A Visit to the Mint - It Makes Cents!

Isn't that a catchy title?!! It's the tagline on the tourist brochure for the Royal Australian Mint and I think no visit to Canberra would be complete without a visit to The Mint. How's this for a staircase? Go on, take a closer look...... Can you see the coins? On closer inspection, you can see that the risers are completely filled with 5c coins! Now, take another look at the whole staircase. Notice how all the coins are tumbling down from the top of the staircase to fill the risers from the bottom up. How neat is that! The staircase leads to the viewing gallery where you can watch the coins being made and learn all about the coin making process. The first part of the process is really low tech and it occurred to me that it is similar to how I'd produce a design in my own studio. It starts out with an artist who sketches the design on paper and then carves it into a plaster disk the size of a plate. This is painstakingly refined until the design is perfected. No...

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Gem Craft Winner

Thank you to all of you who wished me well on my 3-year blogaversary. It is wonderful to have you interact with me here on my blog. I know that I see some of you at workshops, and there are others who are my online buddies as well as those of you also who stop by my blog regularly to see what I've been up to but it's always heartfelt when you leave me a comment, so thanks to you all for helping me to celebrate this milestone. To the winner of the Gem Craft kit, I hope you love playing with your new prize. So here goes........ The winner is (as drawn by Random Org) Comment number 3 - Julie P. Congratulations Julie P. Please contact me withing 3 days to claim your prize. Thank you all once again for stopping by to help me celebrate. 'Til next time..... If you can't get enough of My Tutorials and you want even more inspiration,  click here to find my books and printable pdfs ...

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Gem Craft Giveaway!

When I decided to open my studio to the blogosphere just a little over 3 years ago, I didn't give too much thought to where my blog would go. I just knew that I made stuff and that it would be good to share that stuff with other like-minded souls who happened to stumble across my blog. I didn't dare to think I'd still be blogging beyond that first year. It had certainly occurred to me that maybe no one would read my blog... that was a scary thought, but I went ahead and blogged anyway. And it was strangely satisfying.... putting ideas out there and sometimes reaching someone who appreciated it. Anyway, here we are 3 years on and I'm still blogging away regularly. I think that's quite an achievement! So, to celebrate my 3 year blogoversary I'm having a giveaway . For your chance to win just leave a little comment at the bottom of my post. But first, a little tutorial! Today I'm working with the Sakura Gemcraft Kit. This is one of the easiest ways...

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Spiral Leather Cuff

One of my best finds at CHA this year was a wonderful company just entering the jewellery making market: Silver Creek Leather . Up until now, Silver Creek Leather has manufactured traditional leather craft products and tools but they have just introduced a truly unique range of silver plated jewellery components to compliment their leather craft range and I wanted to share with you one of their newest innovations: interchangeable focal centrepieces and leather bracelets.  The bracelets are made of quality cowhide leather and are pre-punched with holes spaced perfectly apart to accommodate the screw in focal centrepieces in the range. They come in black, brown and saddle tan. I've put together a tutorial below so you can understand how the components work. You can download a printable pdf from Mill Lane Studio . Begin by collecting all the materials you’ll need: Silver Creek Leather Bracelet J7033-02 Brown; or a plain leather bracelet and leather punch Deco Focal Piece J7...

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Inspiration from The Mint

I got to spend this past weekend in in our nation's capital, and for the first time in a long time, I was travelling for pleasure rather than for work. I've always liked Canberra - there is a lot to see and do, and mostly it's free. You've gotta love that! We crammed in a visit to the Mint, Parliament House and also the War Memorial. But today's post is inspired by the Mint. It was fascinating to learn about the process of making coins and it inspired me to dig out my collection of old 1c and 2c coins to turn into jewellery........ specifically, resin jewellery. OK, let's stop there! It turns out that 1c and 2c coins are still legal tender in Australia. Who knew! They've been out of circulation since 1994 and it would be next to impossible to get anyone to accept them as payment but, by law, you can still use them! In my research, I discovered this page on the Royal Australian Mint's website which explains in quite clear terms that ...

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