More Shiny Things!

My mother, much to her annoyance, turned 60 this year. So, seeing as a 60th wedding anniversary should be celebrated with diamonds, a 60th birthday should too, no?

I got to feel like a real proper jeweller, going off to Hatton Garden to buy the stones. It's amazing how much more attention the sales staff pay you when you say "I would like to buy some diamonds please"!

So diamonds purchased, white gold sheet acquired and design finalised, I extremely carefully cut it out of the sheet metal, using the worlds tiniest sawblades. And I only broke one, go me! I bought a pack of 24, assuming I'd break one every two minutes, given how fine they were. I should have more faith...

Soldering was pretty scary, as I've not soldered anything but silver for years, but the scariest bit by far was the diamond setting. I was so scared I was going to drop one on the floor, never to be seen again.

But, it all turned out okay, hurrah! I'd forgotton how exhausting stone setting is, requiring as it does a particularly annoying combination of intense concentration, delicate movements and a large dose of brute force.

Anyway, here they are:

And they are both shiny and sparkly! Mum hates anything dangly, so I went with small stud earrings instead. It was quite difficult to combine this with my fondness for big swirly designs, but I think I managed to pull it off and I am actually really happy with the way they turned out.