Week 29 & 30: catch up

Argh! I"m behind again, and I"m not in the mood you know? so here is a few items I've done recently:
I really do love to play with wire. Both of these designs are from a mag, with modifications. The Paula and crystal necklace I shaped the Fleur's free hand off the pliers using 20Ga sterling wire. I gently hammered the loops for strength. The chain that goes around the neck is purchased. The 2ND piece is from 18GA? and again free hand forming. To keep the spiral segments as even as possible, I cut the wire first in equal lengths. I made the hook on the bracelet.. I think it looks pretty good. The spirals are gently hammered, the loop connecting each link I hammered extra for strength. This piece is long gone, I think it sold in the first show I had it in.

YOJ Week 28: Copper Fields

This was so much fun to make!! I'm still playing around with copper and sterling together. I started out with 24GA sheet copper, cut out the lily shapes and leaves, filed them so the rough ends were smooth, and shaped and textured them. Some of the leaves I used hammers on, one of the leaves I used my punch block to shape. I used pliers to give some of the leaves crinkles on the edges.. I tried to make each leaf different. I got out my letter stamps and used o's and x's on the large lily on the bottom lip. I really want to get more stamps and punches, it's really fun to texture metal using them, and it amazing what different patterns you can up with just using the letters! The Chain is alternating open sterling links with closed copper links. I used sterling wire ( probably 20GA) to attach the leaves on the chain, and look.. I used spirals! I love spirals!! then I used LOS and polished and cleaned the piece until I liked how it looked. I left more LOS on the copper.. I just really like brighter silver I guess. I lost most of the color variations I had with the LOS.. one of the silver links turned a lovely green/purple, but the LOS was coming off in my hands I figured it was better to polish it all off. This piece took a significant chunk of time to do, even with using the dremel as a short cut for some of the filing and polishing. The lily and leaves are from a design from Janice Berkebile, she is a fabulous teacher! The copper links and spiral attachments are me playing around. You can see her classes here: http://wiredarts.net/jbclasses.html If you get a chance to take a class from her then do it!

YOJ: Week 27

Again I'm not actually following topic, but I"m continuing my explorations of mixing sterling silver with copper. I've never actually made this type of bracelet before, so I"m very happy with how it turned out, and I think it looks extra special snazzy with sterling accents. I did something which I don't do alot, I followed the instructions exactly, and it came up kind of short.. so I added the change and the hook. ( The directions I had called for 7 inch pieces, in the future I think I"ll try it with 9 inch pieces) I think it looks rather nice even with the chain and hook. 2ND piece is a copper heart embellished with craft wire in a couple of colors. It's sort of a dream catcher that is heart shaped.