Seafoam & Rolling Waves YOJ Week15

Week 15 of the YOJ is Drifting, Seafoam & Rolling waves. I decided to ignore the Drifting and concentrate on the rolling waves and the seafoam.
I had these fabulous amazonite rondelles which were the perfect colour to represent seafoam. I put them in clusters hanging from the pendant. I couldn't work out how to represent waves at first . I would have loved to texture the metal to get that feel but in the end decided that I would saw the pendant in half in a wavy pattern. I'm happy, the little seafoam rondelles dance around from the bottom of the pendant just like ........well...... seafoam!

Next week's theme is " Ripples, Depths and Shallows" so I'm already thinking texture.........What did I do with that etching fluid?! Pin It

Year Of Jewellery

This is my first contribution into the YOJ (year of jewellery)

I was following the theme " April Showers". For me, part of the appeal in participating in the year of jewellery was to challange myself by keeping to the theme where possible.
After thinking about it for a while I had a clear idea what I wanted to do. I decided to try a product ITS because I wanted to transfer text on to metal. It did occur to me that most of the projects on the manufacturer's site included photos, but not actual text being transferred to the metal surface ......but did that deter me?......No!
What did deter me was that after following the instructions to the letter (no pun intended!!) my lettering looked awful! The text adhered to the metal just fine but with a misty looking surround that was not uniform or attractive.
I ended up sanding the whole lot off. I'm not bagging the product though - I'll do some more experimenting - I'm sure it works fine with photos etc though, which I think is what it's mainly intended for.

A glass of wine and a lot of thought later I decided I'd get my text on the metal if it was the last thing I did! And I did.......well sort of........
I printed the text out on acetate and overlayed it on the sheet metal instead of using the transfer product.

I have mixed feelings about this - I'm disappointed the transfer medium didn't do what I wanted it to do, but at the same time I'm pretty pleased with my problem solving abilities to achieve the result that is the same as what I had in mind at the beginning even though the methods were not what I set out to do.

I know you metal smith people are thinking " why didn't you just etch the text on to the metal?" Well, I was getting around to that - but not just yet - that's why I had bought the acetate - to experiment some more with etching......Stay tuned :) Pin It

Bush Floor Pendant

There was a Bead & Gem show here in Perth this weekend and one of the exibitors makes furniture etc from recycled hardwood. He then uses his offcuts to make beads and makes them in all sorts of irregular shapes & sizes.
It's very eco friendly as he uses wood from the forest floor or from discarded timbers.
This pendant was one of a few I picked out .
It was screaming out to me to be teamed with some metal but I intentionally kept it simple so as not to detract from the beauty of the wood grain. I handsawed the the two metal shapes (nickel silver) to the shape of the wood's profile and textured it for interest. Then gave it a good polish. I love the contrast of the wood with the hard edged metal. I'm thrilled how this turned out. Pin It

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New Copper & Carnelian piece

Haven't posted for a week - been catching up on that ironing and housework.
Did manage to fiind time to have a little play though. This time with copper and I teamed it with a little sterling silver and some gorgeous natural carnelian. I just love carnelian :) Pin It

I can't put down the jewellery saw!

It was my day off today and I had heaps of washing, ironing, housework etc to do.
Did I do it? ..............Well of course not - I did this instead :)

Brass with Sterling Silver accents on neoprene rubber.


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Dove's Mark 1 & Mark 2

Well I've still been playing with my saw. Here in Australia at the moment in jewellery there is a lot of animal silhouette shapes. Lots of swallow necklaces as well as Bambi style deers, cut from various materials such as perspex or wood or a mirror finish material. I think they'd all be laser cut.
This has inspired me to try my own shapes so I thought I'd try a dove.
I started with a dove stencil as my outline and I transferred it to brass sheet and saw cut it.
I soldered a loop on the back and suspended it from a neoprene necklace. I thought it looked pretty cool. I've been wearing it and had lots of compliments but it had a few sharp, pointy edges so I figured it wasn't marketable in it's present form. I guess I don't want my customers to stab themselves with my otherwise peaceful dove. So this one's a keeper - I promise I'll try not to stab myself.

So I set about redesigning the dove to be suitable for wearing as jewellery. This was no mean feat as I can't draw to save my life. After just about using a whole pad of paper and wearing out my eraser I managed to draw the Dove Mark 2.
Not too many differences but lots of soft edges and no sharp pointy bits....

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Been Absent for a while

Well this is my first post in a while.
I've been having heaps of fun lately with my jeweller's saw.
When I did my silversmith course a couple of years ago I hated the saw piercing side of things.
Well I've picked up the saw again and suprise, suprise I'm really enjoying it. I'm finding it so relaxing.
Here's a couple of my recent creations.

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Happy Australia Day!!

Well it's Australia Day today and it's a long weekend.
Here in Perth it's a hot, hot, hot, 39 degrees - that's celsius. I think it's around 102 in farenheight.
We're off to the neighbours for a Bar B Q this evening, to celebrate but I've been holed up all day inside with the aircon going at full bore.

Yesterday the postman bought me my new Koil Kutter - what perfect timing, so I can play this weekend. Now I'll be able to cut my own jumprings for my chainmaille.

I got the thing set up this arvo (with the help of my husband) and have cut my first rings.
I'm so excited - I can't wait to do some more in different sizes but these were the first........

Yes I know, it doesn't take a lot to get me excited - some new jewellery tools will always do it! Pin It

More Mixed Metals......

Happy New Year. I haven't blogged for a while as I've been away on holidays to Melbourne. What a fantastic place that is!
Had a custom order to do when I got back so while I had the tools out I decided to have a play with some brass sheet I had bought just before Christmas.
I cut, filed, sanded, hammered and gave it a corrugated finish by manipulating it with my pliers.
I hand polished it to a nice high shine and this is the result. I've added some sterling chain and an oval disc and I'm really happy with the result :)

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