Showing posts with label brass. Show all posts
Showing posts with label brass. Show all posts

Monday, 2 February 2015

1,800-year-old Roman coin wrapped in "Gallery Bezel Wire"...

Go read this first...

http://fancifuldevices.blogspot.ca/2015/01/cheaty-open-backed-prong-bezels-for.html

Marina of Fanciful Devices has been my go-to for sublime creativeness for a long time now. I can't even approach some of the things on this blog. Learning about the existence of "gallery bezel wire" kick-started my lazy self into thinking of things to wrap to mix with my Roman glass beads.

Coin Guy across from me at the Woodstock Farmer's Market sells -- duh -- coins, and he sells reeeeally old coins along with the usual commemoratives and out-of-circulation bills and coins like you find in hoards and under couch cushions and floorboards. Fascinating. And we all have our own stashes of coins that were given to us kids as souvenirs when parents came home from mysterious trips to faraway places and then later on added to as we wandered to our own far places.

Meet Licinius I, 308-324 AD (Thessalonica Mint):



Here is my first effort at using this wire. Marina advised to make the wrap tight. Definitely necessary. Do not ignore. Unfortunately there was an 1,800-year-old lump on the side of my coin that I thought I could ignore, and I didn't want to file it off in case it damaged any value the coin has. NOTE: This wire does stretch. This is soft, bendy, pliable stuff and I will have to redo it, but as is, it sure looks cool. I also need to acquire some thicker brass headpins on my next trip to Toronto. If the coin were silver (it's actually patinaed brass), then mixing the metals wouldn't be so stark. But the wire itself is cool stuff, all lacy and perforated the way it is.

Oh, and yeah, straighten the coin out before locking it into place!!!

Thanks for looking!




Friday, 13 July 2012

Nothing new this week, however... some old hammered stuff for funzies

This has been another brutal week for typing. I was supposed to have gone to Toronto on Monday to have my computer upgraded (some of my video files -- just one of the suckers (and I can easily get 5 or 10 or 20 files in one job to transcribe) -- are 1.25 gigs or 1.5 gigs each and my entire hard drive is only 4 gigs with 1.8 gigs of RAM) but another one of those huge jobs came in that I couldn't say no to. But yeah, long past the time to get a bigger better 'puter. NOTE: All I really want to do is up stakes and get outta Dodge...

Long story short, I haven't done anything remotely resembling making jewellery all week. But this coming week, after I drop the computer off on Monday -- and then go shopping at the wholesalers! -- I will have two whole days in which to make stuff, mostly cake jewellery for Rene, rings, necklaces, bracelets, earrings and especially a whole lot of feather earrings, before I have to go back to Toronto to pick up my computer (and do yet more bead shopping... if nothing else to pick up the stuff I forget to get on Monday... at least that's the plan.

In the meantime, here are some things I made a long, long time ago in a land far away... well, 2009-ish.

Base metal dangles, red horn, hammered tinned copper clasp, black leather, sterling earwires


This lady bought the necklace before I'd even half-finished it working at my booth at the Norwich fair: brass dangles, turquoise, brass chain.

Alas... in the old days when bead stores were still (they still are!) selling howlite as turquoise and I hadn't realised the difference. I keep meaning to remake this necklace as I really like it.

Cobra bead choker, so-called because locked in the glass, created entirely by accident, a cobra can clearly be seen. Glass bead, vintage brass beads, brass chain maille. SOLD

A particularly fine chrysocolla bead, hammered brass dangles and clasps, vintage brass chain maille, leather choker.

Chrysocolla bead, hammered tinned copper dangles and clasps, plated chain, leather choker

Bornite chunks (aka peacock stone which is oxidised copper), wrapped in silver, silver-plated base metal feather, hammered tinned copper clasps, black leather.


Facetted pyrite stones, tinned copper pendants and clasps, sterling earwires, black leather choker

Some of these I've sold, some developed little legs over the years... and one or two I may actually still have on my table.

I know these are old pictures because most of them were scanned, not photographed. But it's interesting, the hammered stuff still intrigues me greatly. I am working on doing more of that and refining my techniques, but you know, I still like the rougher, more crude stuff like the last piece, the pyrite and hammered tinned copper. Love the look of the hammered brass, but it is so very difficult to hammer. Not only do I wreck my wrists, it makes great gouges in my hammer and bench block.

Well, this evening it's feeling not quite as hot as it's been the past few weeks, "only" about 30C/90F and with plenty of humidity, but they're calling for thunderstorms, and that would be such a relief. Sure hope they hit. It's brown and crunchy everywhere you go now in this part of southern Ontario.

For now, though, I'm at a good place to leave off typing, the truck is loaded up and here it is 7:10. I am going to have a light supper and head to bed. 3:30 a.m. comes awfully, awfully quickly.

Thanks for looking.