Spinner

Interesting title?  Well, it's because I love jewelry that has parts that move!  Spinner rings, one of which I don't have but want, spinner pendants made with metal or bead weaving, charm bracelets or bangles made like spinner rings.  I love them all.  I'm also a big fan of Mary Hettsmansperger.  I have all of her books and I love all the projects in them.  One of her projects is a spinner pendant.  I've wanted to make one, but like many of the things I want to make or do it gets buried among other things.  She classifies it as a beginner project and it really is easy to do.  With lots of variations, I might add!  Great for future projects.

A few weeks ago I decided that I was just going to make one.  I had scraps of metal on my table and so I cut some up and textured it and went to work.  Here is what I ended up with.

 

 

I cut a disk out of silver sheet and I rounded the ends of a rectangle of brass.  I textured both of them with a hammer.  The copper I cut and shaped and then decided to try embossing it.  I love embossing paper, and recently Vintaj has put embossing folders and a machine on the market.  If you have a die cut machine you don't need the one Vintaj sells, any of them will work.  I had gotten one of their embossing folders and so I decided this was the time to use it.  Well, I love the way it turned out.  I lightly oxidized all the metal but I love the way the embossed piece looks.  I followed Mary's directions for putting the pendant together and I love the results.  Here you can see the embossed copper better.

 

 



 

 

These pendants are really fun to make.  Anything goes so you can use any scraps on your work table.  Putting the spacer beads between the sheet metal pieces allows them to move and spin.  I think it's so much fun!  It's become one of my favorite necklaces!!

 

 

Thank you for stopping by today.  I hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend!

 

 

 





Cold Connections

Just a short post this morning to show you a new pendant I made using cold connections to attach a cab to a piece of copper sheet metal. 

I'm not very good at soldering yet.  I'm making working on soldering a goal for after the New Year.  But, for now I'm not very good at it.  I also love cold connections!  I love to find ways of attaching bits without a torch.  I had this amazonite cab and decided to try attaching it with wire to a backing.  This is the result.    I added some of my favorite random wire weaving to one side and riveted the other side to another piece of sheet metal.  I like how it turned out..  It's asymetrical, which I can never resist, and I love way the colors of the amazonite worked with the copper.

Here's another picture.

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great Sunday and remember our Veterans today.  

 

On to Saturday!

Saturday at Create, the retreat in New Jersey for those who haven't read the previous post, was exciting.  The people at this gathering were so eager to share what they were doing and know what others were doing.  It was a great vibe.  People asking how classes were and what was learned.  Everyone was eager to begin another day of learning new things.   For me it meant another metals class with a teacher who was new to me.  Jean Van Brederode is a jewelry artist, enamelist and teacher from Pennsylvania.  Her work is very artful and exciting!  The class I took was called Bits and Baubles. The end product was a mixed media necklace constructed of metal components that were textured and layered and ultimately combined into a necklace!  I just loved it!!  I learned a lot about riveting, which I had done the previous day, but this time we learned about, and used, different kinds of cold connections.  I actually saw a metal bead being enameled with a torch, something I've been wanting to try.  We had access to so much material that Jean brought for us to use, things like colored anodized aluminium pieces, metal stampings, textured and patinaed metals, and lots of found objects.  It was a very freeing class, where your personality came through in what you were making.  Here is what I ended up with.

We cut pieces of metal in the shapes we wanted to use.  I love triangles so I cut my favorite piece, the textured and vertigris center, into a triangle and then got the idea to make a wavy edge on one side.  It gave it such movement that I was really pleased with it. I chose a steampunk embossed metal piece and a plain piece of copper sheet that I used a great dimpling tool on for the other pieces.  I had to use some of the anodized aluminium because of the colors.  I know I'll be working with that material again.  I chose several embellishments from Jean's supply and started layering.  This class had every technique I like to use in all my work, layering, color, texture!  No wonder I loved it!!!  I ended up with a very wearable, very me necklace that I just love. 

Since I can be something of an overachiever, I've come to like making my own chains or necklace for my jewelry.  Jean taught us a new, to me, coiled neckwire and a new, to me, clasp.  They look like this.



This clasp is really cool, I think.









You can see some of the neckwire here.



The neckwire is very light weight but fits the vibe of the components and the clasp is easy and fun to make.  Two more options for future projects!

I left the class really engerized and ready to move on with the scrapbox concept.  The ring from the class on Friday had been designed from leftovers on the worktable and this class carried that theme further.  You really begin to look at leftovers and other scraps differently!  It's very exciting!

Well, Carrie and I left New Jersey, my home state by the way, with our minds teeming with creative ideas!  Different mediums, but so eager to keep working! 

I hope you've enjoyed seeing the results of our excursion.  I'm pleased you've stopped by.