Copper Hammering and Photography Class

It’s Thursday…and I have my photography class tonight through Truckee Meadows Community College. Capture Desert’s Spring Colors ~ taught by Mark Vollmer. Can’t wait. The field trip is on Saturday…wonder where we’re going to go take pictures!?

I’ve been having lots of fun hammering and wire wrapping copper during the evening this week. Decided to practice on copper as it’s much cheaper than sterling silver…will wait to work with that wire.

All of my soldering tools are outside in the backyard shed/tool shop, and I haven’t had any desire to go out there at night so I’ve been sticking to wire wrapping the pendents. After hammering, beading and wrapping I put them in a tupperware with LOS (Liver of Sulphur) for oxidizing.

Here is what I’ve done so far ~

Wind, Snow, Beach Glass and Monsterslayer ~ all in one day

The Truckee Meadows was wind blown yesterday and last night…checked the weeping cherry and the lilac bush, both were still standing uprightl! Had my fingers crossed as we had 40 mph winds with gusts up to 84 mph! Sheesh. And to top off the bloody bad weather ~ this morning when I looked out the window here at work ~ what do I see?! SNOW! It was snowing! It’s cool and cloudy out there now with a breeze…went from 81 degrees on Sunday to 43 degrees today. And we’re having a cluster of wee earthquakes (in the 3’s)…seems like the epicenter is near Verdi. Just felt one about 2:33 pm…was more this morning too.

The mail was sweet to me though! Popped into the post office at lunch today and found my order from Monsterslayer and Sea of Glass sitting there waiting for me ~ YEAH!

From MONSTERSLAYER I received a box of silver and copper wire and wire wrap pliers…I wanted to try out the silver square wire and I needed a couple of different gauges of copper. They are pretty dang fast with their orders! Placed an order in the mid-morning and that puppy was already being picked and out the door that afternoon. Very impressed with them.

SEA OF GLASS is a shop on Etsy run by Laura. I bought some green and brown sea glass that was collected in Rincon, Puerto Rico. Really nice medium size peices ~ I’ve gotten some beach glass from other folks…trying to find the right size. Sometimes you can’t really gauge it off of the pictures. Am very happy with this transaction.

These are Laura’s pictures…not mine (I’m just hosting them). I haven’t gotten them home yet to take pictures.

I think tonight I’ll organize all of my tools, wire, glass, beads and other supplies…we’re going to have crappy weather the rest of the week through the weekend so it looks like I’ll be doing inside stuffus instead of yard work. G&G Nursery won’t have Old English Roses in for another few weeks…that gives me time to do other things. Like learning to braid/knot hemp….and drill holes in glass!

Someone Planted Rocks In My Yard!!! Landscaping in Sparks, NV.

Big sigh. I found out the hard way that the Truckee River used to meander through my property before the Corp of Engineers made it straight.

I took Friday off to do many things…but mainly to start back in killing the Junipers in the southeast corner of the lot. Started off at 7 am at Lowes ~ picked up a mini torch for metalsmithing. Then to mom’s house to write a bunch of kids names (and the two coaches) with puff paint on a soccer flag banner my sister and mom made earlier in the week (my niece is on a school soccer team for 2nd graders). Then mom and I went to Michael’s so I can buy some hemp for those beach glass necklaces. Over to G&G Nursery & Landscaping to pick out a Lilac and Weeping Cherry for the yard. I bought a beautiful Sensation Lilac (Syringa vulgaris ‘Sensation’) that will grow to about 15′ in height. It has single reddish buds that open to deep purple edged in white.

The weeping cherry is a Snow Fountain with white flowers and will grow only to about 12′-15′ high.

Picked my sister up for all of us to have lunch at The Sup. Was back home by 1pm to start in on the Junipers. After a while I got to the point that I couldn’t go on with the tools I had…pruning shears, hand saw and shovel. So I turned my sights on the two conifers on the side where I wanted to plant the weeping cherry tree.

