Monday 29 May 2017

Rural Jewellery Shopping

fraserrossblogLiving in rural Australia has so many benefits, clean fresh air, little traffic, room to run free and massive gardens to plant out all manner of fruit trees and vegetable gardens.


One of the downsides that comes with living away from major cities though is the lack of amenities and access to great shopping opportunities. With the explosion of the internet and better access to high speed connections, what was once impossible has now become ‘the norm’, shopping online. Other than the delivery times can be longer than for those living in the cities, it matters not where you live anymore. The massive increase in on-line stores has levelled the playing field for everyone regardless of location.


Most retail jewellery stores, city or country, have a limited range of products due to the high cost of having to hold stock of every conceivable design. The opposite is true of on-line stores like Chain Me Up. We actually keep no products in stock at all, all of our jewellery is made to order. Not only can we have an incredibly wide range of products to choose from, most can be custom made to your exact requirements.


As an example, our heaviest gold chain is available in any length, in yellow gold, rose gold and white gold. It can also be made in combinations of yellow, rose and white gold, so you could have 3 yellow links then 1 rose gold link followed by a white gold link and then the pattern repeats. You also have a choice of a parrot clasp or you could decide to opt for a filigree padlock instead. As these necklaces and bracelets are made to order any custom design is possible. For a retail store to offer this choice and have one of each on hand to buy, there would be around $8,000,000 of stock for just one style of gold chain. Clearly this is not economically viable, so the options in a retail store are limited.


As we produce all of our jewellery to order, there is a small wait (normally 2 or 3 weeks) for your necklace or bracelet to be manufactured. The advantage of custom made is that you don’t have to compromise. You want a 47cm oval belcher chain necklace in rose gold with a padlock clasp? At Chain Me Up, Easy! But I  doubt you would be able to walk into a jewellery store and have them gift wrap one for you, then and there.


Some people have concerns about buying on-line from a website. At Chain Me Up, we have several measures in place to alleviate those concerns. Our store is entirely run using an EV SSL certificate. This means we have undergone extensive security checks and all information passing between our website and your computer is encrypted, guaranteeing that no third parties can see the communications.


We have selected PayPal to handle every credit card transaction, during the checkout phase, you are dealing with a massive global business and we never even see your credit card details.


Over the past 7 years since we first launched our on-line store we have become a well trusted brand with many returning customers and referrals to friends and family of those customers. We also have a 7 day no questions return policy, this means you can buy confidently knowing that the products we supply are exactly as shown in our store and the quality of those products equals or exceeds what you will find in a retail store.


Lastly our prices are extremely competitive as we largely avoid the overheads of a ‘bricks and mortar’ and not having a keep a massive inventory of products.


 



Rural Jewellery Shopping

Friday 26 May 2017

Handmade Jewellery

sterling-silver-earrings-laycie-750Creating a range of handmade sterling silver earrings and bracelets has given us a chance to develop new skills and expand the range of jewellery we have in our online store.


We begin with spools of 100% recycled sterling silver wires in different gauges and some pre-made findings. We chose to not create our own findings as the ones that are readily available suit our needs and reduce the amount of work in each finished product.


We usually start from a design on paper, but sometimes we just play with a number of different rings we have already made and see how they fit together in various combinations. Often the designs on paper change along the way, but having an idea of what we want to achieve give us a point from which to begin.


To create the rings we wind wire from the spool onto a mandrel that is about 90mm long and of the desired diameter. The smallest rings are about 4mm and this is also the size of the jump rings we make for our charms. The largest rings are about 25mm for some of our earrings, but mostly we use 6, 8 10 and 12mm rings for our bracelets.


 


sterling-silver-bracelet-Celeste-no-clasp-750It’s important to keep a constant tension on the wire when loading the mandrel to get rings of consistent size. Depending on the gauge of the wire we get between 50 and 90 rings over the length of the mandrel. The spiral is removed from the mandrel and placed into a jump ring cutter. This is essentially a slotted clamp that holds the spiral firmly. A flexible shaft rotary tool is fitted with a very fine toothed circular saw blade. A special head fits the jump ring cutter and holds the saw blade aligned to the centre of the spiral. When cutting the rings, it is important to use a lubricant and a slow steady pressure to get the cleanest possible cuts.


Joining the rings together is done using an argon pulse welder. Argon is an inert gas that surrounds the weld position to prevent oxygen being present when the arc is fired. The absence of oxygen prevents/reduces fire scale and the weld is strong and clean. To produce consistent weld quality we developed a jig that keeps the arc distance constant and provides a method to ensure the argon is concentrated at the weld point.


With smaller ring sizes it is often easier to pre-weld and attach larger open rings that are welded around the smaller rings. When several rings all connect together, this is preferred, but not always possible depending upon the bracelet design.


The important difference between the jewellery we hand make and that of many cottage/boutique jewellers, is that every link in our jewellery is welded. This creates bracelets that are much stronger and much less likely to break or deform. This is time consuming and is reflected in the pricing, but great quality is the focus of our creations and the only way to produce jewellery that will last a lifetime.


As with any craft, great results can only be achieved by building from a strong foundation. This means that every step along the way, from the initial creation of each ring, with a perfect cut to the final polish must be perfect. One of the most difficult aspects of creating a bracelet or earrings is ensuring perfect alignment of the ring closure at the point of firing the arc. This takes much practice and a very steady hand and even after performing thousands of welds, it is not a fast process.



Handmade Jewellery