Sunday, June 14, 2015

Work in progress

As you know by now, I am in love with copper, glass, and stones (precious or semi- or simply stones). I found myself working more and more just in these 3 mediums, and while I don't spend too much time designing or making a lot these days, I try to do something every week. Of course, that means not much gets finished; no matter how much I try to hammer, solder, tumble, and put the finishes touches in less than 2 hours, it never works.

Thus, some work in progress ~ and hopefully you'll see the finished items some time this century as well!

Copper pendant ~ washers, metal working, ooak jewelry :: All Pretty Things

Besides the 4 elements above, one thing I truly love in life is circles. Maybe because they are such a perfect shape, no angles, no start, no finish, Extremely versatile shape. The pendant above gave me some troubles (the washers did not want to stay soldered to each other), but I still love it. I am not sure if it's finished or not, I think I will add some heat patina and evaluate the status again. I love the rough look on some of the washers and I think once it has patina and a neckpiece it'll be done. Right now, at least, I don't feel like adding anything else (but I am known to change my mind a lot).

Copper ring ~ metal working, ooak jewelry :: All Pretty Things

Aah - this piece... THE ring. I can't start telling you how much I love it and for how long I dreamed about making it. And guess what, apparently I need to dream about something long enough, 'cause this time the soldering went really, really quickly and well. I have tried this new copper paste solder (from Tucson ;) ) and I am purely in love!

Copper ring ~ metal working, ooak jewelry :: All Pretty ThingsCopper ring ~ metal working, ooak jewelry :: All Pretty Things

The ring is not fully finished, it had been in the tumbler for a while, but I think I'll use the dremel on it first, heat patina as well, then give it one more tumble.

Copper ring ~ metal working, ooak jewelry :: All Pretty Things

When I tumbled the 2 pieces above I found this ring waiting patiently, God knows for how long... rustic and very simple. I like it :)

Copper links: wire, Thompson enamel, metal working, ooak jewelry :: All Pretty Things

Now onto the perfect combination of the 2 'loves' (metal and glass): enameled copper. Last week I made the links and today I enameled them. I wasn't very sure why the colour won't show better... until I arrived home and discovered my mistake: for some unknown reasons I thought 1000s are the transparent codes and I happily used 2000s, which I was sure are the opaques. You guessed it, it's the other way around.

Oh, well - I still like the end result, a lot. But I think I'll give it a try next week with the opaques :)

OOAK Pendant: copper wire, Thompson enamel, metal working, ooak jewelry, crazy lace agate :: All Pretty ThingsOOAK Pendant: copper wire, Thompson enamel, metal working, ooak jewelry, crazy lace agate :: All Pretty Things

Crazy Lace agate in a cute trapezoidal shape.

OOAK Pendant: copper wire, Thompson enamel, metal working, ooak jewelry, crazy lace agate :: All Pretty Things

Crazy lace agate (again)

OOAK Pendant: copper wire, Thompson enamel, metal working, ooak jewelry, crazy lace agate :: All Pretty ThingsOOAK Pendant: copper wire, Thompson enamel, metal working, ooak jewelry, crazy lace agate :: All Pretty Things

And, of course, one more crazy lace agate (someone went to the store last week and found herself loose in the gemstone area)

OOAK Pendant: copper wire, Thompson enamel, metal working, ooak jewelry, rhyolite :: All Pretty Things

This one - I cannot capture the frame well in the picture. If you wonder, yes, I wanted the 'rough', ragged look of the half-fired enamel. Why? because I love the feel and look of it. The stone is a Rhyolite. The pendant is quite big now - all stones are about 2 in in height, so you can imagine... (mental note: add a ruler or quarter to the pictures, for easy visual reference).

That was my WIP report for the week... now that I figured out the transparent / opaque mystery, I itch to get back and re-do the links / frames. Patience is the name of the game, I guess.

Thank you for stopping by!

3 comments:

  1. Beautiful work Alicia, I am just starting to do some work with copper and you are an inspiration.

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  2. Awesome! Beautiful pieces Alicia.
    Therese

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  3. Looks like you're back in the studio! beautiful work Alicia

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