Death's-head moth and the Thylacine.

Yay! I'm back to working :D I really hope I won't have to get back to physio again, and won't have another such a loooong break in making stuff. This remains to be seen, but fingers crossed! (Or, as we say it: thumbs held ;P).
The bad news is, I still didn't manage to make two pendants I really wish to be able to finish, because I keep running in technical issues with them. I'm after two attempts, and had to scraped both. But third time's a charm, right? I also have to finish a hinge bracelet I hoped to have made by now, but I run in a problem with one hinge and have to figure out the best way to approach this. In the worst case scenario I'll just redo the hinge, so this shouldn't take much longer.

And now for the stuff I did finish:
Death's-head moth( Acherontia atropos) cuff:

Etched copper cuff featuring Acherontia atropos

 I really like that cuff! While I also (surprise, surprise!) really like the pictures I took of it (and for the most part, all the pictures I took during that photo shoot), it looks better in person. Apart from the moth and the scrolls, there are also mu customary crescent moons on either end of the cuff.

Continuing with Acherontia-theme, there are also two pairs of earrings:

Etched copper A. atropos earrings with silver details.

 This pair is really delicate by my standards: while they're quite long, being 5.1cm in total, the moths themselves are only 1.3cm long (counting the element attaching them to the chain) and have wingspan of 2.1cm. They're small. And were a bit of a challenge to cut out, I must say. Especially the bits close to antennae. And painting the patterns before etching was also a bit tricky, but they turned out pretty nice. The elements with the moons are about 0.9cm in diameter. Again, small, for me.
The chain and moons are sterling silver, as are ear wires.

Etched copper A.atropos earrings with an ear cuff.

 In these pair, the moths are slightly bigger: they're about the same length as previous ones, but their wingspan is about 2mm larger. They were much easier to cut out, mostly because their shape is much simpler.The ear cuff is 0.6cm wide, and it's engraved. I did the engraving with hand gravers, and, let me tell you, there was a lot of sanding afterwards to remove all those accidental nicks and scratches... Hand engraving is... tricky. And unfortunately, there are no courses anywhere in my area I could take to get better at it, which is frustrating.

As I already mentioned, I planned to make two pendants as well, but they proved trickier than I anticipated. I'm still determined to make them work, so hopefully at some point I'll actually manage to make them.
Moving on to Thylacine- theme, there's a cuff:

Thylacinus cynocephalus on an engraved copper cuff.

I love this one as well, even though I realised only when I was processing the photos, that I didn't give it the second front leg... Oh, well, it's still pretty as it is ;). There are, of course, crescent moons on the ends of the cuff.

Then there are two pairs of earrings:

Etched copper Thylacine earrings with sterling silver details and tiger eye cabochons.

And these look somewhat weird on those pictures... They're actually rather shiny in person... I did retake some of the picture today, so I'll see if I have any better ones. Thylacines are famous for how wide they could open their mouths (up to 80 degrees!) so it would be a shame if I didn't show them with open mouth on any of the pieces... That being said, I might have overdone it...

Here the stones are unakite, and the pictures even weirder.

I swear, these are shiny. Those pictures are weird. I'm actually wondering if I shouldn't try to profile the head of the Thylacine on the right hand side a bit better, but I'm not sure how to do this (I'm thinking about using graver for that) but I'm not certain I won't end up with a bungled earring I'll then have to etch another blank for... These are the first earrings with a stone set as a part of the ear wire (for the lack of better term), and I really like how those turned out(aside from that one issue). I'll probably make more in this style.
 And finally there are two pendants (there were supposed to be three, but I've ran into some issues with the last one. It's not scraped yet, because I think I may be able to salvage it. We'll see.)

Thylacine on an etched copper pendant with a hematite cabochon.

 I must say, this one is probably my favourite piece among all this lot.  It has two bails at the back, and if you look closely, you can actually see in this picture where the chain is coming from, so to speak. Originally, I wanted to attach the chain to the Thylacine's snout an tail, but these are so small I wasn't sure I wouldn't melt the chain while attempting to do that. I really love this little guy :)

Etched copper and silver thylacine pendant

 Another gaping tassie tiger. Tricky to photograph, as it's difficult to prop in such a way so it doesn't slip. To take this picture I had to actually trap the chain under the stone. But it worked! I had to make the upper part of the pendant twice, as at my first I actually melted the silver moon. Generally speaking, soldering silver to copper is tricky, at least for me. I either end up with melted silver, or, after pickling, find out that the metals didn't solder together. I have problems getting to the point where everything gets nicely together, and nothing melts.
But I'm carefully optimistic I'm on to something, because the second moon soldered perfectly at the first try. And that, by the way, gives me hope for those pendants I'm yet to make successfully.

