Thank You

by Patti Vanderbloemen

First off...many thanks for the comments made on my last blog post ---I truly do appreciate it!

Second...I am SO TIRED OF THIS RAIN! It seems that we have had only 2-3 days of sunshine since April - and not consecutive days either. It is so depressing! Okay..rant over.  

Anyway, one of my very best customers asked me if I could create a bangle or a bracelet for her cousin. The only requisites were that the bracelet have a horse theme and possibly have the name of the horse appear on the bracelet.

I really wanted a silhouette of a horse and somehow make a focal, but I had doubts about my sawing capabilities. But then I said, "what the heck", and I did.

Forgive this blurry image taken from my cell phone...but I was so pleased that I did not wreck the design or my fingers on this tiny little piece of copper that  I neglected to check to see if the picture was clear.

I then cut a brass oval and sweat soldered the copper horse silhouette to the oval. I was going for some dimension in the focal. I kept my fingers crossed that I did not use too much solder - nothing worse than excess solder bleeding onto that brass, which I would not be able to camouflage in the final design. I cut a piece of heavy gauge sterling silver, stamped on the beloved Horse name, and soldered the brass oval to the silver.  Two jump rings were added for connectors.

I have not used brass in a soldering project in quite some time and forgot that one of the components of this lovely metal is copper. Lots of sanding involved after pickling to bring the gold color back to the brass - which looks just like copper when heated.

If I am not given an exact wrist size, I prefer to make bracelets that are adjustable. I also wanted to use a lobster clasp, which, though not handmade, provides the most secure closure.

So, I made a chain of tiny double wrapped loops and wired this to to one side of the focal. To the other side, I added a few jump ring links, soldered closed for security.  This way, the clasp can attach to any of the soldered rings for a perfect fit.

I wrapped a tiny sterling silver bead added to the last link.

My customer told me her cousin loved the bracelet....always so very happy to hear that! Custom orders do not always go well! :)  Here is a picture of her cousin wearing the bracelet and judging from her tiny wrist, I am so glad I made it adjustable!

I am so happy my customer contacted me - it was the creative outlet that I needed!

Thanks for stopping by today!

xo
Patti