Bails and Ribbon-Bead Table Wednesday

I did just a little work today on some wire bails. They are still black from the torch. 

For reference the top one is about an inch and a half and the bottom ones are about 2.75 inches. The top one was six inches of wire, the next two used 8 inches, followed by one using 10 inches. The bottom three were done with 12 inches of wire.  They can be adjusted somewhat by squeezing or pulling the coils so they are closer or farther apart. These need to be pickled, tumbled and patinaed. They are all 16 gauge copper, except for the second from the top which is 14 gauge brass.  I used a standard pencil for a mandrel.  Some of these may go on the pendants I was working on recently. 


Today some sari ribbon yarn arrived from YarnAndFiber on Etsy.  





This color is called Vintage Lace and I'm excited about it because it will look awesome with some of the pendants I got from Martha of Menagerie Studio. 


Be sure to check out the other bead tables here:

Bead Table Wednesday-Work in Progress

This week I've been working on some new pendants.  These have either foldformed or etched copper components combined with a back plate of brass.  The two foldformed ones are for an order I have.  I need to put holes in the tops and add the neck cords.  One will have beads connecting to the neck cord and the other will have dangles off the bottom.  







I'm thinking about stacking some paddles atop this triangle pendant.  I haven't done that kind of bail before but the shield shape looks good with with the horizontal lines of the paddles.


 

I'm working on getting some work photographed so I can apply for some shows.


These pendants all feature  a method of capturing the cabochon that I learned in a class by Richard Salley.


Check out the other bead tables here:

Bead Table Wednesday-Where is My Table?

I been a bad jewelry maker and haven't gotten much done so far this year.  My son and I started a new business at the first of the year and then we both got that illness that was going around with the never ending cough. At least the business is going well.  


A couple of days ago I realized that I hadn't heard from Red River Revel and that it was time to apply.  Sure enough, the applications are being accepted now and I have not one  photo of anything new.  Getting my pictures done and the application made is a priority. 


Meanwhile my bead table is completely buried under STUFF from my reorganization.  I'm not about to take a picture of it but I will photograph a couple of things on my trusty work stool. I'm taking a break from excavating the table so I can get some things finished.  The photo table is in better shape so at least I'll be able to take pictures soon. 


John, who works with my husband, sent me some found objects.





Sorry for the bad photo but these are so very shiny it's hard to photograph them.  These are all computer hard drive spacers and other parts.  I've used rings like those on the top to make earrings before, but I've never had these other parts.  The triangle blade shaped pieces scratch very easily so I'll have to texture or etch them.  These are all aluminum parts and weigh next to nothing--perfect for earrings.






These found objects came from Alchemy Shop on Etsy.  They are originally from Latvia.  The buckle part on the bottom is from a vintage Russian military uniform, I believe. I can't wait to use it.  It does present some challenges since it is steel and  isn't completely flat.  I'm a little afraid of snapping some of the detailed parts if I try to flatten it. 

Next up are some ridged copper rounds from Magpie Gemstones.  I will try enameling some of them. Also shown here are two pony beads by Rebekah Payne of Tree Wings Studio on Etsy. The top one is the rising sun pony and the bottom is the Appaloosa pony. 



This focal and accent  beads are by Martha Eason of Menagerie Studio on Etsy. Martha just started making the accent beads and I really like these. 






Check out the other bead tables here.

Bead Table Wednesday--Don't Look, Billye!

I've been working on a birthday present for my friend Billye the last couple of days.  I got this cool dimple tool from Richard Salley and it makes little bumps that look just like braille.  So I decided to make a pendant for Billye that says bff (best friend forever) on it in braille.


The first one I did I realized was too thin so I backed with brass.  It ended up being too big and not what I had in mind.  So I started over last night. 


Here's what I have so far:



The photo is larger than life.  It's about half an inch wide and 1 3/4 inches long.  I'm going to put a dangle on the bottom and a pearl or something on the top and hang it on a silver chain. I did the tiniest textured edge with my hammer.  I still have to buff out some tiny scratches that were on the metal when I got it and put a patina on it. 


The other thing on the bead table is this awesome pendant by my friend Martha Eason of Menagerie Studio.  






Martha has a pendant in this month's Stringing magazine. It's shown on page 23 in a necklace by Suzette Bentley. 


And I have yet more brass etching that needs to go in a bath to remove the pink. Plus I have lots of earrings and other items that are waiting for their photos so I can list them. 




I'm really slow getting things listed.  


Check out what's on every one's bead table at:

Bead Table Wednesday--Found Objects and UFO's.

What's on the bead table today is a former UnFinished Object: a necklace from my muffin tray that I finally got around to finishing.  




