pickle salts and freshwater pearls

a yummy cheese and pickle sandwich

Not too far from where I live is the lovely Vale of Belvoir village of Colston Bassett which is famous for its cheese. I got to try some at the historic village inn when I had a cheese and pickle sandwich along with a pint of  local ale.  It was delicious albeit pricey from sitting in the most stately room that I have ever seen in an inn! I hate to admit it but I’m quite fascinated by British cheese and have occasionally daydreamed that I could write a cheese travel guide or maybe even a blog – but for now I’m more interested in its best friend –  pickle. My friend had a guinea pig called Pickle, my sister swears by piccalilli in a sandwich and I like the occasional gherkin! However I learnt that there is a different types of pickle – pickle salts – which will never see a vegetable or the inside of a sandwich but are used in silver jewellery making.

This week I was determined to produce wearable jewellery and after a busy day at work, I was pleased when Debbie put the kettle on and we started off with a kick of caffeine and a refined crispie cake to get us all motivated. I could have taken the easy way out and make something very simple but I thought it would be best to have a go at as many techniques as possible. I’m happy to say that I only broke one saw blade as I cut out a much more passable circle and set around hammering it into a cup shape. Admittedly it was still slightly “organic” but I have decided that I prefer my jewellery this way, it has more of a natural feel to it and I deliberately added a few extra grooves into the edge to give it more character. Next I drilled two tiny holes into the sides of the curve for threading my pearls. After this I cut and soldered a jump ring onto the back  so that I could put a chain through it. My favourite part of the whole process is when the hot metal is put into cold water and it makes a cool “tsssch” noise.

This was where the pickle salts came in – the soldered silverwork is dropped into a very weak warm solution for a few minutes to clean it up and remove any tarnishing from the solder. Whilst I was waiting for the pickle to do its job I made a second square shape and hammered the surface to give it a textured finish. I decided that I wanted to string some beads on it so I also made it into a cup shape. Again I drilled two holes at the sides, soldered a jump ring onto the back and popped it into the pickle solution . I also cut some lengths of fine silver wire and melted the ends so that they had a tiny ball on the end before adding them to the pickle.

I took a break and had a cup of tea and another lovely crispie cake. Debbie walked me round her gallery to show me some new pieces of art. We also had a chat about the prestigious Origin craft fair in London which Debbie is taking part in this year. I would love to go to it but don’t think I’ll be able to make it however I plan on going to Lustre in Nottingham, the Harley Gallery’s Christmas fair and my mother-in-law is also taking me to the Country Living Fair in London.

The pickle salts had done their worked and I fished out my silver with a pair of tweezers and washed it in some water. At this point the silver looked almost white in colour so I filed around the solder and rubbed it with the green bit of a washing up sponge until it started to look silver again. It is possible to polish it back to a bright shine but I prefer a matt finish. I then threaded freshwater pearls onto one of the pieces of silver wire and attached it to the rounded cup shape pendant finally I twisted the fine wire around the jumpring and it was ready to wear (time for a celebratory cup of tea!)

I took the square pendant home unfinished as I didn’t want to use pearls again. I went to the Nottingham Bead Shop the next day where I bought some small round dark amethyst, pinky fluorite and white moonstone beads which I finished off on the silver wire. I now have two lovely pendants to wear with many thanks to pickle! Next Tuesday my final silver teatime challenge is brooches…

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brunch and microscopes

Beautiful painting by John Conolly

The smell of toast and fresh coffee brewing as I walked into the office this morning got my mind wandering onto the subject of brunch. I love a good brunch and I’m lucky that there is a great deli near to one of my local art galleries. One lazy Saturday after filling up on a tasty organic breakfast at the Malt House Deli in Bottesford we popped over the road to visit Joanna Jones. She has a lovely gallery set in a 17th century building which provides a backdrop for some stunning pictures, jewellery, sculpture and glasswork. In fact the bright coloured glasswork inspired me to have a go at glass fusing which I will tell you about in a teatime blog. What I found particularly impressive was the light and texture in  John Conolly‘s paintings.

On the way back to the car we did a double take as we looked back through the deli window to see my sister-in-law and her family also having brunch. My nephew was not looking foward to a clothes shopping trip to Birmingham so was very happy that we offered to look after him for the day. There was just one catch – he had to come to an art exhibition with us in Nottingham. Although he wasn’t so keen it wasn’t going to be as bad as lots of dresses and skirts with his mum and sister so he agreed to come along.

The Obama Family by Willard Wigan

The tiny creations by famous microsculptor Willard Wigan were on display in a city centre art gallery at that time and we were lucky that the artist himself was there that day. We marvelled at the near invisible sculptures as we peered through the microscopes – it was almost impossible to believe that Willard had painted the miniature US flag on the Obama sculpture using the hair from a fly! Willard showed my nephew how he was able to keep so still so that he didn’t destroy his creations in the process of breathing. We were captivated! If you ever get the chance to visit the exhibition – go take a look. It was great to look at but I won’t be making microart one of my teatime challenges – yet!

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amaretti, pink wafers and organic silver

delicious amaretti biscuits

Whenever anyone at work goes abroad we always bring back something yummy for the office. We’ve had some dubious chocolate from India, lots of Czech goodies, Tiramisu from Bosnia and everyone’s favourite – amaretti biscuits from Milan. Amaretti are an endangered species in our office as they don’t last very long! Although they don’t dunk they go very well with a cup of tea or a cafetiere of coffee. They’re so tiny that they just melt away into nothing without you realising you’ve eaten 3 or 4! The most disappointing moment is when you approach the packet all excited about your next almondy fix to discover that it’s empty except for a few crumbs.

