Well, my niece, her husband, baby and their precious pup Griffin moved out of my house and into their new home last week. Their home is absolutely gorgeous, and I wish them many, many years of happiness in their new digs!
While my blogging has been sparse, I have managed to make a few new things, though, including a few new spinner rings.
The brushed sterling silver, below, is a new favorite texture!
The bracelet below was tough! I was feeling brave and wanted to try and make a sterling silver bangle from 6 gauge wire - the thickest wire I had ever used in the past (silver) was 8 gauge. Oh my - it was touch and go there for a while - lol! Lots of annealing was involved in forming this baby. I thought the hard part was going to be torching - wasn't sure the heat was hot enough with my torch - but the soldering was the easy part!
I wrote a blog post today on the Love My Art Jewelry blog, where I discussed working with copper tubing. A hollow bangle! But, the walls of the tubing are not thin nor weak- I had a lot of fun wrangling this into a bangle!
The necklace in the next two photos features a focal made with copper tubing, and a new-to-me technique involving sterling silver cross-pins. Truth be told, the first few attempts were a complete fail, but I was determined!
I wanted to use that focal piece in a bracelet with wire - but with the cross pins, you cannot put wire through the focal! So, I had to dig (and I mean DIG) out my beading wire and crimps - a technique I have not used in a long, long, time. That necklace was 4 different bracelets before it ended up in its final state!
The earrings below are my favorite! Since the "copper tubes" are not curved and only an inch long, I was able to maneuver the sterling wire around the cross-pins. I also soldered little jump rings to the ends - love this mixed metal look! These remind me of bullet casings.
A few weeks ago, I made a few hollow sterling silver beads - waiting for the "next perfect match" to make a necklace. Well, they went into this bracelet instead. Gorgeous purple-hued Ammonite lampwork beads by Sue Kennedy (her shop is here). My love of "no bead the same in a set" continues! The hollows remind me of clam shells, so I think this is a perfect "Beach" bracelet.
Lastly, one of my favorite new necklaces, featuring lapis, sodalite, sunset dumorlierite, some more hollow beads, and an incredible pewter cross by Vincent Cav (his shop is here).
I am sure that I have made more jewelry since my last posting, but I don't want to bore you with all those pictures!
Since I usually end my posts discussing the weather (why do I do that??), let's just say it is Summer - Hot, Humid, Sticky...yuck! We have had an inordinate amount of rain here in Northern Virginia, usually in the form of nasty thunderstorms. Sarge DOES NOT appreciate this! Wish I could send this rain to California!
Thank you so much for stopping by today!
xo
Patti
