New jewelry soon in online store

I will have new bracelets and earrings on sale this weekend at my new online store. Focusing on new metals for me ~ brass and steel with hammered, oxidized and colored finishes, and combining them with pearls and delicate strips of tulle ribbon.

Copper Fire Series - New Forged Fire Bracelets

When I set aside the found-object copper bracelet (or necklace) project, I decided to try out an idea I'd had a while back using copper wire and scrap silver.

I cut 6" lengths of 10-gauge copper wire and took them out to my old railroad tie anvil, where I used a large hammer to forge their ends to tapered paddles, then a jeweler's ball-peen hammer to dimple and mar the surface all over.

Back at the bench, I filed and finished the ends, then got out my jar of silver scrap and chose pieces of wire and bezel strip to wrap around the copper. On goes the torch, and I heated the copper and silver to the point where the silver started to flow and fuse with the copper. Off with the heat and tossed the piece into cold water.

It was a slaggy blackened mess at first, but with some careful work with sanding blocks and detailed work with manicurists' foam-files (with three different grades of abrasive and polishing surfaces), and the colors begin to glow - deep red, bright silver and gold, deep black, and rich copper. 

A few bends on the bracelet mandrel, some Krylon clear satin, and we have a beautiful forged-fire bracelet that has a very organic feel.

These will be going up for sale in a few weeks, after I create an inventory.

Copper Fire Collection

Pieces from my Copper Fire Collection (sold, or in my own collection). From the top:

• Rainbow hematite shard, heat-patinated copper
• Ammonite and garnet, heat-patinated copper
• Rainbow hematite on copper disks with iolite and garnet accents
• Ammonite and quartz, heat-patinated copper

 

Copper Bracelet - Copper Fire series

This is one of those really great creative projects that just worked right the first time - I have yet to repeat the method, but will do so for some gallery pieces, part of an inexpensive line of jewelry I want to create called Urban Tribal.

The idea came from a 2007 issue of Art Jewelry Magazine - as soon as I saw the technique, I had to try it, since I had already been working on copper (see Copper posts) for a successful line of pendants and brooches.

In two hours I had a finished bracelet: I cut the form (a simple, squiggly-line bar) from medium-gauge copper sheet scraps; cut the brass-wire circles from more scraps (I have a big scrap jar); soldered the brass rings to the sheet; and punch the metal domes using 2 smaller dome punches, but having to improvise on the larger ones with the handles of a couple of awls held in the vise. I gently formed the bracelet with a wooden mallet over the bracelet mandrel, cupping it slightly over the awl handle, and then came the fun part: heating and quenching to produce the wonderful patina.

I managed to draw out the beautiful dark reds. A quick polish of the brass rings with a cloth, careful not to rub off the patina, and then sealed with Krylon clear satin. 

Copper shield and rainbow hematite

This is one of the first pieces of jewelry I made several years ago, a heat-patinaed copper shield inspired by a triangle of rainbow hematite from Robert at Sweetwater Minerals. The hematite is a wonderful mix of irridescense and texture, with a clear horizontal slash and surficial droplets of silvery pyrite inclusion. I mimicked the pyrite droplets with balls of silver, slightly flattened, and a top bar of silver balls. The color comes from heating the copper until it is nearly red, then quenching quickly in cold water. The results are never certain, which is part of the fun. Sometimes the color (which is oxidized minerals drawn out in the copper as it heats) flakes off, and sometimes it stays magically in place. In what became a series of copper shield pendants with the purple-blue hematite and cut ammonites, I was always aiming to capture the beautiful blues and purples. The necklace is one of my Bella Bolas, a 15-inch length of hand-woven calfskin with sterling end caps and hooks that can be used on many different necklace types that I developed.