Holiday gift swap

It is Boxing day and all is finally calmed down enough for me to catch up a little bit.
Before Christmas i joined in with  a swap of gifts via the bead soup group.
I was paired up with the fabulous Krafty Max from http://kraftymax.blogspot.com.
We both had a lot in common including being the same age!
After deciding how and what we would exchange i began to look through my jewellery makes,to find something i was proud of.
Now i have seen many beautiful items of jewellery made by lots of very creative people and always feel my work is progressing slowly. But despite this i found a few pieces that i have been truly proud of making.
After choosing one item i then saw a fabulous cabochon made by blueberribeads and i knew Max could turn it into a fabulous piece of jewellery.

So glad both arrived safe and sound.

I was overjoyed when i received my gift from Max it was a gorgeous set made from her Grandmothers stash.
I wore the necklace on Christmas day and it felt amazing.
(Forgive the picture it was very early)

The whole glamourous? picture can be seen on my Face book page https://www.facebook.com/pale.mooncreation

The process

I have a very open love/ hate relationship with cutting out my metal jewellery items.
I spend a lot of time prepping the metal and drawing out the images, only to then begin procrastinating  cutting them out!
Once i get started i always enjoy the challenge and almost meditative sawing, but the worry in the back of my mind is hovering (what if i go wrong/or just don't like it?)
Lots of people have told me although i may not like the end result they do!
It always makes me sit back and think maybe i should just go with the flow more and see the reaction to my work, whether it is positive or not.
I thought i would share some pictures of my favourite item to work with, my copper hares.

                                           Taped copper with freehand drawn image

                                          Rough cut hare ready for filing.

One finished Hare necklace with fern deco embossing.

The addition of a tumbler to my workshop has drastically speeded up the finishing process and i would recommend that anybody thinking of making lots of metal pieces invest in one.