NEW EARRINGS!

It's been a long, long, long time since my last post. No excuses, just a creative slump. I'm sure it happens to everyone. Anyway, since our Southern California weather has been SOOO HOT lately, I've been staying inside and keeping cool. And I've made several pairs of earrings. Here are the three I had time to photograph today and add to my Etsy shop. I love the textures that were achieved using the rolling mill and the richness of the patina. The ear wires are antique copper niobium, which is an alloy that is non-allergic. More to show you in a day or two. I forgot how long it took to photograph, edit and post to Etsy!

NEW EARRINGS WITH ROLLING MILL TEXTURES

I just finished a few pairs of copper earrings that were textured using the rolling mill. The process is so much fun. It was back in May that I posted photos of rolled pieces using my new brass texture plates ... and I had ordered a package of skeleton leaves from an Etsy supplier. Here is the pair of earrings using the skeleton leaf texture. Can you picture them using sterling silver? WOW. I'm going to treat myself and order some sterling silver sheet, as apparently the price is its lowest in five years.

Here are the others rolled with a floral pattern.

A NEW DIE FOR THE HYDRAULIC PRESS

I've always liked this curved shape. It was like putting a puzzle together, dividing a small piece of paper into four parts, folding it and trying to duplicate each part. Oh well, it's not perfect, but I like it! I copied it to the protective paper on the acrylic plexiglass, drilled a hole for my saw blade and cut out the shape.

I annealed several pieces and used my favorite leaf texture plate.

HEY, WHAT IS THAT PIECE IN THE RIGHT CORNER? It's a skeleton leaf run through the rolling mill on a piece of copper! Isn't it beautiful? I just got a packet of 100 yesterday ... Think of all the possibilities!!

Here is the new die with all the curves. I love it!

I made a few more pieces using the leaf texture on the other dies I had made.

These were the smaller oval forms.

The long skinny ovals. I really like these!

And, again, the new die shape and another heart.

Next on my list is to make a smaller heart shape die. AND since I have only two 3" plexiglass pieces left that came with my form box kit, I'll have Google how to cut my 10" x 10" sheets into pieces.

AND ... now that I have all these pressed pieces, it's time to start creating pendants.

My Latest Project -- COPPER CUFFS

I first saw these copper cuffs in Art Jewelry magazine (September 2014), and only yesterday did I gather all my supplies and attempt to make a few. The article was written by Eva Sherman, a very well-known jewelry artist. She had taken a class taught by Charles Lewton-Brain, author of the wonderful book, Foldforming. She asked him -- if she created a brand new foldforming technique, could it be named after her. Yes, he said. Hence, the Sherman Fold.

The Sherman Fold is created using round nose pliers, twisting the edge of your metal piece until you like it. Twisting, annealing, twisting, annealing, twisting ......

I started with a piece of 30 gauge copper, 2" wide x 8" long, and twisted the metal around the entire piece.

You can see in the photo I twisted with my pliers pointing straight. After you anneal the metal, you twist with your pliers pointing to the right and go around the whole piece. Anneal. Then you twist with the pliers going to the left. Anneal. Repeat these three steps. You need to lightly hammer the metal with a rawhide mallet after each of these steps to flatten it so it's manageable.

Remember ... You are having fun. Here's how your piece looks. What??!!!

Eventually, you will put your piece in the pickle pot, brush and rinse it, and it becomes something really nice.

In the meantime, you prepare your base piece, which is 20 gauge copper, 1-1/2" wide and 6" long. Of course, the length depends on the size of your wrist. You cut your 30 gauge piece 1-1/4" wide by 6" long (the same length as the 20 gauge).

You can see by this photo that I have cut the two pieces ... and have the leftovers to make other projects! I stamped the two hearts to appear in the inside of the cuff.

Next, trim the sharp corners and round them with a file or sandpaper. Now it's time to shape the two pieces. You need to work harden the 20 gauge piece on a bracelet mandrel(or baseball bat or whatever you have). Then lightly shape the 30 gauge piece and center it on the base piece. You can use painters' tape to hold it in place. The two pieces get riveted together, so you need to drill or punch two holes on each end, keeping 1/8" from the edge. I used copper nail head rivets that I inserted from the inside of the cuff, trimmed to a credit card length and then secured the rivet on the top side of the cuff.

Here's the Sherman Fold cuff put together. It will get a patina treatment with liver of sulfur later. I'll be sure to post a photo of the finished piece.

With the leftover piece that was cut off, I made a narrower 1" wide cuff.

Here's the third cuff I made using the Sizzix BIGkick machine and an embossing folder. I love it too!