New Year, New Shop Look

Hello Readers!

If indeed there are any readers...Is there anybody out there!?! 😉

More than a month has passed since I wrote the last post but its been that crazy time of the year hasn't it where we all work more, shop more (eat and drink more!!) and spend more time with friends and family in general. 

So I've been having an early spring clean of my etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/LouiseLCoates I needed new photos/backgrounds etc. It still isn't heaving at the seams with stock yet, but it will be soon. The main thing was the clean up, oh and my brand spanking new bespoke packaging! 

Alongside the Etsy shop, I'm working on a collection called Lotus. This wont be added to the shop. It's going to be assayed* and then sold in galleries. Its more one off pieces, well It will be recreated as it is a collection but a couple of parts of each piece are quite random so could never be 100% recreated. That's the beauty of handmade designer jewellery though isn't it? 

I'm really looking forward to 2018 and think it will be a much better year now I am more on a definite track with how my collections are going. The fact that my first post delivery of the year was my packaging is a good start too.  

I'm also going to aim to do 2/3 blog posts a month, and if no one is reading? Well at least I keep my keyboard skills sharp 😅

See you soon (fingers crossed!)

Louise x

*The next post is going to be about UK hallmarking. Promise i'll make it interesting x

                                                                 The Esty Skulls

Skull Jewellery Update and Info

Good evening

It's almost the 6th of December and christmas is nearly here!
If you love all things yuletide you will be loving the atmosphere and excitement at the moment. Its such a warm, cosy and sparkly time of year..Such a contrast to the month that follows.

Skull Update:

I unfortunately cannot guarantee delivery in time for christmas now so I am stopping taking orders until the 2nd of January. I don't want to have to say no to anyone because of how busy I am so the notice is that I will be back after xmas. There isn't any disappointment this way an.

Potential customers:  A new year treat? perk yourself up for the cold months of Jan and Feb? Or Valentines Day perhaps? birthdays? The possibilities are endless and don't just start and end with Christmas :)
There will be new packaging next year and another range to go alongside the skulls. I cant wait for 2018!

A few people have been asking me about how I actually make my skulls. Do I cast them? Do I send them to a gem setter etc. The answer is no to all of the above.
I spent 5 years of quite intense study of art/design/metalwork and jewellery and I indeed can pretty much do all techniques. There's nothing wrong with cast jewellery, in fact I love it and may do some designs this way in the future but I also love jewellery that is made from scratch using very old/traditional techniques. Its the way a lot of us are first introduced to metalwork and is very satisfying to create a piece in this way.

I start each skull with a fresh piece of sterling silver (I source most of my materials from Cookson's)
I melt it to a rounded little blob and then I hammer it until i get a piece of flat silver around the size of a 1p with a thickness of 3mm (sterling silver sheet doesn't often come in this thickness so you DIY)
I then pierce out the basic skull shape and file edges and surfaces smooth and follow this with the more finer filing. This part is crucial for the final polishing stages.
I measure the eyes out. Drill the eyes which means keeping the initial holes smaller than the setting burr which I use on the smaller eye to create the flush setting.
Around this stage I drill the nose too and hand carve into the metal the mouth.
Only in the final stages do I add a bail and then complete any final filing before I spend roughly around 20 minutes giving the piece a polish with tripoli, followed by rouge for that final 'ping' like shine.
I usually set the stones on a different day. A day just reserved for them where I am clean (no dirty face and hands from polishing) music on and just a quite, chilled out environment so I can concentrate on setting the stone securely and perfectly.
It then goes into the cleaning tank for 20 minutes or so so that all the tiny smudges of polishing compounds dislodge and the piece is 100% clean and sparkly.
A sterling silver chain to the requested length is strung on and lovingly positioned into the box.

So there you have it. A LOT goes into just one but it is a very rewarding way to make someones precious jewellery.

In the new year I will be posting more on this and hopefully short videos too.

Thanks for reading :)

Louise x

Good Evening!



