Friday, June 26, 2015

CC7A, June edition - hosted by Sally Russick

Welcome to a new installment of our CC7A Odyssey. Speaking of Odyssey, William had a new colleague this year, fresh from Greece. A lovely young man, who's favourite author is... Homer! Can you imagine being 12 yo and having read Homer? I think I'll have William read some serious classics this summer.

But I digress :) This month is hosted by Sally and she chose soft summer hues as her palette:

At first, I thought it will be a huge challenge for me, as I am never soft. Colours or otherwise, I am a very energetic person, moving from A to B with the speed of light (or not moving at all, extremes is my middle name :) ) and that shows in my designs too. They are always full of colour, full of energy and rarely soft. Make than never.

You know how recently I tried (for the 2nd time) enamels. My first attempt this time has not be overly successful: I was using transparent flux over copper, and transparent enamels. Nice effect, but not the bold colours I have bee expected. I figured out it was transparents, when I was thinking I am using opaques. So I tried again, white base and opaques on top. Bolder, but still not what I wanted. Then it dawned on me and I made one more try: white base, followed by layers of transparent. Victory!! I'll show you the 3 levels at the end of this article, 'cause now it's all about soft summer hues, and not bold summer hues :)


CC7A, Summer Soft Hues: copper, enamel, embroidery thread crochet, Crazy Lace Agate, wire wrapping, ooak necklace, ooak jewelry :: All Pretty Things


I am not as soft as Sally's image will imply, however I am not sure I can go any softer!

CC7A, Summer Soft Hues: copper, enamel, embroidery thread crochet, Crazy Lace Agate, wire wrapping, ooak necklace, ooak jewelry :: All Pretty Things

The stones are soft, aren't they? All 3 on the right are Crazy Lace Agate, the one on the left it is a Rhyolite.

Every year, around Christmas and June I seem to create a small collection... what for? It's quite simple: for William's teachers. I think I should revisit the past 6 years of these mini-collection and really have done them as such.

Anyhow, I keep digressing (sorry, my brain is quite fried these days). This is my Soft Summer Hues interpretation and I am definitely sticking with it:

CC7A, Summer Soft Hues: copper, enamel, embroidery thread crochet, Crazy Lace Agate, wire wrapping, ooak necklace, ooak jewelry :: All Pretty Things

CC7A, Summer Soft Hues: copper, enamel, embroidery thread crochet, Crazy Lace Agate, wire wrapping, ooak necklace, ooak jewelry :: All Pretty Things

CC7A, Summer Soft Hues: copper, enamel, embroidery thread crochet, Rhyolite, wire wrapping, ooak necklace, ooak jewelry :: All Pretty Things

CC7A, Summer Soft Hues: copper, enamel, embroidery thread crochet, Crazy Lace Agate, wire wrapping, ooak necklace, ooak jewelry :: All Pretty Things

CC7A, Summer Soft Hues: copper, enamel, embroidery thread crochet, Crazy Lace Agate, wire wrapping, ooak necklace, ooak jewelry :: All Pretty Things

CC7A, Summer Soft Hues: copper, enamel, embroidery thread crochet, Crazy Lace Agate, wire wrapping, ooak necklace, ooak jewelry :: All Pretty Things

As you see, the necklaces are quite unique in their own way: the enameled charm, the stone, the wrap, the colours of the neckpiece; while they are linked by the similar elements. I am so grateful for my box of embroidery threads. It is a blast to open that box and search for colours that will work for a certain piece. Whipping up the neckpiece is a fast affair for me, as crochet is in my blood and in time I've also learned to make the wire wrapped ends perfectly the same for all.

Every finding is hand made (except for the jump rings) and you don't want to know how I flame-painted the hooks at the end! It's quite a funny story :) The wrapped links have a double job: link in the fabric elements to the wire elements (by using the lovely size 6 seed beads) and to serve as a possible shortening / lengthening elements for the necklace. It took me a while to think the neckpieces, but I am (at this moment) almost as proud of their design as I am of the enameled pieces.

