Fold forming fun

I don't know about you but I am a member of many Facebook groups, one of them being the Aspiring Metalsmiths page. What I love about this page is the vast knowledge of the members and their willingness to share. One such post I came across recently was a tutorial on how to fold form a leaf by Al Martinez. As soon as I saw it I wanted to give it a try and I thought I would share how I got on! Now I did not do everything exactly how Al explained (everyone knows I can't follow a tutorial) and I did not have all the right tools/skills so a lot of it I 'winged' but if you are interested in learning more I urge you to join the group and search the page for Al Martinez, the tutorial is a post dated 25th October so you may well have to scroll back a while but it is very much worth the effort, his work is amazing!

• First off I cut my 0.8mm copper sheet (approx 21 gauge?) with a nice heavy duty pair of scissors (you could do this with a saw but it would take much longer and I for one can't saw in a straight line!)
• Next I hammered the edges and the corners flat to minimise the risk of cutting myself, those edges are really shape so please be careful!
• using the straight edge of my Anvil/bench peg I bent the metal to a 90 degree angle
• and then using my hands I bent the metal over 

• At this point my metal was very stiff so I used my Butane torch to anneal the metal (one thing I found was that I needed to anneal my metal alot more then in the tutorial, I put this down to my rather girly muscles and pitifully light weight hammer)
• After annealing hammer the metal flat

• Here is where Al draws his design onto the metal, which I found an utter pain! I can't draw in sharpie and made so many errors it just looked like a scribble, so I drew my design with my trusty Biro onto a sticky address label (or six) and then just stuck that on
• Then slowly and steadily saw out the leaf and peal off the sticker
• Hammer to add texture (Al shares a really cool way to hammer the leaf so that it curves) if the leaf gets hard and you want more texture anneal and continue hammering until you are happy with the effect 

• When you are happy with your hammering (great way to rid your self of stress) Gently prize the leaf open, here I used an old screw driver 
• Then anneal again to make it easier to open, once cool use the edge of the bench peg to open the leaf further, then place it onto the anvil and gently hammer the seem to flatten the leaf out

• At this point you can add more texture with your hammer or move different parts of the leaf with your pliers to bend this way or that. Once happy I cleaned up the top of the leaf with some sandpaper and soldered on a heavy jump ring
• I decided I rather liked the colour of the metal so I just burnished the edges and the fold to add a bit of interest then I sealed it with some wax and added a lamp work bead with a bronze acorn cap by our fantastic Lesley and a silver chain and voila a beautiful necklace....

And these are so many ways that you can adapt this to make a truly individual piece. You could set stones on them, hammer words into them or even cut shapes out....

I hope you have enjoyed this post and if you did go check out Al's you will not be disappointed!

BeadFest 2015!

It's that time of year again when the AJE team swings into final preparations for BeadFest in Philadelphia... except that this year, it appears we've changed things up a little. I'm the only one teaching (for the first time) and Jenny Davies-Reazor is the only one vending. The others are just coming to play, which is a refreshing change (for them) from the annual craziness that usually accompanies BeadFest prep (you can read a bit about last year's preparations here, here, here and here).

Susan Kennedy's prep from last year

Or at least I hear it's a refreshing change. Because since this is my first time teaching at BeadFest Philly, I'm obsessing a little about making sure I'm completely ready.

My bullet journal overfloweth

The good news is that I'm excited about the workshops I'm teaching - they're fun and two of them are a really good fit for people who just want to get started with metals. While I was discussing all this with the other AJE team members, they thought it might be a good blog post so... here you go!

Friday, August 21 - Roll Printing and Keum Boo

I've written before about my love of roll printing and especially the patterns that are available from Rolling Mill Resource. Tracy was kind enough to help me put kits together for this workshop, which is going to incorporate roll printed designs with keum boo - one of my other favorite techniques.

The addition of 24k gold to sterling silver makes such a statement - and it's surprisingly simple, too. I'm looking forward to introducing folks to the process, which will really just scratch the surface of the possibilities it offers. It's a great workshop for people who want to get an introduction to some of the characteristics of sterling silver and two simple processes for embellishing it.

Saturday, August 22 - Welcome Home Jewelry

My friend Gail and I designed this jewelry set for our very first Roadhouse metals retreat last year - and if I'm being honest, it sort of kicked our butts! I've reworked the design a bit to make it a little less intimidating and now I think it's a fun project for either a confident beginner or someone with a little bit of soldering experience under their belts.

