Crazy About Coral

If I was to choose a favourite material for my jewellery designs, and the jewellery I wear, it would have to be coral.

Despite the age of the pieces I own and use, the brilliant reds and oranges of the antique coral is still as bright as the day it was first set into a jewellery design.

Coral was very popular in the early part of the 19th century, and much of what I own comes from this era, and in particular from France. The ‘Empire’ style of jewellery was refined, classical and not overly ornate. Personal adornment took on a simpler, more refined style after the excesses of the lavish 18th century fashions.

Above you can see three coral buckles or cuff links. They are in various states of completion, with the one on the left having only the coral frame. The centre one is missing its coral centrepiece and the one on the right is complete. It’s rare to find these with all of the coral framing beads intact. There are lots of possibilities with these pieces.

Another example of a coral buckle is shown above. This time the buckle has its mate, as they always came in a pair but it is so hard to find a complete pair these days. This set had a sweet little snake ‘S’ clasp joining the two together and they would have most likely been sewn onto a velvet or cloth belt that was worn just under the breast. This set also features mother of pearl discs that have been carved out on the underside to produce the starburst pattern you see here. This buckle set has been repurposed into earrings. I love the deep red of the coral beads.

Dating to a good 50 years earlier than the buckle earrings, above is a pair of mid-18th century coral, silver and diamond earrings. The coral beads are quite big and of a deep rich salmon colour. The setting is silver, with rose cut diamonds. I think they could do with a clean!

Complete coral necklaces are hard to find, and when you do find one that has large beads, it will be very expensive. Upwards of $1000 for large beads on a long necklace. Coral is often sold by weight. Below is a much less expensive example of an early 19th century coral necklace, this time with numerous strands of coral seed beads. These are tiny little beads made from real coral, and hand cut and drilled. Despite the hours and hours that would have been employed to make this necklace, the coral weight is not substantial and thus the necklace is not overly pricey.

I do also occasionally see coral buckles with little faces cared into the coral. Coral cameos were popular in the late Georgian and Victoria eras, and cameos came in all styles. In the example below the cameo is a in gold plate brass, and is little Aztec style face. The piece came to me as one half of a buckle set – the other half was missing. To create the necklace you see here, I used a French ormolu coral tiara which was missing about half of its coral beads. I harvested the beads, then used the remaining tiara frame to form a collar style necklace. The Aztec cameo piece was affixed onto the collar, I added chain and voila! A very unique necklace made from extremely rare 200-year old elements.

 

More readily available are coral charms. These are also often sold by weight and therefore the price can vary according to the size of the piece. I like to use coral charms on a charm necklace with other antique elements such as little lockets and mini wax seals. Below is one such example which features a coral branch lucky charm, a carved coral hand charm, a small French wax seal and an 18th century vinaigrette locket. Coral and gold go so well together, and it’s a vary classic colour combination.

Another necklace I created features an unusual coral tassel. You do see a lot of antique beaded tassels with closed looping ends, not the open frayed ends common on most tassels. This lovely little necklace also features an antique wax seal and a tiny mourning locket with woven hair set behind glass  on the other side.

I tend to use coral quite sparingly in my designs – mainly because it can be expensive and is quite scarce. Antique coral is only going to get more valuable, so if you want to start collecting something that is not quite as pricey as gold, consider coral…antique of course!

New job, and a making frenzy

I start a new job next week. It’s been nearly a year off since I finished my last job. I’ve enjoyed my time not working but despite not having to go into an office every day, I’ve been very busy with designing and studying. I will be inching closer to my dream vocation with a new job as a copywriter and production coordinator for an adventure travel company. I think I will enjoy researching and writing about all manner of adventure travel-related topics. And my new job is close enough to home that I just might be able to ride a bike to work most days.

Tomorrow I have a stall at an annual vintage market in Ballarat. I loved the market last year and have looked forward to returning. To stock up for the market I have been in a bit of a making frenzy these past few days. I’ve neglected my antique assemblage designing lately and rounded up a nice collection of treasures to create a few new designs for tomorrow.

I really love how this green and gold tassel necklace, below, finished up. It’s a divine colour combination and has a real ‘flapper’ feel about it. The centrepiece is an original art nouveau coat buckle – I wish I had the other half so I could use it in another design. The tassel is an antique bullion tassel – made from bullion, or gold metal, thread. The gold works so well with the vintage light pistachio green beads.

The sweet salamander pendant below comes from France and dates to the early part of the 20th century. The salamander was a symbol for one of the old kings of Brittany, and became popular again in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

I had great fun making the necklace below. The focal piece is a very old cut steel shoe buckle. I suspect it dates to the early part of the 19th century and is wonderfully handmade. I complemented the cut steel in the design with antique cut steel beads, and added some punch and colour with red and blue chalcedony.

