I bought these pretty glass cabochons and have made them
into a silver bangle. They were so pretty
that I didn’t want to lose any of the pattern so I set the stones with resin
rather than rubbing the bezel walls down to capture the stone as I would
normally.
You’ll probably see some writing on the inside of the
bangle. The silver is from a cup that my
Grandad won for gardening. He was an
amazing gardener – anything in his care would grow tall and strong, bursting
readily into flower and fruit. Actually
he was a man of many talents – he was an incredible swimmer and an excellent
upholsterer - not that many people would know these things about him because he
was also a man of few words. Anyway, back
to the gardening. He won the cup at his
local gardening club so often that they eventually just gave it to him
outright. The cup sat at the back of a
cupboard for many years (as you can tell by the tarnish on it - see below). I’d heard about the cup but never seen it until
my mum rang to say that she thought Grandad would want me to use the silver. I did have mixed feelings about breaking up
his cup - though I do like the idea that Grandad is still supporting me, as he
always did.
I’ve been using the silver from the cup for a while now - everything
made in silver that you’ll see on this blog from October 2012 has been
made from Grandad’s Silver – and there is still some left. It has been a real gift, allowing me to try
many things that I might not have done had I been worried about paying for the
silver! I particularly like using the
parts of the cup with writing on, as in this bangle – it reminds me of where the
silver has come from. The parts of the
cup with Grandad’s name on are particularly precious and are reserved for special pieces.
