An acrylic painting of a...
Susan Betty Art
£25.00 1 in stock
“Heartfelt Creations - Unique Individual Handcrafted Jewellery”
I'm Back!!
If you are local to Bedford and wish to view my Jewellery in person, then please message me to arrange private viewing.
New creations will be listed in a few months, so Watch this Space!
Here are some things just listed by other crafters and sellers on Folksy.
I am married (34 years) with 2 beautiful grown-up daughters (neither of which wear jewellery!), and 3 cats who often visit me in the studio just to make sure I am 'doing it right'.
I am a metal clay artist working mainly in Fine Silver clay. I create all my jewellery by hand from design to finished item. The only mechanical appliances used are the Kiln for firing the clay, and the polishing tumbler at the end for the final high shine polish. That said I do utilise texture mats and plates to apply texture and patterns, as well as taking moulds from nature, and of course creating my own designs, patterns and textures.
I love working with glass and gemstone cabachons, and am often inspired by nature. I sometimes fuse my own glass cabachons, which makes the piece even more special (in my eyes at least), and sometimes I dabble with enamels. I occasionally work with copper and bronze metal clays, but my heart really lies with Silver. I also enjoy making beaded earrings, which I guess is where my love for making jewellery really did start some 30+ years ago.
I first became involved with Silver metal clay some 20 years ago. What started as a hobby, at around 2007 it became my full time self employed occupation. I created, I taught, I had a market stall where I sold, I attended craft fairs, I gave talks on it. I loved it.
The recession hit in 2014 and after a year of virtually no sales or covering my costs, I lost my passion and decided to take a year off. That turned into 5 years and me being adament that I would not be returning to the world of jewellery. I gave up my hallmark, and ventured into my studio with the view of packing it all up. It was so sad. Everything was as I had left it having packed up after the 2014 christmas market, and I suddenly felt heartbroken. But as I started going through everything, finding photos of jewellery long sold, creations finished but forgotten about, feedback forms from students I had taught, packs of unopened clay, I realised just how much I had missed creating and working with metal clay, and particularly fine silver.
So the result of what was supposed to be a packing up of my studio, was a tidied studio, a reclaimed passion and desire to create, and around 5 months of planning, making, getting back my hallmark, and working out how I can do all this again along side a full time job. Folksy seemed to be the answer, something I hadn't explored last time around, but pleased to be on here now.
Thank you for visiting my shop, and taking the time to read about me.
Blessings to All
Jane
About Metal Clay: You create your design in the putty, wet stage. Let it dry. Do a few more creating and finishing techniques in its dry state, and then when its completely 'as you want it', you fire it in a kiln, which sinters all the particles back in to solid metal. Amazing stuff! A few more finishing techniques by hand to get it nice and shiny, and there you have it.
My Jewellery may have slight imperfections! Each piece has been loving created by me, by hand and by eye. It is not machine accurate or perfect. The detailed photographs show absolutely all of these inperfections, which to the naked eye aren't visable or obvious. That said, each piece is individual, and if you find my Facebook page and look at The Sold Gallery, you will see that not one piece of jewellery has been duplicated in the 20 years I have been working with it. Variations on a theme perhaps, but no two pieces are the same.
As per the Hallmarking act 1973, any of my silver weighing 7.78g or more is sent to the London Assay Office for Hallmarking prior to being made available for sale. Items under 7.78g do not need to be hallmarked to be sold as silver.
Find Jane de Lacey Munday - Metal Clay Artist on social media