Lastly for tonight I want to show you a lovely necklace made with two special sentimental pieces. One is a French marriage medal dating to 1873, and the other is a little sweetheart token in the shape of a heart. Both pieces have the initials of the beloveds engraved into them. Very special and precious. The back of the medal is shown below, and the last photo shows the front.

‘The Process’

Whenever I am at a market selling my work I am always asked ‘how do you make these things?’. So I start to explain how I wire wrap or otherwise fix pieces together. Then I am asked ‘no, not the technical side. How do you come up with your designs?’

It’s a difficult question to answer because for me it seems like the designs just ‘come out’ and voila! – there you have a necklace or bracelet or earrings.

In fact there is more to it than waving a magic wand but the concept of how I design and lay out my pieces is still a bit of a mystery to me. Maybe that’s what a ‘talent’ or ‘skill’ is – something indefinable that comes out of the dark recesses of the mind and manifests itself in the creative output.

It usually always starts with the focal piece. I buy my focal pieces based on one simple rule – they interest me. There has to be something about them that tells me that they are well made, well designed, made from quality components and will make a new owner and all their admirers go ‘wow!’

I can hold onto a focal piece for months and years until I get all the right pieces together to pair it with. I don’t move on a piece until it feels right to me.

I am strongly influenced by colour, and colour combinations. I go thorugh stages where I tend to favour blues and greens, then pinks and purples will pop in and I might then go all metallic. I am sure there is something related to the seasons and weather in how colour influences me, but I don’t think too much about it.

I am also driven by a strong desire to be original and not to rely on tried and tested successes to develop my future creating. In other words, I don’t like to do the same thing twice. This is why my work seems so diverse and eclectic – because that’s what it is. Some people find success in doing the same thing over and over because it works for them, but for me the real challenge (which is what drives me) is to create new and wonderful things each time I pick up my tools.

I thought I would photograph a few steps in my construction process to show how it all comes together. I personally don’t think this is too exciting but people ask about it, so here it is.

I have drawers, boxes and baskets full of pieces I can use for focals in my designs. I am fairly organised with my bits and pieces because over the years I have amassed quite a collection of beads, stones, chains, focals and other elements. I need to know where I can find something and I only have a smallish desk to work on so I can’t leave everything laying around. Besides, I am quite a tidy, organised person…

I have lots of things to choose from to start a design. I spend a bit of time thinking about what my focal piece is and what it means, or meant, and try to draw out a sense of place from it. This then helps me to work out colours and textures. If something has a forest, outdoors personality to it then I will use earthy, organic colours. If the piece is glamorous and ritzy then I might choose premium pearls or gemstones to complete the design.

With the necklace I will use to illustrate this exercise, I am working with a centrepiece that is an old silver mourning brooch. It had been drilled for an earlier design that never happened so I have to think about how I can work around the holes already in this piece.

I also want to use some beautiful big round Kyanite beads I bought recently. With Joan of Arc as another focal in this design I will use mother of pearl rosary beads for their popularity in religious jewellery. I think that a chain entirely of stones would be a bit too much, and I like to combine stones and chain so I can introduce another antique element into the design. The striking chain I will use for this necklace has a masculine feel and was probably a man’s pocket watch chain in the early part of the 20th century. This masculine link seems fitting for the Joan elements for some reason.

When I get all my bits and pieces together I use a beading tray to layout the design. This way I can gauge the length and also move things around until the combination of colours and other elements works for me. (I, or my dog, will probably knock the bead try off my table a few times before I get started so I often take a photo of my layout so I don’t forget what I will work to.)

You will see that I have two small mother of pearl beads sitting below the brooch focal. I am deciding between these and the small silver rosary beads to dangle from the two outer holes at the base of the focal. I would usually leave such decisions until the design is nearly finished and I can see if the piece needs larger or smaller elements. You can also see right at the top of the photo where I have a mother of pearl heart connector that I might use to fashion a clasp. I am not sure yet how it will look or work, but I will make it work within the elements I have selected. I might not use it at all.

Next comes the construction phase, where I wire wrap the gemstones and beads and link everything to the focal pieces. I tend to use silver filled wire if my focals are silver, or gold fill if they are gold plated or even brass/bronze. I usually oxidise my wire so it takes on a darker tone more suited to the antique silver elements that have darkened naturally over time. I generally only use cold connections for my pieces, as it can be risky to solder old jewellery if you don’t know how it was originally made or what it was made from.

Here is a work in progress shot, showing the sections as they are being connected. I have four tools that I use when making jewellery. I do have other tools but these four are the ones I use all the time.

And finally, after a few hours of planning, layouts and wire wrapping and photos, I have the finished product. A one-of-a-kind design that combines antique elements from different countries and eras. It all came together really well I think. This piece is for sale at my Etsy shop.