Favorite Earrings

I made some earrings recently that I am especially pleased with. I took copper discs and drilled top/bottom holes for jump ring connections. I also drilled smaller, random holes for textural interest. The discs were domed in my dapping block and then sanded for a matte finish.
I then took a piece of the sterling lamp base shown in my previous 'Rolling Mill' post and cut it into segments. Top holes were drilled and each piece was slightly curved in a dapping block.

The pieces were joined with sterling jump rings and hang from sterling earwires. I like the contrast of the metals and the relative simplicity of the design. I like them so much that I have been wearing a pair of these earrings every day a couple of weeks. I am that way- if I find something I like, I stick with it! Just ask my one son who was recently heard saying, "Do we really have to eat sauteed vegetables EVERY night?!"

Be Present

This past summer I received an unexpected email from Christen Olivarez, the Managing Editor of Belle Armoire Jewelry.
 She had seen some of the jewelry images that I posted on my Flickr site and wanted to find out if I might be interested in submitting work to be considered for publication.
 YES!!
 I love no-brainers.
 I ended up sending 5 necklaces and writing a short piece about inspiration/process/blahblah and was pleased to find out that I would be a part of the Winter issue which came out at the beginning of December.
(pages 86-89)

I was initially asked to take photos illustrating the steps involved with fabricating one of my pieces. That part of my submission was not included in my article, so here it is:I found this and a matching pin at a favored thrift shop and bought them for 50 cents. They reminded me of my grade school days at Sacred Heart School in Bloomfield, New Jersey. I have lots of stories from those 5 years, but that's for another time.

Each pin had the pin finding soldered onto the back.

With gentle persuasion, I popped the pin finding off the back and filed the surface smooth.

I then drilled a small hole in the top which would allow me to later attach the pin with

a jump ring.

A very short segment of 3/4" diameter copper pipe was cut.

Edges were filed and sanded smooth.

The copper pipe segment was then soldered onto a piece of brass that I had prepared by cutting to size, rounding the corners with a file and sanding all edges smooth.

Two holes were drilled into the top for attaching to a chain. I then cut a piece of milled brass and a piece of etched sterling and drilled corresponding holes into each.

Holes were also drilled into the brass base, and the pieces of milled brass and etched sterling were attached with rivets. Three holes were drilled into the bottom of the base for attaching dangles.

"BE PRESENT" was stamped onto a 3/4" diameter brass disc. The edges were textured with an old chisel.

The stamped brass disc was set into the copper pipe bezel. Additional texture was added to the brass base by using a center punch. The sterling was oxidized and then lightly sanded to highlight the etched pattern.

Pieces of heavy gauge copper wire were cut, shaped and hammered to form links for connecting the pendant to chain.

Pieces of recycled copper wire were cut and balled on each end with the use of a plumbers propane torch. Dipping the balled wire into water immediately after removing from the flame results in a beautiful rosy color.

Pieces of the balled copper wire were wrapped around the heavy gauge links to add some interesting texture.

This is the final, assembled necklace.
 The pin as well as wire-wrapped carnelian beads were added at the base of the pendant with jump rings.
 Recycled chain is interrupted with wire-wrapped crystals and white agate faceted beads.
 The clasp was made by cutting out a large disc of milled copper, cutting out an offset smaller circle and then doming the piece in my dapping block.
 The other portion of the clasp was made with heavy gauge copper wire.

Wonderful Christmas Gift!

My younger, creative twin wrote and illustrated the following political holiday cartoon for my Christmas gift. I absolutely love it and he has given me permission to share it with my blog visitors. I hope that you enjoy it.

'Santa was forced to ask the government for a bailout of the North Pole because...'

'He had to pay a $100.00 ticket after talking on a cell phone while flying over Philadelphia'

(Those not from the Philadelphia area need to know about Michael Vick to fully appreciate the above commentary)

'He was believed to have "played" with Tooth Fairy. After learning this, Mrs. Claus attacked him with a golf club, causing him to crash his slay (that's my son's spelling) as he fled, and she is now filing for a divorce.'

'Was sued by parents for giving out Zhu-Zhu pets that contained high traces of lead'

I think my creative, younger twin is one funny young man!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

All Right, That's Enough!

