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 ~

Josh Gates of Destination: Truth ~ NECKLACE ID HELP!

Ok…this is driving me crazy ~ I’ve been trying to get a good look at that dang necklace of Josh’s! Other than stalking the man (which still is a possibility…he’s a damn good looking man! ~ although my husband may not like it) so I can get up close and personal, I can’t figure out what exactly it is!

Googling doesn’t help, going onto his website hasn’t helped. Any ideas folks? Anyone have a close up of it? Is it a compass arrow? I’m guessing it’s a compass of some sort. I’d like to make one in copper or silver.

Playing with Beach Glass & Wire Wrapping

After having dinner last night at Spiro’s Sports Bar & Grille (E. Prater in Sparks) ~ love their spanakopita! ~ and watering the new part of the front yard, I organized all of my wires and tools. Decided I will be stopping by Lowes after work to pick up a few container odds and ends.

I played with some of the cheap wire I bought at a yard sale ~ just wanted to diddle around with some designs. Came up with this for two pieces of glass that I bought off of ebay…the ones with rims.

I’m going to try to drill a hole in the middle of the green one to pass the wire through the front towards the back and then bring up the wire to the top as a bail. Not sure about the brown one…but thinking of drilling a hole in the top of that one.

That’s about as far as I got ~ Biggest Loser came on and I love that show. YEAH ALI! A girl finally is THE BIGGEST LOSER! Kelly looked pretty dang good too…and I wrote her off long ago. Am very proud of her! Glad Bernie came back and beat all the guys too! He’s such a sweetie.

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!

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.

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.

I Played Hooky Yesterday!

Didn’t even tell my husband…got up at the regular 4:30 am, got dressed…but then said I was going to eat breakfast at home instead of at work.  Then he left for work and I got back into my sweats and dug out my butters and oils to make a batch of soap!  Hee!    He had no clue…I hate when he knows I have a day off as I always end up running HIS errands and never get anything done that I took the day off for in the first place.

So!  I made cold processed Raspberry Lemonade Salt bars and I had an order for Oatmeal Milk and Honey solid lotions and two regular lotions ~ finished all by 8:30 am. 

Here is the Raspberry Lemonade salt soap bars (the box that my friend Sue mailed books in made an EXCELLENT soap mold!) before cutting them.  These have to be cut sooner than my regular soap as coconut oil and salt make for a harder bar.  I used coarse Dead Sea Salts and fine Pacific Sea Salt in this batch ~ along with colloidal oatmeal.  The oils used were Sunflower, Castor, Jojoba, Palm & Coconut.  Butters used were Shea, Cocoa and Mango.  Then I swirled with ultramarine pink.  Berry Berry Pretty if I say so myself!  Smells great too.   This will be ready in about 3 weeks…they cure faster then the regular soap.

Raspberry Lemonade Sea Salt Soap Bar

I made my first salt bar last year and used Pineapple fragrance oil…came out pretty good. Just couldn’t sell any of it ~ which is ok as I make all my soaps as if I’m the only one going to use it. That way if it doesn’t sell, I’m happy as can be using it. I love the salt bar in the shower…makes my skin nice and soft. Doing wonders on my face too…those “monthly” pimples are gone gone gone! I hate being 41 with pimples! Patooey!

After 1/2 hour on the elliptical I headed to the Sparks Library to check some silvermithing books that Sue of PERPETUALPLUM recommended for me to read…found those, plus another that looked really interesting.

Speaking of Sue…she sent me four books in trade for some of my soaps, lip balms and room sprays. Received those in Monday’s mail. I really like the metal crafts book…will probably pass on the Tinwork books.

Anyone still do puzzles?! They are so freakin’ addicting ~ like eating a whole bowl of popcorn. Started one Monday night and worked on it yesterday too. This one is a Charles Wysocki puzzle ~ Hellraisers on Halloween Night…my favorite time of the year! It was a .50 cent puzzle from Thrift Depot in Sparks.

Spent the rest of the afternoon out front in the lounge chair soaking up the sun reading JEWELLERY AND SILVERSMITHING TECHNIQUES by Carles Codina.

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.

Crafters’ Cafe ~ an eBay Group

I’m in an eBay Group called Crafters’ Cafe…we’re a bunch of people who bonded together before the groups even came into play over there.  Found each other over on the Craft & Hobby discussion boards.  There is a core group of us, who always welcome newcomers…but I sometimes think they are a little intimidated by the craziness that goes on.  LOL!  Over the next few weeks I’m going to highlight two members at a time…there are beaders, quilters, knitters, embroiderers, jewelers, painters, crafters, artists, sewers, candle makers, soapers, clay sculptors…you name it, we make it. 

Today I’m going to introduce Sue Clark and Donna Bohler ~

Donna retired in the Fall of 2006 from the phone company back in Michigan…since then she picked back up an old hobby, macrame,  and a new hobby ~ beading & jewelry making. She mastered beading real fast and is making beautiful designs! Am trying to get her to start a shop over on Etsy, but one step at a time, I guess…she’ll be starting a blog this weekend. Fingers crossed! Until then…you can find her at her ebay store ~ Knots Sew Much.    She plans on selling her creations at craft shows in her neck of the woods, as well as on-line.  Below are some of Donna’s beaded jewelry that she has finished ~

Siam Peyote bracelet with crystals & gold rings

Bracelet: Turquoise crystals and gold pearls

Byzantine: Chain Mail bracelet, sterling silver

And one of my favorites ~

Necklace with African art glass beads, copper beads & spacers

Sue Clark, of Pertualplum and Unique Re-tiques, is a VERY multi-talented lady. Sue works with recycled materials to create one of kind artwork,  she also makes art and fine crafts as well.  Sue loves to work with metals, especially copper.  She paints, draws, and loves watercolors and pastels.   I would love to spend a week up in Oregon with her…in her shop and wandering around her property.

You can find Sue at her website ~ Unique Re-tiques~ a resource for free craft ideas, do it yourself projects, art and craft supplies (new and recycled), Portland, Oregon area shopping, Oregon travel, Oregon sightseeing, Recycled or Repurposed art information, craft fairs and festivals….

At Etsy ~ Perpetualplum….

And at her blog here on wordpress.com ~ Perpetualplum’s Weblog

Below are pictures of some of Sue’s creations ~

Altered Domino Bracelet Celebrating Grapes ~ can be bought on etsy

Framed Altered Art Jeweled Copper Butterfly Aenus Decororis ~ also can be bought on etsy!

Pink Flowers Hand Ink Rendered Altered Domino Brooch ~ etsy item

Paisley Peacocks Altered Mini Domino Necklace with Vintage Copper Findings ~ etsy

And from my collection ~ here is one of my many ACEO cards of Sue’s ~

Instead of Growing Old, She Grew Wings.

Please check out this wonderful ladies at their sites! You won’t be disappointed!