Melismatic Art Jewelry: copper

Showing posts with label copper. Show all posts

Friday, August 7, 2015

Finished Farthing in an Oil Slick Bracelet - COM Update

Last week I posted about my Art Jewelry Elements Component of the Month for July, but I ran into some complications! I had to redo my bezel, and just didn't get finished. Well, I had hope to work on it over the weekend, but that didn't come into fruition, so I picked it back up this week.

All the components...copper bezel, connector rings, farthing clasp by Niky Sayers, and gorgeous lampwork by Sue Kennedy.

Fast forward, I not only ruined the 1st bezel attempt, while trying to solder on the connector rings on this one, totally melted the silver bezel again! Note to self...attach copper connector rings first, since they need much more heat than the fragile fine silver bezel! Duh!

Anyway, I finally got it done and am really pleased with it! I textured the backplate and ditched the little silver balls...too fussy, I think.

I love Niky's farthing clasp right next to Sue's big flower cab!

You can really see the iridescence of Sue's beads in this light!

I curved the connectors slightly so it would lay on the wrist better!

This beauty is already listed in my shop! Hey, did you know I was offering 30% off everything in my shop? We have had a hard summer financially...healthcare costs and just blew our rear wheel cylinder on our main vehicle and had to spend money out the wazoo to fix! Now, school is about to start and those back-to-school supplies are killer! Use coupon code BRAKES30 at checkout for a limited time. I am going through and listing other inventory that has never seen the light of day, so keep checking back!

Thanks for stopping by!

Thursday, July 30, 2015

AJE Component of the Month Challenge for July - Farthing Edition

Hello all! Long time, no see! It is time for the July 2015 installment of Art Jewelry Element's Component of the Month Challenge. For new readers, or those who need to be reminded, every few months, one of the AJE team members offers one of their handmade components to the rest of the design team, plus does a giveaway to lucky readers who leave a comment! On the last day of the month, we reveal what we created with said lovely component!

Farthing coin components by Niky Sayers...beads and clasps!

This month, Niky Sayers presented us with amazing components created from English farthing coins! Mine was cleverly turned into a clasp! I love it!

The clasp I received from Niky! So sweet!

I decided to use some artisan lampwork beads from the sweet and talented Sue Kennedy of SueBeads. I love this glass...it has a sheen that reminds me of an oil slick!

Gorgeous beads by Sue Kennedy!

My intent was to bezel-set the cab and create a bracelet using Niky's sweet clasp. I thought, "I got this", then proceeded to procrastinate, then get bogged down with the silly, simple soldered bezel, then my brakes went out on my car last night after work, then......well, you know the rest.

This is how far I got!

The rings will be soldered to the back for connectors, the little balls are meant for bezel embellishment, and the lopsided dapped copper circles will be bead caps (maybe). That is as far as I got! I intend to complete it this weekend, so stay tuned!

Here are the other participants. Go see the pretties!!!

Guest bloggers
Rebecca Anderson

Nan Smith

Jess Green

AJE Team
Sue Kennedy
Kristen Stevens
Jenny Davies-Reazor
Lindsay Starr
Caroline Dewison
Lesley Watt
Linda Landig
Rebekah Payne
Niky Sayers

Sunday, May 31, 2015

May 2015 AJE Component of the Month

May's component of the month features Sue Kennedy of SueBeads. She is one of all time favorite lampwork artists and I have many of her lovely beads, but this month she went in a different direction and offered us her gorgeous beaded beads!

A gorgeous pile of beaded beads!

The ones I got! Love those colors :)

I was going to not do earrings just because she sent a pair, but I had technical difficulties while working on the necklace design I had in mind, so at the last minute, I said why fight it!

I paired these beauties with another pair of beauties by Sue...her flower stamped beads! I love these beads and I have gotten several colors in the round and her chicklet style.

I added some golden yellow Czech glass lentil and flowers to bring out those colors in the beaded beads.

This shows how the little lentil beads will hang when worn.

Another view in outside light!

These are long, not quite shoulder sweepers, but they definitely make a statement and I think would be perfect for summer! I will put them in my shop later today!

Thanks for stopping by...I hope you go visit the rest of this month's design team!

