Beading Help Web Blog

Monday, July 28, 2008

An Axe (or three) to grind...

So if you've been keeping up with my Westfair stories (what do you mean you have your own life and don't spend hours following mine?) you know I had an unusual request from a couple of the entertainers.

Michelle and Alissa are lumberjacks. Lumber JILLS actually. Chicks with Axes. I watched them working with chainsaws and axes and was absolutely amazed at their talent, power, and ability to not cut off body parts. In addition to their talent with those blades, they are just nice people. If you ever get a chance to check out Timber Tina's Lumberjills, please do!

On Thursday, they spotted my copper and sterling "scrap" pendants and asked if I could make something with an axe on it. Why not, I thought...I'm up to a challenge!

I worked on a couple of prototypes and didn't really get what I wanted, so I changed my approach and started hammering 14g wire into "blades" to wrap around a "handle" (also in 14g). Here are the practice pieces in copper.

The girls approved of the axe shape on the far right, and I did up a couple in sterling, again using 14g wire.

Next up, I roughed up some copper plates to solder the axes to. In the meantime, I started looking at the blades on those axes and thinking about soldering them, and getting a little nervous. Better have an extra on hand, just in case I turned it into a blob of melted silver, eh? Plus, I have to admit, I had a lot of fun making those little axes.

So I created a little double bladed "executioner" style axe. Again, just 14g wire, hammered then filed. I used some 26g wire to attach the blade to the handle.

I took them home that night, said a little prayer to the Gods of Metal, and just touched the torch to them. Miracle of all miracles, no melting...not a single one. All three attached to their respective pendants with nary a speck of stray solder, even. Tossed them in the tumbler, and took them out in the morning. Dan examined them and was amazed "Those aren't going anywhere, are they!?"

I took the pendants to the fair, and the girls LOVED them. They ended up picking out the two that look alike, so I have an extra double bladed axe, but I don't care. I had so much fun making these, I just giggled to think about them!!

Oh wait. I did take a couple of picture just to show how tiny those axes were....

All I can say is "thank God they didn't want me to make chainsaws...."

LOL, thanks for reading my little story...it was definitely the highlight of my fair week!!!!!

Labels: axes, copper, pendant, sterling silver, westfair

Monday, July 14, 2008

Busy Weekend Stamping and more

I'm working on some items that I think will be good for the county fair next week, simple things that are relatively inexpensive. I thought I'd share some ideas - I'll update with some photos soon.

Silver-plated chokers from FireMountainGems are a hard wire that you can add a pendant to for a quick necklace. I purchased two different styles, one has a ball that you can unscrew to slide on a pendant, the other has a thin chain to clip a clasp to, and it slides through a pendant bail. The only problem I've got with these is that the bail opening needs to be fairly large to accomodate the size of the wire, and I want to rethink that component before making too many more. Might do some dabbling in making some soldered bails instead of simple wrapped loop dangle.

I also made a bunch of discs from some of the re-purposed copper tiling I got from Mom & Dad and stamped them with metal stamps from Beaducation...I'll use some of them for simple charms that can be personalized (using letter stamps from Contenti) and some for a couple of charm bracelets.

The discs are more labour intensive than you'd think - clean the copper (it's got adhesive on the back, and some kind of coating on the front), cut out the discs, drill a hole to hang from, stamp, tumble, file, hammer, stamp...whew, I'm tired just thinking about it!

I'd gotten a new "Paw" stamp from Lisa Niven-Kelly (Beaducation) and made Rex a cute little name tag that he's test driving. I think he likes the way it jingles against his other tags, LOL.

Finally, I made 6 copper bracelets using Beaducation's bracelet blanks. Again, more work than you'd think just looking at them! I came up with 6 different phrases to stamp on the bracelets, figured out how to best lay out the text and stamped it. Filled in some design stamps, oxidized, drilled holes to attach clasps, made the clasps, formed the bracelets using a bracelet mandrel, and attached the clasp using jump rings.

Of course, this is only the start of the busy season. Thank goodness I have all of August to recover before the big shows start up!!!

Labels: beaducation, bracelet, charms, chokers, copper, fair, Fire Mountain Gems, inexpensive ideas, lisa niven-kelly, Rex, stamping

Monday, May 19, 2008

Pierced and Riveted

Ever want to challenge yourself? Commit to making something and then try doing it. Oh wait, forgot to add...make sure you have to use techniques you've never tried before. And give yourself an agressive deadline while you're at it.