Took the trimmer to the trees so I could get a better area to saw them in half. When I grabbed the one tree it sorta leaned…so I pushed…and it started to fall over! Gave it a good kick and tree with rootball plopped over. So I karate kicked the other one and it too fell over. ME STRONG WOMAN! HEAR ME ROAR! LOL! That was the easy part. Started digging and 4″ down ran into river cobbles…big river cobbles…small river cobbles…medium river cobbles. Lots and lots of bloody river cobbles. It took me an hour to dig a 2′ wide circle 18″ deep. That pretty little tree is planted and staked (just in time I might add…we’re supposed to have 40-60 mph winds hit the valley floor today ~ Bloody Nevada Spring Weather! 80 degrees one day - 58 the next). I still need to pull up the weed sheet thing that someone placed down and then plant some columbine and lavender around the tree area…then lay redwood mulch down.

This is what the conifers looked like from the backside, very nice looking ~ in the front…they were all dead as some idiot sawed off two others in front of them and left these two standing, very dead looking.

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Some of the river cobbles…they are now in a ring around the tree.

I dug these up with the river cobbles…there was a bunch of glass and a broken tea cup too.

My husband took pity on me on Saturday…after our morning yard sale ritual he helped me get out the main stumps and roots. With the Chevy and chain no less! I think he became obsessed with getting them out, more so than me at that point. He was taking it very personally that they were putting up such a great fight. We worked all day on those bloody things.

Reposting this picture from the previous weekend.

And it continued into Sunday after church. He wanted to go to the El Rancho Swap Meet after the last stump and root system was pulled out…so while he was gone I started to plant the lilac bush and spruce up the corner.

I got the lilac in, re-planted an iris near the fence; planted a sage (can’t remember what type); made a rock stack out of some of the dug up river cobbles; put my obsidian rock between the lilac and sage; put the three metal quail in front of the lilac; put Rufus, the gargoyle, in front of the wee rock stack; and watered. I still need to buy two Old English Roses for the right side…where the dirt piles are still at. And plant more smaller flowers of something that catches my fancy…perferably yellow or white as I realized I will have A LOT OF PURPLE blooming in that corner!

Oh…here are some of my yard sale finds! A free, very large wooden pumpkin; a very cool 12″ copper owl; lots of beads.

Beach Glass ~ Time to make Jewelery after Buying & Bartering

I used to live near the ocean when I was a kid ~ collected all sorts of treasures when I walked the beaches. But for the life of me, I can not place my box of sea glass, rocks and shells. I found a few of my rocks ~ but no glass.

So I’ve been buying a few auctions off of ebay and etsy.

The ones from etsy are too small to make pendants out of them…and I’m not sure I can even drill holes in them for earrings. Will have to ponder on those for a while longer. They are very beautiful pieces, just sooooo tiny. For now they are in a crockery bowl from my Grandma’s house next to my bed so I can play with them before I go to sleep. LOL!

Here is the bowl with all of the beach glass in it ~ both Etsy’s and the Ebay finds ~ the ones I found on ebay are larger and will work perfectly for what I have in mind.

Are those cool or what?! I like the rims on them…great for wire wrapping. I’ll be making necklaces for my sister, mom, niece and myself from them. Maybe even for my 5 year old nephew…with braided hemp, perhaps!

I’m in trade with a wonderful jewelery artist on etsy ~ SafariSister Jewelry + Findings + Objects ~ am trading my soaps for some of her findings, a necklace for myself and a pair of earrings for a present (not sure who will get them!). I’m going to use some of Jacky’s earwire findings with the beach glass. Can’t wait to get them!

I have to figure out how to drill holes through the glass too. From what I’ve read up on it…you should drill the glass under water. Hmmmm…wonder if they teach that in the Under Water Basket Weaving class?! Guess I’ll just take a bowl out to the shed, put a scrap of wood in the bottom of it and then put the glass on top of that…fill it with enough water to cover the top of the glass and start to drill. Luckily we have a cordless drill…I can just see me electrocuting myself.

So…in the near future I’ll drilling holes in glass, wrapping wire around said glass, learning how to braid hemp and whatever else I can think of.

Loom Beading & French Beaded Flowers

For some reason my brain’s been fried this week…it’s amazing how waking up at 4:30 am, just one hour earlier than usual, mushes my thought patterns.

