Hi from the Jersey Shore! I'm fairly new to the group and I'd like to show you a few of my jewelry pieces. I make jewelry using broken china, wire wrap and wire crochet and have recently added some sea glass pieces too.

Here's one of my broken china wire wrapped pieces made from a Crest-O-Gold Sabin china plate:

Here's one of my broken china rings made from an oriental bowl with rice pattern:

And here's my latest sea glass necklace made by crocheting 28-gauge artist wire.

Thanks for taking a look and I hope you like it. It was hard to pick which ones to show you! Nice to meet you all.

Hi Marjorie, Thanks for showing us your work.  I especially like the first one. Welcome to the forum.  I also do wirewrapping but have not tried broken china, I've used porcelain cabs though.  I like the freeforms that you get with broken china.  Do you grind the edges?  Jeanie

Very original! I loved the 1st piece and the necklace. The ring was nice too!

Please, post more pieces and welcome to the forum! 

Thanks, Jeanie. Yes, I have to grind the edges smooth and then apply two coats of varnish. The problem with grinding china is that the china dust is not good to breathe. I used a rotary tool at first but had to wear a mask and also safety goggles because of the tiny chips that would fly off. It may be more time consuming and laborious, but I now prefer to use a diamond tip file and file the piece under water. That way I don't have to worry about the dust which was bothering me or the little chips of china that my cats' feet might find. Nice to meet you.

Thank you, Gaby! Yes, I'll be glad to post more pieces as soon as I can. A forum where someone is asking me to post more pictures of my work - - Yup, I know I'm going to love it here!

Nice to meet you.

These are lovely.  And, yes, keep posting new pieces as they are ready.  I'm off to break some china..............

 so good!

 would like to know how you get the actual shape of the pendant. do you just brake the plate in a bag with a hammer and hope for some good parts or do you choose what part of the plate you want beforehand. i would prefer to choose the part i want so as i don't waste much of the plate but not sure how to do this. would you be able to give me some pointers. x fiona2650

It's according to the china, Fiona.  Sometimes I just break the plate randomly and take what pieces I get.  But there are times I want a certain picture from the china - like a rose or a sprig of leaves.  China is actually not easy to break!  Oftentimes the crack doesn't go where you want it to go.  I had a plate with a beautiful butterfly in the middle of it and I was trying to cracked hunks off the edges just to get nearer the middle when the crack shot out to the side and cut one of the wings in half.  And some china is harder to break than others.  Bone china, although very thin, is hard to break.

Basically china can be broken just like mosaic glass.  But use a diamond tip glass cutter because a regular glass cutter won't go through the glaze on the china.  You can use either a rotary tool or a glass grinder to shape the piece.  But again you'll need diamond tip bits.  And be sure to use safety goggles and mask.  Bits of the china fly off as you break and grind and the china dust is harmful to breathe. 

Let me know if you have any questions.  I'll be giving a live interview on Jewelry Connection next month and I know they'll be asking questions about the process if you'd like to stop by and listen.  They also will have a question and answer time.  It's on September 7, 2008 and the time is, depending on where you are:  12pm PST, 2pm CST, or 3pm EST.  Here's the link where you can listen to the show:  Now Live - The Jewelry Connection
 

Very nice work.

I am also new to the group... the art jewelry part, anyway.

Thank you, I appreciate that, Laura.