Kitty Cat Copper and Brass box with Cat Jawbone

One of the projects in my jewelry class last semester was to make a box. It can be hinged or not and about 2x2 as the biggest.
Mine ended up being larger than it should have but I still like the end result.

It has a curved front and a flat back. The copper is the face plate and the lid.  The rest is made of brass.
I started with a picture drawn on paper and then glued it onto the copper so I could cut it out with my jeweler's saw.  I have to keep it simple, I can't draw very well. I was originally going to do a type of Halloween kitty, but chose a simpler design.

After cutting out the design, I wanted to do an etching design on it, since I was just starting to play with that stuff. Before putting in the etching solution, a black Sharpie pen is used to mark the areas that are not to be etched.

The brass part was really hard to solder, as the size was pretty big. I ended up having my husband help me with his hotter plumber's torches.next part was to rivet it on and make the lid. Unfortunately I didn't take more pictures like I should have. 

This is the end result. I work at an animal hospital, so asked one of my vet friends if he had any bones I can have. he gave me this cat jaw bone and from there the idea of the box came to life.

The jawbone is attached by wire and the pyrite skull and hematite moon and star beads attached by wire as well. The lid just sets on, there is no hinge. I love the end result and my teacher even said I should put it in the school art show, which surprised me!
So that's the making of my box for school. It was fun, but I won't be making another one.

Call of Cthulhu

As I am still in Jewelry class at Yavapai College I wanted to try something new. The teacher showed us one day about 'overlay'. I guess you can also call it sweat soldering.
So of course, my first thought is that I'd like to do a baby Cthulhu. Why not?
I took pics as I went along so I could share with you but am going to show the finished product first.

Cute, right? Well, it's not perfect, but it's a learning piece.....
What I did first was pick a super cute photo off the internet and tried to draw it.
Not so easy as I am not that great of a artist with the pencil. Then glued it on the copper. Next is cutting out the piece with the jeweler's saw.

I liked the little oval eyes, but after using the drill press to do the eyes, I just kept them round. Still looked cute, and darn it, it was just easier that way.

I used files and sand paper to smooth the edges and clean it up a bit. Then added the Sharpie marker to get ready to etch it. This was something new for me too. I see a lot of cool etchings on Pinterest and such and finally bought the chemical to do it. Sorry about the glare on this picture, but you get the idea.

With the etching acid, I put packing tape on the back of the piece so that doesn't etch. It goes face down in the plastic container. The Sharpie is the 'resist' and the rest of the piece will be etched by the acid.

Success! I was really pleased with how this turned out!  Just used a little bit of steel wool to clean it up and it looks great.

No comes the hard part. I need to solder that cute little thing onto the piece of brass that I have ready. It took a couple times but then it worked. Problem was, I forgot to put white-out on the top to stop the solder from going up there. Also, it turned pink and I didn't know why. Sorry, no picture of that. My teacher told me to put it in a 50/50 mix of silver pickle and hydrogen peroxide. Worked pretty well after about 10 minutes.

After cleaning I dipped in liver of sulfur to get the blackened look.  So, that's how I got my finished product. Not good enough to sell, but I like it enough to keep.

Lotus Copper Bracelet

Hi there,
It's been 1 year and 8 months since my last blog entry. Thought I would try to pick it up again and am bringing you the process of making a copper cuff bracelet for a dear family friend of mine.

First I drew the lotus flower on the copper with a sharpie pen-

After drilling some holes with my husbands drill press, I start with the jewelers saw and cut out what is necessary-

When done with the saw, I used small files to clean it up a bit. The image is done-

                                   
I then do some hammering for texture-

Now the fun part. Using the torch for color. It is very random and you never know what is going to happen. I went over it a few times to try to get kind of an even array of color-

Next is the bracelet mandrel to shape it into a bracelet-

Done!-

I love working with metal and am still learning. Thank you to all the family and friends that support my business and help to encourage me :)

2013 Year of the Snake

According to the Chinese Zodiac 2013, from 2/10/13 to 1/30/14,  is the Year of the Snake.
This includes people born in the years:
1929
1941
1953
1965
1977
1989
2001
I happen to fall into the Year of the Dog catagory, not this one.

