Melted silver pendant free shape silver casting. Jewelry design by Arctida.

Making silver jewelry is a lot of fun but recycling old jewelry pieces and scraps (meaning melting silver) is even more fun 😍 Here is a pendant made of a couple of broken pieces and failed experiments that I had. The technique is called silver casting, basically you melt silver and pour it into something that will give the silver it’s shape or pattern. For my pendant tree branches and dried pees were used.

 

 

 For more of my fine silver jewelry click here

Khione - Shadow box pendant fine silver cubic zirconia. Jewelry design by Arctida.

Here is a third piece from my exam work for Precious Metal Clay certification. This time it is a beautiful fine silver pod shaped pendant with cubic zirconia inside. The pendant has been polished to a mirror shine which in combination with brilliant cut cubic zirconia gives it extra bling bling :)

 For more of my pmc fine silver jewelry click here

Dichroic glass fine silver cocktail ring. Jewelry design by Arctida.

Here is a second piece from my exam work for Precious Metal Clay certification. This time it is a large fine silver cocktail ring with gorgeous Dichroic glass cab. The pretty green blue pink ring is very season appropriate to post on the first day of Spring, me think :)
 

 

For more of my pmc fine silver jewelry click here

Elsa - Rock Crystal Clear Quartz earrings wire wrapped in sterling silver. Jewelry design by Arctida.

New minimalistic bling bling in my shop :) This time it is Rock Crystal Clear Quartz earrings wire wrapped in sterling silver with pretty lever-backs. A gift idea for the ladies born in April or a simple pair of earrings for a bride-to-be perhaps...

 

For more of my bridal jewelry click here

Flower bracelet Fine silver Cubic zirconia. Jewelry design by Arctida.

Last spring I achieved my Precious Metal Clay certification and I thought I'll show you some of my exam work. The first one is a pretty Flower bracelet made of hand-carved fine silver flowers with Cubic zirconia and sterling silver findings.

For more of my pmc fine silver jewelry click here

Pearl earrings Keshi pearls Pink freshwater pearls and Rose Quartz in Argentium sterling silver. Jewelry design by Arctida.

The spring is only one month away and so is the start of the wedding season. I wanted to show you my latest custom order for a bride-to-be. She wanted a pair of earnings with classic white pearls but also lots of pink color mixed into design... So here is the result: Pearl earrings with white Keshi pearls, white coin pearls, different shade of pink freshwater pearls and Rose Quartz briolettes in Argentium sterling silver.

 

For more of my bridal jewelry click here

Natural leaf textured fine silver pendant. Jewelry design by Arctida.

The holidays are over and it is time to get back to blogging :) 

Last year I've started teaching beginner metal clay class and I thought I'll show you what my students can make in my classes. Here is the first one and it is one of the most popular projects for beginners - making a jewelry piece from real leaves. This pendant is made by me as a demo for my students using precious metal clay paste and I've chosen a Coleus leaf as a *model* because of it beautiful texture and pretty shape.  

  For more of my pmc fine silver jewelry click here

Massive silver ring, tree bark textured wide band. Jewelry design by Arctida.

New bling bling for the boys in my shop! This time it is a hand carved massive silver ring with tree bark texture for men or for the ladies who like wide bands. Its made of fine silver 999 and I can make it in any size or as wide/small as one might desire :)

 

 To see more of my mens jewelry collection click here

For more of my pmc fine silver jewelry click here

Cloisonné Enamel fine silver blue green Mosaic pendant. Handmade enameled jewelry by Arctida.

I've been wanting to try enameling for a some time now and so when the opportunity arose I had to take it! I've chosen Cloisonné enamel technique for my first pendant but more pieces with other  enamel techniques are on the way :)

Cloisonné is an ancient technique for decorating metalwork objects by fusing glass onto metal. It is a very specific and time consuming process but the end result can be spectacular and the colors will not fade because the material is glass.

For this piece I first made a patterned fine silver pendant, added fine silver cells (cloisons in French), filled them with different shades of blue greens enamels, made a number of successive firings to establish color control and hand polished the pendant to a glossy finish.

Elina - Golden Rutilated Quartz earrings and necklace set wire wrapped 14K gold filled. Handmade gemstone jewelry by Arctida.

One of my most favorite semiprecious gemstones to work with and to wear is Golden Rutilated Quartz. It looks like a frozen drop of water with small bars of imbedded gold. And when the light hits it just right all that gold explodes with tons of sparkles! oh and did you know what one of the names for Golden Rutile Quartz is Venus Hair Stone. The name is based on a beautiful legend. There was once Venus, goddess of love bathed in mountain springs. Having lost a lock of her golden hair, she returned to pick it up. But the time is a relative thing, what on Mount Olympus were only a few moments, on Earth were several months! The winter came and the water in the spring along with the hair was frozen. They looked so beautiful in the frozen water, so Venus decided to leave her wonderful hair, but turned the ice into a transparent stone first (from the Greek. "kristallus - ice) so that no one can take the hair of the goddess. And ever since that time people have found a clear crystal that holds the divine hair  of Venus. No wonder that gem is so beautiful! How can one not love the gem containg hair from the Goddess of Love?!

So here is my latest earrings and necklace set with Golden Rutilated Quartz and gold filled :)

For more of my Golden Rutilated Quartz jewelry click here