How NOT to anneal wires...

I could title this post also "Why you shouldn't lose focus while annealing " or maybe "Why you shouldn't anneal wires when you're tired"

This won't be a long post. I've decided to make not only the tree earrings, but also a matching necklace. I was finishing soldering the second earring, with only one element left to add. I had to anneal the wire, because it became too hard to properly shape. I started to heat the wire... and kept heating it... and heating... and looking at it, and thinking: "oooooh, those are some pretty lights running up an down that wire... and it looks as if those light are running inside it... and... wait a moment, why is this wire swelling??? Oh, damn, it's not swelling, I've just melted it."
And that is why you should never lose focus while annealing ;P
I'm just glad it wasn't the whole piece.

Just after the annealing fail

After pickling for better view

It's a piece of art on its own ;)

And if someone is wondering why the first thing I did after melting it was to take a picture... it was rather amusing experience, and I decided to document it ;P I also find the shape of that maltreated wire rather funny.

Tree earrings - work in progress

To quote one of my favourite books: "attention span of a teabag". From what I read and hear, many creative people share that problem. I was supposed to finish one necklace, and come back to work on a pendant, so of course I decided I just need to solder something, because it was sooo long since I've done anything using that technique...

Here it is just after I've finished all soldering. It was, quite possibly, still hot when I took  that picture.
I don't have that much experience with soldering yet, but work on this one went surprisingly easy. Sure, I've spent ridiculous amount of time on it, but I had to re-soldered joints in only to places. Actually, the most difficult part was probably soldering on that jump ring.

And this is how it looked just after I removed it from pickle - a lot of solder overspill. I wonder if I will ever manage to solder something nice and neatly, without those huge swatches to file or polish off. It comes with the practice, I suppose.

Oh, and in case you're wondering what is in that little plastic container - it's my solder paste. And yes, it does come in syringes, and it is supposed to stay there. And it usually does - until, that is, someone forgets to clean the needle after using it, and leaves it for several months... and then that someone tries to squeeze a little bit out and... creates a solder volcano, with the whole needle being launched into the ceiling, and syringe contents spilling all over the place. I was a bit worried it may not work as well as it did before all that happened... but it works equally well as that part that actually stayed in the syringe. I'm just glad I tend to collect different containers "just in case" and I had something to put that solder in ;)

It varies from the project, but most of my finished pieces do. I didn't feel like adding another tiny pieces, and I like the way it looks now.

And here it's after partial sanding to remove the excess solder. When I have both earrings soldered, I will probably copper-plate the solder that's left over.

I also plan to oxidise those earrings and then polish to create highlights.
And now I should go to work on the other one - which, at this time, is just hammered copper circle, and not even soldered one ;)

I hope I will finish it today, so I can finish that necklace...
And did I mentioned I'm really happy with how it turned out? ;)

Till the next time!
Kasia

Howling wolves earrings

This post will be quick one.
I have new earrings, and rather bad photos of them to show. The weather lately really isn't that good for photographing jewellery. Really, I used two light sources today, and I started taking pictures at noon! I will probably retake them in the near future.
Anyway, the earrings:

 

I've made the of raw copper sheet, that I've cut, filed, hammered and then oxidised to deep grey colour.

There is rather "strong" (sorry, I don't know if this is correct English word for it ) hammered texture. I like how it turned out.

The next step after oxidising was polishing, and then engraving.
I must say, I like the way the earrings look - the metal is rather shiny, and I like the results of engraving - especially the wolves. They look better in person then on the photos.

They are about 4cm long - 5,6cm if you count the ear wires - and weight just 1,8g each.
They are available here: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/214955509/howling-wolf-engraved-copper-earrings

There will be also necklace to match them, but I haven't finish it yet. And I hope I will be able to take better pictures of them.

Oh, and I set up Twitter profile.

Till the next time!
Kasia

Copper necklace with cold enamel

I've finally finished a new piece! I've spent quite a bit of time working on it, and waiting for the epoxy hardener to arrive, so I could finish it off with adding cold enamel to it, but finally all of it is done. And I'm very happy with how it turned out.
Ta-daaaaaah!

I've made it entirely by hand, the only ready-made elements being the carnelian beads. The chain, and the pendant were made from scratch by me.

The necklace was loosely inspired by the early medieval Slavic jewellery. I had to adjust the design slightly - originally I wanted these... dots to go not only around the middle "resin nest" by also between each of those on the perimeter, but there wasn't enough place for them.

I've made the pendant using chasing and repousse technique. I was a bit afraid that the "nests" I created for the resin to go into won't be level, and that the enamel will overspill, but fortunately that was not the case.

Both the pendant and the chain were oxidised to deep grey colour and then polished to create highlights.

The chain alone took 4 hours to make! I'm not sure you can imagine how my hand felt once I've finished it ;) Anyway, here it is, ready to be sold in that very box you can see on that last photo :)
I love, love, love working with copper! I hope I will have something new to show soon :)
Till the next time!
Kasia.

Poinsettia earrings

I've just added new earrings to my etsy store today: polymer clay, handmade poinsettia earrings.

They are made of red, yellow and green fimo polymer clay, and dusted in several places with gold mica powder.

They were a pleasure to make, and the whole process didn't take much time - which is quite unusual, because by "the whole process" I mean from first design to complete finish.

 It was probably due to the fact that I was thinking about making something like this pair for some time now, so the final design came to me pretty fast - though I entertained two different approaches - and shaping, baking and adding finishing touches went really... smooth. ( or should it be smoothly?). All in all, I've finished them in about 2.5 - 2hours 45 minutes.

As always, I didn't use any moulds whatsoever, and the only ready made elements are silver-plated ear wires.
They are 2.8cm(4.5cm including ear wires) long and weight only 1.5g each. Poinsettia elements are approximately 2.3cm in diameter (due to their shape measuring was a bit tricky).

