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).

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Jungle Love

Jungle Love
In a fit of patina experimentation, I ended up making 16 patina coin focals like this one, in several different colors. They were the coins from my collection that weren't interesting enough to use for textures on my metal, and basically ugly as-is. So I covered them up with crazy colors! They will become bracelets, pendants, and clasps for necklaces. This one was all in kelly green and teal--the perfect occasion to use some of my "jungle green" recycled sari silk ribbon from Mudhound Studios.


I had made up some textured copper tube beads a while back (I haven't had much luck finding large hole copper tube beads for sale, and they're usually plated anyway and the finish doesn't match my handmade copper components), and added those to the silk, in between knots. Then I added some teardrops of emerald green aventurine between the tube beads. I needed some more length so I thought about it awhile and decided to add some wrapped bars accented with etched lampwork spacers in kelly green by The Spacer Shop. I added more petite lampwork beads to the bottom of the focal for a longer profile--variegated teal nugget by Kelley Wenzel, etched aqua spacer by Pinocean, and transparent emerald green spacer by The Spacer Shop. I used Swellegant patinas from B'Sue Boutiques on the riveted focal.


Serendipitously (or subconsciously) my new focals match all the sari ribbon I had purchased from Mudhound Studios. So I think you will see a big crop of stuff like this coming out of my shop until I use all that up. And by then, hopefully I will have begun soldering and you'll start seeing something completely different! (I found a local jewelry artist to come over and walk me through my mixed-fuel-torch-phobia--and then of course I discovered I needed a couple more parts so I have to wait a few more days before I fire it up.)




13 comments:

  1. really beautiful, keirsten - the patina changes the whole thing up... good call!

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  2. Oh, yummy, more green. My new favorite color for all things. That patina focal is spectacular and I love your copper tube beads.

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  3. That's beautiful. Your experiments are so inspirational. Thank you for sharing.

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  4. Love the colors and design!! Must pull out my patinas and play. I agree about trying to find raw copper stuff ~ plated doesn't work for me either.

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  5. I love the proportion of your copper elements, as seen especially in that final photo. The green doesn't overpower the rest and is lovely.

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  6. Wow, that's a gorgeous piece! I love the green and copper together.

    I'm anxious to hear how your torch lessons go....

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  7. That is so pretty. I really like the color you came out with in the patina. And I love your textured copper tube beads. I haven't figured out how to texture my copper tubing yet w/o squashing it. What a gorgeous piece. Love the sari silk with it, too.

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  8. Love the necklace. Any chance you will be selling just the focals??

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    1. I don't know, it depends on if I get sick of using them before I run out of them. If there's any leftover after I've gotten this out of my system I might. I'll probably post about it if I do.

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  9. Keirsten, your creativity astounds me! Beautiful as always.

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  10. Absolutely gorgeous piece - as always. I just love your style.

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  11. That is such a gorgeous necklace and so totally in my colors.

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