YOJ: Week 10 Pisces

OK, I'm temporary skipping Week 9 (Hidden meaning) as I'm not done with that piece... it involves soldering, which haven't got set up yet to do.. I've got the equipment and materials but due to RL and the bloody cold and flu fairy visiting my household over the last 2 weeks.. repetitively... I just haven't gotten it done. Besides, with a massive ear infection (in additional to the worst sinus cold I can remember) , I'm having dizzy periods, and I just don't think I should handle a torch at 2000 degrees if I'm not steady. Or sneezing. Or coughing uncontrollably. Fire + illness = bad.

I'm not terribly pleased with Pisces either, but just like the Kat I am, I only like to eat fish.. thinking about them doesn't really do much for me. Still for a quickie wire pendant, I think this works. I used sterling silver in 16ga and hammered and wrapped them. Finally I got the size right, it's maybe 2 inches across. Despite my diseased state of late, I've managed to work on other pieces... below is sterling silver and amethyst and this one I"m quite pleased with. I love the flowing of there sterling silver.. it's 16ga hammered and textured, and then I bent it into the shape it's in.. and wired the huge ( it's like 20mm) amethyst bead in. It's very hard to shape wire when it's hammered to death like this, unless you anneal it, which is something I hope to set up to do shortly... see above about illness and RL and general lack of time. Once I"m set up I want to play with making textured "ribbon" some more... For those not up to date on metal working terms, Annealing is the process of softening the metal up via heat. When you work with metal, especially with a hammer, you work harden it. You work it too much and you can break it.. think about a paperclip repetitively twisted until it breaks, same idea. While I like how this turned out, I know if I annealed it first, making it softer, it would have been easier to bend where I wanted it, and make the curves more natural. Last piece this week is a bangle bracelet, made on 14ga sterling, and 20 ga twisted wire.