So I’m going to just post some pictures of my beadies…

I don’t really remember how I got started into beading with wee seed beads (my favorites are still plain ole 11/0 Czech Seed Beads…although 11/0 Delicas are a close second!).  I DO remember is was UPZNDOWNS of ebay that inspired me first with her BEAUTIFUL French beaded flowers. And VISIBLESOUL from Texas…I’d post his links, but he’s in the process of changing servers. I’ll post it later.

Then about a year after learning french beaded flowers, I tried my hand at square stitch bead work.

This is my very first square stitch project…the tension was way off! LOL! It was fun learning though.

I was a little intimidated by the Peyote stitch, so when a friend, Judah, posted the tutorial for a BEADED PINCUSHION  (the tutorial is also being changed due to the server, so I linked to her site)…I did it by Square stitch instead! Here is that project ~ Celtic Waves.

Then I bought a loom! Precious! I’ve beaded quite a bit on the loom, but alas ~ have not taken all that many pictures! Patooey.

This is my very first loom project ~ a Celtic Knot book mark. My husband uses this in his Bible.

A Celtic Cross ~ shown without the frame it’s in now.

Lots of New Books! Metalcrafts, Quilting & Jewelry

Oooohhh!  A VERY HAPPY DAY is  getting books in the mail!  And I received a lot yesterday!  Five books for $25 ~ that included the shipping.

THE BORDER WORKBOOK by Janet Kime.  Easy Speed-Pieced and Foundation-Pieced Borders ~ 10ty Anniversary Edition.  2006.

I normally just add sashing type or flying geese borders to my quilts ~ so I picked this one hoping it would inspire me to add prettier borders to my future quilts! The borders included are ~ Easy Braid, Log Cabin Spiral, Flying Geese, Tilted X, Kitty Faces, Eeek! Mice!, Spinning Stars, Sawtooth, Double Sawtooth, Stacked Strips, Checkerboard, Paw Prints, Stacked Bricks, Squares on Point, Beads on a String, Small Dogtooth, Large Dogtooth, Folded Ribbon, Shaded Squares, Arrows, Zigzag, Side-by-Side Hearts, Vertical Hearts, Speed-Pieced Braid, Diamonds and Accordion Pleats.

From what I’ve seen by just flipping through the book ~ Nice layout and easy to read instructions.

SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL BEADED JEWELRY by Heidi Boyd. 50 Quick and Easy Projects. 2006.

This is a nice book ~ easy to read layout with good introduction on findings, materials, tools and techniques. But it probably isn’t a book I would have bought if I was able to thumb through it at a bookstore. Very good book for a beginner ~ I’m not a beginner. I may pass this one onto my my sister and my soon-to-be 8 year old niece to use.

ELEGANT WIRE JEWELRY by Kathy Frey. Contemporary Designs & Creative Techniques. 2007.

THIS one I like! Definitely a keeper. I’m not big on most of the designs, but excellent in step by step techniques!

The Basics ~ tools, beyond-the-basics tool kit, fully-committed-tool-junkie kit, wire, manipulating wire, cutting wire, finishing cut ends, filing and sanding, straightening wire, hardening wire, bending wire, making sharp & soft bends, forming simple loops, wrapped loops, coiling and wrapping, opening and closing loops, making basic hook and eye clasp, making a headpin, purchasing commercial findings, hammering wire, oxidizing wire and finishes. Lots of tips.

SIMPLE SOLDERED JEWELRY & ACCESSORIES by Lisa Bluhm. A Crafter’s guide to fashioning necklaces, earrings, bracelets & more. 2007.

I already had all the materials and equipment to give this art craft a try ~ thought I’d get a book to help me along with the techniques. And it looks like I picked the right one as this book is loaded with good ideas and tips. Lots of pictures and very good directions and explanations. This book is mainly for lead-free low temp soldering ~ if you are jumping right into silversmithing you may want to skip this, but then maybe you wouldn’t. As I said…great foundation of learning this art. It would make the transition into using silver easier, me thinks…

Introduction has Project Tools and Materials ~ tool setup, glass cutting area, soldering tools, tools for beading, finishing tools, soldering materials, bead materials, art materials. A few words about safety. Lots of projects.

METAL CLAY THE COMPLETE GUIDE by Jackie Truty. Innovative Techniques to Inspire Any Artist. 2007.

Not really sure why I picked this book up other than the fact that it fascinates me that metal clay can look like traditional silver and gold jewelry! I may play with this later on down the road.

