What Did You Do?

Whelp!  I disappeared over the weekend.  I hid out.  Didn't do a THANG!  (well, except some laundry... and having a heart attack over a gopher snake disguised as a rattler.... dang, icky snake!)  I didn't get on the internet, I didn't play with my jewelry, I did not a THANG! a'TAL! 

One thing I did do, I found the photographer, Clarence Alford, who took a photo of my friends and my Alter Ego, Zarqa Habibe, at the So-Cal Ren-Faire a couple of weekends ago.  I never took my own photos but here's a shot Clarence took that Saturday. 


Surrounded by "pirates"... eh, well, at least one has
some character work to do. Don't know of many
pirates that wear fedoras! (she'll learn!)

 

I tried to get closer to Zarqa just so
you could (maybe/hopefully) see
the tribal jewelry I made for her. I
had to take the carnelian focal off
or it would have been too long but,
otherwise, she loved it.

 Yes, my Alter Ego is very fair skinned, hence the parasol. And sunscreen. She's learned! (you can click on the photos to get a closer look)

So... what DID y'all do over the weekend?? Eh?

Diamonds In The Rough Jewelry Challenge ~ ACCEPTED!

So, as I've mentioned briefly in previous posts, Bill @ ZnetShows asked me to join Round Two of their jewelry design challenge and they called it Diamonds In The Rough.  Don't know if that's aimed at me or not... (kidding!)  Of course, he sent pictures of the Adorable Abby to lure us all in. I mean, really, who could say "no" to that face!?  Not me!  Not to mention the chance to play with more free beads! So, of COURSE, I said "yes" to Round Two. They will be voting on their FB Page so check them out there and vote for your favs (of which I hope I'm one). 
ZnetShows is a wholesale bead-porium and you can click on the link to go take a look at their plethora of gorgeous beads. But, check out their FB page 1st because, I promise, you'll be in bead-porn heaven if you go to their wholesale site first and you'll sit there forEVer before moving on. Not to mention the buying that will happen!
Anyway, here are my entries:




The Beads I started with... aren't they
just SCRUM-dilly-UMPTIOUS!?

    


Tribal Necklace - coins and chime dangles are from my stash
beads and focal bead are from ZnetShows...

 
The beads used from ZNetShows for this necklace are:
Freeform, heat treated carnelian pendent (I've lost the item code for this one, I apologize)
Fire agate rondelles in dyed yellow/green color - item code (BDS1593-09)
Tiger's Eye round beads - item code (BDG58-08)


used the tiger's eye and dyed fire agate from ZnetShows
and the chime charms from my own stash



Hidden Tiger

I cut out and filed/sanded the metal forms and used ZnetShows Tiger's Eye beads for the bracelet.

Morrocan Adventure

For these, the chime dangles are from my stash and the squares are from Znet - red square aventurine and their item code is (BDG44-13A)

What can I say? I'm into the tribal style right now.

For these, I hammered out copper pennies and used Znet's red aventurine squares and tiger's eye rounds, then added a touch of radiance by adding in their opalescent glass quartz oval puffed beads and their item code is (BDG46-55)



Jangling Jade

The metal donuts are washers I beat the b'jabbers out of, colored with black permanent marker, sanded to bring out the high points and sealed. The gorgeous olive jade donuts are from Znet and their item code is (BDG118-17D)


Autumn Desire (I know, it's Spring going into Summer,
but I happen to love Autumn!)

The pendent is a washer I treated the same way as the earrings I described above, the light colored rounds are composite marble from Michael's and the heat treated carnelian pendent is from Znet (sorry, as I said, lost the item code for the carnelian *sigh*). The red aventurine squares are also from ZnetShows. The clasp I found/bought at Joanne's from the sewing/button section. Awesome!


Gypsy Fire

Again, hammered the b'jabbers out of copper pennies and the chime dangles are from my stash. The red rectangles are rectangular, aventurine puff beads from Znet - item code (BDG43-13)

As I said, go vote on Znet's FB page and, then, go explore their wholesale bead site. They've got some YUMMY beads that will keep you drooling and checking your pocketbook for spare change!

