Playing with titanium

Last Friday I did something very, very out of character for me: I bought something on an impulse. I never buy stuff impulsively. Never, ever. And this one time I did. I ordered some titanium. Yes, titanium. A small piece: 2.54cm x 15.24cm, and 0.4mm thick. I was really surprised when it was delivered today: talk about fast shipping!

The monster... aka small, thin titanium strip.

Anyway, since Friday I was wondering if I will be able to even cut it, as titanium is notoriously hard metal. I had also no idea what I would make out of it, until yesterday.

Quick and dirty "concept sketches". I started with the wolf one.

Naturally, when it arrived, I just had to play with it! What I can say after one day of handling titanium, is this: it's incredibly light metal. Honestly, I was surprised. Almost felt like aluminium. It's lighter than copper, but much, much stronger (obviously). The strip I ordered came annealed, so it's soft, as far as titanium goes, but it still is pretty hard. I was able to bend the strip a bit, though not permanently. It has also kind of satiny feel to it. I really can't describe it better than that.


I was a bit worried about my saw blades. I just couldn't imagine how many of them I would use up cutting through the metal (or, indeed, if it will be at all feasible with the blades I have). I'm happy to say it went better than I expected. I cut out a teardrop shape, about 2.5cm in height, and maybe 2cm in the widest place.

The titanium blank, and all the saw blades that perished cutting it out.

I used up three blades on that. The last one still had some teeth left.

Click for close up on those poor blades

Now I'm wondering if I should buy better blades just for titanium, or if there's no point in that. I wouldn't like to spend £4 on 10 blades only to find out they dull as quickly as the ones I'm using right now.

After that was cut...

The first blade was done for.

After I cut the shape out, I had a bit tidying up left do do, especially in one place. I filed the sides down a bit, and this went pretty fast. I was surprised, I thought it would be much more difficult.

By the way, the little teardrop shape can't be bent. I mean, I just used my hands, and didn't apply unreasonable force, but it's really stiff. I'm trying to imagine hardened titanium, and I can't ;P

The shop I ordered the titanium from had also niobium, and I was tempted to buy that instead, but there is one little, teeny-tiny issue that was the key factor in my decision to buy the dreaded titanium after all. Niobium has some awesome oxides, that come in an awesome array of colours. Titanium has pretty much identical colour range, with one difference: you can colour titanium with a torch, but, as far as I know, you can't do that with niobium. And I didn't feel like playing with high voltages required for anodising niobium. I mean, they start low, around 10V, but go beyond the 100V mark, and that's positively scary.

The pendant I started working on requires only one colour: deep blue. There will be another part of titanium visible, but I plan to leave that one its normal silver-gray colour. The second one will require light blue and gold.

As I was experimenting with flame colouring today, I made a mistake and overheated the piece. That changed the colour I was aiming for, the deep blue, to light blue with some whitish splotches. So I had to sand that down, and start again. This way, I got an answered to my question: will I be able to obtain two colours on one piece? The answer is yes.

Heat coloured titanium. Not perfect, but just look at those hues!

When you heat titanium, its colour changes somewhat in this sequence: first, it's getting a bit more... silver-ish. Then, a bit brownish, that it gets a really nice golden colour, and then the colour shifts towards blue spectrum: first a purple, then deep blue, then sky blue, then gets almost white. From what I read, the next colours would be greens and pinks, and finally dark grey, almost black. I didn't get to those colours though.

 What is important here, for me, is that when I was making a second attempt at deep blue, I wasn't working on an entirely clean piece. I sanded a part of it, but another part stayed sky blue. Thanks to this, I know now that for the second piece I can easily obtain sky blue and gold on one piece of metal. The coloured part didn't change one bit.

 I must say, I absolutely love the wide range of colours you can create this way! Flame colouring titanium is much easier than it is with copper: I know, I tried. Apparently, I'm hopeless with obtaining heat patina on copper

Now I just have to wait for diamond drills bits to arrive, because you can't solder titanium, so I will have to rivet it and the copper together. I did make first opening in the copper part of the pendant today, just to see how the two look together.

First opening made.