Ive launched my skull jewellery on Folksy and I'm in the process of filling an Etsy shop too :)

If you'd like a further look, they can be found here https://folksy.com/shops/DarkLuxe

I have been making skulls for quite some time but never really 'officially' After a lot of requests I have decided to release them into the world for sale and I am now going to focus just on my more dark side as a jeweller. I love this way of making, as it is using traditional techniques such as hammering, drilling filing and polishing. Its the way I was first taught and easily the most rewarding and satisfying way to work. I think I am good at it too..We all should work with our strengths shouldn't we?

I will say, if you purchase a skull, for example the citrine eyed beauty and it is pictured with a matt finish but you would rather have a mirror like shine finish, that is no problem. As you order just send a message for the finish you want and it shall be yours! What I cant do is change that citrine for a diamond...You would have to order the listed skull that has the diamond eye :)

Thanks for reading :) xx

The last days of summer are upon us here in the UK *sigh* So I'm cheering myself up with this picture I took during the 'height' of summer, when all the daisies speckle the grass and everything looks all shiny and fresh.

I didn't only post the picture for that reason though. On my website I have a listing for these rings, check it out here https://www.louisecoates.co.uk/shop?olsPage=products/the-miniatures-dainty-stack-ring-with-granulation-special-offer&olsFocus=false

At £20 per ring, I have promised that I will keep it that price along with free p&p. Whats more you get to create your own topping with a choice of granulation added.

Louise x

Hello and welcome to my new blog!

Helloooo! Its been so long since I last had a blog! 2011 to be precise and my original blog is still floating around but since I cant get into the thing I have set this one up (No way was I remembering passwords and usernames from 6/7 years ago!)

Anyway, this is me- Louise.  I am a jewellery designer/maker from East Yorkshire, UK.

I'll just mention a bit about myself to start with. For 10 years I have been making silver jewellery. I was originally making bead jewellery but really wanted more so one day at the end of summer 2006, I decided to enrol on a 2 year art and design course. I wasn't in a great place in my life and this felt like light at the end of the tunnel. So after pacing up and down my living room one Saturday, off I went to my local college armed with, quite frankly, the most rubbish portfolio I have ever put together (Now with the benefit of hindsight post college and university- cringeworthy, but we all start at day one don't we?!) I arrived at the college in the city centre and the building was dark. All my pacing up and down being worried had led me to miss the enrollment!!!

Luckily for me there was one day left and I sure as heck was there that day (still with the rubbish portfolio) My daughter was a little girl at the time and she came with me that day and was clearly very bored after my hour or so waiting for a design tutor to become available and both very hot and sweaty as the sunlight streamed through the huge windows we had to stand in front of- That's when I realised how entertaining vending machines were to a 9 year old!
Anyway,  I was offered a place and loved this breath of fresh air that crashed into my life- My time at college was pure happiness and if i'm honest, I loved it so much more than Uni.

I then went on to study a Metalwork and Jewellery Degree at Sheffield Hallam University. Obviously it was a very different way of life than my carefree college days but I am so glad I did it. I feel that it changed me as a person for the better and the way I work for the better too.

After graduating in 2011 I have spent the past 6 years working for an amazing local hospice. Still designing and doing the odd repair job and re-design. For the past year or so I have worked on my day off and a Sunday in my little workshop putting together a big collection of jewellery that I feel represents my love of erosion, rust, old metal and how time effects it. I believe there's still beauty to be found amongst this decay and wanted to transfer that into beautiful pieces of jewellery that are interesting to look at, tactile for the wearer and provoke curiosity due to the textures, ripples, lumps and bumps.

My main and first two collections are called Elegant Decay and The Miniatures. Elegant Decay are textured pieces of sterling sliver jewellery with sterling silver, 9ct gold and bronze granulation added and The Miniatures are dainty pieces of jewellery that can stand alone or beautifully match up with Elegant Decay and look great layering necklaces and stacking rings together.

They can all be found here at www.louisecoates.co.uk There is all my contact information on my website too. You are welcome to contact me anytime :)

Thank you for taking the time to read my first blog post, please feel free to comment, even if its to tell me to stop rambling so much! haha