COPPER WASHERS

This is a post about copper washers, but .... first things first! I almost didn't notice this small cactus blooming. We can only water twice a week now in Southern California and I was so lucky to get a shot of this beautiful bloom on one of the watering days. Maybe a prickly pear cactus? It was gone the next morning.

Okay, off to the washers. My daughter brought this box of washers from Harbor Freight for me on Mother's Day, and it's taken me this long to open the box and use them with the rolling mill.

The box has several sizes. A friend bought copper washers at a local hardware store and paid over a dollar each!

These may not be the best quality, but there are 80 copper washers for about $4.00!!! Someone on one of my Facebook groups said they don't enamel well, but I haven't tried that yet. But I like what I have made so far.

I made four sets of different sizes and ran them through the rolling mill several times, tightening the rollers each time, until I got the thickness I wanted.

Then I annealed them to soften the metal and ran them through the rolling mill again with a brass texture plate.

Next they were domed and now I'll have to decide how to use them. Liver of sulphur or other patina? Ear wires ... attachments .... maybe small turquoise pieces or white pearls dangling in the center? Or below the ear wires? I'll be sure to post pictures later ...

TWISTED WIRE BANGLES

One of my friends and I get together often and work on new projects. Yesterday's project is sure to inspire many of you ... Twisted Wire Bangles. Here is a YouTube video by Soham Harrison showing the procedure very clearly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1w-uFLzR5c&app=desktop

I tried this a few days ago with 12 gauge wire, but yesterday we tried a thicker 8 gauge. And later in the day we drove to Lowe's and got another thickness from their electrical section.

Here are two 8 inch pieces cut from the 6 gauge wire we bought yesterday. First, the pieces were annealed, then marked ... one where I'll twist only in the middle, and the other where I'll twist three times.

The wire is in the rolling mill with the middle mark centered between the rollers. You simply rock the handle back and forth, tighten, rock back and forth, tighten, and so on. You can check your progress by pulling out the wire.

The wire was rolled until the marked part was half the thicken, shown in this photo. Of course, if you do not have a rolling mill, anneal the wire and get out your hammers!

Then the wire was annealed only in the rolled part. One end was secured in the vise, the other end held with locking pliers. All you have to do then is twist in one direction until you like the result. In case of wire you rolled in three places, if the end being held in the vise is not twisting the same as the end closest to you, reverse the ends in the vise and pliers and twist it more. Be careful .... as you can over-twist!!

A blurry photo, but you can see the twist.

Here is the wire with one twist and the other with three. They started out as 8 inch pieces. See how they have grown? Interesting!

Here are all my experiments so far. From the right, the first two wires are the 6 gauge, then the 8 gauge, and the thinnest 12 gauge. The thinnest wire isn't thick enough for bangles, but wouldn't it be perfect for hoop earrings? I'll work on these and show my finished projects in a future post. So are you inspired to try this?!! I'd love to hear from you!