Irregular Pendant

I've been meaning to make a silver version of the chunky copper pendant from my last post and I finally had a chance to do it.
This time I've used Sterling Silver Wire and it's on a smaller scale - The largest link is around 5cm x 3.5cm at it's widest points. (2 inches x 1 1.2 inches) Still, thats a pretty decent size for a silver pendant.

I like that you can rotate the shapes around in the jump ring bail to give it a different look. The top pic shows it in a uniform order then underneath it's pictured in a more haphazard arrangement.

 

My current quest is to create from the supplies I already have rather than buy in more materials. I've plenty of this Sterling Wire, so I can see some more of these coming on, maybe even earrings too!


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Get Coppered?

No it doesn't have the same ring to it as "Get Silvered" does it? But lately I've been playing around a bit with copper and Brass.  What about "Brassed off"? Lol - no I think I'll stick with Get Silvered.

M. came in from the shed the other day and gave me a stack of nice thick copper wire. Each wire almost 3mm thick in 30cm lengths! Score! He salvaged it from work - it was a sample piece of Industrial cable that was going to be chucked out! There I was, thinking he was hiding in the shed playing with his fishing lures and reels when all the time he was stripping wire for me :)

We've had days and days of heatwaves lately with temperatures in the high 30s and even getting as high as 42 degrees (that's 107.6 degrees farenheit for the Celsius challenged!) Obviously, that's not the weather for soldering in a tin shed, especially when there are total fire bans.  So I waited patiently and courtesy of Cyclone Iggy out to sea further north we've had rain and even cloud cover and cooler temps in the last day or two. Of course I seized the opportunity to light up the torch -Here's the before and after shots. It's nice and chunky - The largest shape is around 8 x 4cm.

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Tiny Treasure Pendant

Before:

After:

This pendant was inspired by those gorgeous cylinder shaped Bali Silver Prayer Boxes. I've admired them for a long time.
For my pendant I used some copper pipe from the Hardware store, and used the same techniques that I used with my trinket boxes. I've plenty of spare pipe leftover - it was a 1.5 metre length and the pendant is only about 4 cm long. Overkill?? HaHa maybe! Anyway, I hope to experiment some more with the leftovers! I may try etching the next one, and I want to try out some kind of safety catch...and... if I get really adventurous I may try out a hinged version and....Oh well .....we'll see how I go.........     :) Pin It

Rain drop Pendant

I've entered my latest creation in an online exhibition which will be hosted on the ganoksin Orchid forum. The pieces must be made with non precious metals, so that suited me as I've been making my hollow form pieces in Brass.
The exhibition's not juried, so I know my piece will make the cut, what's tricky is the photo - it must be of "jury quality"
Here's the picture I've submitted.

Hopefully it meets the standard required. Photographing jewellery is quite painful for me, anything polished has reflection - usually reflecting features I don't want included, like my hand or what I'm wearing (the pink pyjama syndrome) Aargh! then there's the "evil" white balance that makes the purest snow driven whites a dirty blue gray tone despite my hours messing around with my camera settings.
That's why I shot my pic on a gray background this time - I decided to save my self the white balance angst :)

There are numerous online articles showing how to make light boxes and to take great photos of jewellery, maybe I'll check out the resources and have a go at making a light box.

Update: Got the news that my photo was Ok and up to standard - Yay! Pin It

New Tools - jury is out.........

First up Week 12 at Tafe: I still have to solder last week's jumprings into a bracelet but this week we started working on the clasp. A hollow form padlock clasp - it's still a work in progress. Once again we rolled our silver sheet down from a little section of bar ingot.

It's satisfying learning to fabricate materials on the spot as needed instead of keeping all the different gauges of sheet and wire on hand. Although if I was doing it this way at home I'd definitely need to get quicker at it...oh and I'd need a better rolling mill, oh and draw plates etc etc -He He :)

In other happenings - The Aussie dollar is pretty healthy and the silver price dropped back from it's near $50 high so it was time for a bit of internet shopping.
Apart from materials that I actually needed, I also splurged $20(aud)on a new tool.
Rocket wire twisting pliers :)

They held a lot of promise but alas, I was a tad disappointed after giving them a test run! Check out the video instructions on how they work.
I tested them on 16 gauge square copper wire but I found it impossible to close the handles to secure the wire. I had to squeeze the handles in my vice, as I didn't have the wrist strength, hmm - what a weakling! Anyway I did twist a few 13cm (about 5 inch) lengths of wire. They twisted evenly and I soldered them into rings to make this pendant.