So these are the new finished pieces, and I have several still at the WIP stages. I already uploaded both cuffs to my shop, ant the rest will follow shortly, once I finished processing the rest of the pictures.

Oh, and one more thing... I also ran into a weird problem, maybe someone will have some ideas what to do about it. I have huge difficulties with getting anything oxidised. Everything is as clean as humanly possible, and yet I can't get LOS to work. The metal either goes crappy brown colour and refuses to darken further, or it goes black, but then everything comes of, and then it gets to crappy brown colour. It's not as if I didn't oxidised anything before, and yet I've got no clue what's wrong. The only thing I found that works is getting gel on an old toothbrush, brushing it, undiluted directly onto metal, running the piece under hot water and brushing it with brass brush. This usually works, even though it doesn't make sense. It should be to concentrated and create nasty, thick black layer that flakes off. But it's the only way I can get anything oxidised lately. I would stick with it, but it's so wasteful! Anyone have any bright ideas on that? Any tips? I would love it if you shared your thoughts, because it's slowly driving me bonkers!

Have a great upcoming week!
Kasia

New stuff and the big plunge.

Recently, I've become convinced that the day has shrunk. I mean, it's still 24 hours, but it seems like those hours are way shorter than before. I constantly lack time for... just about everything. There's just so much stuff to do!

I still did manage to make some new pieces, and I have another three designs in different stages of completion (two of those are rings! It seems I'll finally, actually, finish some!).

Here's the jumping fox pendant:

Etched copper jumping fox pendant with carnelian chip beads.

Originally, I wanted add just one, round carnelian bead, but after I cut the pendant, etched it, and soldered the jump ring it turned out that I didn't leave enough space between the tail and front legs for the bead to fit. So I swapped it for two chip beads (I was really happy I still had some left). I'm very happy with how the finished piece looks :)

Next, raven pendant:

Flying raven pendant with peacock pearl.

This one is one of those things I just can't take a decent picture of. It's so much nicer in person. And so is the pearl. I did mention in the last post, that I got a whole bunch of those. They're awfully pretty. I planned on making several pairs of earrings with those, and even started, but encountered some problems and left them for the time being. I still to finish them, though.

Fox earrings number one:

Sitting fox earrings

Fox earrings number two:

Fox and tree earrings

Wolf earrings:

Howling wolf and moon earrings

I'm really happy with the etching on those :) Lately, I keep polishing everything to a high shine, and as if poor light conditions weren't making taking pictures hard enough, as it turns out: I'm hopeless at photographing shiny things. This photo was taken with polarising filter, and there's still just bazillion of reflections! Have to come up with a way of photographing stuff like this, or stop polishing everything so much...

Raven earrings:

Calling raven and sun earrings

I had to get creative with the means of attaching both parts of earrings together here. All because I drilled a hole for (originally intended) jump ring to close to the edge in one of those, and was worried it may snap at some point. So instead of jump rings, I made head pins, flattened their heads, and soldered them to the backs of the earrings.And then made them into loops. So now there's no movement, nor rubbing between the loops and the earrings, and nothing should break.

Wolf earrings:
 I just love these :D I almost hope they won't sell, so I'll get to keep them.

And finally, swan couple pendant:

Swan couple pendant with carnelian cabochon.

Surprise, surprise, I actually remembered there's Valentine's Day coming up, and even made something with that in mind.
I spent ridiculous amount of time on the stone. for some reason I just couldn't set it- it kept rattling in the setting, I could feel it move, and it was so irritating! And then, I made one more, half-hearted pass with a burnisher... and it was suddenly set, no movement, no rattling, nothing.
This pendant is also something I just can't photograph. This picture I just about the only one I'm somewhat satisfied with.
I had real problems photographing all of that lot, I was even taking pictures earlier today, when there was a short moment when there was some light available. I haven't look through those pictures yet, so I don't even know if any of them are usable. I sure hope they are.

