There’s nothing like a new accessory to spruce up your wardrobe. I have many different styles at Winters Work on the Islesford Dock. The restaurant may be closed for lunch on Monday and Tuesday, but Sue Hill’s shop is open! Here is a sampling of what is available:
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So, I had a great visit with Mom today after running around Ellsworth doing errands. After dinner I added 6 pairs of earrings to my Etsy Shop. That’s a lot for me since I usually just crash and relax after a day off island.
Here are the earrings I put in the shop tonight. Some are old standbys and some are newer designs.
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In my first afternoon of using the disc cutter I learned two very important things I want to remember for the next time. The first lesson was that, between this step…
…and this step…
…I sure wish I had taken the time to drill a little hole in that indentation I made with the center punch. Then I would have had a usable piece from the first cutout. It’s so tiny, that it’s almost impossible to hold while drilling a hole in it, so it becomes an unusable scrap. With a hole in it, it would have become a nice little mini washer. A decorative element for a rivet. Live and learn. I ended up with a number of these before I thought about taking the extra step to drill them first.
I felt especially wasteful when I thought how handy a mini washer/rivet collar would be in silver as a nice little contrast to some copper earrings.
So, not such a big deal, but a lesson learned for next time.
The other lesson came from overconfidence and not paying attention. “Hey, this is an easy tool to learn to use. I’m whizzing my way through all of these cuts.” I remembered to use Bur-Life to lubricate the punch each time. Even when I used the wrong end of the punch….rut roh…
This could have been a costly mistake. Bur-Life or not, one end of the punch is made for cutting and the other end is made for hitting with a hammer. When I put the punch in upside down, the dull end was trying to cut the metal and the sharp end was being hit hard several times with my hammer! It was really hard to separate the punch from the metal sheet, and crossed my fingers that I hadn’t damaged the cutting end of the punch.
Phew. The punch still cut the next piece. I hope I never do that again. Though, I might not be the only one who has ever made that mistake. Rio sells replacement punches.
I hammered and patina-ted the copper and brass pieces, and I hammered, oxidized and hand polished the silver pieces and ended up with a nice collection of components to work with. (I didn’t get a shot of the whole batch, but you can get an idea from this.)
Here are a few of the earrings I made from my own discs.
I think I will get a lot of use out of this new tool!
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using commercial headpins.
Some of these earrings are headed to Winters Work tomorrow (Friday), along with a few other pieces, when I meet my cousin Lisa for lunch at the Islesford Dock Restaurant.
Summer is starting to wind down….
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I dropped off a bunch of pieces at Winters Work this afternoon. Below are a few of my new pieces at Sue’s great little shop on the dock.
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The results of more scratch form texture plates. I can’t wait to try some different patinas on these. But this has been one crazy week so far and it’s only half over.
Copper beads before firing:
Beads after firing and after tumbling:
I like the rich brown color of these without doing anything to change the patina., but I also used a polishing pad to see what would happen:
I’m anxious to try some verdigris patina and some russet red on these babies. Currently, all of my supplies are in little piles scattered through the basement. Bruce is building a new bench for me in my basement studio so I’ll have room for a second torch for some glass/enamel work. Right now all of my soldering, rock drilling and patina applying activities are on hold.
I like the primitive look of this little design I made on the scratch foam. I can’t wait to make a necklace using these beads.
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And the photo cube. Before I priced pieces to send off to Red Dot Gallery on Deer Isle, I took the time to experiment some more with my new photo set up. I love having so much light available at the flick of a switch. What a concept.
It was interesting to see how different background colors and prop colors affected the feel of the photos, especially when the pieces were more colorful. (as opposed to being all silver) Here are just a few of the shots I took today:
Translucent Pardo polymer clay, colored with alcohol ink, embedded silver.
Stick or plexiglass rod? Which do you think works better? I waffle….
More translucent Pardo with embedments.
Same plexiglass rod, but different background colors. Bronze and copper metal clay.
Seaham Beach sea glass, fine silver PMC beads, Sue Kennedy lamp work beads:
Cedar print fine silver PMC beads on silver plated Beadalon™ with sterling silver and nephrite jade:
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I celebrated the first day of spring with a long walk this morning and a long walk this afternoon. In between, I put together some earrings with some of the patinated pieces I finished waxing yesterday. (The weather was so nice, I decided to go out rather than take time to take additional photos for listing these on my Etsy site. Maybe tomorrow morning…)
Copper metal clay beads with tearaway texture, russet red patina, fine silver disc, ceramic disc, sterling silver head pin:
More russet red patina on brass paddle beads, sterling silver head pins and beads:
More brass paddles with ocean blue patina, enameled headpins, sterling silver and glass beads:
Brass leaves from Beadin’ Path, verdigris patina, enameled head pins, patinated head pins, s.s. beads, glass beads:
Ceramic beads topped with copper bead cap treated with mix of Persian indigo and laurel green patina; copper headpin with same patina mix:
Bronze clay bunchberry leaves with chestnut brown patina, s.s. beads:
Stamped copper rings, brass discs, treated with ocean blue patina, freshwater pearls:
Earrings below from a few days ago. No patina pieces, but a pair of the cool enameled fluted bead caps made by Sue Kennedy at SueBeads. The Über handy, Über useful enameled head pins are also made by Sue.
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Barbara S Fernald Jewelry 