I have a lot of found objects on the bead table too. Last weekend I went to Buchanan's Vintage/Antique Market in Lewisville.  Lewisville is smack up against Dallas, so much so that I can't tell when I leave Dallas and get into Lewisville.  I went with my friend Vanessa on Friday  and tried to help her set up her booth.  She kept shooing me away and telling me to go shop.  


These awesome big buttons came from Vanessa's booth.




I can't resist buttons.  I'm thinking of using these on bracelets or brooches. Vanessa is on Etsy at Salvage Nation.  Check out the cool letters she has. Some of them were originally made for interstate highway signs.  I also got some cool brass dog tags and other tags from her.







I spent a lot of time in a booth that had things I'd never seen for sale before. It's Mylissa's Garden from Arkansas City, Kansas. Alas, they are not online. 





First I found this...a crown?  No, a container.  




Inside I put something else I found:




Okay, maybe I'm weird but I think the doll eyeballs are the coolest thing, especially the big ones without lashes.  They don't open and close like the others but they do wiggle from side to side. 




More finds, vintage cards and scrabble letters.




The small letters are from license plates. The gears and machine parts were in a box labeled typewriter parts.  And I got a few odd pieces of jewelry and a couple of keys. 


I asked the owner how they cut up the plates and I found that they use a shear and Texas plates damaged their shear. Texas plates are made of steel unlike many other states that use aluminum.   I also decided after asking her how she cut the tags up that I'd rather she cut them up than me.  I did save my old Texas plate with the space shuttle on it and plan on using my jewelry saw to cut out the shuttle and put it in a piece of personal jewelry. I'm a space fanatic.  I blame Andre Norton, Gene Roddenberry,  Robert Heinlein and mostly my Dad, who is  a NASA fanatic.  


In another booth, the Red Barn, I found this beautiful blue suitcase (shown as the background in many of the photos), plus a couple of items for the studio.  The block will hold my stamps, and a chicken feeder (not shown) will hold my pliers.  I also got this wonderful 50 foot tape from a tape measure.  It came wrapped around the book.




Now that I'm amassing a collection of found objects I need to start creating with them. 


Take a look at what's on more bead tables:

Bead Table Wednesday--New Hammer

There isn't much on the bead table today. I do have this new Fretz hammer that I can't wait to use. It's the bigger one on the bottom.  It's exactly what I was looking for and is perfect--except for one thing.  The hammer head is a little loose.  I'm going to call the company I got it from and see if there's something I can do or if I should trade it in.  






I found out I needed this hammer when I was doing the foldforming. Remember this pod from a previous Bead Table Wednesday?  




In order to make the curve along the folded edged and thus the pod shape the hammer blows have to move the metal.  This requires a cross pein shaped hammer head.  The little hammer on top was the closest I had, and I have used it quite a bit for texturing the edges of pendants.  It does work for texturing folds, but it will not move the metal enough to form the pod shape. It's just too lightweight. I even tried using a lot of force and hit really hard.  Mostly this hurt my wrist.  I broke out the smaller Fretz hammer in the middle above.  It is a raising hammer and has faces like a cross pein, but several times wider.  It did move the metal.  It tends to smooth the metal at the same time so I didn't get as much texture as I'd hoped for.  I used this hammer to finish out the curve.  


The new Fretz hammer is the Michael Good cross pein and it has a nice weight.  I think it will move the metal without me using any great force.  That's pretty much what I want.  That's what tools are for--they allow us to do work without using a lot of force. 


In addition to Kim St. Jean's excellent DVD on "Metal Fold Forming" I have been studying Charles Lewton-Brain's book "Foldforming."  This is a fantastic book metal workers.  Charles Lewton-Brain is credited with inventing an entirely new form of metal work when he developed foldforming.  Next I want to study the info he has on his site.


I do still have the remaining items in my muffin tin that I didn't get finished for the challenge.  I spent four days at my parents over 4th of July weekend after my Dad had a little health scare (he's okay.) And Friday I'm going to Houston for a weekend business meeting for some volunteer work I do. I probably won't be able to touch the bead table until next week.


Check out the other bead tables at:

Bead Table Wednesday--Show Prep

I was invited to a show at the grand opening of the Whiskey River Harley Davidson in Texarkana this Saturday.  My usual venue is arts and crafts shows so I've tried to make some unisex jewelry for this one.  My husband's cousin and aunt were also invited to vend their jewelry.  We're combining a family visit with a show so it should be fun.  (They even "bribed" my husband with Aunt Ethel's famous family cake.) 


