Are you in North Carolina and want to see Shore Debris in person? My jewelry is available at this Sanford location:

Divine Designs by Nancy, 92 Amarillo Ln

You can also find my jewelry in this Southwest Florida gallery:

Elizabet Bryant Art Gallery, 200 West Dearborn Street, Englewood, FL 34223

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Mixed Metal Mania Project 2

I'm still improving on my metalworking skills with Kim St. Jean's Mixed Metal Mania Book.  Project number 2 in the book was for this pair of twisted paddle earrings:
Kim St. Jean's Twisted Paddle Earrings Project
 Now those paddle earrings aren't exactly my style, so I decided on a flower pendant instead.  Here's my plan:
Vicky's sketch for her mixed metal flower pendant.
 Like normal, I've sped ahead and am completely done texturing my flower, but still need the rest of my pieces:
Copper flower component after texturing.
 Since I was getting the saw back out, I decided to make a couple of more rings for good measure.  I cut out all 6 of these pieces in 1/2 the time I cut out the original 3 rings, so practice does make one much faster:
patterns laid out on Vicky's 24 gauge copper sheet metal
The flower and leaf were made of copper and I used sterling wire for the stem.  The bail is a piece of fine silver bezel wire.  All of my rivets were copper, too.  I'm quite proud of these.  I've taken riveting classes before and cannot reproduce at home (I've tried and given up a few times), but Kim St. Jean's book makes it all look easy.  Here's the flower all put together (after 1 hour with a hard boiled egg and repolished):
Mixed Metal Flower Pendant made by Vicky Brown
 The matching earrings are the copper leaves on sterling silver earwires.  I coiled a tiny bit of copper wire on the earwires just for some added interest (they looked too plain prior to that).
Mixed Metal Leaf (or Teardrop) Earrings made by Vicky Brown
 And I was practicing my stamping on the rings - sayings like "I Love Shells" and "Beach Girl" - so me!
"I love shells" stamped copper ring made by Vicky Brown
Now I just need to find time for the rest of the book!

2 comments:

Miss Val's Creations said...

Nice work Vicky! I love the texture you have added to the copper pieces.

Lynn said...

Honestly? You can learn to do that from a book? I can't even make my phone work from reading the book!! These are very pretty and I am impressed. I think I'll check this out. Great job, You!!!