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

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

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

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