Jewelry-Making Fun at Eclectica

Yes, I'm trying to catch up on all my posts for March at the end of the month! Last Tuesday, my friend Kathi and I took the Riveted Textured Pendant workshop at Eclectica Beads. We learned how to punch holes in metal, use crimp tubes as rivets, stamp patterns and letters, and add a patina with liver of sulfur.

Tuesday also happened to be a free Make & Take day at Eclectica, so we also made a beaded necklace using vintage glass leaves and flowers, and I learned how to use crimp beads for actual crimping. A very productive evening over all!

Hinged Copper Locket Workshop

Happy Halloween! We just survived our first Halloween in our new neighborhood where we had about 200 trick-or-treaters come to our door (compared to less than 20 at our old place). We ran out of candy, and the last two kids got granola bars! (Peanut butter chocolate chip granola bars, so they're almost candy ;o)

So here's the final installment from Raevn's Nest Art Retreat. Last Saturday, I took an all-day workshop with Richard Salley, learning how to make this copper locket. (If you click on the tutorial sidebar on his website, you'll find a very similar project.)

I don't have a lot of experience in working with metal and wire beyond making a few charms, reading a bunch of books and watching Jewelry Making on the DIY network, so I was excited to learn some basic things, like using a jewelry saw (broke 3 blades cutting that heart shape out of the rusty washer that forms the image frame), making rivets and staples, and shaping copper and then aging it in liver of sulphur. My wire work still needs a lot of practice (those S- and C- scrolls are supposed to be symmetrical), but I learned a lot from the class and went home excited to make more! Now I just need to find the time....

You can click on my images to see a larger view on Flickr. And check out what other folks made:
Kathi took Richard's two workshops on Friday. Fabulous!
Carmi was in the same class as me - I love her take on this project!
Jill sat in front of me, and I was in awe of her skill. She also reassured me that it was normal to break saw blades. (Scroll down to see her work from the Friday & Saturday Salley workshops)

Injured in the Line of Crafting?

Have you ever been injured in the line of crafting? Then you deserve a medal! This was another Ten Two Studios design team challenge: use bottle caps and bamboo dominoes together. I am prone to all sorts of crafty boo-boos myself, having sewn through the side of my finger with my sewing machine or burned myself with my various irons. (We won't even talk about all the paper cuts!) For those of you less accident prone, here are some general Medals of Artsy Crafty Honor. Keep an eye out at Ten Two Studios for limited edition artsy medal kits!

Adventures in Soldering

Spring means I can get out the soldering iron at last. This is probably because our old house didn't have a kitchen vent fan, so I could only solder when it was warm enough to open the windows for ventilation. Now we have a fan over the stove, I could in theory solder all year round, but this was the first time I actually had the time and the inclination to set up.

I am semi-self taught having read Lisa Vollrath's Metal Mania and her Metal & Glass Jewelry how-to CD and received an impromptu lesson from my big sister who does stained glass. The microscope slide pendants above use images from the CD. I also wanted to experiment with the flat glass bubbles you find in the floral department of the craft store.

These were tricky because they tend to spin right round, baby, right round (got that song stuck in your head yet?) until I could get the pendant holder soldered firmly so I had something to grip with the pliers. I used the Ten Two Studios Black & White Rounds for these two.

Lisa had also challenged the Ten Two Studios design team to do something with microscope slide mailers, and I had a very literal interpretation, turning it into a holder for a soldered microslide pendant. I cut out the back so both sides of the pendant would show. The ladies are from the Fashionable Jewels microslide set with a French text background. And I didn't even burn the house down!

Crafting 365 rebooted

I decided to start 2009 by getting back into the Crafting 365 project, which I had been working on after I finished my ATC-a-Day project but fell out of the practice last summer when we started househunting and then moving.

On New Year's Day, my friend Jess Poor held an art play date at her studio, so we all started the year craftily. I wrestled with wire-wrapping techniques since I'm trying to improve my skills. My mom got me the book A Charming Exchange for Christmas, and I almost considered doing a "Charm-a-Day" project this year, but I quickly realized I was better off keeping my goals open-ended. So my official photo for Day #1 (above left) was of the Coiled Wire Knot charm in that book. This was my second attempt since on my first attempt, I wrapped my wire around a larger dowel and the coils just flopped around when I joined them together.

I also have Josie Cirincione's latest book Bent, Bound & Stitched, from which I got the instructions for the button pendant above (Day #2 - above right). I had a little trouble bending my wire to fit my button!



Day 6 was another technique from Charming Exchange in which I learned I can twist wire with my little cordless Dremel rotary tool but I'm not very good at twisting it around itself. I want wire to behave like thread, but it seems to have a mind of its own. I'm getting better, but I do end up with a lot of distorted wire scraps (which of course I can't throw away, because I might be able to use them for SOMETHING).

A Fresh Start

This week's Make It Monday's theme is Fresh Start, and this year I'm rebooting my Crafting 365 project. My goals for 2009 include trying new techniques and having a go at all those projects that I bought supplies for but never did!

When my mom and I visited Oregon in October 2007, we went thrifting with Corinne (shown here with her finds) and I bought some lovely tarnished silver-plated spoons intending to do the spoon pendant project I had seen in the June 2007 issue of The Monthly Muse. Flash forward more than a year later, when we moved house in Nov. 2008 and I rediscovered those spoons still waiting to be altered...

I had originally had more of an egg/bird's nest theme in mind because of the shape of the spoon, but then I decided to use the blue and white bead doodads that I had wire-wrapped on New Year's Day at Jess's art play date and from there I chose this lovely Ingres portrait from the Ten Two Studios Little Dickens collage sheet. And so I made something new that I had never done before - hurrah!