We'll also be making earrings to go with this pendant, so students will learn a cool method for creating embellished earwires and will also have the opportunity to set small stones in bezel cups. It's a good multi-technique project for anyone wanting to up their metals game.

Sunday, August 23 - Chain, Chain, Chain!

I adore this project - so simple and easy, and such an elegant result! We'll be introducing fusing principles with an easy pair of earrings, just to get everyone started, but the star of the show will be this embellished loop-in-loop chain bracelet.

I've heard this called by all sorts of other names, but I just call it embellished loop-in-loop - and since I'm a sucker for handmade chain, I make this one a lot because of its ease of construction and elegant profile. And the little balls... well, you all know I love balls. This is a perfect project for someone with absolutely no experience, and students will leave with two finished projects!

So are you planning to come to BeadFest this year? If so, I'd love to meet you and say hi - and since there are still spots open in these workshops, we could even have a little playdate if you'd like! Don't forget to stop by Jenny's booth and ogle all her gorgeous work - I'm sure she can even arrange for you to take some of it home with you as your very own.

Hope to see you in Philly! Until next time....

Glass Craft Expo!

One of my goals for 2015 was to expand my teaching venues beyond Roadhouse Arts - and I was a little nervous about it, because there are some seriously awesome teachers out there. (You know that little voice in your head that wonders how you measure up? Yeah. Me too.) After a lot of back and forth, my friend and business partner Gail Stouffer finally suggested that I send applications in to Glass Craft Expo, and come up with some projects that would introduce metalwork to a very glass-oriented audience.

So I did.

And all four classes were accepted.

source

(Yes, I was a little excited.)

I had never sent teaching applications out because I was intimidated by what I thought the process was going to be, but it turns out to have been a lot easier than I expected. I spent some time imagining what metalworking techniques might be of interest to someone who loves glass, based on some of the things I learned in the first year I worked with glass. Putting myself in the shoes of prospective students is one of the things I do regularly when I'm developing my regular projects and classes, so this didn't feel particularly alien to me - but I also asked glass artists I know (especially my friend Gail Stouffer!) what they would want to know if they were just starting out with metals. Then I wrote up the descriptions, put together the sample projects and snapped some photos.

Classic Glass: Bezel Setting Cabochons

Bezel setting is one of those things beginning metalsmiths generally find very intimidating - I was one of them. There is very little that I find more rewarding that watching someone in that mental place achieve success with this technique - and all with a culinary torch, even with larger pieces.

Sticks and Stones: Prong Setting

Making organic prong settings for flat-backed cabochons is easier than it looks, and the results can be quite dramatic. It can also be done with a simple culinary torch, which makes it a terrific technique for the "kitchen table" jewelry maker.

Cuff 'Em: Copper Cuff with Glass Cabochon

This is a simple, uncomplicated cuff that combines some very useful techniques for people just starting out with metal: annealing and forging copper, drilling holes in glass cabochons, texturing and cutting metal, and creating and setting rivets out of copper wire.

Hang 'Em High: Pinch Bails

I love this one! Some simple texturing and basic soldering techniques yields a unique, customized bail that can be added to any cabochon or pendant with a front-to-back hole.

* * * * *

I am so excited - and a little nervous! - about teaching at such a huge venue. I am sure I'll have some tips and lessons learned after I've actually done the teaching part, but for now I'm working on making all the glass cabochons I'm going to need. And if you're going to be in Las Vegas next April, I'd love to see you - make sure you stop in and tell me you're part of the AJE community!

Until next time -

Soldering: The Setup

I like to work big - in fact, the bigger the piece, the happier I am. Somewhere along the way, I heard that larger pieces just aren't possible with culinary or butane torches.. but that's all I've ever used, so I just continue to push the envelope.

Clockwise from left: a hollow bead, a Big Ass Ring, and a Big Ass Ring in progress. Each of these is between two and two and a half inches at the largest point.

I have a variety of butane torches that I use for different techniques, and with the exception of pinned stones (which I haven't yet been able accomplish consistently) I haven't encountered anything I wanted to try that they haven't been able to handle. (I wrote about my favorite torches earlier this year.) But my soldering setup is the thing I get the most questions about - and it's really pretty simple.

