Project #3 and lots of other stuff....

Project # 3 "bead shelf necklace" - really didn't appeal to me - but I went ahead and made it anyway. I used the torch a lot on this one. A BIGGER torch that gets really hot. It helped a lot to make the copper turn red red. Yay! I was getting way frustrated with trying to melt balls on the ends of the copper. It just wouldn't work with the little hand torch I was using - the wire would break first or just turn black and brittle. But the big torch does it quick! I used many techniques making this necklace. Pounding, texturing, drilling holes, punching holes, balling the ends of copper, and wrapping metal beads.

...and this is a fused fine silver jump ring! MY FIRST ONE! I have a great book called "Silver Wire Fusing" by Liz Jones . This is the first project from this book that I have tried. EASY PEASY! I just made a fine silver ring by wrapping the silver around a dowel and cutting it I had to make sure the edges were flush. Then I heated the whole ring in a circular motion for just a moment and touched the blue tip of the torch flame to the cut edges of the ring and waited for the cut edges to get really shiny (liquefy!). I quickly lifted the heat away and then plunged the ring into water. Fine silver doesn't tarnish when heated and doesn't need any flux.

I also made another project towards the end of the book - I have no idea what project number it is - but I liked it. It's called the "wire hands bracelet" only I didn't make a bracelet. You had to make 16 hands to make a bracelet. Forget it. I was lucky I made 3. How did Mary Hettmansperger ever make 16! These hands are tedious and time consuming....and I am so anal mine had to be as precise as I could make them.... So, after the first one that turned out way lame, I made 2 more, sort of my own version. I made them into earrings. I haven't taken the pics yet for this one. ...Manana....

Oh...here's the final version of the "guardian angel" painting.


Let's see - what else? I got my jewelers saw to work! I couldn't get it to hold the blades for the life of me! So I took the set screws out and - lo and behold - all of the broken blade tips were still inside...what a maroon! So I used it to cut some shapes out of copper, and I'm sawing away....really killing my wrists trying to hold the copper in place and level.....and then it dawns on me - duh! - CLAMP the copper down. I don't need to try and hold it with my hands and saw at the same time. Sometimes taking a class first is probably a good idea........