Liver of Sulfur

Oooh, this is fun! I have finally purchased Liver of Sulfur and I keep "livering" (or "sulfering"???) everything with it!
Here is the first pair of copper earrings I have tested it on - the one on the left is already getting antiqued, the one on the right is the original. I really like how it gives the wirewrapped design more depth...



Now it's the one on the right that's getting antiqued (just in the case you didn't notice they switched sides:).

Copper - Patina, Rivets and Stamping

And here is another patina project - a pair of earrings that speak to you. Well, at least if you believe in HOPE and LOVE, because that's what they "say"!
I have combined a number of different techniques to make this pair and I'm hoping to come up with more than this, since I really like the result.

I have used ammonia and salt to add patina to copper plates. I actually forgot about the experiment and left the metal "under influence" for longer than intended (2,5 days to be precise), so if you look closely enough, you might notice, that snippets of the metal have been eaten off by corrosion at the edges. But I don't mind, firstly this was my first experiment with patina, secondly I was trying to make the metal look aged anyway.
The patina was so thick I even had to remove some, otherwise it wouldn't hold on well even after spraying with clear paint. I had removed more patina from waht was going to be front side of the earrings and that created a nice effect of 2-coloured patina; red and green layers.

Then I've sprayed a clear paint over the plates, so the patina wouldn't come off or stain clothes. I have applied 2 coats on each side and let dry for several hours between the coats.

In the meanwhile, I have prepared 2 pieces of copper and stamped them with words HOPE and LOVE, one for each ear.

After the paint dried on the patinaed metal peices, I had to measure where to put holes for rivets and hammer the rivets on.

And then all I had to add were 2 handmade jumprings (how good does it sound, instead just jumprings) and earwires. Tadaa!


Here is front and back of the earrings:




Hope & Love... who's in?

New Copper Earrings

My love-affair with COPPER seems to be never-ending! Well, there are several reasons for this - copper looks amazing, copper is in vogue right now and it's fairly inexpensive! And as if I needed another reason, I have lots of copper wire at home!
Remember my "trash stash" that I got from our Engineering? I got even more! Lots of discarded copper wire! It's rubber coated (like telephone wire) - so guess what I was doing for hours and hours while watching my fav TV programs? I think you got it: stripping my precious wires off their rubber clothes!

And here is what I've been working on recently:

Copper earrings with lots of copper beads.


Just wires - hand forged and hammered:


Swirls with copper beads:

And simple hammered swirls:

And this is just a bonus - next swirly earrings will be patina-coated! This is what ammonia with salt can do:

Back For Real And With New Ideas

Does it ever happen to you - waaaay too many ideas and no time to make them into a piece of art? And way too many other things you want and need and must do...

With my almost two-months break without computer I wanted to do so many things, but didn't. As always. Sometimes the ideas just STOP me instead of push me forward. I have all the wires and tools and beads put outside - and then I get completely confused as to what I wanted to do right now! I wanted to try another variation of herringbone weave (sure, still my favourite), but I also wanted to try something similar I just cut out of a magazine yesterday, but I also have a picture I wanted to transfer on a shell.... AND I ALSO WANT MY DAY TO HAVE 24 HOURS! Well, you might say this is easy - a day does have 24 hours indeed. I want those 24 FOR WORK AND CREATING! No sleeping, transit time etc. PURE 24 hours.

Am I just trying to bite a piece too big for my mouth?

Well it wouldn't be the first time, as you can see...

But I didn't only sleep all this time when I couldn't show you any photos - I will slowly show you my new projecs!

Here - I started making my own earwires:

I have also figured out, how to get patina on copper - this is the first try. You can still see the OHM sign stamped into the sheet - I can feel this is going to turn into something cool!

And because my day doesn't have enough hours, I will go to bed now.... more is coming!