It looks better than in this picture. I didn't cut all of them, as it was pretty late already, and I though my neighbours wouldn't be very happy if they had to listen to drilling for much longer ;)

After one day experience with titanium, I can say that it's definitely an interesting material to work with, and its colourful oxides provide a whole range of possibilities. I can't way to finish this piece, and to see how it will turn out!

I'm also wondering if my engraving bits would survive engraving titanium... they do have diamond tips, and I have two sets of them, but still. I wonder how long they would last...

Till the next time!
Kasia

Mixed media pendant and locket in progress

 Remember I wrote some time ago about making a locket? Well, I'm making a third attempt right now, and that one looks like it may actually get finished :) The first attempt became rubbish pretty quickly, the second... wasn't looking that bad until I started to finish it off, and noticed just then that one of the walls got soldered on skewed. After that I took a break form locket-making, and yesterday started a third one. I also completely changed the design. On a more difficult one. Typical me ;)

But I'm pretty happy with how it looks like right now, and I'm only a chain, a bail, and finished hinge away from completing, so I hope this one will end up nice and all. Although, if it will be good enough for me to even consider putting it up for sale, I have no idea how to price it. I don't think I can use my usual pricing formula, because I had so many problems with soldering the hinge knuckles on, that I spent 4 hours today on this task alone. Yes, four. And I was quite close to losing my mind by the time I finished it. But I did finally manage to solder them on, so as far as the hinge goes, I just need to set a hinge pin in place. I hope this will go easier.

So, here it is:

Still a lot to do, but I like it.

It's greenish inside, because I took those pictures after the first batch of pickle stopped working, and before I made another one. It dried in the meantime, and the verdigris patina is the result. I don't know if you can see it, but there are two layers inside: the raven in a foreground, and a branch in a background. Surprisingly for me, I didn't have any problems with sawing the bird out, nor with soldering it and the branch inside the locket. A major miracle, I feel.

As for the mixed media pendant... I was reading something, someone mentioned mixed media jewellery, someone else was complaining how they've got too many interests, and how to combine all of them, and I've got a light bulb moment, and just had to try something like that. And that pendant (well, right now a part of one) is the result:

 

I'm shamelessly happy with it

The frame of the pendant is copper, the painting is acrylic and Indian ink on watercolour paper, with mica powders on the moon and on the spirals on the wolf's face, and the painting is encased in resin.

Funny thing is, I really don't like painting miniatures, yet somehow always get ideas where I have to paint or draw one anyway. Though I had a lot of fun painting this one! And I already have and idea for a second pendant.

One picture is just not enough

I really like how the frame turned out. I had no idea how it was going to end up, I only knew it will wrinkle. But I just love the look of it. And I rather like that folding it like that is somewhat unpredictable.

However, there is one slight problem: after I poured the resin, I carefully passed a torch over it to get rid of bubbles. And I did. There were none. And yet, when the resin was almost dry, I check on it... and there were two huge bubbles on the lower right hand side of the pendant. And they popped, and left two dimples in resin. You can see them in the pictures. I will have to add another layer: the dimples will still be visible, but the paper won't be exposed to outside world.

If not for those dimples, I would be ecstatic about this one.

And I also made a mistake: I got over-exited about the painting, encased it in resin, and  then realised that for the bail I designed, I should wait with it until the end. I wanted the bail to go directly through the loop. And now I can't do this, because I can't solder anything that near to the part with resin. I designed another bail, and will see how it will turn out.

I also made three cuffs, and a ring, but this post is getting long, so that's it for 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

Torches, charcoal blocks, soldering boards, lockets in progress and a whole heaps of plans.