Next up - some square silver 18 gauge. A 60 cm (2 feet)length just didn't twist evenly. You can see a couple of the pieces in the photo above next to the pliers. I ended up cutting it into shorter bits to try and salvage it. That did the trick (sort of) and I made this:

My conclusion: I should have googled a bit more before I bought these. Apparently the pliers are good for wire up to 18 gauge (1mm), so it was no wonder I had trouble with the 16 gauge copper. I haven't tried twisting 2 strands of round wire to make twisted wire yet but the video makes it look easy.
I think I'll use them occasionally in the future but honestly a hand or power drill and a vice will do the same job, so I probably could have lived without these and saved my 20 bucks. However these pliers do get a 10 out of 10 for their good looks.
They look pretty damn cool in the tool drawer.

I don't think I've experienced "tool remorse" before - LOL ....What tools have you purchased that have underwhelmed you? Pin It

More Stationery - no I'm not standing still........

.....because then I'd be Stationary!

Seems I got my "Stationery" and "Stationary" mixed up in my last post! The first sentence (not sentance) of my last post I effectively said "standing still is very hot right now" ooops... never mind -  it probably is  ...but you knew what I meant right?

Back to stationery of the paper metal kind. I've had two weeks off from TAFE as we follow the school terms, so with the extra days at home I found time to make more notebook pendants - this time in silver.

Here they are:

 

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A time for reflection - where the heck did 2010 go??

As 2010 comes to an end and I reflect on the year - all I can think of is - heck - that went fast!   It may have dragged for others but I'll bet they are young - Pretty much  for anyone my age ( I'll be coy!) I expect that it flew by!
Creatively 2010 has been a 'so so' year for me.  I've had many great ideas for designs but in reality many pieces have bombed - Firescale - how I hate thee! I've unintentionally melted a few great ideas and I somehow wonder how I managed to solder anything successfully sometimes.  My enameling has been a bit hit and miss but I loved the class I took earlier this year and am looking forward to experimenting more with powdered glass!

On a positive note, I redid my button pendant in 2 sizes. It's evolved very subtlety - but I think they work as well as the original which is currently with my daughter on her backpacking adventures around Europe and the UK and is apparently collecting the occasional compliment when she wears it. .

I was chuffed when, after sending some work to my retail stockist the other week  that  these pieces and another piece sold immediately :)  So, all in all maybe 2010 wasn't too bad after all :)

Anyway, I've decided that for 2011 that I'm going back to basics. I'm going to revisit the techniques I learned as a beginner - piercing, hammering, riveting and yes even soldering, maybe re do a few pieces that were successful, maybe reinvent them a little, but generally hone in on technique. I might even do a few step by step projects from the magazines I subscribe to consolidate the re learning process.

And to finish off the year creatively I made these two pendants. The simple clean lines that I love - no soldering just simple metal forming. I was playing around  to see if I could make a mobius ring  inspired by my friend Annie's love of all things mobius. The ring bit didn't work for me but I loved twisting the metal and these were the happy result.

I'm feeling very positive about it all.........Roll on 2011 ...Happy New Year to you all........ Pin It

Meanderings in wire.....

Not sure why, but I had an urge to play with wire yesterday, and that urge was a lot stronger than the urge to vacuum dust etc. which is what I should have been doing!

Fortunately it was a productive day creatively and I made these pendants. I used a heavy gauge Sterling Silver wire which I hand formed with pliers free form style and finished with a hammered texture. Soldered in places to give structural strength.

I did end up wasting a lot of wire in designs that didn't work though so I've plenty of silver scraps to melt down later.
These are the ones that I was happy with, and they're quite large, the triangle is about 8 cm (3inches) long. The Rose is the smallest with a diameter of about 4.5cm (1 1/4 inches)

While I was playing around I got a nice idea for a ring which I hope to attempt this week too.



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Not a bad afternoon's work

Well the Australian Rules Football Grand Final was on this afternoon.

I'm only vaguely interested in footy but I did watch it while I made some jewellery. Nothing like multi-tasking. I was happy with the afternoon's result.

Here's a brand new design I created using rubber rings with Sterling Silver ....

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3D, trimetal Pendant

I was quite pleased how this turned out - 3D like a shadow box with a single pearl peeking out.
I've used brass, with copper & sterling. All cold connected with rivets.


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