Fun with metal.

Nickel silver

Copper

Brass

Copper

A few more projects

Necklaces

Secret Belgian binding

Instead of going to the gym...

I spent the day making some barrettes.

I had every intention of going to the gym today. I was all dressed and ready to go when I thought I would just check something I was doing at my workbench yesterday. I spied the barrette blanks and just thought I would measure them to see what size I would need to cut the metal. Well five barrettes later I did not make my workout and it is now time to start thinking about making dinner.

Maybe tomorrow.

Fun in Port Townsend

 

My sister Donna and I spent the last weekend in February in Port Townsend with our besties, Nancy & Deb from California. Special thanks to Nancy for making this possible. Three days and two nights with these DOLLS was so much fun and not enough time.

 

Our time was spent browsing through the fun shops, making a few purchases, eating, drinking, laughing, and making things. Below are two of the projects Nancy coached us through. The copper bracelet was a lot of fun to make and I would love to make another but I don't think I have the knack for curling the copper around the mandrel and shaping it to look like a bracelet. Nancy made it look so easy but it was not. The other project was a little embossed leather journal. First we embossed it and then we dyed it. I sewed the signatures in when I got home.
 

 

The weekend was so much fun. I wish we all lived closer together so we could see each other more often. Thanks again Nancy and Deb for your friendship.

First of more to come

I recently got around to watching the Metal Sketchbook Pendant by Jen Crossley that I purchased from Interweave quite some time ago. After watching I was inspired to make one myself. I was happy with the result.

I am having a bit of a lazy summer so far. I have managed to make one little journal so far. It was an epic failure but I finished it anyway. I now know a lot of things not to do when adding attachments to the cover.

I had some fun today making some silicone molds. I happened upon this technique while trying to find a solution to a problem I was having with a popular 2 part mold making compound. This compound is made using 100% silicone compound found in the hardware store, cornstarch, a little oil and a little paint to colour the molds. These worked OK but I think I prefer the real thing. There is not a lot of working time with the silicone and cornstarch as so much time is used in incorporating all the ingredients together. Some of the molds turned out fantastic and some are ok. Nevertheless I had fun making them. Below is a picture of the molds I made and the items I used to make the molds.

...and a few more

Here are a few more soldered and/or etched metal journals I recently completed. Some are made from copper and some from brass. One of them is a combination of copper, nickel silver and maybe aluminum. I tried my hand at etching and I etched the nickel silver too long and it became to thin so I hand to attach it to another metal.