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, November 19, 2011

Hearts and Rivets: They Go Together

I've been wanting to do some riveted heart pendants for some time. Today I got busy. I LOVE doing these hearts because I don't have to use my saw on them! I hate sawing. I cut them out entirely with my metal shears--my straight cut and my left curve shears. I cleaned up the little tooth marks from the shears with fine grit sandpaper, they came right out. Voila! No sawing. I love the sort of blocky edges I get with the shears--the hammering with the texture sheets then softens that out a bit.

I layered these hearts using rivets (actually, copper tacks from the hardware store!), and then created a loop by attaching a wire figure-8 with the rivet. (I learned that from a Sharilyn Miller DVD, Ethnic Style Jewelry--lots of handy stuff!)

On a couple of them, I only used one rivet to attach both the second heart and the figure-8; on the big one, I used two rivets to attach them separately.

The smallest heart I will use as a bracelet charm--I'm always a little frustrated using one-sided charms on bracelets, because with the way bracelets move around, you see the wrong side of the charm as often as you see the front. I wanted to make double-sided charms, but you can't really do that with a single sheet and the texture sheet/hammering method, because hammering the second side takes the texture out of the first side. So I thought I would just use two separate hearts, attached with a rivet, with the figure-8 loop in between. (And now I like that "3-D" look so much, I wish I had put the figure-8 in the middle with the other two too. I think I may do that from now on.)
I also textured and antiqued some copper strips to turn my copper flowers into clasps or usable components. I just have to rivet the strips to the flowers now, and decide how to configure them.

Then I have to use them in something. That's the hard part! I'm thinking of opening a second shop for components--then YOU would have to figure out what to do with them. :-)

7 comments:

  1. Great textured hearts...and I love the loop idea...clever.
    Jenni

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  2. Wonderful ideas - the 3-D version is great!

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  3. They sure do! Very pretty rustic hearts! Love!

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  4. Very cool. Thanks for all the info and how to's.

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  5. LOVE these charms!!! Your idea really worked so well~~

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  6. What an amazing idea, just snipping out shapes with your shears! I have been putting off cutting into some rescued copper pieces because of the thought of all that sawing. But after reading this I grabbed my tin snips and Oh My!! It just cut like butter! Despite it being already textured. A little filing and dapping and now I have some lovely copper bits with flowers and leaves and swirly thingys etc all ready for earrings. So thank you ever so much for sharing this tip.

    By the way, love your blog, just discovered it a few days ago, have been spending some late nights reading and trying to not wake my Honey up when I explode into laughter.

    And I love your use of color and texture in your work.
    Carol

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