They are ready to be sold, and will come in a box like the one on the photo :)

I think they would make a nice little Christmas gift:) What do you think?

***
 Aaand I'm just happy to say that this weekend I sold one of two art clay silver pendants I had in my store. Yay! I dispatched the pendant today and I hope it will arrive safely to its new owner, and that said owner will be happy with her order :)

Till the next time!
Kasia

Christmas banner and rust dragon eye earrings

I've just added new earrings to my shop today.

 Of course, if you want a closer look, you can click on photos for their original size.

I call them rust dragon eye earrings because I wanted to make something a bit more industrial than what I usually do, and at the same time I wanted to do something with a dragon eye on it. So I combined both ideas and came up with earrings looking like rusted pieces of metal, with said eye incorporated in them as a rusted-over screw. At least that was the idea and I really like the outcome. They look exactly how I wanted them to look.

They are made of fimo polymer clay and painted with acrylic paints. I've made them entirely by hand, without using any moulds whatsoever. I must say, making them was a lot of fun! From making the texture, to painting them, it was all very enjoyable. There is also matching pendant,but it's not in store just yet, because I'm not sure whether to put up for sale as pendant alone, or to strung it on something. I will write another post for it alone, once I've decided what to do about it.

Anyway, the earrings are 3.5cm long (5cm if you include ear hooks) and weight only 0.8g each. The only ready-made parts I've used are the silver-plated ear hooks. I've made jump rings myself, out of bronze-plated copper wire.

If someone decide to buy them, they will be sent carefully packed in a box like this one.



And now for the banner part of this post...

Yesterday I've decided to give my shop a bit of holiday/winter look, and spend some time in inkscape making the banner over for that seasonal feel. I'm rather happy with how it looks!
 ....ta daaaah!

And this is how it looked before:

And of course I've changed the banner on the blog as well!

Till the next time!
Kasia

Beacause Christmas adverts are already everywhere...

...I gave in to the madness and made winter/Christmas earrings.

They are made of fimo polymer clay in white and mother of pearl. I also used fimo liquid to strengthen them and make sure they won't fall apart or break. I like the outcome well enough, but while I was making them I thought I was going to explode out of shear irritation with all those little parts... and polymer clay, that was getting really sticky, especially near the end. But I won! And that's the good thing about jewellery-making for me: it tests my patience (which isn't great) and encourages me to develop rather persistent streak.
And here they are:

 They are about 4.1 - 4.3cm long each. If you count earhook, that would make them about 5.5cm long each. They are extremely lightweight, which is quite common for polymer clay jewellery - you would have to use rather big amounts of it to make something heavy. Those earrings weight only 1 - 1.1g each.

I don't know why mother of pearl snowflakes look kind of... lightly brownish-grey here...
Anyway, the earhooks are silver-plated and, to the best of my knowledge, nickel-free ( I was in no way involved in making them, so I cannot say for sure, but that's what seller promised ), and jump rings are sterling silver.

I made those earrings entirely by hand, without using any moulds, so there are slight differences between them. I think there is 1 - 2 mm difference in length, but I'm not sure, and I don't have them anywhere near me at the moment, so I cannot check. Also, I'm lazy and I can't be bothered to go and measure them right now ;) But the measurements I have written down differ by that amount, so that should be it.

They are protected with varnish, and are ready to be sold in their own little box :)

For next post, I will probably show some stuff I've made some time ago, because right now I'm in the process of making another necklace combining viking knit and chasing and repousee, and that will take some time. I also, for some perplexing reason, decided to solder a bezel on pendant of that necklace, and now I'm wondering if I survive that process.... because of some technical difficulties it's driving me mad!

Anyway, I hope I WILL finish that necklace in some reasonable time, that I WILL solder that blasted bezel on as it should be soldered on, and that I will NOT go completely crazy in the meantime ;)

Have a great weekend!

Kasia

Beginning...

I think, for the first post, introductions are in order!

My name is Kasia and I just love making jewellery. I love other crafts and art in general too, as well as good deal of science (biology mostly), but this blog will be dedicated to handmade jewellery (as you probably guessed from the blog title ;).

Until recently, I've mostly been making polymer clay and papier-mache jewellery, but recently I found out about wonderful technique called chasing and repousse and started to work in it as well.

I have an etsy store, deviantart, pinterest and google+ accounts, so check them out if you're interested!

And i this first post I will share my newest creation: handmade copper necklace made in viking knit, chainmaille and chasing and repousse techniques. 
Click on pictures for better view :)

Chasing and repousse is a very old technique, one that had been used by ancient Egyptians, Greeks and other cultures. Basically, you anneal metal to make sure it won't brake when you work it, place it in pitch ( or other material, such as beeswax, piece of lead or hard rubber. From what I've read, some people actually use even plasticine. Whatever you choose, the material must support your piece of metal so it doesn't collapse unpredictably, but also must have some give, so you can create some pattern) and start hammering outline of the pattern you wish to create.

After this is done, you take the item from the pitch, clean it, anneal again, turn over and start this whole process anew. Heating the metal often is very important, because it hardens during hammering and can brake if not soften again. Annealing also relieves internal stresses in metal.

  

For my piece, I chose raw copper - it means it hasn't got any non-tarnish coating. Pendant itself is lightly oxidised and polished to accentuate raised pattern. It is suspended on viking knit chain.

I've finished the viking knit part by adding short lengths of chainmaille chain and handmade hook clasps.

The whole necklace is about 55.5cm long and weights just 17g.

I am definitely looking forward to making another piece in chasing and repousse. It's technique that takes a lot of time (and sometimes patience ;) but I absolutely love it!

Till next time!
Kasia