And about that big plunge... I recently had surprisingly good streak of luck (I was especially happy when one customer, after she received one cuff, immediately ordered another :D And now I have no bracelets left in store;P), and decided to invest the money I made in business course, aimed specifically at jewellery designers. It's starting 1st of February, and now I'm fervently hopping I'll see some results from it, because I keep thinking about all the supplies and tools I could have bought for that amount, and about that health-insurance thingy I'll have to pay later this year, and just the size of the investment is pretty damn scary for me. Here's hoping I'll learn something useful.

I also decided that I would like to see how having my own website would work out for me, so I'm brushing up my coding knowledge, as well as learning totally new things, and later on I'll be designing that website by myself. I know enough html and css to make one, it's the programming stuff that I'm entirely new to (and, obviously, I want it to be responsive. It should be... interesting experience). On top of that, I decided to wholly redesign my banner. I would have this done already, if I just could find a bit of time to do this. I'm also itching to start making layout pieces for that future maybe-website, but, again, can't find the time to do this! I may be slightly insane to take on all that by myself, but that's just me ;)

And one more thing: I've set up instagram profile. I have  a picture of one of the rings I'm working on there, so you can check that out (and I'm too lazy to look for my phone and download that picture to my pc right now ;)

Have a great day!
Kasia

Otterly important post!

Sorry, couldn't help myself ;)
I decided to take a break from casting, and finish several designs that were waiting to be done. Two of those were otter-themed, hence the tittle ;P

Let's get straight to it. Remember the wolf cuff from previous post? Well, it's finished, added to my shop, and waiting for a new owner.

Running wolf cuff

I liked the running wolves idea from my previous wolf cuff, but this time I wanted one wolf as a focal point on the bracelet. I'm pretty happy with how the whole piece turned out.

There are also crescent moons on either end, and scrolls accompanying the wolf. I'm also somewhat surprised I managed to take pretty decent photos at the first try. That's a first.

I also made a second cuff, one I wanted to make for quite some time, but always something other got in the way. Well, I finally made it: Megaloceros giganteus (Giant Deer or Irish Elk, as it's commonly known) cuff!

All hail M. gigantetus!

I had to make that one a bit wider than usual: 3cm(~1.2in) instead of 2.5cm(~1in), because trying to fit all of those antlers on thinner one would be a total pain. I must say I really love the texture on etched parts on this one! It's sooo pretty.

And there are also crescent moons on this cuff.

Apart from those two, I also made my first ever pair of stud earrings (complete with making and soldering ear posts), and a pendant with my first ever flush setting!

And so, we've come to these otters I mentioned in the beginning of that post.
Here's pendant:

Otter pendant

You could call it experimental piece: aside from flush setting, I also had to do a lot of sweat soldering here, and that's something I'm pretty hopeless at. I'm really happy that it took me only two tries to solder both parts of the otter to the washer.

Noticed the belemnite fossil in this stone? That's a mesozoic rock right there!

I also managed to solder back piece at the first try, without any of the already soldered part coming undone. That's a big success for me. I have something of a love-hate relationship with soldering: it's either going great, or I can't solder anything, with already soldered joints falling apart, even though the part I'm soldering is squeaky clean, and already soldered ones are as dirty as possible, with ochre pastel smeared all over them.

I'm also very glad I have watchmaker loupe at home. Those are 1mm CZs, and trying to set them without one was a nightmare. After I remembered the loupe and used it, it all went a lot faster and easier, as I was able to actually see what I was doing.

And here are aforementioned earrings:

 Unfortunately, I made three attempts at taking good pictures of them, and failed miserably at all of them.
These earrings are also a bit experimental themselves, as I decided that butterfly backs soldered to the back parts of them would look really weird (plus, I wasn't sure I would be able to do this without melting them), and decided to make "built in" butterflies myself.

 It wasn't as difficult as I feared it would be, and they work just fine. The only problem I have is with the wire I used to make ear posts. It's 0.6mm, and I would prefer 0.7mm, (but I didn't have any) to make them a little bit stronger. I know that, theoretically, ear posts should be made from 0.8 or 0.85mm wire, but I, for example, can't wear 0.85, as they're too big, and even 0.8 ear wires are a bit too big, and wearing them is really uncomfortable, and can even sometimes hurt. I know majority of people do just fine with standard ear wires, but I decided to make them smaller on the off chance someone with problem similar to mine should buy those. 

