape.  Next, the edges need to be smoothed.  For this I use a Dremel Multitool with a Diamond Cutting Disc.

That’s about it.  I hope it helps.

 

Today I’d like to tell you all about Conscious Crafties.

It’s a bit difficult to explain all of what the organisation does – but essentially it’s a network of craftspeople who are chronically ill.  ConsciousCrafties.com is a sales platform – crafters have individual shops on the site – but more than this, it provides support and encouragement to ‘spoonies’ and their carers.  There’s a Facebook page liked by 6441 people (and counting).

(A brief word here about spoonies.  The term comes from Christine Miserandino’s spoon theory where she describes to a friend of hers what it feels like to live with her condition. Since they were in a restaurant at the time, she used a handful of spoons to explain how her energy level is steadily depleted by each task she faces during the day.)

Just in case you were wondering how I came to know these folk –  I have a shop on Conscious Crafties too.  This is because I have bipolar disorder and have suffered with depression since my teens.  I could write pages about that, but will save it for another post… or two.  I’ll add a link to my shop shortly, but if you’re interested in buying my broken china jewellery you can do it right here on silvermoodrings.com – or you can head over to ConsciousCrafties.com and buy there which will support the whole community.

 

 

Just because I usually work by combining broken china with silver doesn’t mean that it’s not fun to do something completely different occasionally.

I made this ring for myself (and one for my daughter too!) by manipulating molten silver.

The result is delightfully organic and very sparkly.  Of course, if you want one of these, just drop me a line!