Right. I've been absent from the blog for over a month, I didn't show promised cuff pictures... bad blog owner! Bad! All because the first time in I don't know how many years I managed to catch a really, really nasty flu. Not only I felt downright miserable, and couldn't think straight for ridiculously long time, but it also knocked me off my feet (not in a good way), and getting myself back together took quite some time. 
After I finally got to the point where I was able to do anything other that laying in bed and feeling sorry for myself, I decided that I would like to try my hand at making lockets. So I designed one, cut the pieces, painted them, etched them, and when it came to soldering, I found out that my trusty lovely little blowtorch is... too small. And can't get the piece hot enough, so the solder was balling up, and generally not cooperating with me. The logical step was, of course, to get a bigger blowtorch. Which I did last weekend, though figuring out what torch I would like to buy took some time. The fact that the post will not deliver gas cans complicated matters a bit, because I had to buy something for which I can buy gas containers in brick and mortar store- it really is not that simple, as I live in a rather small town. At first I wanted gosystem torch, but my local hardware store doesn't carry their gas cans. It does, however, carry campingaz torches and gas cans, and this is what I got. I had two options, and actually bought the one I didn't intend to buy at first. But that one has piezo ignition, and I'm terribly jumpy around gas devices without automatic ignition system. And what a monster of a torch it is! Here, have a picture (with my little iroda for comparison):

By the way, my table is not that messy when I'm actually soldering something...

It runs, as you can see, on butane/propane mix, and reaches 1750 °C. And the flame is HUGE. But it soldered the joint I was battling with for more than a week at the first try, in few seconds. Good news is, you can buy replacement burners, and there is one particular model, called x1650, that gives you a fine flame, suited, as producer claims, for jewellery and model making. Bad news- it proved difficult to find, and virtually unavailable in the UK. I had to buy one from Germany, pay ridiculous price for postage, in effect paying for a burner about as much as for the torch itself. 

After I soldered the one joint, I decided that my magnesia block alone was no match for that monster, and I need to buy more adequate soldering surface. Apparently, a charcoal block can withstand up to 3000 °C, and I don't have anything that reaches temperatures anywhere near that mark, so I bought one. I also bought soldering board, to rest the charcoal block on, because the flame produced by that big torch is big itself, and produces quite a bit of heat, therefore I found the set up I was using with my butane torch not satisfying. I may be over-cautious here, but better safe than sorry. Oh, I also got a third hand while I was doing my shopping, because I really had no clue how to solder on the bail I designed for the locket, and in the place I designed for it, without something of that sort. I never used one before, but I hope it will work well for me. 

*I wrote the above yesterday, with intention of posting it today, and today morning my fine flame burner was delivered. I'm really happy with it: it can make a big flame, but also, contrary to the default burner the torch was supplied with, it can also make a really small one, which makes work a lot easier: the smallest flame of the default burner is still so big that I have problems seeing just what exactly is happening on the soldered piece. With that new burner, I can create wider range of flames, so it's way better suited to the type of work I use it for. It was totally worth all that rummaging through the internets and ordering from Germany.

Picture time!

There is not much outside difference between the two burners, but there is a big one performance-wise

My shiny, new, as yet unused charcoal block on top of my old, much used and abused, crumbly but loved, magnesia block:

 Charcoal block, soldering board, third hand, tweezers, beginning of a locket, and a really weird perspective:

And the beginning of a locket on my new charcoal block (I haven't used it yet, but I'm already awfully fond of it, can you tell?) :

Sorry, but you need to click on the picture to see it better. Why doesn't blogger have a decent gallery making options? Or is it just me?

 That's actually going to be the back of the finished piece. I'm planning red abalone cabochon on the front. Also, note the huge overspill of solder. That's all result of trying to solder this with my little torch. Once I applied the monster to it, it all decided that it can, in fact, flow, and there was what I can only describe as a solder flood. I just can't wait for all that sanding and cleaning it up....

I also have no idea if I'll manage to solder the hinge knuckles on properly... that remains to be seen. Honestly, that hinge terrifies me. I just hope I won't botch it entirely. On the side note, that wolf etching you see here is the first etching with nail polish as a resist I really like. I think I finally got the hang of using nail polish to achieve the effects I want.

