Saturday Share:Spring Flowers...Eye Candy and Tutorial

Well, I don't know about you, but I am so ready for Spring to finally show her face!  Today, in my neck of the woods it finally is supposed to be warm and sunny.  This weekend is the noted Cherry Blossom festival in DC, but my cherry blossoms in the Maryland suburbs are definitely not festival worthy! Pretty, yes, but not quite there!

So, I decided to live vicariously by enjoying some Spring flowers created by some of my friends and colleagues and continue the Springtime tour started by Rebekah last Saturday!

Karen Totten; Sue Kennedy

Kristi Bowman; Lesley Watt

Jo Tinley; Rebekah Payne

All these wonderful components would be perfect to add to your AJE Earring Challenge creations!

Next are some gorgeous floral finished pieces...

Linda Landig; Jennifer Cameron

Jenny Davies-Reazor; Melissa Meman

Another way I have been satisfying my flower craving is to create some of my own..I have been playing with copper sheet and making some fun ones...here is one I created for my Bead Soup partner...

Here is a quick "how-to"...especially for metal newbies like me, who haven't gotten the hang of using a jewelry saw yet.

Tools/materials needed:

Copper sheet or discs - any size

set of needle files

sanding block

steel bench block

flush cutters or metal shears

texturing hammers or stamps

metal punches 

round nose pliers

dapping/punch set

patina of choice

• use straight edge and draw lines for as many petals as you would like...they don't have to be perfect...
• use metal punch and punch on the lines, making sure to be right on the edge...I usually do several passes until I get the depth I want.
• with flush cutters or shears, snip the edges off to get the basic shape you want

• repeat snipping on other side
• using needle files, start filing...the triangle one works great in the beginning.
• I like to finish with a soft sanding block...you can get them at the hardware store.  You can see mine is pretty well used!

•  Using texturing hammers of your choice and steel bench block, add whatever texture  you like.  Alternatively, you can stamp designs, use brass design plates, run it through a rolling mill...I use my Big Shot! 
• For the center, I used my center punch and made a bunch of divots
• I usually dome mine at this point, and use my round nose pliers to curve the petals
• These are center punched, antiqued with LOS and tumbled for a nice sheen.  

As you can see, there are all sorts of variations you can do with these...I hope you will give it a try.  I promise to keep practicing with my jewelry saw and will share that progress with you at a later date!  I am anxiously awaiting Melissa Cable's new book "Metal Jewelry in Bloom" to learn some new flower techniques! You can read a great review by our own Jen Cameron here.

Thanks for reading!  Happy Spring!

Melissa Meman

Melismatic Art Jewelry

Art. Life. Love.