The Wild Song is growing

... slowly, but steadily. Few days ago I finally finished, photographed and uploaded another pieces of this collection. I rather like how it's all coming together nicely and cohesively, but, every time I have to photograph new items, I reacquaint myself with the fact that I really, really don't like taking pictures.

Anyway, here are the new items (click on the pictures if you want a better view).
Raven song necklace to match the earrings I showed last time:

... with some stupid light reflection on the lower part of the pendant.

I really have to figure out how to properly light the items I'm photographing, especially considering the climate I live in. But, on the brighter note: I made myself a necklace stand :D

Ta-daaaaaah!!!

Finally, some half-decent way of displaying necklaces in, more or less, their entirety! Definitely easier than trying to take a picture of a necklace while you're wearing it.
And, if someone is interested in chain details, here you go:

The chain is 53.5cm long, pendant is 3.5 x 1.8cm cm, and the whole piece is entirely handmade.
Next in line is another piece of Raven Song. I decided to call these pieces Raven Song: flight.
There's necklace:

I can't decide what's wrong with this photo. I really don't like it.

 I looks soooo much better in person. I will be definitely retaking those pictures.

And here it's showing how it looks when worn. I really like this one, even though it took forever to etch the pendant: at first try I left it for 3h straight (as this is amount of time needed to etch copper to the depth I like ), only to discover that somewhere half-way through the paint peeled off. I have no idea why this happened. So I cleaned it, painted again, and etched for an hour, stripped the paint, painted again, etched for another hour... and so on. I think, in the end, it spent some 6 - 7h etching (counting, of course, the first botched attempt).

The chain on this one is 49.5cm long, with pendant being 5cm long and 2 cm wide. On the side note, I have no idea why that chain is a bit shorter, as I used exactly the same amount of jump rings in all of the necklaces I'm showing today. One of the mysteries of the universe, it would seem...

There are also earrings:

And they also spent some ridiculous amount of time etching, together with the necklace. And these also look better in person.

And that's just about the only photo of them I'm more or less happy with. It wasn't a good day for photography (and I really don't want to think about the fact that I have to photograph this lot again. Ugh.).
Those earrings are 3.7cm (5.2 including ear wires) long, and 1cm wide.

And final piece of the Wild Song (for now, there are more to come ): Wolf Song: the night. Just the necklace, I still haven't made earrings for it ( haven't even started them, even though I started to make another set altogether. It's all because I don't have a disc cutter, and I don't like to saw round blanks out. Yup, that's my official excuse.)

Just look at all that light reflecting here. Grrrrrrrr.

 See what I meant about better lighting the items???

I had some problems with this necklace as well, but that was due to saline solution becoming over-saturated with copper, making it much less effective. The etching on this one is shallower than on the other items, and it spent 4 or 5h etching. I will definitely make new solution for next projects. I could make fresh batch and etch it for, say, an hour more, but I just wanted to finish that piece, and the image is visible enough (though polishing proved a bit tricky).

Chain here is 54cm long, and the pendant is 3.6cm tall (measuring with the bail) and 3.2cm wide.

All are available in my etsy store.
One good thing came from making all these chains though: I got a bit faster with making them. I'm guessing it's because I figured out a better way of cutting jump rings, so I don't spend that much time on this task. Now, if I only managed to find right diameter steel rod to use as mandrel for making rings, it would probably take some time off the making process as well ( coiling wire with help of a drill is, I'm guessing, a little bit faster then doing it by hand). I'm also entertaining the idea of making some bangles for this collection. I just have to find proper container, if I want to etch them. 

I also was quite surprised when I was uploading all those pieces to etsy. They changed jewellery categories (others probably too, but I don't know). And I'm a bit... confused? That's not the best word, but... before, categories were more or less like that: jewellery-> necklaces(for example) -> metalwork. The narrowest category was medium/technique. Now, it's type of an item. And I have a problem. With necklaces. Should I upload them as chains? They're not just chains. Pendants? Not just pendants either. Charm necklaces? Aren't charms generally rather small? I'm partially blaming language barrier for my confusion ;)  I think I uploaded one in chains, one in pendants, and one in charms. So... anyone has idea as to which of those three categories would be appropriate for these?

And finally, I bought ring triblet and sizing rings! And decided to have a go at making rings :) I still didn't figure out how to go about selling some, but for now I just experiment. Which will probably result in dramatic increase of amount of rings I own ( as if that was difficult... I left my last two rings in Dublin airport's bathroom...). Once I'm confident I know what I'm doing, I will try to figure out how to approach selling them.

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.

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