Copper and Paracord Survival Bracelet

I finished this bracelet a few weeks ago and I really like the colors and how it came out.  Again, milled copper and I made the bracelet of dark brown paracord and used a curved black plastic clip in the back.  Just taking the basic survival cord bracelet a few steps further.  This has a nice look and of course, if you ever get in a bind, take the bracelet apart and you can use the cord for various things and the metal may also be used as a reflective item.

Cool Texture...

I really didn't set out to find all this, but when nature knocks... you just have to gather.  Wonder if only I could see the potential here?  These leaves will make some really nice imprints on my metal.  I see some really nice shapes and the smaller size leaves are great for the smaller pieces.  This will be coming to some metal in the near future.  I just ordered some fine silver and the ideas are clicking away.  I will be making some more bracelets and pendants soon.  Can't wait to get back in the studio!

Victorian Christmas Tree Pendant in Sterling

When I finished this, I took a look at it and could almost imagine a Victorian Christmas tree.  It just had a vintage, old world look to it.  The swirls at the top remind me of tinsel and the silver beads look like tiny ornaments.  The wire work around the pendant was pretty involved and I used two base pieces, ball chain and a much thinner gauge sterling wire to hold it all together.  I spent so many hours working on this pendant and it's a large one at close to 2 1/8" tall from the top of the bail to the bottom and 1 1/8" across.  I'm working on a couple of chain options for this one.  This one can be worn either way as there is a nice oak leaf imprint on the back.

This will be the last one in this series before the holidays.  I'm working on some other fun themes with the same type of metal work.  Lots of ideas and pieces are in the works!

What's Old, is New... Again

I think anyone who makes or creates things has their favorites.  I would have the categories of alright, good and absolutely fantastic.  It happens to me every time I make things.  For example, I will make ten beads and there are all the good ones, couple of clunkers here and there and then the ones that are fantastic.  Your little treasures.

I made this pendant a while ago and thought I had done an interesting darker patina.  At first I kind of liked it and then it just sat there.  It was one that kind of needed something, but I wasn't sure exactly what.  All the pieces go into the velvet zipper case, some find new homes and some wait a bit...

I really didn't want to do too much with this pendant, but I decided to get out the sand paper and steel wool and get to work.  I began the process of removing some of the patina here and there and even got a little generous with the rubbing of the surface to create a whole new look.  What I discovered is that there are some really nice, fine leaf textures that were milled in and the wire work around the edges looked better.

The bail was kind of an experiment and I had it come around like a horse shoe and that meant that it would have to be worn on a cord.  I wanted it that way and I still like how it looks worn on the black cord.  Guess what?  The pendant I really wasn't all that sure about has been hanging around my neck the past three days.  Sometimes you can work on something to the point, where you've ruined it and sometimes you let it sit.  It could sit a day or a month or two.  When you pick it up again, you look at it differently and have a fresh perspective.  I've learned it's alright to try to make what's old, better and in a way, new again.

New Hand Made Sterling Pine Tree Pendant

I completely hand made this pendant in sterling silver.  I milled the sheet, sawed out the tree, soldered the pieces together, engraved and hammered the tree, then completed the intricate wire work.  The wire work looks like a beautiful frame around the pine tree.  I also added links to the chain with sterling beads.  It adds a little interest to the necklace.

I used two pieces of wire and one thinner gauge to connect the silver chain around the outer edge.  It was detailed work and a true challenge to be working with such fine gauge silver and not have the metal bend or kink.  One small kink in the metal  can effect the threading and wrapping.

It takes me several days to work through all the steps up to adding patina and finishing.  I work on something like this, take a break and then work on something else.  It's good to take little breaks here and there because the next time you work on the piece, you are all fresh and ready to go!

Free Rider!!!

I love to take photos of my items outside.  I place the jewelry on sand, bricks, sandstone, gravel, plants... you name it.  I decided to place the earrings on some gravel and clicked away.  When I uploaded my photos, I saw this little free rider!  The tiny ant must have ran right across in a click.  Some of the ants got on me as well.  An occupational hazard of nature photography!

Some Finished Copper Pieces

Here are some photos of finished copper pieces!