I start with an oversized floor tile - any ceramic tile from your local home improvement store will do. I add to that a lazy susan base (from the same home improvement store) and a Solderite board. (I get mine from Contenti).

In order to use the setup safely, the Solderite board needs to be secured to the lazy susan base. I use UHU adhesive putty - the stuff you use to keep pictures from going crooked on your walls after you hang them.

It doesn't take much to secure the board to the base - just small pea-sized pieces in all four corners.

Then do the same thing on the bottom corners to secure the base to the tile. This allows the board to be turned while soldering, eliminating the need to move the torch around to heat the entire piece. 

For a lot of folks - especially people new to soldering - the process of keeping an eye on the flame, the solder, the piece and the pick, all while trying to keep the piece heated evenly, is a lot like patting your head and rubbing your stomach while standing on one leg. I first saw the turntable idea in a workshop with Richard Salley and Jessica Jordan, though an annealing pan under the board works in very much the same way. In either case, a turntable of some kind under the board means the torch doesn't need to be moved, which makes it much easier to keep track of where the flame is pointing - a much safer experience for newbies. 

Tim McCreight, in his wonderful book The Complete Metalsmith, suggests using balled up or woven binding wire on top of a soldering board as an alternative to a tripod setup. I prefer a very thin gauge of wire and a moderately dense platform of wire woven around a fairly thick coiled frame - but you should experiment to see what works best for you. The goal is to create air space between the piece and the board, which allows the heat to be amplified and reflected or bounced up to the bottom of the piece.  

The final essential items in my setup are - from left to right - a soldering pick, a pair of diamond tweezers for placing solder pallions, and a pair of long blunt nose tweezers to pick up and move hot items. I have insulated tweezers and a third hand, but I rarely use them. Even for multi-step fabrication projects, this setup is all I need most of the time.

So if you want to work bigger but aren't ready to move to tank-based torches, give this setup and a larger culinary torch a try - you may be surprised by how much you can do!

Until next time -

Freeform Friday - Swellegant patinas!

 Do you ever buy a thing that you think is going to be perfect and then put it safely away in your studio? For a year? Uh yeah... It wasn't that I forgot I had this complete set of Swellegant paints and patinas - I wanted to have a chance to play and experiment and test them out. To devote to exploring the hundreds, no, thousands of combinations and inter reactions. Right. Like that's ever going to happen. This week there weren't any pressing deadlines, and I needed to PLAY a little. So here we go!

Swellegant paints are a system comprised of a metal paint, a patina, and colorful dye-oxides. I heard of it via Christi Friesen, who has shared amazing tutorials and resources about Swellegant on her website.  And she sells it there too. But I am NOT receiving any rewards or bribes for this shameless plug.

Here I am watching paint dry. Well, watching the magic of patina happen! These pieces are polymer and had been languishing in a tray awaiting some attention and TLC. 

There are five metals paints available: brass, copper, bronze, iron, and silver. ( They are working out the kinks with the silver formula, sometimes it explodes. Just a little. Mine was gelatinous and stinky after a year... The customer service at Christi's site is out-of-this-world though!) 

There are three patinas: darkening, Verdigris and Tiffany Green/rust. There are like a million dye oxide colors. ( OK thirteen, for real.) 

Here is the story so far: One coat of metal paint, let dry. Second coat applied, and patina applied while metal paint is still wet. I spritzed mine onto the pieces.
 From L to r: Brass, Bronze, Copper - all with Tiffany green patina.

Now the fun can begin: I went back in to some pieces with metal paint to highlight the high points, accentuate the relief of the sculptural pieces. 

Tiffany green patina on iron paint creates rust. 

The brass group: dye oxides added. I used blues and greens to vary the patina colors on three pieces. On the figure/cameo piece I used white, red, brown to accentuate the figure and the trees. 

The bronze group: Lots of blues! The deep cobalt agains the bronze was so fabulous to me.. . Trying white to lighten and add interest to the owl. 

The copper group: some blue/purples added to darken the deeper areas, some lighter green and yellows added for variety. It was truly playful. I didn't feel the pressure to finish pieces for a deadline and these PC pieces had been waiting to be painted for a good while - not too precious, not too much time invested in their creation that would make me hesitate to mess them up! 

The left moon and feather are copper/tiffany/dyes. 

The right owl and feather are iron/tiffany/dyes. I am digging the rusty crusty nature of that owl, and the colors with the rust! Yes. 

