In memory of Thelma 1916-2007

It's been a sad week - my mum in law passed away on 26th May.
A lovely lady and I feel privileged to have been part of her life and been with her on the start of her new journey....
Thelma was a fantastic mum, nanna and mum- in- law, she would do anything for us or any or her loved ones - Thelma was caring, loving and generous and would always put her loved ones before herself. She was one of those rare people that was loved by everyone that knew her. Much loved and sadly missed.
I didn't mention that she made a fantastic apple pie. Whenever we had a family get together it was always taken for granted that "Thelma will bring the apple pie" She generously shared her recipe with me but even though I followed the recipe to the letter it wasn't a patch on Thelma's. I guess that the love she put into it was the magic ingredient that made it so special :) Pin It

YOJ - Week 20 Bow Necklace

Not on theme again this week and I'm late as well. I had a play with the jewellery saw again this week. I really enjoy cutting out shapes from sheet metal and this week I went with a ribbon bow.
This is Mark 2. With the first one, I soldered a tube on the back and was going hang it on neoprene as I like the effect of the unseen bails. Unfortunately the soldering annealed the brass and made it too soft. Then when I was polishing it up I bent it. I managed to bend it back with out it being noticable but decided to work harden it with my rawhide mallet on the bench block to prevent it happening again.
What a pain! The tube on the back was getting in the way so I had it half off and half on the bench block. Then the edge of the bench block left a nice mark in the metal. That's when I gave up on that one and decided to start again!
This time round I took the easy way out suspended it from chain through a hole either side of the bow.
I'm pretty over ribbons and bows at the moment though ;) Pin It

I've been tagged

I've been tagged by Esta Sketch.

Rules Of Tagging!
1.List seven random facts/habits about yourself
2.Choose another seven bloggers to tag and list their names in your blog
3.Leave your seven tagged bloggers comments to notify them of their tagging and to direct them to your blog for tag instructions.

If I've tagged you and you don't want to do it - no worries. No obligation - you're allowed to break the "tag chain"

Ok Here goes..........

1. I'm left handed but do everything except writing and holding a fork the same as a righthanded person. Eating spaghetti with a spoon and fork is tricky because I want to hold them both in the same hand.
   
2. I can't cut cheese right through to the chopping block........I get most of the way through then twist my hand that's holding the knife, so the last bit of cheese breaks off. This is a family thing apparently - didn't realise I did it until a family member pointed it out - they do it too.
3. I regret the name we called our dog. We called him "nipper" because he's a little nipper ie: small/cute but people think he bites and got his name that way. I 've promised myself to give any pets we have in the future a more positive name with no negative connotations.
4. I don't eat seafood. I'm not allergic - just don't like it. People really can't understand that :)
5. I love tools - especially jewellery making tools. As soon as I get a new one - I'm deciding which one I must have next!!
   
6. I won't put my head under the water when I swim. Actually it has to be about 100 degrees in the shade for me to swim so it generally isn't an issue!
7. I wish I was as interesting as everyone else that has been tagged. I'm may have to come back and find some other people to tag as most of the people I was going to tag have already been tagged. But if you are reading this and want to join in - leave a comment and I'll tag you!!

I've tagged Feli, OrangeStarfish,
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Van Gogh Earring - YOJ Week 19

Well I've been busy making jewellery this week but not on theme. I'm still messing around with the Japanese weave chainmaille. I decided to have a go with some stainless steel rings I bought ages ago.
Stainless Steel is a whole different ball game from sterling. It is tough! My pliers kept slipping, my wrists ached, and generally, I decided it is not going to be my material of choice. So back in the drawer all those Stainless Steel jumprings go....
The result from my efforts was one earring, and no it's not going to get a mate. I may convert it into a pendant one of these days though. Pin It

YOJ - Week 18 Japanese Maille

This week's Year of Jewellery theme was Myths & Gods. I spent the whole week thinking about it but the creative Gods deserted me and I had to settle for a creation that was off theme. I'd been meaning to try some Japanese weave chainmaille ever since I got the Dylon Whyte Chainmaille book which was months ago. I used Sterling and teensy rubber rings for the earrings above. I love the industrial looking combo of metal & rubber - not that my little flowers turned out too industrial looking...........but well, you get the idea. :)

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Fishin' YOJ Week 17

Back to chainmaille for this weeks piece of jewellery. Although my fish hasn't been caught - he's just swimming past the net. The Bracelet is Sterling & Copper Euro 4 in 1 weave with the fish charm wired on, as are the Freshwater pearl studs. Pin It

Ripples, Depths & Shallows.

Week 16 of the YOJ is Ripples Depths & Shallows. I had a creative block with this one plus I was in a hurry to get it finished before I go away for a long weekend. I'm heading off to sunny Queensland (across the other side of the country!) for a flying visit to help celebrate my niece's 21st Birthday.
I wanted to try some etching but that will have to wait. Instead, I hammered some pre cut sterling oval discs, lightly domed them, put the holes in (I've got some cool hole-making pliers that make that job easy) and joined them with jumprings to make this bracelet. As luck would have it - it fits me perfectly!
It was a first for me as I used Liver of Sulphur for the first time to oxidise the piece to represent the depths & shallows. Wow, was this fun or what! I had dabbled with oxidising metal with an egg but this was so quick in comparison! I was chucking every bit of scrap metal I could find in to the LOS to blacken it just so i could scrub it back with the steel wool. Yes, I need to get a life - I know! Pin It

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