I also had the weirdest, I think, experience while soldering ear posts: I managed, and I have no idea how I managed this, to pierce through copper with sterling silver wire. Let this sink in for a moment. I took a piece of copper, melted solder all over it, heated it, dunked the end of wire into flowing solder, started to heat the earring part I wanted to solder that wire to, and touched the end of the wire to the copper piece. It didn't stick, so I tried this again (and I already had one ear post soldered, so I knew this should work), almost got it, but my hand shook and it again didn't stick. I decided to pickle the back, clean it, and try again... and then I noticed that I had a lovely, 0.6mm hole right in the middle of my earring. I didn't overheat the copper part. I'm just talented like that.

I must say, I'm awfully fond of these earrings. I'm thinking about making something similar for myself. Actually, I'm trying to think of a way wolf earrings would look good made in this style.

To make sure everything works as it should I wore them all day before I even oxidised them. They stayed in place, so that's good. 

And let's finish with a mild rant: I wanted to buy fire bricks, to create nice, insulated area for melting metal. Because I wanted  to be able to melt it a little bit faster, and waste a little bit less gas. So I went to the only place I know off that stores (or, should I say stored) firebricks, and... nothing. Null, zero, nada. Not a firebrick in sight. And, as I already said, that's the only place in my town that ever had them. I got, as you can imagine, a tinsy bit angry. Now I'm left with 2 options: option one: not having that nice, insulated area; option two: buying bricks via internet, and paying king's ransom for shipping. Grrr.
I hope that maybe they'll restock firebricks in near future. That's just another thing added to my recurring rant called "why can't I get this in Northern Ireland?!?". For example, good silversmithing classes. I could apply to university (and fail miserably) or... or... or... fly every week to London, I guess. Sigh. And now firebricks! People have fireplaces and things like that. Firebricks should be a little bit easier to find than a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Ok, I'll stop that rant now.

Till the next time!

Kasia

Homotherium's jewellery debut!

As I've mentioned in previous post, I've been thinking about merging my passion for jewellery with my passion for palaeontology, and I did just that! The first palaeo-pieces are dedicated to Homotherium, and in particiular, to Homotherium latidens, an Eurasian species. 

For those who don't know much about that saber-toothed cat, let me write an introduction: Homotherium is a genus of machairodontidae family (one of several families, spread along three different biological taxa, of animals commonly referred to as saber-toothed cats), one that lived during the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs. It was a rather successful genus, ranging from both Americas, Eurasia and Africa, and existing for approximately 5 million years. Homotherium is sometimes referred to as a scimitar cat, or a scimitar-toothed cat: this is because it has a different, shorter type of canines than its better known cousins like, for example, Smilodon. Its canines also have serrated edges, and those probably helped with cutting through thick hide of the preferred prey.

You already saw that one, but introduction without a picture is no introduction!

Homotherium displays an array of adaptations to life in cold climates, and more cursorial lifestyle than typical for most cats. It had large nasal opening, which allowed it to breathe faster (by which I mean it was able to breathe in and out quite rapidly, and that's really important if you want to run fast, just ask any horse ;) helping with running and cooling the brain. It had also large and complex visual cortex, which suggest it was more diurnal rather than nocturnal like most other cats. Homotherium's limbs were proportionally long, and, interestingly, its forelegs were longer than its hind legs, giving it sloped, hyaena-like appearance. Feet on the back legs were also partially plantigrade, to allow a greater contact with substrate on which the animal walked, making it easier for it to move across the snow.

Apart from being adapted to a more cursorial, active lifestyle than most cats, it was also a big-game hunter. It's typically associated with higher altitudes, and most common in the North, alongside big prey animals such as mammoths and woolly rhinos. Some evidence suggests that it specialised in hunting juvenile mammoths. This in turn suggests that those cats probably hunted in prides, similar to modern day lions. Animals whose remains are found alongside those of Homotherium's would be very difficult for an individual cat to bring down. Homotherium was about the size of a modern male African lion.