So thats where I am today! I have to wait a total of 72 hours before sealing the pieces. The Swellegant system comes with a water based sealer. I have only used one patina! The tip of the creative iceberg...  After sealing them - hmmm. Tab settings! Beaded bezels! Make more! 

I am overall thrilled with this product and my results. There are infinite possibilities. My only regret - I waited so long to dive in! If you are interested in more information check Christi's site. And heather at Humblebeads wrote a stellar post, sharing her patina combinations! I for sure am going to add this to my repertoire. OH! Swellegant finishes on my Mythic Nature pieces! Whoa! 

Stay tuned here and on my blog for more "Swell" pieces. And its NOT too early to start making things for Beadfest in August! What would you like to see? Cabs? pendants? charms? beads? I would love to hear what you think! 

Thanks for stopping by - off to the studio now... 

Jenny

www.jdaviesreazor.com

Saturday Share - Ruffled Wire Components

Earlier this week, I was honored to participate in our Component of the Month Challenge/Blog Hop for March. The components were lovely porcelain pendants created by Caroline Dewison of BlueBerriBeads...we all fell in love with her unique luna moths and bees! Here is what I created...

Most of the comments on my piece mentioned my clasp, which I sort of improvised for lack of anything better to use! It turned out pretty nice, sort of rose-like, and so I thought I should play with this design a bit more.

The original one is made from 18g brass...sort of lightweight for a clasp, but it has been hammered and tumbled for strength, and the lighter weight just seemed to work with the loop on the moth. I kept the hook long just for this purpose. This time, however, I wanted to go a bit more heavy duty so I bumped the gauge up to 16 and went with copper.

I have added it to a simple wire-wrapped bracelet of copper and faceted Botswana agate. Without any other embellishments, the rosy clasp also becomes the focal.

While I was creating this one, I thought...why stop there? These would make cool earring components! So, instead of creating the hook, I made a loop, then made a second similar component and created these...

Copper, sterling earwires, and silver leaf jasper drops.

Clasp, earrings...what next? I went even heavier and bigger with 14g and turned the component into a pendant. Embellished with tiny faceted gemstone rondells (orange carnelian, citrine and tourmaline) and a pale green briolette (not sure what stone this is...similar to prehnite), this simple wire component makes a big impact.

Since I love you all, I thought I would show you how I made these fun and versatile components.

You will need:

• 8-10 inches of wire (I used 16g copper for this component)
• flush cutters
• round nose pliers
• bail making pliers
• flat nose pliers (optional)
• steel bench block
• rawhide or rubber mallet (optional)
• chasing hammer
• needle files or cup bur
• liver of sulfur (optional)

• Flush cut end of wire.

• File smooth, using needle files and/or cup bur (I love this tool...I use it all the time, especially on earwires).

• Hammer the end flat...this aids in starting the coil.

• Using your round nose pliers, start curling the wire around into the beginnings of a spiral.

• Position flat nose pliers right behind the coil and bend; reposition at the top of your first bend and repeat in the other direction. Please note that these do not have to be exact...as you can see, mine are pretty wonky, but that is what makes it so cool! You can also use your round nose  pliers, or any others you have on hand. Obviously, for lighter gauge wire, you would want to go with a smaller bend.

• Once you have a few inches of bent wire, start coiling it around. You can hold the initial coil with your flat nose pliers or some nylon jawed ones, but I usually just use my fingers. You may need to make more bends as you go.

• Keep working the shape until it is pleasing to you.  

• Work harden with a rawhide/rubber mallet (I skipped this and went straight to flattening with my chasing hammer, then texturizing with the ball peen side).

• Bend your wire straight up where you want your hook to be.

• Using your bail-making pliers, position behind the wire coming straight up from the component and form your hook. I like using the smaller side and keeping the hook and unobtrusive as possible.

• Not shown...while you still have the wire on the pliers, press down a with your fingers and curve the hook in toward the ruffled spiral to give the hook a nicer shape. You can leave the bottom straight, or use your flat nose pliers and give it an outward bend, like earwires.

• Not shown...measure the hook and cut if needed. File with needle file or cup bur. Work harden by tapping sides with mallet on the steel block.

• Optional...patina with LOS or your choice of patina.

• Add to your beautiful piece of jewelry

Melissa Meman
Melismatic Art Jewelry
Art. Life. Love.