With metal clay there is no initial preparation with wax, no sprues, no investment, no burn-out, no melting of metals, no vacuum or centrifugal casting. If you prefer, there’s no soldering of any kind. Molding, carving, drying, sanding, firing and polishing metal clay are the only steps involved. Best of all, everything in metal clay prior to firing is recyclable into more clay and paste, ready for reuse. That’s not to say that mastering metal clay techniques is easy, but the time, money and product investments are far less than those associated with traditional metalworking.

HOME & GARDEN METALCRAFTS by Jana Ewy. Included 15 easy-to-make Projects. 2002.

This is one of the books that Sue of Perpetualplum sent me with a bunch of others in trade for soaps.

I’ll be using this book ~ lots of great ideas for outdoor artwork, lamps and other stuffus made of copper.

Copper Wire Crafting

I seem to pick up lots of things on a fancy…and while I’ve always liked to work with wire (french beaded flowers and whatnot), I found some copper wire not too long ago and started hammering away on it.  Tappa Tappa Tappa into the night I went.  Then I started adding glass and metal beads to the hammered wire.  Now I’m hooked…until the next fancy comes along. 

It’s a good thing I have lots of creative outlets for my stress!!!

I have a big anvil type vise out in the shed, but it’s cold out there still and it’s bolted to the work bench.  My husband went upstairs and came down with a small 5×2x2 piece of steel for me to use while inside at night.   But he yelled at me around 11pm last night to cut out all the racket…phooey.  It’s hard to hammer copper wire quietly, eh?! 

This is what I made while sitting on the floor…watching Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-ins and Dives last night. Just love that guy ~ I could take him and Bobby Flay home with me any time.

My little inside hammering set-up ~

Another Snowy & Cold March Weekend in Sparks, Nevada

We had another cold weekend ~ it SNOWED on Saturday night. Was inside and noticed an eerie white light from outside…looked out and saw it snowing with accumulation on the ground. Patooie! Windy and cold all weekend. Grrrr.

So, we hit the thrift stores, antique malls, and I cooked and crafted.

FOOD ~ even though I’ve been trying to lose weight (63 pounds so far)…I love to cook, and have been adapting recipes for healthier eating.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it just best to leave the fat in.  LOL!

I picked up the new Spring 2008 Something Extra (Raley’s, Belair, Nob Hill grocery chain) magazine last week and made a shopping list.  If you haven’t ever looked at their free magazine YOU HAVE TO!  OMGosh there are some GREAT recipes in that magazine! 

Page 51 ~ Asparagus Egg Crepes! Made them for breakfast Saturday morning. Yummy!

I made cheese blintzes with fat free ricotta and cottage cheese…topped with blueberries and Yoplait’s fat free lemon yogurt for breakfast on Sunday.  Even my husband liked those.   For dinner last night I made pork-chops (that were marinated in garlic herb), salad, and on page 27 ~ Artichoke, Olive and Garlic Pizza Puff.    Very scrumpious!

Artichoke, Olive and Garlic Pizza Puff ~ pg. 27 Spring 2008 Something Extra

1 sheet puff pastry, thawed
3/4 cup shredded Italian blend cheese
2/3 cup artichoke heart wedges
1/4 cup grape tomatoes, halved
2 tbsp shredded Parmesan
2 tbsp quartered, pitted kalamata olives
1-1/2 tbsp roasted garlic
2 tbsp snipped fresh basil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Unfold pastry and place on baking sheet sprayed with PAM; roll or press to make slightly larger. Fold edges in 1/4 inch, then fold again to form an edge. Top with cheese then rest of ingredients except basil. Bake for 20 minutes, let cool, top with basil.

I used low-fat cheese; instead of Parmesan I used low-fat feta; added more tomatoes, artichokes and olives; fresh garlic instead of roasted. And added mushrooms.

Will be making the Mushroom & Asparagus Salad (page 27) for Easter Dinner (along with Paula Deen’s Christmas Ham recipe).

WIRE HEART HANGING ~
I worked on a hammered wire heart piece. It’s not copper wire as I didn’t want to waste that on my practice pieces. I free formed the heart and spiral, hammered it, then added on a red glass bead and a metal bead from a necklace I bought at the swap meet last week. I soldered it together at the top curve of the heart…my first attempted at soldering. I’m waiting for a book to come in the mail on soldering…can’t wait!