It first became extinct in Africa (about 1.5 million years ago), than in Eurasia, with the youngest found remains estimated to being about 28 000 years old (though that may not be correct estimate) about the time when climate shifted, and forests became more dominant in the landscape. Homotherium was a cold steppe hunter, and the shift to more forested environment favoured prey it was not well equipped to hunt). The genus lasted longest in North America, until about 10 000 year ago. Evidence from South America is scant, with a few recorded fossils of 1.8 million year old H. venezuelensis. It's hard to tell how long the genus lasted there, but it certainly did partake in the Great American Interchange, alongside Smilodon. 

It also happens to be one of my favourite saberteeth (hope that's the correct plural;) 

And as for the jewellery:

There's a necklace:

I must say that it was fun to make it (and earrings as well). I wanted it to feature Homotherium specifically, and not just some generic sabertooth head. To make the image, I first found a picture of Homotherium's skull (and it was H. latidens to be exact), drew a grid on it, copied in on a piece of paper, then scaled it down, drew soft tissue on the skull, and then scaled the whole thing even more, so it would fit on the pendant. It was an interesting exercise. The rest was easy, and typical: adding scrolls to the design, making the chain, the bail, oxidising...

And while I'm writing about the skull: it's rather long, and the lower jaw has down-turned flanges, that helped to protect the canines. The skull has also a well-developed crest, and that means that these animals had a hell lot of muscles to power the lower jaw. 

The necklace is 50cm ( 10 4/16in) long, and the pendant is 3.2cm (1 4/16in) in diameter. 

I forgot to use polarizing filter. Oh, well...

 There are also earrings, as I've already mentioned:

The images of the heads here I made exactly the same way as on the pendant. I must say that fitting them on a 1cm wide strip of metal was fun... I also decided to solder a jump ring to each earring, instead of making a whole in them. And of course I ended with solder all over the place. And what is really irritating about that? I had a little dish with yellow ocher pastel powder at hand. I just forgot it was there. I will either get really good at soldering, and stop getting solder everywhere, or will invent some extremely effective way of getting rid of the stuff, or maybe I will actually develop some decent memory, and stop forgetting about things like using something to stop the solder from flowing where I don't want it to go... The second one from all of these is the most probable development ;P

I've also got a new lens, and I already like it much, much better than the old one.

While making the earrings, I decided to play with a saw a bit more than usual, to practice. I know, it's not a very intricate shape, but I'm happy with it, especially because I managed to cut each earring in one continuous loop. That's really good, considering my sawing skills... or lack thereof... I now actually have some hopes of developing decent sawing-capabilities. Not so long ago I would not believe it possible. Unthinkable: my saw started to cooperate with me ( or, more likely, I stopped stopping it from doing its work properly) ;) The earrings are 4.5cm (6 with ear wire) or approx 1.8in (~2.4in counting ear wire) long.

So, that's that. Necklace is available here, and earrings here. And I also got renaissance wax, and I'm going to see how it works. Right now I now only one thing: it stinks like shoe polish ;P I hope it was worth the price tough. 

Till the next time!

Kasia

PS. should someone like a print with Homotherium, or, I don't now, a mug or something, I'm on redbubble. And I sometimes actually upload something there... 
PS2. Sources! I forgot to list the sources I used, and now I'm embarrassed! So here we go:
Ascanio D. Rincón, Francisco J. Prevosti & Gilberto E. Parra "New saber-toothed cat records (Felidae: Machairodontinae) for the Pleistocene of Venezuela, and the Great American Biotic Interchange", Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 31 (2), pages 468-478, DOI:10.1080/02724634.2011.550366
http://www.wired.com/2010/11/facing-homotherium/
http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/h/homotherium.html

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

Branding, finding your own style, and salt water etching

I've spent the last 2 months seriously researching marketing, branding and the like.  Up to this point I wasn't really doing much to promote my shop, nor was I really treating it like you would treat a business. But, when I reopened my shop last November, I decided that I really need to get myself together and start seriously working on the shop if I want anything to come of it.