Last Thursday, I recieved a call from the Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging (ENOA) asking if I would donate an item for a silent auction. The auction is held during the annual Share the Table fundraising event for Meals on Wheels...an organization I actively support by delivering meals to older and disabled folks. (I love Meals on Wheels deliveries...my friend Linda and I have had the same route for about 4 years, and we've gotten to know many of the clients over that time. It's very rewarding!!!)

I started thinking about what I had on hand to donate, and came up with the brilliant idea of making a pendant using the ENOA logo. My idea was to fashion the logo out of silver wire, solder it to a copper backing and be done with it...easy peasy! ENOA wanted the donation to be dropped off by Monday - no problem!!

Not so much. The logo wasn't as easy to fashion out of wire as I'd imagined. Back to the drawing board...all I had to do was make a copper and silver pendant with the ENOA logo, as I'd cleverly described.

I'd never pierced and sawed out any kind of design, nor had I riveted before, but I decided those were the best methods of making my pendant. Off to do some research....

I shrunk down a picture of the ENOA logo, and using techniques from Step By Step Jewelry Workshop, I pierced and sawed it out of a piece of 24g copper sheet. I then cut a piece of sterling silver sheet (28g) that would fit across the back of the copper, stamped my business name and the year on the back, and riveted the two pieces together. My good friend Nancy's tutorial on riveting was, well, riveting and served as my guide for learning that technique.

After completing the riveting and some additional filing, I soldered a bail on the back...I've done plenty of soldering, but nothing quite like that...another new technique learned!

I was very pleased with the end result - there are a couple of boo-boos on the piece, but hopefully they are apparent only to my eye. ;-) I'm dropping it off at the ENOA office this afternoon, and I hope they like it as well.

Piercing and riveting was fun...I think I'll try it again, but not with the pressure of a deadline!

Labels: charity, copper, ENOA, Meals on Wheels, new techniques, pendant, pierced, rivet, saw, solder

Thursday, February 28, 2008

February's Ornament Thursday Project - Part 2

Lucky Irish Proverb Window Hanging

February's Ornament Thursday theme was "Luck". My contribution? A pretty ornament that you can hang on a window, a kitchen cabinet or anywhere else that you'd like a little inspiration from a meaningful (or fun!) phrase. I had so much fun making these as Christmas tree ornaments last year that I wanted to have some to hang around the house all year long!

My Luck of the Irish window hanging uses an Irish Proverb to inspire: "A Light Heart Lives Long" along with a pretty green glass heart bead that looks light when the sun shines through it.

So grab a copper disc, your stamping materials and a hammer...and bring some luck in through your window with this project!

For this window hanging, I first found an Irish Proverb that wasn't too long and would fit on a 2" disc. I planned out how I was going to place my proverb - sometimes lettering will be stamped more artistically, but because I wanted the prose to flow, I stuck to a linear, centered design.

When I stamp something, I first write out what I'm going to stamp on a piece of paper. This helps me to center it (or not!) and if nothing else, it helps me spell correctly!!! You can see my scrap in the first photo (upper right corner). I knew from writing it out that I wanted the word "HEART" in the center of the disc, and the letter "A" would be the center of that word. So my "A" went in the approximate center of the disc. (You can measure out and make it exactly in the center, but I decided not to.) After the "A", I stamped the rest of the word "HEART", and then moved down to the next word in the phrase. As you can see in the first photo, I again started with the middle letter in the word (LIVES) to get it lined up the way I wanted it.

Another hint when you are stamping letters is to lay out the stamps for the word you are stamping in order. Make sure you look at the stamp very carefully before actually stamping to ensure you don't have your letters backwards or upside down!!

After all my letters were stamped, I added some design stampings for interest. You can also see that around the bottom border of the disc, I stamped "Irish Proverb" using tiny letter stamps. When using metal stamps, be sure you have absolutely no padding between your hammer and the lowest surface you are supporting your project on. I use a steel bench block on my kitchen counter which rests on a tiled floor. Believe it or not, using the same steel on a padded card table in a room with carpet was disastrous - my letter stamps looked good, but the design stamps barely imprinted on the metal. So have plenty of OOMPH beneath your block!!