Aluminum Casting Pour Up on the Roof

While we were busy working away on our relatively simple projects the other night, the guys next door were getting into much more serious business!  The door opened and one guy announced, "Five minutes to the aluminum pour..."  Well, that was our cue to grab our phones and cameras and take the outdoor walkway over to the rooftop patio behind the other metal studio.  Yep, they do real stuff over there like work on damascus, create multi-layer ingots called mokume gane and do some blacksmithing as well.  Think of it this way...  My projects are like Rhode Island and the stuff they do, well it's bigger than Texas!

They have their moulds set in sand with what looked like fireproof barriers in between each section.  The aluminum was put in a crucible and it was heated with a gas flame to a very high temp of about 1220 fahrenheit.  Yes, that's pretty hot...

Anyhow, the molten metal is in a crucible and it is carefully moved to a different type of metal holder and then it is poured into the various moulds.  The first pour didn't work out very well because they were using recycled aluminum from probably cans.  The second pour was done with a better quality of metal and it flowed very well.  Enjoy the photos and for many, it's not something you see every day or every night!

Copper and Some Other Things... On The Bench

Copper, steel wool, drill, etc...  What more can a person ask for!

In the works:  One large cuff bracelet, one cigar band ring and one bracelet section.  These items are made from the metal in the previous post.

Scraptastic!

This is more scrap copper I harvested at school.  The one larger piece will be made into a cuff bracelet.  I have some smaller pieces that will soon be cigar band rings and there is one other piece that will somehow make its way into a bracelet.  The milled leaves came out so nice on this one that I wanted to keep it close to this size.  I have some ideas about how this one will look with leather and some beads.  All of this metal needs to be shaped and formed.

The piece for the bracelet was really thick and small.  I milled and milled it in one direction to lengthen.  I had to anneal it once and then continued, milled more and annealed again.  For some reason today, the copper looked so great after taking it out of the acid bath.  It has the AB or aurora borealis look to it.  Very cool.  I almost want to keep it that way, but need to fully patina to get the fine lines of the leaves to show up.  Patinas are great right when they get on the metal.  If you start sanding or doing the slightest thing, they seem to change.  I do really like this look and may make some items in this process that show off more of the color than the fine detail.

Love... is a Colorful Four Letter Word

Back to the bookmarks...  First off, I continued to work on the patina last night.  I had layered some patina on there the day before, but it just looked dark and I wanted those great colors.  I call it the peacock look.  I lightly sanded the pieces, washed them, boiled some eggs and was getting ready to carefully put everything in the container when I decided to add something extra.  I crushed up three salt and vinegar chips to see if that would turn up the color to 11.  I had added actual vinegar and the chips before, but for some reason, the additional moisture in the container wasn't really working.  Wow, did the chips ever do it!  Thanks Lay's Stax!  You rock and well... stink, but did the trick.  Look at the photos and all the color range I got.  I will end up lightly removing some of that so the leaf imprints pop a bit more.  See the bird tracks in the second photo.  They like to hop on through the sand table out back and create some interesting art of their own.

This is kinda random, but I do some shows and there is one man who has bought a bracelet from me and has even ordered some special beads from me.  I'm still waiting for him to come back from the Carolinas to pick up those wrapped beads I've been saving for months.

Until then, there is his friend who almost always stops by at the shows to talk to me.  I found out both of the men are retired professors from a local university.  The one man comes over and talks to me, but I'm not sure he has ever bought anything from me and I'm working to change that!  He collects other things and at the last show, came over and showed me his recent purchase.

I believe he and his wife like to read.  Just the kind of people you can imagine reading a great book, thumbing through the pages and relaxing.  Yep, no Kindle readers here...  I'm talking about the real deal.   They seem to have a really interesting life.  He told me his wife is an artist and we talk about art.  She was recently on a plein air painting vacation on some island off the coast of Greece.  Nice...  I use to do stuff like that, but instead of heading over to the Mediterranean, I would pack it on out to the desert and paint the Superstition Mountains.  Um, yah... her trip sounded much more interesting!

I think the perfect gift for his wife would be one of my copper bookmarks and maybe at the next show, he'll pick one up!!!  I think she would LOVE one!   I'll keep you posted...

