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Welcome to L.R. Designs

Here you will find a selection of jewellery and other items, all lovingly hand crafted by me. My jewellery is made using a selection of semi-precious stones, Swarovski Crystals, glass, polymer clay and natural materials.
All findings (clasps, hooks, spacer beads, etc.) are silver or gold plated (unless otherwise stated), except on the Silver page, where they are sterling or Bali silver.

Each piece is one of a kind, and finished to a professional standard, so why not:

TREAT YOURSELF TO SOMETHING UNIQUE

If you like any of my pieces and require more information, please email me and I will help all I can. Payment is accepted by Paypal (you do not need a Paypal account to use this method), cheque or Postal Order.
If you wish to pay using either of the last two methods, please contact me for postage details. My email address is at the bottom of every page.

All prices include Postage and Packing for UK ONLY. Overseas buyers, please contact me for postage rates.

If you are not happy with any item purchased from me, please return it within 10 days for a full refund.

I do not use fancy packaging, as I feel this helps to keep the costs down for my customers. Most of the jewellery is supplied in ziplock bags, which is particularly good for plated findings as it keeps them fresh and bright, popped into an organza gift bag and securely wrapped for postage. If you would like more information on the materials I use, please scroll down.

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SRA

About the materials I use

A gemstone, gem or also called precious or semi-precious stone is a highly attractive and valuable piece of mineral which — when cut and polished — is used in jewellery or other adornments. Certain rocks, (such as lapis-lazuli ) and organic materials (such as amber or jet ) are strictly speaking not minerals, but are still applied in jewellery and adornments, and are therefore often considered to be gemstones as well.

The distinction between precious and semi precious gemstones is now a little ambiguous. A natural piece of turquoise or larimar is infinitely more "precious" than an undistinguished diamond. I use a large collection of gemstones. Some are well known, such as Onyx, Rose Quartz and Carnelian and others you may never have heard of. Some I'd never heard of until I was sourcing materials. There is the beautiful fresh lemon coloured Aragonite, the stunningly elegant grey Eagle Eye Agate and the interestingly marked Rutillated Quartz. The Sun Sitara stone is quite beautiful in real life, no picture could do it justice and the same applies to goldstone. These stones can be sourced in so many beautiful colours from the deep green of malachite to the various blues of sodalite to the delicate pinks of the rose quartz.

Fine Silver - I have started crafting some jewellery using 99.9% pure silver. This silver is supplied in clay form and I use it as I do my polymer clay. The clay is made from pure ground silver, water and binding agents. When fired, the water evaporates, the binders burn off and you are left with a substantial, pure silver piece of jewellery. The pieces you will find on my site are not hallmarked as they are under the legal weight requiring this. This medium is very expensive and so will be reflected in the price, but you can be sure that you will have a totally unique, one of a kind piece.

Silver – Most of the silver I use is hallmarked sterling silver. Some bali silver is 99% pure giving even more silver content than sterling at 92.5. They are made in the islands of Indonesia and exported all over the world. Many have an antique finish instead of the bright shiny silver that we are used to. Hill Tribe Thai Silver can be 95-99% silver. There is no hallmarking system in Thailand and not all Bali Silver is hallmarked. Tibetan Silver has very little silver content and is mostly made up of alloys. These alloys can contain nickel and therefore can be an irritant to some people. If Tibetan silver is used, it will be clearly marked.

Pearls - My pearls are all genuine freshwater pearls. These come in many shapes and sizes and often have little lines embedded in the bead. Specialist dyes are used to produce the myriad colours now available.

Swarovski Crystal - The epitome of man made crystals, Swarovski are the market leader in Austrian Crystal. Their crystals are cut and faceted to perfection and clarity is superb. They are producing more styles and shapes as the market calls for them. Now they even have opaque crystals, which you will find in some of my pieces. Some have an AB coating (Aurora Borealis) which will show many different colours as the light hits them.

Swarovski Pearls - Beautiful pearls that look almost like the real thing. Unlike other man made pearls, the Swarovski ones actually have their Austrian crystal underneath the coating. The beautiful pearl coating is resistant to scratches, fading, perfumes and perspiration -- it will not peel like the coating on glass pearls!

Polymer Clay - Polymer clay is a man made material and its history as an art medium is only decades long, unlike many media that have been around for centuries and have long traditions. This newness means that there is a great deal of innovation by users of polymer clay. Often, ideas are born by borrowing from the traditions of some other materials, such as metalworking (mokume gane), ceramics, glass (millefiore), paper, etc. Polymer clay is available in almost any colour you can think of, and if not available as is, can be mixed. The clay is soft and malleable whilst you are working with it and then it must be baked. After baking it is permanently hard. All my pieces are sanded using wet & dry sanding grits starting at 200 and going up to 1200 and then are polished using a high speed muslin wheel. Many hours work go into producing a Polymer Clay piece. Take a look at Katherine Dewey's or Donna Kato's work to see just how wonderful this material is.

Seed Beads - Seed beads are tiny little beads that average 1.5 - 2mm in size. Hundreds, sometimes thousands are required to bead a piece of jewellery or decorative item. All seed beaded pieces are done on high quality beading thread with a very high strength. It can take many, many hours, sometimes weeks to complete a seed beaded piece. I can assure you that the time spent on these pieces is not reflected in the cost.

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12 Wesselow Road
Coningsby
Lincs
LN4 4RN