I'm relieved that it's only supposed to be 93 degrees on Saturday. I was worried it would be 103. After the weather we've been having, 93 is quite comfortable.





Here are some finished cuffs that I learned to do with Kim St. Jean's Metal Fold Forming DVD.  They're awaiting a final finish coat to protect the antiquing.  The pod will have some beads put in it. 








This is a necklace I just finished using a house charm from Martha Eason of Menagerie Studio on Etsy.  She does some terrific polymer clay charms and I have several pieces I'm going to be using. I used Czech glass, a couple of vintage fake pearls, apatite roundels and antiqued brass wire.






Here are two of the etched pieces I wrote about in an earlier post.  The top one is from text written by Leonardo da Vinci.  I plan on putting these on leather cuffs but probably won't get them done in time for the show.  The leather neck cords just need a clasp and they'll be ready for a pendant.







Here's my preliminary muffin tin for the Muffin Tin Challenge over at the Art Bead Scene Blog.  I am really excited about this challenge, even though I won't be able to finish it in time to enter because of the show.  I'm still going to do it even if I finish late.  Let me tell you, there is no way I can get everything for most of my necklaces into a single muffin cup, but at least I got a lot of it. I have parts for more than 12 things in here. The planes and accompanying pieces will be earrings. I have a request for this show for cross jewelry, so I have a lot of crosses and hope to get a few more made up. I've got to dig out some turquoise to go with the coral crosses.  And I'm not sure about the blue beads with the heart and key.  I think I need smaller beads to go with Martha's heart charm. 


For a long time I've done a version of this by bagging things for necklaces in snack bags.  It's much more exciting to put it in the muffin tin. I think it's inspiring to see it there on the bead table. If you click on the photo I made a few notes on Etsy. 


Check out the other Bead Table Wednesday photos and posts.

Bead Table Wednesday--Fold Forming

If you look at Monday's post you'll see my review of Kim St. Jean's DVD--Metal Fold Forming.  Here's my first fold formed cuff made using her tutorial:





After the first dip in the liver of sulphur the cuff came out a mauve-taupe-gray.  I stopped there.  Usually I go darker but this color matches a lot of clothes I have. I used a 3600 grit sanding sponge to hit the highlights. It will finish up in the tumbler a few more minutes for a little extra polish and hardening, then I'm coating it with ProtectaClear to keep the finish just like it is. 


The two etched brass sheets in the background are my other items on the bead table this week.  I etched them a while back, along with a third piece, then annealed them. They came out with large pink splotches from the torch. This is because the heat caused the copper in the brass to come to the surface. After a lot of elbow grease and tedious time with steel wool I got one sheet clean.  I put the others away until I had more time--and fortitude--to clean them.  


Recently I stumbled across a recipe on the net for cleaning the pink off brass. It's 3 parts white vinegar and 2 parts hydrogen peroxide. I used the grocery store versions and it worked like a charm.  No more pink and very little elbow grease! If you do this don't go off and leave your metal in the solution.  It takes just a few minutes and then you should remove the items.  I rinsed them well and put them in a baking soda wash also. It is not safe to store this in a closed container so dispose of it immediately. One report said it could explode.  Maybe they were talking about industrial strength versions but I'm not sure. 


Here's what the cuff looked like before antiquing:





I like the bright look as well.  This is after steel wool and 30 minutes in the tumbler.  I will probably do a couple of cuffs and keep them bright as well a some antiqued ones.


This was so much fun.  I plan to do some more fold forming.  Tonight.


Don't forget to check out the other Bead Table Wednesday photos and blog posts.

Bead Table Wednesday--Annealing

Today I annealed some of the sheet that I etched previously.  



After annealing I put them in a pickle bath made from vinegar and salt, shown above.  Usually I dispose of my pickle before it gets this dark blue, but I've been wanting to use it to copperplate some tins I have so I can solder stuff onto them later.  All that blue is copper that is dissolved into the pickle.  


These sheets will have cabs set into them for pendants.




I also got a few of my copper disk earrings put together and carded. 


Most of the week I've been working on my grandmother's vintage rattan furniture. It's been in storage for a long time and we decided to fix it up for our son.  He picked out some fabric for the new cushions and chose a cheery red paint.  Granny had painted this furniture light green, yellow, dark green, white and maybe a few more previously.  It took all week but I finally got it painted.  There are three sections.  Next I have to start on the matching end table, coffee table, corner table, and so forth.  I have no idea how old this furniture is but I know it is at least 50 years old. 


Here's a shot of one section in progress.




Now I've got to get it moved without scratching it up. Luckily the weather has cooperated this week since I've been painting it outside.  This furniture reminds me of happy times at Granny's so I've enjoyed painting it, even though it was really hot. 