Guests

AJE Team

Saturday, January 24, 2015

February 2015 is my month to contribute a Component of the month for the Art Jewelry Elements blog hop challenge! I have the honor of providing this month's component. After polling the group, I decided to do some metal clay.

I am new to the medium, but as I talked about in previous posts, love it and strive to find my voice with it!

These are all copper, using the same original carved stamping by me. The dots around certain designs are actually holes through the design, hard to see in the photo!

Go to the blog for a chance to win!

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Blue Bird on a Snowy Day

So, my last post was my December 2014 AJE Component of the Month piece, featuring a sweet white snowflake by Diana Ptaszynski of Suburban Girl Studio, LLC!

If you remember, I got behind and didn't finish it. I wasn't really happy with the layout and the clasp either. This is the before shot...

Since then, I have done a little renovation and am really happy with the end result!

Here is the after..."blue bird on a snowy day".

I changed the juxtaposition of the copper snowflake to be above the blue bird, added a couple more copper beads, some winter flowers and leaves with curly tendrils.

I swapped out the original clasp for one the is a bit smaller and with a little more interest.

Of course, the LOS to add an antiqued patina makes the whites pop (just like a few of you said it would)!

Thanks for encouraging me to finish it! I will be listing it at Melismatic Art Jewelry hopefully today!

Saturday, January 3, 2015

December 2014 AJE Component of the Month

Our lovely components this month are from Diana Ptaszynski of Suburban Girl Studio, LLC. We had our choice of stoneware snowflakes. I chose a white one.

As per my usual modus operandi, I waited until the very last minute, then some family dynamics prohibited me from completely finishing mine. The chain needs to be secured, it needs LOS and a tumble, and I may completely redo the clasp.

Along with Diana's sweet focal, I included a cute blue bird by Caroline Dewison of BlueberriBeads, a white lampwork bead from Mermaid Glass, one of my own copper metal clay components (it started out as a flower, but I filed it into sort of a snowflake shape!) a Czech glass flower, and some cool brushed-finish copper beads from my stash.

I really like the monochromatic effect of all the winter white, with the one pop of color Caroline's sweet bird adds.

I may add some more beads and completely change the design...stay tuned! But first, go see what others have created! Thanks for stopping by...

Monthly Winners

AJE Blog Team

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Art Jewelry Elements Component of the Month, for November 2014

I am happy to be back on the last day of the month to share my design for the AJE COM featuring cute beaded ring components by our own Kristen Stevens!

Because Kristen is just so cool, she sent me a green set AND an indigo blue set! These are made from twins, meaning they have 2 holes and they have a very cool iridescence which is very hard to capture in photos.

As per my standard MO, I waited until the last minute and created a pair of earrings with my indigo pair yesterday!

I wanted to make the beaded rings part of something else, so I found some copper washers that were the perfect size, after some hammering! I decided I wanted to attach the beaded rings to the washers, so I got everything ready by texturing, punching some holes for the wire and added interest, patina'ed everything with LOS, then tumbled. These are always important steps to remember to do BEFORE attaching fragile components like these that you don't want to expose to chemicals, or water!

I used very thin gauged copper wire and wrapped the rings onto the washters. I used absolutely gorgeous lampwork headpins from Sue Kennedy of SueBeads. These are my most favorite color combination she does!

I added my own hand fabricated sterling ear wires, embellished with tiny glass beads and copper wire for the finished pair. I think a tiny touch of red to bring out the red in Sue's lampwork would have been great, but I couldn't find anything tiny enough and just the right color red for the jov. These worked in a pinch!

There you go! Thanks for stopping by. Here are the participating Team Members and Guests for the month. Go take a peek at all the gorgeousness!

Guest Designers

AJE Team

LesleyWatt

Thanks again, Kristen!

Saturday, November 29, 2014

New Copper Metal Clay!

Hi all, just updated my site with some new Copper Clay Morsels. Still new to metal clay, but am really happy with how these turned out! Here is a sampling...

Sizes in these photos are a bit wonky, but there are dimensions listed in the postings. I am definitely having fun with metal clay and hope to have some white copper and maybe some bronze as well, sometime soon!

