As a jewellery designer it's hard to keep up with the rise and fall of prices for precious metals, they're up and down all the time.

This year in particular the price of silver has skyrocketed and it's the highest it's ever been for a while, even precious metal clay has more than doubled in price, my jaw nearly dropped to the floor when I saw the price! 

I love working with metal and my ideas are flowing so I came to the decision to return back to copper.

I never fell out of love with copper, I love its warm glow and it feels more connected to nature for some reason.

Don't get me wrong I'm still working with silver and 9ct rose gold and that will never change but sometimes it's nice to branch out a bit.

I know copper is not everyone's cup of tea for jewellery, it does tend to tarnish a lot quicker and requires more maintenance than silver so I wanted to make something a little different. 

During one of my art classes we were looking at materials and processes and I chose copper as my material and started making copper flowers, I loved making them and love how they turned out but I was unsure as to what to do them after I'd made them! 

After a lot of umming and ahhing I have now decided to make them as flower pot steaks, something pretty to pop in with your indoor plants. They will gradually tarnish over time and lend themselves to their natural surroundings or if you choose I can put a coating on to preserve the shiny copper a little longer.

I also love the idea of hair pins, I was always tying my hair up with a pencil whilst in college and university so this is a much better upgrade! I've been looking at pins, forks and other accessories for the hair, hair pins are my personal winner! 

And lastly I'll be making copper cuffs and bangles for men and women, my dad asked if I could make him a cuff for Father's Day to see if it would help with his arthritis, I absolutely loved making it and loved how it turned out, I even stamped dad on the inside which made it personal to him and he loves it!

I loved it so much I made myself some copper bangles!

Emma xx