Headpin Tutorial Round-Up

As part of our August art headpin design challenge (click the link for more details), I thought it might help to do a round-up of some of the tutorials we have written over the years here at AJE that utilize art headpins. Any of these tutorials can be altered into something different...the earring tutorial doesn't have to be earrings. It could be a pendant. I know when I make headpins, I try to make the wire pretty long so the designer has more options.

Just a couple weeks ago Sue shared this earring tutorial using her cute flower headpins:

Last month Sue shared her flower disc bead earring tutorial which includes an option for using art headpins:

In this 2-for-1 things to do with headpins tutorial, Caroline shows how she made a ring and a link with a headpin.

In her tutorial Simple Headpin on Headpin Earrings, Niky shares an elegant way to use art headpins:

Sue shares tips on mixing and matching headpins with beads to make earring stacks.

Caroline shares a tutorial on how to use headpins to make some funky leather bangles.

I share a basic funky wire wrapping technique for headpins that takes longer to describe than to actually complete. I've used this technique for earrings and pendants and it always looks great.

Hopefully something here sparks your imagination! Have fun creating with headpins and don't forget to join in the challenge for the month of August.

Turning coins into clasps

I have always loved coins, and tend to think of them as little works of art. Then came a love of jewelry making and the next thing I know I'm making coins into beads and clasps and here is how I do it....

Doming Coins

First I dome the coins using my dapping block and brass mallet, it is always best to start off on the biggest size dome and then work your way through the smaller sized ones because if you just go straight to the smaller size you can crack/split the coins. Two or three sizes is normally sufficient.

Making hook clasps

Next I make the hook clasps, If I am using silver coloured coins then I use sterling silver wire if the coins are not silver then I tend to use copper wire. The wire needs to be around 1.2mm thick about 16 gauge or the clasp will not be strong enough when finished and will bend.

Checking the Fit

The size of the clasp depends on which coin I am using and the finished clasp needs to sit comfortably inside the domed coin.

Cleaning the Insides

Next the inside of the coins need to be spotlessly clean for the soldering I tend to do this with either the ridge remover part of a nail buffer pulled off the buffing block or some fine grit sand paper.

Spotless

It is important that they are really clean or the solder will not flow properly! I also give the hook clasps a once over with the sandpaper just to make sure there is no grease or dirt on there either.

Ready to solder

Then all suited up in my protective clothing (apron and goggles) I set to soldering! I use easy solder paste on the two places where the clasp touches the coin and prop the clasp in place using tweezers and a few coins to hold the tweezers in place. While soldering I heat the coin and not the wire as I don't want the wire to melt (using the tweezers like this also helps to protect the wire from over heating).

Cleaning up

After a dip in safety pickle and a rinse in bicarb the coins come out looking pretty ghastly, so I give them a rub over with a brass brush to remove some of the crusty stuff and throw them into the tumbler for an hour. The tumbler dose not bring the coins back to silver but it dose clean them up a little and helps to work harden and polish the clasp.

Polishing

They come out of the tumbler shiny but still rather black so I use my rotary tool and a block of rouge to polish them up and bring back the silver colour.

All Shiny

There you have it shiny coin clasps!

Silver Treatments on Glass

Silver Treatments on Glass Tutorial - First Published on Artisan Whimsey

Silver Treatments on Glass Beads

I originally published this tutorial at Artisan Whimsey - I'm recycling it today for your reading pleasure!

There are many ways to add silver to your glass beads!  I'll list a few here today, if you have any other suggestions, please post them in the comments! I'm always looking for new ideas!

The first way to add silver to your glass beads is with fine silver wire.  I'm not sure why, but you are supposed to use fine silver wire as opposed to the silver jewelry wire you might have on hand.  I order my fine silver wire from Monsterslayer.  I like them and they always have up-to-date pricing as the silver market is so volatile lately.  I use 30 gauge silver wire, but there are different gauges available.  I like 30 gauge because it's more delicate.  If you want to use higher gauge wire, you can get different effects, like actually placing thought-out dots on your bead!  