After Being Gibbs-Slapped By My Alter Ego....

In my previous post (here) I showed pictures of several pairs of earrings and asked what you thought about which should be worn by my Alter Ego, Zarqa Habiba, to the So-Cal Renaissance Faire.  This is the necklace that she was going to be wearing:

Full view: ended up wearing it without the carnelian
pendent there. It was too long for my neckline and
I'm of a fairly modest persuasion. Still, love the look.
Yellow rondelles are rough, yellow fire agates. Awesome!

 

A detail look.
Beads from ZnetShows.com, dangles and coins from
my stash. Bells were reused from a pair of Middle
Eastern chiming anklets.

 

Another detail shot.


 I was still contemplating which set of aforementioned earrings would work with this necklace when Zarqa gave me a disgusted look and Gibbs-slapped me!  Of COURSE!  Earrings should always match the necklace. DUH! (sigh)  So, I made these (and Zarqa was pleased):

They, and the necklace, chimed sweetly at the Faire and many people liked them.  And, since I was in an earring making mood, I threw in one more pair Because I Could!


Not sure what type, but the stone is agate (I think)
The metal was bought from Michael's pre-stamped
and I just cut out the shape. Bronze 1/2 circles and
copper wire. Warm, dangling goodness.

There will be another post later this week for ZnetShows and the beady goodness they've been letting me play with.  Check back, I'll have pics and links for you to check out. They've got AWEsome stuff!

Playing Around - Mixed Metals

So, I mentioned (either in a previous post or an update on FB... I don't remember.... I'm getting old.... what?)

So, I mentioned (hehe) that I had pounded the b'jabbers out of a washer over the weekend. Very therapeutic.  But, I think I may invest in some of those ear plugs swimmers use. In a small space like my craft room (which also echos amazingly) pounding on metal can bother the ears. I think I actually felt my eardrums twitching! 0_o*  Anyway, after annealing, hammering and drilling holes, I colored the whole darn thing with black permanent marker and sanded off the hi-lights. I really do like it!  See?

See? SEE!?  Doesn't that look AWESOME!?

I have plans to spray fixitive over it, but I couldn't the other night because it was windy like I was about to visit Oz!  Not really a time when you want to go outside and spray anything!  So, I'll take it out in the next day or two and spray the surface to set the color then finish the necklace.  Which will look something like this:


Using beads from ZNet shows, again. I actually was invited
to join "Level (round?) 2"... shoot, I didn't know there was
more than one level/round! I was thrilled! And I got to pick
more beads to play with! Woo HOO!

Little more of a peek. The
marbled beads were already
in my stash and I'm mixing
them in with the ZNet beads

And this is the clasp.  This is actually something I bought at
Joanne's in the sewing section. I thought it would make an
excellent clasp for a necklace! I'm not wrong :)

But, you know me, I couldn't make the necklace and not make earrings.  These actually lean a little to the "tribal" side of things because I already had the moonstone-looking dangles and the little bells on the ends. I just thought they would go so great together and, again, I wasn't wrong ;)


Heat Treated Aventurine pillow squares from ZNet; dangles from
my stash. I even used 22g steel wire and managed NOT to
stab myself in the thumb! SO proud! (heee)

I have plans to expand slightly on this earring design for my Ren-Faire alter ego. I really do like them and Zarqa wants a pair of her own. She likes the gentle chime from the bells.

So, I have more ZNet beads to put together (have another "tribal" style necklace in the works but I'm keeping that one under wraps for the moment as Zarqa is also drooling to add it to her collection... it involves beaten coins as well as ZNet beads)

What have you managed to turn out recently?

Pennies From Your Ears

Remember how Dad or Granpa or your favorite Uncle used to pull a coin (penny or otherwise) from your ear or behind your head when you were a kid? (actually, my Uncle John would "shove" the penny up one nostril and "pull" it from the other. Completely captivated my four year old self... much to my mother's consternation ~ yes, I tried it, too.... didn't really work for some reason...?)