One thing I always had problem with was defining my brand (and style). I still probably wouldn't be able to do this verbally if someone asked me to describe it, but after all that research, I have at least some visual idea as to what makes up my so-called "brand". I have a lot of figuring out still to do, but getting idea as to what, exactly I represent visually (or what do I want to represent) definitely was a huge help: I'm much more able to focus on developing a consistent collection. Before that, I was just kind of drawing ( and then making) any design that happened to pop into my head. I still do that  (drawing, that is) but I'm becoming more selective as to what I will put on sale. And I can't stress enough just how helpful that change was: I have some 24 designs drawn, and ready to be made (3 of those are actually already made, photographed, and in store, but more about it later :)

I decided that, for now, I want to focus on developing two separate lines, quite different, but each one cohesive, and there will be some overlapping, re-occurring motifs (because, well, both will be made by me ;P)

What really helped me with this, was a very simple exercise I came by on pinterest ( once I find it I will add the original source here).

somewhat visual representation of the light bulb moment I'm mentioning later on.

 It's ridiculously straightforward idea, and quite obvious once you read it. My first thought was: "why the hell didn't I think about this?!? " The idea is to write your name on a piece of paper, and then start adding to it things that define you. Anything that comes to mind when you think about yourself:interests, personality traits, favourite colours, and so on. Actually, it wasn't that exercise itself that brought my light bulb moment, but it was the exercise that led to it, because it put my mind on the right track (hope that makes sense ;P): I started out with that name-and-defining-charcteristics thing, and after I ran out of ideas, I started to look at all the designs I drew, and found reoccurring themes in many of them: moons, ravens, wolves, trees (if rather skeletal ones) and... how should I call them? Curvacious ornamental elements? I have no idea how do you call doodles like that in English (which, I suspect, is kind of evident from that description). But they are present on the three pieces I mentioned above, so you will be able to see what I mean ;P

I already knew that material I really want to work with is metal, so choosing medium and techniques wasn't difficult. Which brings us nicely to the salt water etching part of that post.

I always liked the look of etched jewellery, but I never got around to buying etching solution, and, quite frankly, wasn't very comfortable with using a rather strong acid at home ( I worked with strong acids before, but that was always in properly equipped lab, not home ) And then I stumbled upon a video showing salt water etching technique, and it's ridiculously easy to set up, and involves only non-iodised salt, water, metal you want to etch, a piece of scrap metal and a weak electric current. Perfect! No harmful chemicals ( though you still need to properly dispose of the copper-saturated solution, once it stopped working - you can't pour it down the drain, and the same goes for used, copper-saturated pickle, by the way. My solution is still going, though, after etching 2 pairs of earrings and two pendants) I won't be going into details here (because that post is already getting monstrously long), but check the link I provided - and make sure to check his first salt water etching video also. For my electricity source I used phone charger and two semi-insulated screwed-on alligator clips (thus eliminating need for soldering). It has lower output than recommended 9V, as it is just 5V. This may contribute to the speed with which the etching is done: it's sloooow. To get to the depth I like, I have to keep it going for three hours. But it's brilliant otherwise!

And I made those lovelies with it:

 

All three pieces (or five, if I would feel like nit-picking) are made of copper. The necklace chain is also handmade by me. And I also decided that I like photos on black background better than with white one (must have something to do with the fact that black is my favourite. And red. But mostly black) To block the areas I didn't want etched I used acrylic paint - painted on with... a toothpick. High-tech, I tell you. (Getting the paint off the pieces after etching was another matter: if I don't rub it off from still wet piece, it becomes really hard to get rid of. Like, combination of scrubbing, nail polish remover and baking soda hard )

 

 These are the first pieces of one of the lines I mentioned. The line is called The Wild Song, and the necklace and wolf earrings are Wolf Song core pieces, and raven earrings are part of Raven Song core pieces. There will be also matching necklace - I have the pendant etched already, but I need to add a bail, and make a chain (5 h for the wolf one, ugh ) And isn't the black background gorgeous? They look so... elegant with it :D Oh, and those doodles... the curvacious ornamental elements... how do you call something like that in English?

The other line I'm planning will be called Axis Mundi (world axis in Latin), which will consist of metal clay pieces, shaped like... that will be obvious to anyone with interest in ancient mythologies ( European mostly, but that's really common theme ) trees. So I can say that moon tree pendant was actually the first piece in that line. I just have to retake its pictures ;)

I hope that I will be able to work more efficiently and cohesively (and consistently )now that I somewhat know what look I'm aiming for. I just need to figure out effective marketing strategy ;)

Till the next time!
Kasia