I cut easily usable lengths of silver wire (about 9 inches or so) and clip the hemos at the measure I want to use.  If I'm applying it to a round bead, I usually clip at about 2-3 inches.  Fine silver wire will disappear in your flame, so make sure you work waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out at the end of the flame.  Barely touch the silver wire to the bead under the flame, move the bead away, and quickly wrap the wire around the bead.  When you've reached the end of your clipped wire, flame cut the silver, and then very delicately melt the silver wire at the end of the flame into the bead.  This is how you get the trailing dots.  Here's a photo of beads I made with silver wire:

Next is using silver foil.  You can use silver foil, or silver leaf.  I like silver foil, because it's easier to handle and easier to cut with a scissors.  If you use leaf, you just have to be more careful with it, as it can easily blow around your bench due to your ventilation system, or passers-by!  I buy packets of 25 sheets of silver foil, usually from Robin Koza of Glass Diversions.  I cut the single sheet into the sizes I want (for a 12mm bead I usually use an eighth of a sheet).  Place your silver foil on your graphite marver, or other surface you use, on your bench.  When you are done making your bead, heat up the outside of the bead very slightly, and roll it on the marver to accept the foil.  Burnish it onto the bead (make sure your bead is not mushy!) with a tool - I use my brass stump shaper.  Then reintroduce the bead into the flame at the very end; you just want to melt the silver foil into the bead, not make the bead hot or mushy again.  Here's a photo of some beads I made with silver foil:

 

To make beads with silver foil and frit, just apply the silver foil as above.  When you are done with the above steps, heat the bead up again hot enough to accept the frit, roll the bead in frit, and melt it in as you usually do!  Here's a photo of a silver foil and frit bead!

 

Finally, I'll talk about silvered ivory stringer (SIS).  I enjoy this method, and there are many ways you can do it.  I'll just tell you about two of mine.  The first way I make SIS is to waft a one inch section at the end of an ivory rod in the flame, until it's hot enough to accept the silver foil.  Burnish the silver foil on with your torch mounted graphite marver, and then you are ready to pull stringer!  Melt a small blob on the end of the rod - here's where it's important to burnish very well, so the silver does not just disappear.  Pull with a tweezer or other pulling tool, and set aside on your table until cool enough to touch.  When you want to use it, hold your bead under the flame near the top, barely touch the end of the stringer in the flame and attach where you want it on your bead.  Then, under the flame but still in some heat, wrap the stringer until you are happy.  Flame cut or snap off!  Here's some beads with SIS:

 

And finally, you can make dots with SIS as well!  For this method, I like to use commercially pulled 2-3mm ivory stringer.  I simply wet my fingers with saliva and run them at the top of a stringer, and wrap the piece of foil around it.  You may have to wet your fingers multiple times to get the foil to stay.  I know, it sounds gross, but it works.  And it's not so gross!  You melt the germs off!  When I'm ready to use the stringer, I melt a very small blog at the end of the stringer rod, and apply to the bead just like any dot of glass.  To make round dots, use your brass stump shaper and push the dot gently into the bead, this will keep it round.  Then melt in as usual.  Here's a photo of beads using this method:

 

I hope you enjoyed this little post on silver.  There are many different designs you can do with silver - add enamel, baking soda, etc.  Again, if you have any other methods, I'd love to hear about them.  How about encasing silver wire?  Silver powder? 

 

Susan Kennedy

Stick a ball on it!

I have a mixed media friend who has a simple go-to whenever she can't figure out what comes next in one of her designs: she says, "Stick a bird on it!" The first time I heard her say it, I realized I have a similar go-to in my arsenal: "Stick a ball on it!"

Balls in a nest

Balls on rings

Balls everywhere! (I cheated - everything except the big one was pre-formed)

Hidden balls (in 18k gold)

I realized, as part of the design intensive retreat we did with Connie Fox earlier this year, that I really - REALLY - like using balls in my designs. The "why's" of it are complicated, but the "how's" aren't, so I thought today I'd share how to make sterling silver balls so you can use them your own work. It's a super simple way to use up scrap and add some dimension without a lot of effort.

You'll need:

• Sterling silver scrap
• Charcoal block or solderite board
• Butane torch (any size works)
• Small gram scale (completely optional)

Start by laying out a small pile of sterling silver scrap on your charcoal block. If you want all the balls to be the same size, weigh your scrap on the gram scale. (Usually, I just eyeball it.) Light your butane torch and start warming up the first pile of scrap. Do this by circling around and over it, making sure to keep the block warm immediately around the scrap. The block will glow and the silver will start to melt, pulling together into a ball. Watch the silver closely - there's a "skin" of impurities that will form around the ball, when it's still a dull orange, and then burn off as the silver turns glossy and shiny. As soon as you see the ball turn shiny, start pulling the torch away.... slowly! The goal is to let the ball cool down very gradually so that the surface of the ball doesn't wrinkle up.

Wait. Let me just show you.

(As an aside, I had fun making that video. Sorry about the sound quality and editing - we'll get better at it!)

A charcoal block works best for this, though you can use a solderite board if that's what you have. The charcoal helps to retain the heat, which helps with slower cooling. And you can see that I've used this block a lot, so the center of the top has been slightly burned out. This is actually a good thing, because as the silver balls up it has a tendency to roll off the edge of the block if you aren't careful. (Ask me how I know!) That little dip helps keep it from happening.