Well........  this isn't that trick.  Sorry.  This trick is the one where I finally received my jewelry shot for my tumbler and played over the weekend.  Not a lot, but enough to make me ready to pound some more pennies into oblivion!  I raided the coin jar and pulled out every penny from 1980 and back and plan to release some frustrations later this week.

Any-hoo, here's what I made with the pennies I mentioned in my previous post:



Beaten, textured, stamped (find the fish), drilled and domed
Then I tossed 'em in the tumbler for a couple hours and this
is what came out. Not a sharp edge or burr anywhere!
LOOOOOOOOVE!


And a couple of shots of the finished product.  I made the balled copper headpins, too, by the way. The sea glass is from znetshows.com and I have lots more to figure out how to use! (hahahahaa!)  Anyway, the headpins also went through the tumbler and while this work hardened them and removed the firescale, it also removed the gorgeous pink you get when you drop the hot pins into the cold water. (sigh) Well, it's a trade, elbow grease to remove firescale and keep the rose pink or tumble and fuggedaboudit.  Anyway, these are fairly tribal-ish-y looking and I thought I might use them as part of my Ren-Faire character's costume this year. We'll see.... we'll see...

Oh, and, by the way (again), I'm on both Instagram and Webstagram for now. We'll see how they go with getting my jewelry out there. Look for me under (what else?) craziersister and feel free to "like" or "Pin" anything that catches your eye. It's a bit of a mix-mash of both my jewelry and my photography right now. Maybe later I can separate them out.
...and what have YOU been up to this week?

Copper, Copper, LOVING My Copper!

So, this weekend (starting with Friday afternoon) I got out more of my copper and played with it.  If you want to see the post I did about my first-ever headpins, go here.  If you want to see the post I did for pickle (for cleaning fire-scale from your pins), go here.  I had previously gone to Target and found the cutest little 2qt crock pot for $11.00 and bought it for making my pickle.  Just like you need a dedicated oven with Poly-clay, you need a dedicated pot for your metal pickle.  You never want to use something you would ever consider using at a later date for food.  Always keep these tools separate. 

isn't it just adorbs!?

I also have a pair of long, flat-nosed pliers that I use specifically for firing my copper. 

Look close at the tips, near the arrow, you can see the
fire-scale on the tips. Kobalt is an excellent brand for
working with jewelry. I have two pairs of these pliers,
one for fire work and one for wire work. Available at Lowe's.

I used the 1:1 ratio (1 cup vinegar to 1 tbsp salt, I used Kosher... no reason, just chose it) and heated the crock pot on "High" until it was warmed up then turned it to "Low."  Be aware, this is a sharp smell whenever you open the lid! Once I had balled up several pins and dropped them in the water to cool off, I popped 'em in the pickle for about 15 mintues.  Here's what I got back:

Nice, almost completely clean copper.  What little fire-scale
is left came off easily with my sponge file (which you can
get from you local beauty supply store)

I also got brave and made a few double-ended headpins:

awesome!

then I heated up some bits of copper I had plans to use in making earrings:

The fire-scale is almost completely gone! Only a little elbow
grease with my sponge file and they were ready to be turned
into earring components! by the way, you can look at the blue
arrow in the upper right and see the pickle solution being
absorbed by the paper towel.  It's been used a few times and
is already changing color.  Cool!

My next problem was to turn the rectangles into some sort of earring component. I am determined to make more of my own components. After cleaning the remaining fire-scale, I pounded the rectangles randomly with the peen end of my hammer, with another instrument that I don't remember what it's called but it can be used to make small, round marks/divots in metal and with a .22 shell casing.

Next, I covered over both sides with black permanent marker and, once it dried, sanded it off so only the marks left in the metal were darkened.  Then I punched four holes in them, one at the top and three at the bottom and hung beads and headpins.  Here's the final results:

SQUEE!  I plan to keep these as they're
my first ever pair! aweSOME!

Here are several others I made this weekend, too:

Fishes & Loaves in rustic red:
this pair is just under 2" in length

less rustic & in white: also just about
2" in length... going to make more
pairs on this smaller scale as well as
the 2 1/2-3" length earrings

all together, now.....

snow crystals

ruby zoisite ~ rough

So... that's been my weekend. What about yours?