Ancient Chinese wisdom says that a snake in the house is a good omen - meaning your family will not starve.
So remember that the next time you see a snake in your house. :)

People born in the Year of the Snake are keen, cunning, quite intelligent and wise.  They are great mediators and good at doing business.  Hey, I may not be born under the snake, but maybe it'll be a good year for my business anyway. One can always hope. :)

I am planning on incorporating snakes into my jewelry this year, and found some interesting pictures of snake jewelry that I wanted to share.

This snake earring I thought was really cool!

This one is more on the elegant side

Elegant baby snakes on the wrist:

This snake eye necklace is pretty crazy:

Now, I know a lot of people that don't like snakes, but I actually find them pretty fascinating.  Back in the day in high school, my friends and I got a snake as a birthday birthday present for another friend of ours.
Just a small garter snake that ate goldfish, and it dig get out once and got lost in the house, haha.

Regardless if you are under the snake year or not, have a wonderful and prosperous 2013!

Halloween Is Coming

I love all things Halloween.  I love the decorations, the jewelry and the atmosphere.

I can remember the old paper cut-out decorations at my house as a kid - I hope my mom still has those, I want them! Especially the big cat one! Similar to these.....

I would like to collect vintage Halloween stuff, but have you seen the prices in the antique shops?! can't afford that hobby.

Sad to say I am not much of a decorator anymore. Where I live now there are no trick-or-treaters.  Heck, we don't even have streetlights or sidewalks.

I found this really cool necklace I thought was quite unique that would be great for a Halloween party - 

And here's a great charm bracelet - 

Bats are great year round - 

Earlier this year I got a permanent Halloween decoration on my arm :)

I hope everyone has a happy and safe Halloween and eats a bunch of candy!

Skydiving.....it's fun.

So this has nothing to do with beads or jewelry, but I feel like writing about skydiving.

I used to live in Lake Elsinore, CA and my backyard butted up against a large field where there happened to be a skydiving airstrip.  I would love to be standing outside when you can hear the whoops and hollers from the people jumping. It just sounded like they were having so much fun!  It didn't take me long to know that I wanted to jump and found a friend that would be willing to do it with me.  When I told my mom that I wanted to jump, it didn't take long for her to tell me she wanted to go also. Then when my dad got wind of it, of course he wanted to go also.

It was November 1999 and we all went to Skydive Elsinore to sign our life away. They sit you down and have you watch videos and sign papers that say - yes, you may die.  I think I remember my dad possibly having second thoughts, but we all continued anyway.

It was a little awkward sitting in the small plane, attached to another person waiting for this moment that may change my life.  When the moment came, we scooched our way to the open door and got in position. Here is where people tell me they would freeze and wouldn't be able to jump. The way it happens though, is that I just follow directions and it all happened so quickly, the next thing I knew, we were falling through the air and  I was laughing the whole way down!  The best way I can describe it to someone is that it is like going down a roller coaster hill and that first moment when you feel as though your stomach is in your throat - that is what it's like. But for longer, haha.  When it is time to pull the chute, it feels as though you are pulled up into the air and then it's floating all the way down.

Everyone landed safely and my friend Omar and I went the following year in November again.  For me it wasn't quite as exciting as the first time, but of course that makes sense.  Maybe someday I'll jump again...

Inspiration

I know I've been slacking in the blog department here....I'm still trying to get a handle on all this.
Looks like I'm just in time to get one posted for the month of August.

I wanted to talk a little about my history with books since they are an inspiration to my designs.

I started reading at about 3 years old and have never looked back. My dad had a huge book collection and  I remember taking some books off of his shelf and reading them. I remember an adult horror book called Came A Spider that I read at about 4th grade.

Yes, I still have the book. Through the years my dad has gotten rid of a lot of books so I have acquired a some of them.  I started Stephen King because of him. I remember seeing that silver shiny book called The Shining on the shelf.  (I have that now as well).
I'm not sure how people get into reading the genres that they do, but for myself I can say I started horror as far back as elementary school with unknowing help from dad.  This is my Stephen King bookshelf as it stands now.

The 2nd shelf has the Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles but I am sure that will get booted sooner or later as I need room for more King!  All the rest of my books are scattered about the house and garage in cabinets and shelves.  I wanted to incorporate my love of books into my jewelry and this is what I am doing....

This is taken from Pet Sematary = Sometimes Dead Is Better

Also a Poe inspired piece,

Nevermore.

I hope you will continue to follow me on my journey of jewelry making and reading!

Any comments are welcome, I'd love to hear your own stories of books or anything, really :)