My friend Dawn (from Art Girl Designs) and I played with some metalsmithing on New Year's Day and we each finished one pendant. What a fun time to be able to relax, visit, experiment and learn from one another as we worked on this new medium. We'd both been collecting tools, sheets of metal and all the other bits and bobs needed. We'd each invested in a good DVD to get us started and took our time watching and reviewing before getting started. I'll let Dawn show you her beautiful pendant on her blog.
The sort of oval pendant in the photo here, that has the vintage picture, was my first piece. I learned some things I wanted to try: making rivets with a piece of copper wire, texturing the metal, and cutting a frame using the jeweler's saw. The most valuable lesson though was the one hardest earned - if you want to add a chemical patina, that should probably be done before you start to rivet the layers together! Duh! It makes it tough to do once a photograph is in place, but I did manage to add a bit of liver of sulfer using a Q-tip.
The second, more rectangular necklace is one I did a day later, on my own, but still using some of the same techniques. On Dawn's advice I bought some hardware cloth - the one used was the 1/8" grid - and by pounding, was able to create a nice gridded texture on the copper. I played with the metal letter stamps I've had for years and never used once (adhering nicely to my New Year's resolution to begin using stuff I already own!) to create the word "LIVE" on the little brass piece. Then held the copper and brass layers together with copper wire rivets. I decided I wanted to add some more brass, so drilled holes and inserted the tiny little brass hardware I had bought from Volcano Arts some time ago. I can't wait to play some more!
My first try at some assemblage. I'd had this in mind as a gift for a special friend for some time - and had laid out the various pieces on my desk in the basement studio, but just never got around to completeing it. My friend Gina's 30th birthday
this month was the prod I needed to get it done. And my fledgling experience recently with making cold connection rivets with copper wire helped me assemble it. You need to know about some of the components - the antique brass stencil G, the metal stamped "IRON" and the 20 and 15 that are part of the ruler "arms" are a nod to Gina's blog IronG 2015. Gina is a triathalete and is in training for the 2015 Ironman. Whoa! Pretty big goal - and I have no doubt that she will make it! Back to the assemblage - see her crown? It is supposed to be a cupcake. Yeah - hard to believe that a hardcore athlete like Gina has a cupcake addiction, but she does! But she is really good and after eating the cupcakes (unlike me) SHE goes out and runs it off! The little legs are from a computer board scavenged for me by a friend at work and cut on my bandsaw. I'm betting Craftsman never thought their saw would be used for some of the whacky things that I cut with it! Anyway, it was lots of fun to make and Gina got a kick out of it so I'm a happy camper. Hmmm....I have a bunch of those brass stencils......
