A chronicle of the meanderings, false starts (which in retrospect, while sort of embarrassing turned out to be highly instructive), epiphanies, selective apathy (still evolving), wild mood swings, opinions (subject to frequent change), and life lessons of an inveterate dabbler (and her latest dabblings).

Saturday, October 22, 2011

My First Rivet

I set out today to anneal and texture some things. (I belatedly realized that annealing my copper items before using my brass texture sheets and hammer on them would make things a little easier on the sheets because the copper would be softer. Ah well, live and learn). As I was looking for a copper flower I had cut out, I came across a rectangle I had cut out. Not sure what I had in mind when I cut it out but I decided to try to turn it into something. You can see it here:

I was going for a two-tone texture, so I used a couple different sheets, and made a border between them. (Not sure if that is going to just stay that way or not...) Because my texture sheets are getting all curled I didn't get a good impression--they don't really work well for large items. There were some holidays here and there, especially in the lower portion. So I decided to cover them up. I had another small strip of metal lying around so I textured it with a third texture and thought, well, this would be the perfect time to attempt a rivet. So I did a trial run (with the square and rectangle in the lower right--pretty, huh?) and it worked, so I plunged in. I used copper tacks from the hardware store, so it was pretty easy. (Learned that from a Sharilyn Miller video!). I put the pretty side up and only had to hammer the back. Worked great!

I'm going to rivet the large flower to the long strip of metal just above it (with a little flattened flower beadcap added--that is in the upper right corner of the picture), and use the strip to fashion a clasp. Then I have a plan involving pearls, more copper, and Swarovski crystals. (Unusual for me to use those.) It will be a necklace.

Those things that look like ping pong paddles will hopefully be earrings--I'm going to curl over those tongues of metal sticking out and make them into a bail to hang them from. But first, the liver of sulfur and then lots of tumbling.

4 comments:

  1. Well done with the rivet...the design looks great. I love all the texturing you did and at first thought the copper sheet must have been per-textured. May I ask what you did use to texture? Will look to see all the finished products.
    Jenni

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  2. Drooling over the texture on your copper!! And looking forward to seeing the finished pieces. Rivets are great, aren't they?

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  3. ooooh, I'm so excited to see you trying new things and can't wait to see the outcome!

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  4. That looks like a whole lot of fun - the fact that I'm reading this whole thing backwards makes it even better because I know how awesome they turn out - brilliant fun!

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