CELTIC THISTLE NECKLACE ~
Then I found a necklace I had made a couple of years ago that I didn’t like the green beads in it…took it apart and just used the purple matte 11/0 seed beads and purple bicone Swarovski crystals…then I added a magnetic clasp, which is pretty cool ~ like those! Much easier for my numb ct fingers to handle! I have a silver Celtic Thistle Heart pendent that is the focal of the necklace.

OTHER GOING-ONS ~

Got my hair cut…it’s an above the shoulders bob. Always let my hair grow out and then two years later…whack it off. LOL!

Sold all the Sugar Easter Eggs. Will have to make more next year.

Picked up a very pretty little silver-plated box (am thinking it’s a pill box ~ round) with a silver Thistle that has a purple crystal as the flower part. Cleaned up right nice!

Made an appointment for my mom, sister, my 8 year old niece & I to have a pedicure & manicure (belated Christmas present)…we’ll have it next Monday when Hannah is on Easter break.

Wednesday’s Child is Full of Woe & UFO’s

I’m actually a Thursday’s Child ~ but it’s not Thursday here in Nevada at the moment.

THURSDAY
Thursday’s child has far to go.
You have many ideas, and you want to do them all.  
You will go far in life!

Over in the Crafters’ Cafe Kiwi was talking about all the UFOs she is finishing up ~ and no, not the Area 51 type ~ but the Unfinished Object UFO’s.  

So last night after ruining my copper wire thingy…hammered it too thin and broke it in many pieces…I pulled out a cross-stitch project I’ve been working on for MANY OF YEARS.  Actually…I started it many years ago, then it’s been sitting in a tote for many years thereafter.

Here she is!  It’s the Celtic Christmas by Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum sold by Lavender & Lace.  I just have the right-side to finish.  Pulled her out last night and started stitching ~ will work on her before bed every night and hopefully will be done soon.  Then off to frame her.

I also have an Underground Railroad quilt to finish for my husband. I finished the top not too long ago and need to sandwich the puppy together and get it quilted.

Hmmm…what else is in my UFO pile? Oh yes!

Dresden Plate quilt blocks ~ still have a bunch to make!

And I have the leaves of a beaded Sunflower finished ~ but no sunflower to put them to!

And I have lots of “flowerettes” for a white Hydranga finished…but not enough to make a flower yet. This is what it will look like ~ only white.

Hopefully I will get them all finished soon!

Copper Wire & Beads

Well…feeling a little better than yesterday ~ lots of praying for God’s intervention helped immensely.   Families can stress the hell out of a person.

Anyhoo…I picked up some copper wire from a garage sale a couple of years ago, stuck it in the Round-To-It box and forgot about it.  Heh…big sigh.  I pulled it out when we moved the downstairs bedroom upstairs and the upstairs bedroom downstairs.  (Remind me to smack my husband upside the head when he wants to rearrange the furniture again)

You see…the upstairs was my crafting room and hide-away.  It’s the only room upstairs (besides my glorious cast iron tub on claws) with two huge windows ~ one facing SW and the other NE.  My husband thought it was a great idea for me to have the whole downstairs master bedroom for crafting…and started moving things when I wasn’t home.  I hid the tears and helped him move the beds.

What was my point?!  Holy crap!  Oh yeah…I found my Round-To-It box in the move and while rummaging through it, found the wire.  Sunday afternoon we headed to the El Rancho Swap Meet like usual and I picked up a small ball-peen hammer and a few beads ~ both for $1.  Definitely hope that lady will be next week, as I’m bring lots of $1 bills. 

I have a really big vise that has to bolted to a surface out in the shed that has a flat surface to whack wire with.   So I gave it a try last night.  Didn’t put any thought into it, just did it really fast to see if it’d work. 

First is just hammered. Second with a bead and “antiqued” copper or brass spacers.  Will work on the bottom part when I get home ~ needs to be looped differently and then hammered.

The beads I got at the swap meet.

I think I’ll have fun with this.  Will have to get longer pieces so I can make the trees some hanging do-hoppers. 

 Toodles!