Origami on the Bench...

Alright, last night was another night at the studio of hammering, sawing, using the old torch and so on.  For some reason, I love to hammer away on those letter stamps for some added fun.  Poor gal next to me was trying to saw out some delicate curves through some sterling sheet and every so often "whack" came from my work space.  A noisy place it is!

What's interesting is that I decided to take some of my scrap metal and cut and shape the small pieces and use those for earrings.  I can send the rest of the tiny pieces off to the refinery.

I also have some copper pieces and you guessed it, those were rescued from the circular file.  Some people forge larger pieces and bowls and toss the scraps in a metal container.  What looks small to them is large for my needs.  I found the greatest piece of hammered and nearly destroyed copper with the most awesome patina on it.  I've been playing around with that and milled it and good grief, got some oil on it and after cleaning it off, some of the patina had changed.  Patina on copper can always change.  I have now cut that into strips and want to make a large cuff bracelet.

I've also milled and cut out some strips of copper for book marks.  They may be a bit too thick. but I didn't want them too thin and bendy...  Hey, who cares if you trash that old paperback, it's only gonna end up at Bookman's anyway.  I drilled a hole at the top and will slip some micro paracord through instead of ribbon.  The early patina on these pieces looked a bit dark.

We had a bit of a celebration last night and a few of us were lucky enough to be given these cute origami pieces!  There was a ring, a bear (look at the eyes) and the heart is mine.  So fun!

12 oz. Klean Kanteen Bottle Holder in 550 Coyote Paracord

This was a special order request from someone.  I used a quality US made 550 coyote paracord to make this bottle cover or koozie.  These bottles will keep a drink cold in ice for many hours.  These are vacuum insulated 18/8 stainless steele bottles.

The bottle cover is made out of one continuous piece of 550 paracord.  I have added an adjustable drawstring cord with black slider clip.  I also made a loop and knotted it, so you would be able to put a clip through it and hook it to your backpack or belt.  This is a really functional piece of survival gear as you will have well over 80 plus feet of cord in the event of an emergency.  Many like to carry extra cordage and this is a great way to do that.  It will never be tangled up in your pack!

I can make these in black and foliage as well.

Traditional Polish Embroidery

When I was a child, my grandmother had the greatest things like velvet slippers with all sorts of embroidery all over the tops with beautiful floss, sequins and beads.  There is something so beautiful to me, about the look of black velvet with all the shimmer on the surface.  The slippers she had worn were from Poland and the beauty of this look has stayed with me for all these years.

This type of embroidery was done on slippers and was a focal point of the traditional vests or corsets worn throughout the various regions of Poland.  I will post a couple of photos I had seen on-line.  The five and six petal floral motif is very popular as well as the images of sunflowers.

Another form of popular stitching or ornamentation would be cutwork.  This is where white fabric is sewn over with heavier white thread and the negative areas is then cut away with very sharp and pointed scissors.  This was used to decorate the edges or cuffs on shirts as well as the front sections.  Linens and pillow cases were decorated or made like this as well.  It's so beautiful and must have taken hours and hours to do this work.  The front of the blouse in the first photo has cutwork on the front.

A very traditional look would be a white embroidered long sleeve shirt, an embroidered velvet corset or vest and strands of coral beads have always been popular.  The strands of coral beads which many times were worn in three tiers, were cherished and handed down from generation to generation.  If a woman from what we called "The Old Country" had some of these, it was really something special.

The skirts were sometimes striped and longer in length.  There are over thirty different regions with a variety of traditional dress in Poland from what I've read.  Each region would use various and different fabrics and decorations for the clothing of men as well as women.  I believe the look of the garments in these photos would have been from the south and they are such beautiful works of art.

  

A Beautiful Break...

Anyone who lives in or around the Sonoran Desert knows it's rugged, hot and at times, unforgiving.  There are months of intense, high temperatures and we wait for it to break.  Toward the end of the summer is the monsoon season and then if you're lucky, there will be occasional rain showers.

