Copper washer earrings

It's been two or three weeks of solid typing and aimlesssly banging away here and there on different bits and pieces and playing with shapes, then trying to become motivated in the drag end of the week -- two or three hours late on a Friday afternoon -- to make some jewellery before the Saturday market but finally today I got something put together. After watching the digital version of paint drying -- watching quick-charge batteries recharging -- I took these pictures.


Hammered copper washers, swirled wire doodad, pewtery/Tibetan silver/zinc bead w/copper beads, argentium sterling earwires. Yes, the bubo is from hammering the relatively small washers. Baaaad washers. Baaaad hammer.



I'm still not entirely sure if these are a work in progress but they are/will be for sale (email me). I may dispense with the jump rings and wrap the pieces together with either copper or silver wire. Still debating that. I also have larger hammered washers, but they might be too heavy for here.

Vote/comment here or Artefaccio on Facebook.

Copper triple bail spiral & curved leaf dangles

What I've been designing/working on today...

Consistency is the goal at this point. Then I will work on speed, as right now they're clocking in at a cost of $4.10 each... but they sure are purty. With the triple bail design, I wanted something that is going to sit solidly on a leather or cotton cord in between the beads so the necklace overall doesn't get too floppy -- and here I'm thinking old chevrons, Tibetan dzi agate beads, African handmade sandcast and clear glass beads. I've hammered all the triple bail spirals, so they're thick and thin like the leaf. May make a pile left plain.

Orders taken, please email me if you're interested. I'm particularly interested in producing my designs in quantity. Shipping is extra, depends on destination and need for speed.

Thank you for looking!

Copper headpins and dangles...

These are what I've been making this week -- at least 150 of the little suckers -- with approximate prices. They seem so expensive to me (even made in copper) but time and materials have to be accounted for.
 

3" flat paddles = 35 cents each
2" flat paddles = 30 cents each



2.25" open spiral = 80 cents each
2.25" closed spiral = 80 cents each



2.25" rosette = 86 cents each

I've also been making assorted dangles:

Hammered copper heart with Chinese AB crystal rondelle, pewter daisy spacers, copper swirl headpin



Lapis lazuli rondelles, faceted copper spacers, pewter daisy spacers, 20 gauge tinned copper spiral headpins;
lapis lazuli rondelles, pewter daisy spacers, 18 gauge copper headpins w/hammered loop



These are the headpin prototypes I was playing with this week. They look like copper, but it's just my bad photography. They're 20 gauge tinned copper and are what I used in the dangles below.



Chinese AB crystals, pewter daisy spacers, rosette tinned copper headpins

 Other than making these, I haven't done much all week except type and read and sleep. I was very sick on Monday/Tuesday and had a migraine for the first time in years from all the wind of the past two weeks. The weather now, though, is unbelievable -- 20C the past two days --  and everything is turning green so quickly, but with a hail storm yesterday morning, I suppose to add that little soupcon of seasonal reality. It's forecast to be like this pretty much all of next week, as well, and then we get some more coolish weather down around 10C. I can live with that.

The hammered copper Art Deco-ish bracelet...

...that started out as a necklace.

I finally finished this. I've been messing around with it all week on and off. Actually, I've been typing like a mad fiend since Sunday, finished that early on Tuesday evening, spent a great part of yesterday in bed in a dark room with all the symptoms of a migraine but without the pain. Very curious sensation. Wind is still a trigger for a lot of migraine-like symptoms even though I haven't had a full-blown migraine in years -- for which I am profoundly grateful. I had 13 years of those suckers 4 and 5 times a week with no letup. They disappeared as abruptly as they began.

But back to the bracelet. These Art Deco style "roses" I've been doodling for I don't know how many years, and it struck me one day they'd make cool connectors, and I think they work particularly well because the beads somewhat mimic the shape. Yes, in this case, the connectors came before the beads, but when I saw the beads at Rainbow Trading's trunk show at the Bead Boutique in Kitchener a week ago, I pounced. I just wish I could have afforded another string.

Showing the clasp, still working on refining the design, but so far it's easy on/off and extremely secure.

I cannot get over how hard it is to photograph a bracelet on.

I wish I could've had five beads on this, but... I wanted it to fit a medium wrist. Another bead will add a full 2 inches to the bracelet.

This is for sale, please email me for details. Thanks for looking!

Checkitout... I'm on Facebook!

Yeah, yeah, okay, all right... I'm only ten years behind the times. Big whup. Nothing new about that.

I now have a Facebook store thing! Thanks to my good pal from deviantArt, http://blackowl4.deviantart.com/, I have been dragged kicking and screaming and better late than never into the second decade of the 21st century. Go visit her pages and see her stunning work.
http://www.facebook.com/BoriquaDoll

And then come back and see my stuff.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/giftsfromthegarden

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I'm in a weird mood, I sift through beads, can't get inspired, but what does suit my mood is pounding the snot out of poor innocent copper wire. I've been doing that a lot lately. I wonder if it means anything significant...

These are copper, obviously, earwires, part of an order for Lynn in Arizona:

These are string ends I've been playing with, to use when tying off with leather cord (instead of using plain jump rings) after I've strung 6 or 8 inches of beads on wire, some hammered art deco rose spacers, and some more necklace ends or maybe dangles, respectively. I'm finding that the overlapping of wire on the string end loops and thick/thin hammering means there's less chance that the stringing wire will work its way loose the way it will do through the gap in jump rings, but there's still the flexibility of being able to take things apart if necessary.

I had made this originally as a heart, but didn't like the loop at the bottom. I still don't care for it even sitting at the top, but it makes for an interesting frame for the Chinese AB crystals, which I'm using to keep the cost down. Now to riff on this copper shape which I do like and see what transpires.

TRUNK SHOW ALERT - 1-4 March 2012!
Anyone reading this from Southern Ontario, please plan to go tonight, Thursday, 1 March though Sunday 4 March to The Bead Boutique in Kitchener. Jess is hosting a huge bead trunk show, and the bead selection will be stunning. Here is the link for more info, hours, address...: http://www.facebook.com/TheBeadBoutiqueKitchener