That was my journey for this month's CC7A; thank you, Sally, for getting me way out of my comfort zone and having to travel where I haven't traveled before!

Please make sue you visit everyone else in our small, but mighty group:

Sally (June host)
Monique (August)
Cynthia (September)
Christine (November)
Alicia (April host) ~ you are here
Therese (May host)

I haven't forgotten about the enamel progression, here it is:

CC7A, Summer Soft Hues: copper, enamel, ooak components :: All Pretty Things

This is transparent flux, with transparent enamel on top. Soft :)
CC7A, Summer Soft Hues: copper, enamel, ooak components :: All Pretty Things

This is white base, and opaque enamel on top. Better, but not very fond of the result.
CC7A, Summer Soft Hues: copper, enamel, ooak components :: All Pretty Things

Bingo!: white base (1010, 2 coats) with transparent enamel on top (2300, Opalescent Green, 3 coats),

Thursday, June 25, 2015

8 Illusions you can do with water

Now that the summer vacation has started, we can have fun and experiment :)




8 Illusions you can do with water
Posted by Vidivodo on Saturday, April 11, 2015

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!

Saturday, June 6, 2015

ATTS 7 - Bead Embroidery

Welcome - to a new challenge :)

This time it is one of the ATTS (A Time To Stitch) - can't believe Therese and Christine have arrived at number 7 already. The ATTS 7 is all about bead embroidery.


As you know, seed beading is not my forte (or my favourite medium), however, I love trying it every now and then. I have been pleasantly surprised in the past by the ATTS challenges, in the sense that I enjoyed them immensely.

I approached this challenge with the same attitude: I'll enjoy myself... I chose one of Marie's cabs, from the Bead Peeps challenge, the oval black and glittery one:


But that's where my luck fled me and went somewhere else :)

I tried to use some of the seed beads Marie sent, along with some I had. The issue? I don't use small size beads, I mostly have #6 and #8. For this type of embroidery I need #11, #13, and #15 to make it work. I had some #11, and some incredibly teeny-tiny #15, however not of the same type of bead... they would not work together. This is the first attempt:



OK... back to the drawing wall. Now what? A trip to the LBS... which left me a few dollars poorer, and in no better shape. Why? Our LBS (which has pretty much everything) doesn't have different size seed beads in the same type! I found either #11 and #15 in Toho or some #10 Czech or a #13 Czech... but no three sizes in the same type. I got the Toho and #13 Czech, came home happy... and, to my complete dismay I discovered the #13 are so in diameter. But the height of the bead is almost nonexistent. And for the peyote bezel it's the actual height that matters.

I was sitting at the desk quite lost. Then I remembered I didn't visit Sally's post for the CC7A, so I did that. Aha! Sally's piece for the May CC7A had an interesting beading. I decided that's what I will try, and using just the #11 I proceeded to try to implement it.



My piece is far (very, very far) from being perfect - but it has some embroidery around it after all :)



The back was the funniest part to do, and it's also very far from perfect, but it holds itself.

The most interesting part? The bezel itself is done with a white thread. For some unknown reasons, I changed to black for the back, and the transparency of the dark purple beads had picked that up: can you see the subtle difference between the side and the back? I won't lie to you, that's the part I like best and I'll try to remember you can have some interesting effects just by changing the thread!

I started to make a rope for it, using the gold border (the #15s)... and that's how far I got... the seed beads are too tiny for me to ever manage to finish that, I am sorry to admit it. I get some points for trying, hopefully :)


If someone has an idea on how to use the purple #11s in a nice rope, with the gold #15s as accents (very rare accents!), please let me know. If I finish the rope, I can finish the necklace and be happy :) (I am such a simple creature, finishing a piece can make me very happy!)

This was my adventure in seed beads land ~ while not very successful in results, I consider it very successful in the learning experience. That's what matters most in my eyes.

Please make sure you visit the rest of the group, I assure you they're more accomplished than my attempt. I know that before visiting anybody else, trust me!

Alicia <- you are here