The other morning it was cloudy, dark and sprinkles were in the air.  Out here, this is the stuff dreams are made of and I decided it was time to take a beautiful break.  It's true that if you don't venture out into nature at times like this, it's a missed opportunity.  I went on a little hike and enjoyed feeling cooler, the sun was hidden behind layers of clouds and the rain and moisture made the desert scents come alive.  I wished I could have bottled up the scent of the creosote leaves and brought it home with me.

Instead, I took some photos to enjoy.  You can look closely and see the rain drops all over the agave which makes it look like cool shark skin.  I also noticed what looks like some sort of images burned onto the stems of the plant that look like silhouettes from the upper stems.  It's possible that as the sun appears to change position during the day, it blazes in shadow marks of the jagged edges from one to another.  A simple example of the rugged beauty in this desert southwest!

1/2 Ounce Silver Ingot and Paracord Bracelet

Here is one of my finished .999 fine silver ingots I milled with oak leaves.  I used the silver piece and black 550 paracord to make this bracelet.  It was quite a process to figure out the levels of milling and getting the impressions on the silver.  I really like the look of the metal after adding the patina and then gently removing some of it.

1/4 Ounce .999 Fine Silver Ingot Bracelet with Black Micro-Paracord

I've been working on some bracelets where I use an actual .999 fine silver ingot as the center piece.  I have milled the ingots, impressed oak and other leaves on them, drilled, hammer formed, added patina and sanded.  If you look closely at the finished piece, you can still see the markings from the mint which is what I wanted.  I made a black micro paracord bracelet with this piece.

I used hard boiled egg to do the first layer of patina and it was a cool peacock color.  You can see where I sanded some of it off in one of the photos.  I really wanted the recessed areas to look black, so I then used liver of sulfer.

Here are some photos of the finished bracelet and the process along the way.  Thanks for looking!

Bikini Top in 550 Paracord

I had the idea to make one of these for a long time...  It was on the old mental list of things to do and one day, not too long ago, I made a paracord bikini top.  I had never seen one before and I thought it would be such a conversation piece at some shows.  We had it out, looked at it, passed it around and giggled!

I did not use a pattern for this, but worked through it myself.  I can tell you that there is over 115' of cord in the project.  I made the one triangle and then the other.  There is one piece of cord woven through the bottom to tie it and I anchored long pieces folded in half for the top straps.  Those were the only two pieces that I removed the inner strands from.  This top is heavy due to the amount of cord and it's also thick.  Seriously armour without the scale male!

So, before someone else rolls one of these babies out... I will claim it as my wild creation!  That is until someone else figures out how to make one!  Good luck out there and hope you have a LOT of cord!!!

Wire Wrapped Herkimer Diamond and Tiger Eye Ring Pendants

I say ring pendants because these can be worn as rings or hung from a cord and worn like a necklace.  The stones are rather large and I found the ring design is a great way to show them off a couple of different ways.

Herkimer diamonds are actual quartz crystals mined near Herkimer, New York.  In many specimens you will notice a point at each end which is also referred to as double terminated.  Herkimer diamonds are found clear, cloudy, smokey and may have impurities that look like dark spots or inclusions.  I have some stones where you can see crystal formations and little chips, rainbow prisms inside and sometimes crystals right on top of another.  I can't speak for everyone, but I'm a bit of a rock and mineral hound and love interesting things nature produces.  

The other ring pendants were made with some large tiger eye beads I had.  I have always loved the colors of tiger eye.  It's nice to know you can make rings and not have to use a blow torch and create a bezel and because the stones are drilled, you can do so many things with them.  Fun!

After the Storm...

Yes, I can see the beauty after the storm!

Kyanite, Pearl and Labradorite Pendant In Sterling

I made this sample pendant last night in sterling silver with sterling beads, various stones and one silver fresh water pearl.  I completely hand made this pendant of sterling silver wire and if you look closely, you will see where I added some ball chain as well.

I call this a sample because this is the first one I've made with a stone in the middle vs. a silver pendant.

I used kyanite which is a mineral and it's a bit softer just like the briolette at the center.  When I mention stone softness, I'm referring to the Mohs Scale which is a mineral hardness rating system. Kyanite rates about 5.5 from what I've read and makes this stone better used in pendants or earrings.