Some New Stuff

Amazing what you can accomplish when you give yourself permission to stop trying to make Something No One Has Ever Made Before.

Here's some stuff from the last couple weeks:

Bracelet with lampwork by Kelley's Beads and Studio Rent

Pewter Orca totem with Czech faceted glass and denim lapis

Soochow jade in palest rosewater with copper.

Golden jade roundels and brass

Pendant with bronze and steel lock washers and pearls

Bronze lock washers and freshwater pearls

Bracelet with bronze and steel lock washers and pearls

Veterans of this blog will recognize the "hardware" pieces, I've done them before. Been intending for several months to make another set and finally got around to it. (I've been trying to embrace the Nike philosophy of "just do it". One piece at a time. It doesn't need to be revolutionary, just done. And while I'm churning out stuff that is familiar and comfortable to me something a little different will probably squeeze through now and then.)

Quicksilver

I needed to indulge my hardware fixation, just a little. Hardware like from the hardware store. I have a brilliant collection of assorted steel and bronze washers, and some really killer machine bushings. I don't know what machine bushings are. Some of them are charcoal gray and the ultimate in urban industrial chic. Or so I say. I'm really hooked on this gunmetal/dark silver palette, and I keep returning to it again and again. Maybe because it's been sunny lately, I needed a dose of neutral monochrome.

The pendant below includes steel washers in two different sizes, lightly hammered, freshwater pearls, silver accent beads and spacers, and some fabulous antique silver-plated rolo chain from Ornamentea.



I made the chain ultra long--I felt the pendant and coin pearls were substantial enough for it to be worn at a generous Druid-priestess length, about 28". Perfect with your [urban neo-Druid] priestess garb, or your favorite vinyl Matrix outfit. (Everybody has one of those, right? Good Lord, could they be any squeakier? They must have edited out the squeaks in the movie.) The silver pearls have an oil slick effect, glowing alternately pink, blue and purple depending on the angle at which they're viewed.



I have just the outfit to wear this with, but unfortunately it would involve tights and heels and that's just not going to happen. It's going to have to wait for the right neo-Druid urban priestess.

Keep Doing the Same Thing Until It Isn't Cute Anymore

I made a bracelet a few months ago with bronze and steel lock washers from the hardware store, coin pearls and steel wire. People really seemed to like it. I eventually sold it to my boyfriend's sister who now wears it proudly in North Carolina. I've been meaning to make another one, along with a pendant and earrings, but have been putting it off. Wrapping the washers and polishing the steel was a bit of a chore. But I did it this weekend and it wasn't so bad. After I finished the pieces, I took a tiny paint brush and painted the steel wire with acrylic floor wax (formerly known as Future here in the US) to protect it from moisture. Read this tip on the Internet--can't say how protective it is, but it does go on nicely and once dry gives a nice shiny finish that doesn't rub off.

Here is the pendant:




And the bracelet:


And the earrings:

I really like how these turned out.

If somebody buys these I'll make them again. And again. Until nobody likes them anymore. Actually I'll probably keep making them beyond that, because you don't know that nobody likes them anymore until you make the last one that doesn't get any love. And then I'll wear that one myself. Or send it to one of you guys.

Handy, and pretty too

FINALLY put together my first two hardware experiments. Hit the wall the other night and napped instead of producing. But last night I drank a bottled Starbucks Frapuccino and sequestered myself with the mini vise and a handful of delightfully hammered bronze lock washers. And some steel wire. And this bracelet is what I came up with:


I'm pleased with the way it turned out. Really does a lot for the pearls. I especially like the steel wire, the matte-ish texture really sets off the bronze and the pearls.

I made this the other night but hadn't had the energy to photograph it until last night:

The pendant is made from a hammered bronze lock washer with one of my hammered brass wire flowers hanging from it. That particular flower (made in the car) was oxidized with the ammonia fumes method. I put the item in a little open plastic container inside a ziplock back with a rag soaked in household ammonia, and seal it up. (Don't get any ammonia on the items, and try to keep moisture out of there or it will get black or green spots). Go about your business and come back in a couple/few hours and the brass will have turned a nice reddish shade of brown.

Barring another energy crash tonight I will try and make some more. I have some other washers in a different hue (I guess from being treated somehow), but I don't know if they're soft enough to hammer. Might do that tonight too.

Recycle and Reuse

OK, in these tough times, been thinking about how I could economize. I have been cannibalizing my own jewelry to make stuff, and I have been convinced that if I just thought long and hard enough I could even figure out how to make valuable stuff out of trash (stay tuned for my revolutionary egg shell and coffee grounds bracelets). I don't do any kind of sophisticated metal working yet (like, no soldering or casting or anything like that, no torches), so I've been thinking about pre-made, hefty metal forms I could use for pendants and the like. EUREKA!! Belt buckles, I thought. Brass ones or steel ones. They have cool shapes, they're hefty, and they might just look cool hanging around your neck. So I went to the Salvation Army and scrounged through the belts--what a motley collection of ugly-as-sin-circa 1984 accessories, but the buckles!! Ugly webbing belt, nifty buckle! Paper-made-to-look-like-leather belt with a cool buckle! Plastic-made-to-look-like-leather belt with...a nicely antiqued brass buckle! Bought about 15 of them and took them home and took them apart. And the pendant you see above is the first result. That was the coolest buckle in the bunch.

Finally managed to overcome most of my engineering difficulties with my hardware stash (hammered the crap out of a bunch of stuff--fun!!)--now I need Uncle Bob and his tools to help me with the last one. Have a couple designs laid out, just need to put them together. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe in the car. While I'm driving. Just kidding.

Hardware is Making Me Hyperventilate

And I'm not talking about a smoking motherboard. I was just at the hardware store and I stumbled across some VERY cool little doodads and some truly LUSCIOUS wire. Wire! So long Rio Grande!! So long Fusion Beads!! I'm goin' to ACE. Ace ROCKS. I feel like I'm having a manic episode. So many ideas, so much crap to work with, so little time.

Oh, and then I just had to go over to the thrift store to recon some stuff for this other idea I had (I've gotten on this recycling/cheap supplies kick) and of course they had shitpiles of what I wanted. My head is spinning. Maybe I should call in sick tomorrow and play with my trash. I'm too revolutionary to work.