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.