Saturday Share...Lacy Copper Washers

Haven't done a Saturday Share post in a long while, so I thought I would come up with a quick one! You all know of my affinity toward copper washers.  I love them for their versatility and since every time I go to Harbor Freight, I buy a new box, I have lots of them!  A month or so ago, I was working on a project that can't be shared right now, but was using a needle-lace technique I love, when a light bulb went off and I decided to try these Lacy Copper Washers!

These loops aren't even...don't be like me!

Materials needed:

Copper Washers

24g copper wire (about 1 foot per washer)

steel block

texturing hammer

round nose pliers

hole punch or drill

Choose your desired size of copper washer. The thinner ones are easier to punch and don't take as much annealing!

Anneal thoroughly and texture as desired with your steel block and hammer.

Mark where you are going to punch holes.  Evenly spaced holes makes for consistent loops.

Punch or drill holes...make them large enough to accomodate at least 2 passes of wire.  These are actually pretty just like this!

Thread end of wire through the front, leaving a short tail.  This will be trimmed and tucked in later.

Wrap the wire around the edge of the punched hole.

Make a loop and thread the wire through the next hole in the opposite direction (from the back).

You can use your round nose pliers or a thick piece of wire to help keep the loops the same size.  Place the pliers in the loop against the metal and pull the wire tightly.

Continue until you have completed all the loops.  Trim the ends and press tightly to the metal.  File or sand any rough edges.

A cool variation...add a bead before threading the wire to create your loop!

There you go!  The possibilities are endless!  I think I am going to enamel some!  Stay tuned!

Quick and Easy Grunge Effects...

These are the earrings I made for the last AJE COM challenge and in post for that I mentioned using solder paste to 'grunge  up' the copper washers I was using. Several people has since asked me exactly what I did so I thought I'd share the process here.

Everybody loves a bit of grunge these days it seems and while I was attaching ear wires to the copper washers for these earrings I decided to change the characteristic of the washers very quickly with some solder paste and, if you have some to hand you can do the same. As you probably know solder paste already has flux mixed in with it so it flows very easily. It's not cheap though so you can create interesting effects with just a little touch here and there (I tend to scrape the gungy bits out of the cap for this purpose) although I've used more in these photos just to make it clearer.

So the first step is to place your your clean washer or copper blank on your solder block or charcoal and dot some paste on it...this can be evenly spread or pretty random depending on what effect you're after.  Then you simply heat up the piece with a torch aiming the flame at the metal rather than the paste. The paste will begin to bubble then turn shiny and flow and by moving your torch around you can draw the solder around your blank. Once the solder has melted switch off the torch and quench the piece in cold water.

Of course this process will also work with tiny pallions of traditional strip solder although you will need to use flux with this to get it to flow as with the piece below. I think this method would probably work better by heating the piece from beneath as if sweat soldering but unfortunately I couldn't use this method as one of the legs of my soldering tripod has gone missing and a two legged tripod is about as much use as a chocolate teapot!

Once your pieces are quenched (left hand image below) you can can pickle them to remove the firescale (bottom right image below), tumble, patinate and/or texture them as you wish. Personally I like the effect of the firescale so I tend to remove any that is loose or flaky with a sanding sponge and then texture and polish which can result in some interesting finishes (top right image below). The one thing to remember if you don't tumble is that you have in effect annealed your piece while soldering so it will be soft so work hardening with a leather or nylon mallet is a good idea.

If you give this a go do let us see what you make - you can post pictures on our Facebook page and we'd love to see them.

Lesley

Saturday Share...One of My Favorite, Go-To Components

The amazing, versatile, inexpensive, lowly, hardware store plumbing section...copper washer!

 

They come in lots of different sizes and gauges, and if you get them in their little plastic box from the hardware store, they are divided into their own compartments with a paper size guide included.  I have found these at some of  the big box stores, but not consistently...I usually go with Harbor Freight, but have also found them in other jewelry supply shops and Etsy.  Monsterslayer has square ones! Of course, if you have a high-end disc cutter, you can make your own, but I haven't gotten there yet :)

As I said earlier, there are so many jewelry uses for these...charms, connectors, and my very favorite, clasps.  In fact, I use copper washers for my toggle clasps almost exclusively.  Here are a couple of  my favorites...

This is one I made last year for my bead soup!

 

This is a simpler version I paired with a bracelet bar made by our very own Jenny Davies-Reazor!

 

These are really so simple to make...you only need:

• 1 copper washer
• length of heavy gauge wire.  I like 12-14 best...depending on how ornate you want the toggle portion, about 2-3 inches. Make sure the size of your washer and wire are compatible...you don't want a really heavy washer with lighter gauge wire and vice-versa.
• torch for annealing/balling ends of wire
• texturing tools..hammer, stamps, etc
• steel block
• Round nose pliers
• flush cutters

Optional...

• hole punch/drill
• patina
• tumbler

1. Anneal copper washer and heavy gauge wire with torch and clean/pickle
2. Texturize washer to heart's desire...my 1st example used a brass patterned plate that I hammered onto it...I have even ran them through my new Big Shot.  Set washer aside.
3. Using round nose pliers, make a loop in the center of your piece of wire.*
4. Center it on your washer and measure the ends.  You want it to be able to sit on top of the washer nicely and not fall through.  (If you are going to ball ends in torch, you will want to keep ends a bit longer.)
5. Cut wire with flush cutters and file ends.
6. Either ball ends with torch, or texturize as desired.
7. Patina with your desired method and tumble for while for a well-finished shine.
8. Add to your own lovely bracelet or necklace design!

*  If you want to add more drama to the toggle, while you have the loop on your pliers, twist it around itself a few more times...this will take more wire, so plan ahead!

Depending on your design, you can punch a hole in the washer for a connector, or leave it and use jump rings, or figure eight type connectors.  I have used smaller wire wrapped loops as well.

I hope this inspires you to go and make something out of copper washers!  You can take this simple component and embellish it as much or as little as you want...enamel, solder, etching.  It doesn't have to be a clasp...

 

or round!

 

 

 

Have fun!

Melissa Meman
Melismatic Art Jewelry
Art. Life. Love.