Last Wednesday I went to the first part of a silverwork course and was delighted to find a lovely china cakestand covered in amaretti and pink wafer biscuits alongside a beautiful teapot and lovely proper teacups. The course was held in Debbie Bryan’s lovely gallery in the Lacemarket area of Nottingham (www.debbiebryan.co.uk) which is full of amazing local artwork including some beautiful pieces by Debbie.

I was sent an email in preparation for the course that instructed me to wear sensible shoes so that I wouldn’t injure my feet if I dropped a hammer and an apron so I would “look the part.” I’m not sure what part I was supposed to look in the world of silversmithing with my old “Guide to Italian Pasta” apron! I decided to ditch the apron on arrival when noone else produced one. Good that I took the sensible shoes though as I did manage to drop a variety of items on the floor mostly saw blades as I broke them.

Our teacher, Jessica Elizabeth, showed us how to cut a circle out of silver sheet and hammer it into a perfect cup shape before piercing a hole in it which a normal earstud could go through. Her lovely interchangeable earrings looked quite straightforward and I approached my silver sheet with great enthusiasm. After a few minutes I found myself reaching for the amaretti in consolation, my circles were a disaster and the more I tried the worse they became and the more tiny saw blades I snapped. My teacher encouraged me to continue as they were “different” and could end up looking “organic.” Eventually I had a set of two similar hacked shapes which I could hammer into a “cup”. I spent an eternity filing and scrapping until they were no longer lethal and then decided to turn my hand to making the top of  an earstud.

The earstuds were fun to make and involved using a very hot torch. It’s fascinating to watch a bit of silver melt into a shiny blob and I loved the hiss that it made as it hit the water to cool down. Two blobs later and I soldered them onto silver earposts. Success in something at last! Time for a celebratory cup of tea and a pink wafer…

The other ladies on the course were at various stages of silverwork and even the beginners were by now cutting out pretty flower shapes. I tried to blame it on my tools – the saw was damaged, the silver was too thick or the wood I was leaning on was the wrong shape – but my teacher was having none of it. So I mustered up some determination and set about a pair of squares for the back of the earrings. I was very pleased to find that I could manage straight lines and with a bit of gentle-ish hammering the squares looked quite interesting.

I had a quick wander around Debbie’s gallery. She has some unusual brooches  made from Nottingham Lace – in fact a man walked in during our course to say that he had worked in a lace factory and had produced one of the pieces of lace displayed on the wall. I love it when you find a personal history behind an object, especially as the designs for many of the pieces of lace have now been destroyed so they can never be made exactly the same again.

Debbie made me a final cup of tea as I went off to try anodising the cup parts of my earrings. I liked the danger of painting toxic chemicals onto the surface and watching as the silver darkened before washing it all off. When I finally put my earrings together I had to admit that they didn’t look too bad for a first attempt!

Next Wednesday, my teatime challenge will be making a silver pendant. Hopefully I won’t have to cut out circles for that. In the meantime I might have a go at making some amaretti …

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i won! and the trip to Leeds

my new bureau

I’m not good with ebay, bidding usually turns me into a nervous wreck as I wait till the final seconds count down and I check and check again to see if the price is still green. But last week I decided that if I was going to get seriously crafty I would need to have some type of workspace with storage and after scouring the autumn winter catalogues it was obvious that ebay was the only affordable solution. So I took a deep breath, reminded myself it would be a challenge and placed my bid. After a week of doubt and determination, nervous lunchtime checking and late night bidding my hotmail account congratulated me on my win. I never win anything so I always get excited even if I have to pay for it! I managed to persuade my husband that we needed to drive to Leeds to pick it up and decided to research the local cafes for good measure.

On Saturday morning I plied my husband with lots of postcodes for the sat nav and we set off up north. After a few minor traffic jams and some fascinating observations of cars adorned with football scarves we parked our car in a multistorey and went for a wander round Leeds. My research had pointed out that Leeds Museum had a good cafe so I turned my city centre map round several times until I found our location and headed in the direction of Millennium Square. What a great square! – I really love the buildings especially the electric press and the one with the golden owls!

The Museum cafe was quite good although my carrot cake had  buttercream icing instead of the usual cream cheese but that’s the problem with carrot cake in general, there’s no set recipe and you get something different every time. You can never go wrong with a coffee and walnut cake or a slice of Victoria sponge but it’s always a bit of a gamble as to the consistency, nut content and icing when you go for carrot cake. Still it went down well with the cappuccino! A bonus was the museum which is well worth a visit and very interactive – however it would have been handy to check the smells display before I sniffed the cut grass sample! (I’m a great sneezer). On leaving the cafe we wandered round the streets of Leeds which had been taken over by Barclays bank trying to cheer people up in the credit crunch by spending lots of money on music, balloons and men dressed in blue beefeater outfits. My favourite part of Leeds are the Victoria arcades – a great place to see quality architecture.

At 3 we headed to pick up my bureau – thank goodness for sat navs when it comes to finding your way in cities! I like the feel of a real map but I just can’t instruct people to stay left and bear right in the way that the sat nav woman does. We reached the house in just a few minutes and I was really pleased that we managed to fit the whole bureau (it came in two pieces) in the boot. I now have a lovely little Queen Anne style bureau in a mahogany colour just waiting to be sanded down and painted.

So one of my teatime challenges will be furniture restoration and I’ll keep you informed of what I decide to do with it…

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i will never look at a Battenberg the same way again…

Claire Grove's Battenberg Boys

I was looking for interesting buttons this morning when I chanced upon Claire Grove’s website. She is an independent shopkeeper from Cardiff and her prints and cards are so quirky I really love them! Take at look at her website at www.clairegrove.co.uk – perfect for a quick teatime surf!

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