I'm also thinking about writing a series of posts about recurring motifs in my designs - namely, wolves and ravens. I've written some "sketches", but I'm still not quite sure how to approach the subject. I know I'm going to start with wolves, but the piece I wrote on them needs a lot of polishing and finishing touches- I intend it to be something of an introduction to the species, but right now, I think, it's probably too technical, and possibly I'm writing about too many different aspects for just one post. I will have to do some hard thinking about it, as I wouldn't like to bore the living hell out of readers ;) What I know I want to do with that planned series, is to write about biological, ecological and cultural aspects of them. Thing is, for me by far the most interesting of these are ecology and biology, with cultural bringing up the rear, a loong, looong distance behind the former two, and I tend to get overexcited with technicalities and details. But the again, being wolf researcher and behaviourist is my unfulfilled childhood dream, so what would you expect ;)

Which brings me nicely to my other plans, though those are a bit nebulous at this time. My other big dream was to be palaeontologist/evolutionist. If something distracts me from designing and making jewellery, it's likely to be bio/palaeo/evo stuff. Synapsids, and their evolutionary line, are what I'm especially interested in. I'm writing about this, because I was thinking about somehow linking all my passions together in my jewellery designs. I'm thinking, vaguely right now, about adding prehistoric creatures to my designs. It would be in similar style to what I'm making now, probably, but the creature featured would be something that is, sadly, no longer with us. Like Inostrancevia. Or Homotherium. Or Diictodon. Or something ;) The idea gets me all excited,but I'm not sure how it will work out in the end.

 

Here, have a Homotherium latidens to illustrate that paragraph:

A word on the cuff: I don't like how the etching turned out, and decided it needs a bit of touch-up. With hand engraving. I have a set of hand gravers, I just need to learn how to use them properly, so that may take some time. I'm not ready to discard that cuff just yet. I hope it's salvageable. 

Soo... lockets, maybe palaeo stuff in designs, probably series of posts about wolves and ravens, hand engravings... that's what I'm working on right now, and I hope there will be no other flus to turn me into some kind of particularly immobile, sloppy rag wrung to within an inch of its life, and I will be actually able to do all of the above :)  

 

Till the next time (preferably not in a moth's time)

Kasia 

Commence operation cuff!

Sooo.... today I got my 0.9mm copper sheet order (and if I like making cuffs I will have to place another, bigger, one) and just had to start experimenting with making an etched cuff straightaway! And then... I couldn't find any suitable container. I etch pendants and earrings in old, ugly glass, but a cuff is obviously too big to fit in it. I have one plastic container that would be of a suitable size for etching that cuff, but right now it contains used up solution from previous etching, waiting for it to evaporate (as you can't pour it down the drain due to high copper content), or for me to finally get around to buying kitty litter (to soak it all up). I managed to find an appropriate receptacle, but all of that meant that I couldn't start until after dinner - the container in question held mushrooms ;) Anyway, after I prepared saline solution, it was time to work on the cuff itself... which led me to deeply regretting the fact that I don't have a guillotine cutter. Nor metal shears. Originally, I wanted to start working on two cuffs simultaneously, but after sawing out a blank for one, I definitely wasn't in the mood to do this all over again.

Cut out pre-cuff

Actually, I originally ordered that sheet so I could practice making rings... and then decided to make a cuff. To quote one of my favourite books: "attention span of a teabag". And I will probably leave myself a strip of that copper for those rings... if I won't forget to do that ;P Also, after the etching is done (and it's in process right now, because obviously I don't have anything better to do at 2 am than to etch a cuff... I do weird thing like that at weird times like this), I will have to anneal that strip a bit, and then smooth it out... I really couldn't be bothered to do this today (or yesterday, if you look at time and date)

Here it is after filing, smoothing out and rounding the edges. And drawing rough outlines of running wolves. Sorry for the bad picture. And yes, I did smooth and straighten it a bit, but there are still some bumps that wouldn't go away without softening the copper a bit.

I also tried nail polish as a resist for etching, and it works the best of all the media I tried up to date. I doesn't peel of, and is easy to remove after etching. But it's a bit more difficult to draw with than paint. Oh, the high tech that goes into making my etched pieces: nail polish, applied with a toothpick. And a mushroom container. 
Aaaaaand I just realised I put it into etching without adding my usual swirls... or scrolls... or spirals... ugh!!! Oh, well.