Check out the other Bead Table Wednesday photos:

Bead Table Wednesday--Etching Woes

I just finished etching some copper.  I had been storing my etchant (ferric chloride) for a while and when I opened it up there was some crystalline looking debris floating on the surface of the etchant. I had never encountered that before. I stirred it up and added some fresh etchant. It looked okay.

Whatever that debris was, it floated back to the surface and partially masked the surface of the copper.  I did stir the etchant when I checked the copper during the process but that wasn't enough. 

Here's the sheet I did with text and some fish. This would have been more than one piece after I cut it up.  I think the fish will be okay--the spots look kind of like bubbles, but probably only some of the text will be usable. And it may not be usable at all.  I'll have to see what it looks like with LOS on it.  The sheets look better in person than they do in the photos, fortunately.

 These other two pieces will probably be okay, but only because I was planning on cutting in close to the design, so the odd spots will be cut off. 

My husband was nice enough to strain the etchant through a coffee filter and get rid of whatever those particles were.  


These are just the first of a big batch I need to do. Hopefully the others will be contamination free. 


Check out the other Bead Table Wednesday posts:

Bead Table Wednesday--Forging

There's not much on the bead table today.  I have this copper wire which I've annealed prior to texturing and shaping into cuffs and bangles.  Some of the thinner wire, which is 8 gauge, will be made into forged wire pendants if all goes to plan. The partially shaped cuff is 2 gauge. Usually I trim the ends before shaping but I was going for a particular size so I shaped first. I had wanted to work some more 2 gauge today to make larger man-sized cuffs but I seem to be out of 2 gauge.  The largest wire I can get locally is 4 gauge so I'll have to mail order some.


My son, Stefan, is interested in forging some of the bracelets.  We had planned to work on that today but didn't make it.  Hopefully tomorrow. 


The etched brass is waiting for a bath to remove the pink.  Probably it will become back pieces for pendants.   I've been playing with some of the drawer handles hardware (shown here) and am trying to figure out how to connect the pieces.  I want to frame a photo with the hardware and am thinking about soldering versus cold connections. I've never tried to rivet something so narrow but I'm probably less likely to make a mess riveting than soldering.  


Back to work!

Bead Table Wednesday--Work in Progress

I'm late again on Bead Table Wednesday but there you go.  It's been that kind of day.  I started this piece a while back, set it aside, then dug it out again. 

This is the first piece where I've used this brass wire.  It's a little stiffer than the sterling or copper I usually work with, but I like the antique color. Since I'm using a less expensive wire I experimented with some fatter wraps on the links. It's also one of the few pieces I've done that has some asymmetry. I really like asymmetrical necklaces but I never know how to go about doing one.  I'm going to try making a clasp for it out of one of the brass wires with the balled ends from last week's Bead Table Wednesday.

Looking at it in this photo the donut looks a little plain.  It's a lot better looking in person, happily.  I definitely need to stop taking jewelry photos with the cell phone.

Check out the giveaway for Sherri Haab's latest book on the previous post!  There's still time to comment or post to your Facebook for chances to win this great book.

Bead Table Wednesday-Bead Market Finds and a Little Torch Work

Most of what's on my bead table are the goodies I got at the Dallas Bead Market Sunday. My friend Billye and I went to the show together.

I got these vintage Czech glass beads and found objects from Carol Wille of Jeweled Treasures. I was really happy to find these. 

Donna Rasco was there from Unique Creations and I picked up some fleur de lis and these cool retro rocket charms.  I'm going to make some earrings for myself from the rockets, but I think I'll get some more and make cuff links. I would like to make some guy stuff but I almost never figure out what to make.



I fired up my Lenk 500 torch today and balled up the ends of this copper and brass wire. This was the first time I had used this torch.  It's a little more robust and hotter than my other micro torch.  I had some trouble finding the sweet spot in the flame.  Even though the air was still outside, the spot seemed to move around.  I finally gave up and went inside and turned on the stove vent and did it on the stove.  Success!



The top wire is hardware store brass which must be yellow brass.  It was a little harder to work with and you can see it didn't have hardly any color from the torch.  The second wire is jewelry supply red brass.  I'll be using it from now on instead of the hardware store stuff, at least if I need to torch it.   The bottom two are copper.

These will be made into clasps.  I learned how to do these in Deryn Mentock's Buildzone online class. She just started another round of her online class, "Towers and Turrets."  Check it out; there's still time to sign up.

Heather over at HumbleBeads started a Flickr group and blog posting of what's on her beading table every Wednesday.  It's a fun and interesting pool of pictures.