A hole was punched in the top for hanging, and the disc was domed slightly, using a doming block. I also used a small file to even up the edges.

Next step (photo 3) was to highlight the stampings. Lisa Niven-Kelly (beaducation.com) suggests using a Sharpie marker, filling in all of the lettering and designs. I let the marker dry, then used a polishing square (also available from Beaducation.com) . I've tried using Sunshine and other brand polishing cloths for this, but they just don't work as well. Lisa's squares can be used for quite a few projects before disposing of them, and the small size (about 1" x 1") is really easy to use.

After polishing, I added a bail (using 16g wire threaded through the hole on the top) and a hook (use the instructions for an S hook clasp, but instead of a second hook, make an open swirl). Since I decided to add the green heart on the bottom, I punched another small hole, and added the bead dangle.

Make the dangle by threading the bead on wire, create a small swirl at the bottom of the bead and bend it up toward the bead. At the top of the bead, make a wrapped loop, and then hang the dangle from the disc using another wire bail or a jump ring.

As an option, pop the entire piece in a tumbler for 30 minutes to give a brilliant shine to the metal and further harden it. Hang in the window using a clear ornament hook.

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The other talented Ornament Thursday gals who are sharing projects today are:
Art Bead Scene
Lucky ABS! We're part 2 of Lucky Knots!
Cindy Gimbrone aka Lampwork Diva
Luck is knotted up in Part 1 of this tutorial
Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie is inspired by a lucky Leprechaun to make a fairy tale, treasure filled necklace
Jennifer Heynen of Jangles
Lucky Charms Bracelet...The name says it all. This bracelet has everything to bring you good luck.
Joolz by Lisa
As Luck Would Have It...Lucky Earrings
Katie's Beading Blog
Make your own luck with these fun, swingy earrings!
Labyrinth O' Luck
Hali has created a finger labyrinth journal designed after a 4-leaf clover.
Linda Augsburg at Make It Mine magazine
Lucky doesn't begin to describe the adventure I had making this T-shirt...
Lucky
Lucky to be... based on a coin holder a friend made for me...
Melissa J. Lee - Strands of Beads
Good fortune is yours with this cookie-inspired necklace.
Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
You'll "make Jean's day " if you check out her lucky Pendant with a Clint Eastwood eighties twist Swelldesigner
Swelldesigner gets lucky this month with some super colorful, sparkly painted bangles
The Impatient Blogger Luck starts with a wish...Margot shares a project she created for Simply Beads last August.

GREAT projects...be sure you check back for the next Ornament Thursday, March 27!

Labels: copper, free instructions, Ornament Thursday, stamping

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

February's Ornament Thursday Project...

...will be posted right here tomorrow!

The theme this month is "Luck" and I counted myself lucky in getting my project completed early so I didn't have to rush at the end. ;-)

So grab some 24g copper sheet, metal stamping supplies, wire, beads and pliers, and be on stand by for the step-by-step instructions. Plus, I'll have links to all the other talented Ornament Thursday gals' blog entries...the sneak peeks I've seen today have been fantabulous!!!

Labels: copper, free instructions, Ornament Thursday, pliers, stamping, wire working

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Hearts and romance!

Been working busily on a few thing this week...

My Broken Heart (left) is a really unique design. I made this for a Valentine's Day Challenge on the Jewelry Artists forum, and really love the simplicity of the design. The pendant is a clasp, or the clasp is a pendant...however you want to look at it. Getting outside the box can be fun sometimes! I put the copper version up for sale on my Etsy shop...I'm thinking about making a sterling silver version as well.

Beginning this month, I'll be working on publishing some "30-Minute Projects", featuring easy to find components in projects that you can complete in (guess.....) 30 minutes or less. Great for beginners, or for quick last minute gifts. First up - Fun and Fancy Ribbon Bookmark, featuring Swarovski crystals. Mine's pink...I guess all the romance around Valentine's Day is showing up in my jewelry creations!

And finally, finally, finally....watch this space for an exciting and important announcement! Maybe today, probably tomorrow...Beading Help Web's going to help you in more ways than you can imagine!!!

Labels: 30-minute projects, beginning jewelry making, copper, necklace, romance, Valentine's Day