And here it is, etching

I really couldn't figure out how to attach the cuff to the wire at first. But then I thought about etching done the traditional way, and how, in just about every tutorial I saw, people suspend their projects with sticky tape, and decided to try something similar : I'm not sure, though, if the tape is fully in contact with the copper in the critical spot: that is, the one without nail polish on it. I did paint most of the back, but I wasn't sure if nail polish would, or wouldn't, stop the current, so I left small area uncovered. I sure do hope that there's no etching going on in that spot, but that will remain to be seen. It's been etching for 2h now, so I will stop the process, check how does it look, and think whether or not I would like to add scrolls ( they would be quite faint, if I etch them for just an hour). It should be finished tomorrow (or today, only much later ;) and I should have pictures of the finished piece by Friday ( that is, if I finish necklace and earrings I'm working on by then ). And now I'm going to bed. Finally ;)

So, have a great week, and till the next time :)

Kasia

Finger protection tape

I have a terrible, terrible tendency to hurt myself while filing something. I usually file down not only the piece I'm working on, but a bit of my fingers as well. So I started to look for something that would protect my hands during those kinds of activities ( because, clearly, paying more attention to what I am doing works only until I get bored to death by something so repetitive as filing, and my mind starts to wander, and... I end up with a scratch again. I remembered reading somewhere ( I think it was etsy metal blog? But I'm not sure, it was, if I'm not mistaken, about 2 years ago. Maybe 1.5. ) about alligator skin finger protection tape. I looked for it, found it, and bought it to try it out (kind of veni, vidi, vici sequence I did there ;P So... quaeri, invenivi, emi :D). 

It's so cool it got its own dramatic picture!

It works really well! But, in case you don't know what alligator skin tape is... It's a fabric, self-adhering tape, that comes actually from medical industry - it's used as bandage, for example. But it's great for jewellery makers, for several reasons:

- it has quite... loose? (that's not exactly the word I'm looking for, but you can see what I mean if you look at the picture) weave, that creates a great texture on the tape, meaning you have a really good grip on whatever you are working on.

- it's quite flexible, and thin, so you can wrap your fingertips with it, and still have a decent sense of touch

- although, as I mentioned, it's thin, it's also pretty durable, so even one layer can protect your fingers from those dreaded files. What leads us to...

- you don't need to wrap your fingers with many layers to get protection. I usually go for two or three, and it works very well for my purposes.

- It adheres only to itself, and to nothing else, so you're not left with any sticky residue after using it, and it's really easy to take off of your fingers.

- Also, a bit on the side note, I actually reused several wrappings - I managed to slip them off my fingers, and, as they were in pretty good condition, put them on few times more, and they worked just as well ( I hate wasting something that can still be used )

- I just started to use it, but, based on what I learned so far, it seems that the 27m (90ft) roll I bought will last for quite some time.

I used it when I was filing, sanding, polishing, sawing jump rings (I managed to cut myself on several occasions while doing it), and also when I was making some chains. It worked brilliantly during all of these activities. I was really happy to find that it helped during chain-making process - I always end up with sore, slightly swollen parts of my fingers (it's not really surprising, as using pliers in both hands for 3h+ is prone to somewhat irritate your hands). I experimentally wrapped the most vulnerable parts of my fingers in the tape, not really expecting anything - after all, its just thin, no padded, woven tape - and I was rather surprised when it worked. Two of my fingers were a bit sore after I finished the chain, but nowhere near to extent they would be without wrapping them. I actually considered the possibility that the tape will make it worse - as it wrapped my fingers in sections where quite a bit of bending and flexing occurs - so I was positively surprised. Next time, I intend to add a bit of some padding material between my fingers and the tape, and I'm quite sure now that it will eliminate any discomfort form using the pliers.

That's how it looks like on fingers... after a day's work. I don't know why it's this colour here. The colour is better on the first photo.

Also, I would like to add that, after I first wrapped my fingers in that tape, I had to give myself a few minutes to get used to it. It seemed a bit stiff at first, and whenever I was manipulating something I had an urge to slip the tape off my fingertips to better feel whatever I was holding, but after a short time I got used to how the tape felt on my fingers, and the wrapping itself became a bit softer. I definitely prefer it to protective gloves. 

To wrap it all up (no pun intended, I swear!), I think that it was a great buy, and it's a great product. I protects fingers from abrasions, cuts, scratches and scrapes, while still providing good grip and flexibility.

Hopefully, there will be no more sore fingers for me in the future :)

Unless I forget to wrap them with that tape. Knowing my memory, that may just happen.

 

Till the next time!

Kasia

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