Poppies......Poppies...

Still in a dash to make items for the upcoming holiday sales, I spent last night making my interpretation of metal poppies.

I began by cutting two sizes of copper discs. Using my half round hand file, I created an uneven texture along the circumference of each disc, followed by a thorough sanding to smooth the surfaces.
Addition texture was added with one of my favorite tools- an old chisel that I found at a flea market. I always pause at the flea market booths where lots of tools are laid out on tarps. These booths are almost exclusively run by grandfatherly gentlemen who are usually amused to see a female take interest in their old, rusty items.
Some of them will ask me what I'm planning to do with my purchase, and when I explain that I'll use it to make jewelry, they almost always say, "Huh?!....." and turn away.
I don't think that many of these men are at all interested in discussing creative pursuits.

Once I used the chisel to texture the edges, the discs were domed, and holes were drilled.
Small segments of sterling wire were torched to make tiny balls and the three parts were then soldered together using paste solder.
After a cleaning in the pickle, the poppies were treated with liver of sulfur. Highlights were brought out with a fine grit sanding block.

Instant Patina

My supply of liver of sulphur came in handy once again as I worked on some necklaces for my Woodmere Art Museum order.
Liver of sulphur is a mixture of potassium oxides and is used to create an instant patina on sterling silver and copper.
I have had the same can of liver of sulphur for years and take care to keep it sealed. If your supply gets wet, it becomes 'deactivated' and will not yield good results.

A small chip of liver of sulphur was added to a container of warm water, and once the chip dissolved, I added my newly finished briolette necklaces made with sterling, pearls and semi-precious gemstone briolettes.

The necklace on the left shows how the necklaces looked after being submerged for approximately one minute.
While I do like this darkened gunmetal patina for some pieces, I wanted something a bit brighter and reflective for these necklaces. All surfaces of the sterling chain, rings, wire and clasp were lightly sanded with a foam sanding block to selectively remove areas of the dark patina.
The necklace on the right is now completed after 15 minutes of careful sanding.

Many jewelers use sanding sticks or hand held pieces of sand paper, but I prefer to use foam sanding blocks. The block is much easier to grasp than a piece of sand paper, and I like how the foam can compress slightly making it easier to make contact with different surface of a completed piece.
I purchase my sanding blocks at hardware stores and always get the finest grit that is available.

Getting Ready

I have been so busy in my studio, getting ready for the upcoming holiday season.
I'm working on an order for Woodmere Art Museum in Chestnut Hill where a wonderful, expanded gift shop is set up in one of the galleries for the months of November and December.
I am also getting ready for the upcoming juried shows at Main Line Art Center in Haverford and Community Arts Center in Wallingford.
I'm going to need lots of inventory to cover three venues at the same time, so I'm busy, busy, busy!

Last night's efforts included corrugating annealed copper strips which will be riveted onto some of my etched bangles, etched silver nickel sheets and soldered sterling wire hoops.
I thought that the sterling hoops would be a quick, simple task, but....they were such a pain!
I used paste solder and a small torch, and took great care to make sure that the end of my wire met flush. In spite of my prep work, the heat of the torch deformed the rings ever so slightly. That ever so slightly amount of deforming was enough to create a teeny gap where I previously had a flush connection.
Anyone who has done soldering knows what that means....failure!
Arrrrrggghhh!
After a few attempts, I did get the solder to flow where I wanted it to flow, but only on around half of the rings. Something to work on.

More etching was done on brass bangles. These have had only the initial cleaning with a brass wire brush after being submerged in a baking soda bath. Filing and sanding will complete the cleaning before I start adding riveted layers.

New Supplies

Rings & Things was in town this week for their one day bead show. I looked forward to this show since I completely avoided purchasing beads when attending Bead Fest in August.

I'm planning on incorporating some of these beads into my Longfellow Necklaces, especially the Keshi pearls.
The African jasper (that resembles turquoise) will probably be paired with the orange African trade beads.
My favorites are the faceted aquamarine rondelles that are at the top and the faceted pink quartz teardrops. They have so many tiny facets that they appear to shimmer when light hits them. They are so beautiful that I just might have a hard time using them.

New Bangles

Yesterday's efforts yielded some new bangles.
Last year, I had etched some bangles but was frustrated with uncertainty. I knew that the bangles needed 'more', but I didn't know what that 'more' should be.
I think I found it.

I was experimenting with a corrugator and loved the texture that I was able to get on pieces of annealed copper. I knew that my bangles needed more texture and realized this could be a happy marriage of materials.
Using the metal guillotine, I cut the corrugated copper into strips which were then cut to appropriate lengths and rivet set onto my bangles.
Sometimes it takes a while to find the right inspiration, and sometimes it's worth the wait.

Longfellow Pendants

Earlier this year, I used the words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to make a pendant that was the focus of a long, wire wrapped necklace.
I decided to go back to my stash of lovely brass utensils and my old book, 'Voices of the Night and Other Poems' written by Longfellow and published by Hurst & Co. in 1898.
Yes, I cut up old books....ones that tattered and of little value from a collector's point of view.

Longfellow (1807-1882)

I used my jeweler's saw to cut off the bottom potion of the utensils. I removed the pieces of caramel-swirl bakelite that were broken and saw cut the rivets, making them flush with the underlying brass. Cut edges were filed and sanded smooth.
I searched through my Longfellow book, looking for phrases that would be able to fit within the limited dimensions of my utensil pendants.
The poetic phrases will be sealed with a gel medium and then coated in a 2-part resin.
Then I'll be ready to make my collection of Longfellow necklaces.

Spirituality

I recently overheard someone commenting on the decline in the number of people attending church. I am not aware of the relevant statistics, but I would suspect that there is truth in the comment. What I heard next in this unintentionally eavesdropped conversation continues to bother me- disdain for people who say that they are spiritual in spite of having no church affiliation.
The definition, in part, of spiritual in my Webster's dictionary: "of the spirit or the soul as distinguished from the body or material matters; of or concerned with the intellect; the ascendancy of the spirit showing much refinement of thought and feeling."
While my sons and I do belong to and attend a church in our community, I have always felt strongly that spirituality does not only exist within the confines of organized religion.
We are all surrounded by people who willingly give of their time, resources and talents to benefit a greater good, and many of those efforts are done independent of a church or religious sponsorship.
Those efforts speak to me of spirituality.

During my thrift store searches, I am always drawn to religious medals that physically represent the concept of spirituality. Some are worn in places making me wonder if the previous owner found comfort or strength when holding the medal.
I find a real comfort when incorporating one of these charms into a piece of jewelry.

I recently completed this necklace, 'My Only Recourse', inspired by a vintage Blessed Mary charm that I found at the local thrift store.

Inscribed around the edge of the charm is 'O Mary conceived without sin pray for us who have recourse to thee'.
The charm is attached to a sterling wire wrapped, faceted quartz crystal bead which dangles from a vintage piece of brass filigree.

The sterling chain is wire wrapped with pearls, amazonite, citrine and honey jade, and is finished with a clasp made with 16 gauge sterling wire.