Oh, and a reminder...if you use TURKEY14 at checkout, you will receive a 20% discount though Monday, Dec. 12! I've uploaded some newer jewelry as well!

Hope to see you soon!

Saturday, November 1, 2014

AJE Component of the Month for October 2014...

featuring amazing ceramic pieces by Karen Totten of Starry Road Studio!

She calls them Spiral Fossils and they are so very cool! I chose the green/blue glaze because I love it and I bought a few lovelies from her at BeadFest that totally work together!

Unfortunately, my piece isn't finished...I sort of bit off a bit more than I had time for after procrastinating...

I took so much time deciding that I wanted to try and experiment with Jenny Davies-Reazor's cool mixed-media pendant that she taught at BeadFest, and since I didn't take the workshop but am going on a quick how-to she graciously shared with me, most of my time was taken up getting the copper backplate how I wanted it. Still have to cure the polymer and attach it all.

The other lovely pieces are also Karen's...love that feather, although it may be too similar in color, but it might work!

Hope you will check back...I will definitely post the finished piece!

Monthly Winners

Lindsay Starr / Phantasm Creations

Sherri Hartman Stokey / Knot Just Macrame

Staci Louise Smith / Staci Louise Originals

AJE Blog Team

Diana Ptaszynski / Suburban Girl Studio

Susan Kennedy / Sue Beads

Caroline Dewison / BlueberriBeads

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Lesley Watt

Melissa Allford Meman

Francesca Watson

Jennifer Stout Cameron / Glass Addictions

Kristin Stevens / Beadworks by KAS

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

AJE Component of the Month for September...

featuring a very cool copper clay focal by Kristi Bowman!

I decided that my design should stay fairly simple to show off this wonderful pendant, but wanted to incorporate some color. I found these pretty serpentine beads that I was saving for a rosary and decided to do a necklace of wrapped links. Serpentine is one of my favorite stones and this strand had such wonderful autumnal colors that really work well with copper. I decided to add a bit more weight and paired the wrapped links with some small copper chain from my stash.

I punched an additional hole in Kristi's focal so that I could dangle a bead below...unfortunately I didn't have any serpentine briolettes, but this quartz one has the right pale celadon green shade to pair with the serpentine.

Quirky me decided at the last minute to add a bead to one of the holes in the pendant, just for another bit of color and fun...I used a copper headpin and a round copper disc in the back to hold the bead in place. I am not sure I like my clasp...I may try to come up with something different that doesn't distract, or possibly move the clasp to the back (gasp!).

Here is the list of other designers who created...go show them some love!

SJ Designs Jewelry

AJE Team Members

Jenny Davies-Reazor
Sue Kennedy

Sunday, August 31, 2014

AJE Component of the Month for August - Leather Feathers!

This month, our component comes from the talented Rebekah Payne of Treewings Studio. She created these fun, organic leather feathers...she talks a bit about the process here! We had our choice of an earring pair, or a larger focal feather.

I opted for an earring pair and received a gorgeous set with purple, blue and metallic designs! I knew that I wanted to create a copper backing to somehow attach the feather to, but it took going to BeadFest this past weekend to solidify my idea in my brain!

Gorgeous lampwork headpins by Jen Cameron and Sue Kennedy!

See the ones circled in yellow? Yep, the orange swirls with purple stripes! As soon as I saw them, I knew what I was going to do. I set about making my copper back plates, adding texture, measuring, punching holes and creating balled headpins and earwires. The plan was to rivet the feathers to the copper piece using the lampwork headpins at the bottom and copper balled headpins at the top. The tips of the leather would be folded over so the copper headpins would go through twice, making a loop for the copper jumpring.

A not great photo of everything all laid out after I patina'ed and tumbled the wire and metal...except for 1 stupid jumpring that flew out of my hands never to be seen again!

Ta-Da!

The design itself, I really like...I wish my construction had been a bit neater. I had a mishap with one of Jen's headpins...I started swirling the back and couldn't get it straight for some reason, so I gently straightened it back out, hoping I hadn't work hardened the wire too much. When I went to try a second time, the wire snapped. Luckily, there was enough left to work with to get it riveted fairly tight, but I may go back and add a drop of E6000 to make sure it holds.