It's 8:00pm and I just came in from my 4th round of shoveling today (in addition to my kind neighbors who cleared my walk twice with their snowblowers). Please....enough already!!
Oh, all right. It is rather pretty, and we will most likely have a 'White Christmas' this year. I like the thought of that as long as the shoveling comes to an end.

Going to the Dogs

I recently started making brass dog tags. I've added texture to the edges by using chisels and center punches. I'll add the personal information (pooch name and telephone number) by hand stamping with my sets of steel alphabets and numbers.

I thought it would be nice to offer an accompanying handmade item and spent last night baking dog treats which I have named 'BOW WOW BISCUITS'. I made them with whole wheat flour, wheat germ, oats, corn meal, eggs and flavoring and cut them out with a dog bone shaped cookie cutter. The house smelled fabulous while these biscuits were baking!

We are a dogless household, so my one son and I were the taste testers. We are in agreement that 'BOW WOW BISCUITS' are pretty darn good. However, my son has warned me that he might tell people at school that I make him eat dog food. That little stinker!

Home Show Preparation

I am busy preparing for my holiday home show this upcoming weekend.
Thinking that an all-jewelry show would be lacking dimension, I dragged out my trusty and lately-neglected sewing machine to quickly make some other items.
I found this second-hand Bernina machine a few years ago and it is a beauty that probably deserves to be in the hands of a more accomplished sewer.

I began sewing when I was in college, but should have learned when I was an 8th grader in middle school.
During the second half of 8th grade, all girls took cooking and sewing while the boys took wood and metal shop.
I didn't mind the cooking class, but took offense with being forced to take sewing.
I was 13 years old and aware that at my middle school, injustice took the form of of an A-line skirt.
Every year, the sewing teacher had the girls make an A-line skirt and a drawstring purse.
At the conclusion of the class, everyone was expected to wear their skirt to school.
I was definitely no fashionista, but after 3 years of witnessing the display of unflattering skirts with uneven hems, I was determined to not take part in this unfortunate tradition.
Also....a drawstring purse?
I had no need for a shaman's medicine bag.

I met with Mr. Stevens, my guidance counselor, and told him that I wanted to take wood shop instead of sewing.
Mr. Stevens was a very kind man, and his blank stare made me think that I had caught him by surprise.
He told me that I was expected to take sewing with all the other girls, and I believe he imagined that was the end of our discussion.

Poor Mr. Stevens.

His mistake was not answering my initial question with an emphatic "No!"
He said he would "look into the matter",
but what I chose to hear was,
"Please..... pester me until I will do anything to get you out of my office!"

Mr. Stevens did try hard to ignore my request.
He began to avoid me.
I remain convinced that he was actually in his office hiding from me some of those times that I knocked on his door, determined to continue my wood shop campaign.
I came to realize that there is power in numbers so I recruited my friends Betsy and Cheryl.
I don't know what their personal reasons were for wanting wood shop or, more likely, not wanting sewing,
but I know that whatever resolve Mr. Stevens might have had was eroding as he was now being confronted by three annoyingly determined 13 year old females.

So, I ended up making a knock-hockey board game, a set of shelves and a tic-tac-toe game and avoided the dreaded A-line skirt.
When I was teaching myself how to sew in college,
I came to appreciate that I probably would have learned something useful in that middle school sewing class.
Mr. Stevens might find it amusing that I do enjoy sewing,
but I now wish that I had also pestered him for the metal shop class as well.

Canvas aprons with yard sale photo
(gasp!!!...why would you sell your family photos at your yard sale!!!)
images transferred onto fabric.
I basted the images onto interface and then zig-zag stiched them onto the apron.

Assortment of fleece hats with trim.

Platter Possibilities

I recently found a small brass platter with a lovely etched pattern and paid the fabulous price of 50 cents. 

I thought the pattern had an abstract dream-like quality that would work nicely in some jewelry projects. 

I cut the rolled rim off with my shears and then began cutting out different sized discs. 

The discs shown above were sanded with a fine sanding block to finish the edges 

and to clean and brighten the surface.

The discs were then drilled top and bottom and domed in my dapping block. I like mixing metals, so the above earrings were made with sterling wire (that was balled) wrapped aventurine beads and niobium ear wires.

This pair used balled sterling wire with yellow Swarovski crystals and faceted carnelian beads and sterling ear wires. 

I like how the brass discs are not exactly the same but complement each other. 

I also like how I finally put my vintage floral frog to use and no flowers were involved.