Etsymetal Charmswap 4 Final round!

Had to give my little pinwheel that black look on the inside. So I took a tiny, tiny, tiny paint brush and painted on the patina. Turned out pretty cool if I may say so!
So here we go, 22 pinwheel charms from little me. I've packaged them all up and sent them out on their new adventures. Good Luck little fellows!

Etsymetal Charmswap 4 Round 2

Snip, snip, file file and bend bend... Boy am I not finished yet?
My poor little fingers are sore from making all 'em little pinwheels.



Soldered my little pinwheels to the balled pins I made earlier... Tedious business :o)


And then I soldered all 'em pinwheels to my little cups. Added a little flower on the back. Figured pinwheels and flowers go hand in hand. At least that's where I was when I was little playing with them - outside with the flowers.
Straight out of the pickle pot. Yuck they look gross!
File, file, file.... Who knew there could be so much work with these little buggers? Ha I guess I forgot to multiply the work with 22!


Ahhh that's better. Shiny shiny right out of the tumbler.. and yeah I soldered a little jump ring to them and then I'll add another open 16 g jump ring.

YAY! Look at that little fellow. He's spinning cause he's so happy. But he's not done! Still a little more work to be done :o) Got to add some black to those pinwheels. I just have to! It wouldn't feel right otherwise.. So that is on the agenda for wednesday (sorry busy with beer and after work tomorrow). But the plan is to ship them out on Thursday!

Etsymetal Charmswap 4 Round 1 (again)

at first I tried an enameled design but after spending a whole day working on them (it was HOT in the studio) only a couple of 22 charms survived :o( So I decided that it was a sign that I should something that is more "me". And what is more "me" than pinwheels?



That's right I'm making a little design with a pinwheel. Hopefully if it all works out the inside of the domed copper disk will hold a little pinwheel that spins if you blow on it. That is if it all works out... I have all my little pieces made and they are ready to be put together..

And this is what the back will look like. Haven't decided on the patina yet. I'll do something with them, just not sure what yet. I am not crazy about shiny copper and you can get some nice colors with liver of sulfur. Or at least that aged look... So this is what I am working on today. Wish me luck!


And don't forget to check out my blog giveaway for my Sterling silver Growing Flower Earrings!

STEP 1 Etsymetal Charm Swap 4

I am participating in the Etsymetal Charm 4 and I was having the hardest time deciding what to do. I finally landed on an enameled charm. I just bought a Paragon SC2 kiln (which should be arriving any day now) so I started preparing my little copper discs.

I have to make 22 charms and they have to be done by the end of august (I think). So I used my new stamp with my pretty logo from Infinity stamps. I love how detailed it is and I am very happy with that purchase.

After stamping all 22 charms on the back I drilled the hole for the jump ring. Since I will be enameling the pieces I needed to do that now... cause ofter wise I would have 22 useless charms after firing them :o)

After drilling all the holes I added some texture to the back and domed them. And all that is left now is the fun part! I think I am going to do a clear enamel on the back (which will be the side you see here) and then I want to play with some different colors on the front. I kind of want to do a bunch of different colors cause I just got some new ones in and I have been dying to play with them.


One thing I've been playing with is fusing glassbeads to the surface of the enamel and this photo is of some label pins that was a custom request. So I think I might try that with some of the charms. I have to say I am really nervous about this swap. There are some seriously talented members of Etsymetal that is participating and I really hope that they will like my charms when they are done! Heck, I hope I will really like the charms when they are done!!!