YOJ 2012 - Week 5 Romero fold form leaf

 

 

To buy this set, go to:

http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/product_view/fleurviolettejewelry/4351743 

In keeping with my resolution to complete all unfinished projects, I fished out this Romero fold form leaf I had made in 2009. Yes...that long back! I was in school, doing a semester of metalsmithing. I had done some metalsmithing before. Most other students were very new to it, so I was making these leaves and showing off :-P. Hey, its only sometimes that I get to show off, so I did :-D. After that I did nothing with those leaves. Last year I made an ear cuff that had these three hanging things made with garnets, pearls and copper. I knew I wouldn't really ever wear an ear cuff. So I took that apart. Used the cuff part to make the bail for the leaf pendant. I hung one "hanging thing" (for the lack of a better phrase..LOL!!) to the leaf, and used the other two to make earrings. 

The earrings look really good actually. The pictures suck -- they look dull. My daughter has been drooling over all of this and is trying to lay claim over it all...the necklace and the earrings. I was hesitant to make the earwires in this design, because I know someone (forgetting who now...but I know I love her work) uses this design as her signature design for earwires. But then I saw this earwire taught in the "Visually Teach Yourself Jewelry..." book. So I am guessing its ok to make this kind of earwires.

The leaf is copper, and is flame colored. I'm quite proud of this leaf actually (hence the showing off in class).

"Tribal" necklace and earrings

An acquaintance gave me some brass beads and asked me to create a tribal design inspired necklace and earrings for her. I didn't get the time to take proper pictures...she was leaving for India for good. But here is a picture taken with her iPhone. And this is the customer posing with her new jewelry. I made this one in October. Made these pieces with copper.

"Message in a Bottle" necklace

This piece too has been inspired from Mary Tucker's work. The basket weaving here is a bit different. There were about 15 different pieces of thin copper wire going in all the directions of the oval, all together as I formed each coil and shaped the "bottle". I have pictures of work in progress because it looked interesting...but they are in my hubby's iPhone, and he and his iPhone are in India at the moment. When I get hold of those pictures, I will post those too.

I tried making a bottle...a bit like the small perfume bottles (this is a teeny bit more than an inch in height), but it looks like a jar more than a bottle. :-). However, tiny perfume bottles do look like jars. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. LOL! This bottle carries a small scroll of paper, that has a message from a wonderful man for his beautiful beloved. He is away at the moment from her, and they both miss each other a lot. So I thought she could wear a message in his own handwriting near her heart while he was away. I will soon be giving this to her. And I hope she will like it. She usually wears pretty conservative jewelry, so I am hoping this won't be waaaaaay too weird for her. LOL! Anyhow, even if she doesn't wear it, she can keep it with her.

The piece is made with copper wire, and has tiny fresh water pearls on it. It has been LOS-ed to give it a rich antique look and depth. The clasp is hand made too.

The Angsty Artist's Copper Wire Locket

This Copper wire locket is made by following a wonderfully written tutorial by Mary Tucker of The Angsty Artist. She is an amazing wire artist, and makes the most mouth watering designs! I love visiting her blog to drool all over it. This is only my second copper piece I think. Her work made me fall in love with copper. I always work with silver and gold-filled metals. But her work made me go and buy lots of copper wire. LOL! There is a beautiful poetic depth, a richness about blackened and polished copper. This I realized only after studying Mary's work. So thank you Mary :-).

I did not make this locket a photo keeping one. Instead, I made it a locket to keep something very dear to me. It is a little blue heart that someone very very dear, very precious to me gave me. The story is very magical. It is out of this world. I will not write it here. It is beyond the belief systems of most...and it is very close to my heart. So the locket hangs on my heart, carrying this precious gift given to me.

I really enjoyed making this locket, and will be working more with this...varying it here and there. If you want to buy the original one made by Mary, go to her Etsy shop :-).

How to clean tarnished Copper

Ketchup or lemon juice + salt are very good for cleaning up your tarnished copper jewelry, in case you like it all clean and shiny :-). After cleaning it and washing the ketchup or lemon juice off, polish it well with a handy-dandy sunshine polishing cloth...and its as good as new! :-)

And Tammy added in the comments: Worchestershire sauce or vinegar and salt work great too! Thank you Tammy!

Stamped and domed personalized earrings

You can place your order here, and let me know the words you want stamped on your copper earrings in the "notes to seller" section.

Copper Earrings: $23 + $4 s&h

You can place your order here, and let me know the words you want stamped on your sterling silver earrings in the "notes to seller" section.

Sterling Silver Earrings: $38 + $4 s&h

My new love -- Copper! I never used to pay much attention to copper, so in love with silver I was. I always used it as practice metal. Sheet or wire. But recently I have been paying attention to copper jewelry made by a few other jewelry artists, and I just loved the look of copper in their work. Today to play more with my new Kismet stamps, and to use my disc cutting tool, I again pulled out a copper sheet....yeah...once more to use as "practice metal". Punched out a few discs, stamped some words on them...then felt like doming them....then felt like making earrings out of them, and I did just that...went ahead and polished them too....and what do you know? I have a new love in my life! COPPER! I just LOVE how pretty its color is. I am in no hurry to antique it. Right now I am in love with its pretty color. It looks pinkish. I could not do justice to it in the photographs, but here they are!

And then I went ahead and made a pair in silver too. However, this is the first time I like my copper ones better than the silver ones.

I stamped these words inspired by a wonderful jewelry artist: Chris Kerr. She often stamps her jewelry with beautiful words. And just by looking at those words in her jewelry I feel really good. So inspired by her work, I stamped words like Love, Faith, Joy, Peace.

These earrings make great personalized gifts because the words you choose are meaningful and special to you or the person these earrings are for.

The Egyptian Coil necklace

I made this one in Copper, and this is the first piece I have ever used Liver of Sulphur on...the first piece I have antiqued. And I must say I like it! I can see that the coils need more practice, and the clasp needs to be redone.

And then I joined metalsmithing classes at...

... Worcester Craft Center.

I made many more things than I am posting here. I didn't take pictures of all...some got lost :-P and some I gave away.

These earrings are made with Copper and Brass circles that I cut from sheets which I hammered for texture first. It uses the technique of cold connections...rivetting. No soldering used here.

First brangle

A "brangle" is a bangle and a bracelet. This is a term coined by Connie Fox. This was made sometime when I was making the rest of the stuff I have posted till now. I have made all this last year I think....and decided to make my blog only now -- inspired by my friend Melissa who is a FANTASTIC jeweler! See her blog at http://design.kcjewelbox.com/. Yeah, she's a class apart, isn't she? :-)

My swan clasp is getting better. Yayyy!! Aventurine, hand-painted glass beads, cloisonne beads, copper wire and brass wire.