Once you've made the ball, you need to make the bottom flat enough to solder onto your piece. Here's how I do it (thanks Melissa Muir for showing me this technique!):

(Yeah, yeah... I'm a goofball.)

One of the things I like about this technique is that once you've sanded the bottom of the ball, you can solder it in place without having to pickle or clean it further, since sanding the bottom takes off any impurities that might keep it from soldering. This means you can pickle it later with the whole piece, making cleanup much easier and reducing the number of steps in your fabrication process.

 That's a win for me. The other win - and this is a big one - is that I am using and repurposing every single bit of sterling silver scrap and "waste" on my bench.

So that's how I make the balls I use in my designs - and I do it a lot! I hope this inspires you to hang onto all those little bits and pieces left over from your larger projects. And I hope you like the videos - they're kind of an experiment, so I'd love to know what you think!

Until next time -

Birds of a Feather...

Last fall, when I first started playing with polymer clay, I played around and created a few little birdies.  Just experiments, didn't even finish them.  I thought they were cute, but not really sure how I would pursue them.

My 1st attempt!

Fast forward to this week...I found some polymer clay on sale at Michael's and bought a bit and played a little and decided to revisit the birdies.  My 1st ones were a bit flat, although I love the addition of the flowers.  This time I tried to keep them a bit rounder, made the flowers a bit smaller and started out with a neutral base.

Here is sort of a flow chart collage of their evolution!

I wasn't sure where to go from there, but stumbled on a tutorial from an artist I admire, Staci Louise Smith, on a crackle glaze technique.  Note to self, make sure you have the correct materials before you start a process!  I had everything but the crackle glaze, but since I am impatient and want to do everything when I want to do it, used a different type than the tutorial stated that I found at Michael's...I will be ordering the kind Staci recommended. My version didn't actually crackle!

Here is where I am now...aside from the "no-crackle" finish, I am smitten by their shabby folk-art look.  I definitely see more polymer clay birds in my future!

Melissa Meman

Melismatic Art Jewelry

Art. Life. Love.

Tutorial Tour

For this post I decided to ask my AJE teammates to share their favorite tutorials with me.

Jenny Davies Reazor likes Queen Wanna Bead by Bev Herman.

I'm tickled she likes this because Bev's original piece uses one of my Ammonite Components.

Queen Wanna Bead

Here's Jenny's finished piece she made using Bev's Tutorial.

Karen Totten likes Color Drenched Metal Tutorial by Shannon German of MissFickleMedia.

Color Drenched Metal

I enjoyed the Rustic Beads Tutorial from Ginger Davis Allman of The Blue Bottle Tree.


Rustic Beads & Components

Melissa Allford Meman loves this Gemini Earrings tutorial from Iza Malczyk

Gemini Earrings

Lesley Watt chose this Agean Cuff Bracelet Tutorial by HodgePodegerie.

Agean Cuff

Linda Landig likes this tutorial for Fiesta Chandalier Earrings by Erin Siegel

Fiesta Chandelier Earrings

If you have favorite tutorials you'd like to share please feel free to leave links and info in the comments,

we'd love to know your favorites as well!

As we wind down the year
I'd like to wish you all a wonderful Holiday Season full of love, laughter and joy
and the most amazing New Year!!!

Kristi

KristiBowmanDesign.Etsy

KristiBowmanDesign on Artfire

Chestnut Brown Copper

I love, love, love the deep chestnut brown patina that is possible with copper... but it took me a long time and a lot of experimentation to perfect the process so I could get it consistently. The thing I love best about this is that the resulting patina is very dimensional, which may be hard to see in these photos - but give it a try yourself and you'll see.

Start with a copper piece that has been pickled, neutralized, and brushed clean with a brass brush. The "neutralized" part of that is really important - use baking soda in solution with tap water. Un-neutralized pickle on a piece of metal can react to the patina and sealants over time.

This piece is really clean - what you're seeing are reflections on the metal.

Place the piece on your soldering block (choose a clean spot!) and gently heat it with your torch until it darkens. Make sure it's completely dried off before you do this, since the water can leave mineral deposits on the metal as it rapidly heats and evaporates.

Quench the piece, then use a green scrubby and running water to clean it. Don't use soap! Just the green scrubby and a little elbow grease will be enough to brush back the patina on the high points and even out the color. Be sure to dry the piece thoroughly before moving on to the next step - any water left on the piece will dilute the patina as it comes in contact with the metal.

Sorry this is a little out of focus!

Get your work area set up with the darkening liquid patina of your choice and either running water or a water bath nearby. I use Novocan Black in this demonstration, but liver of sulphur gel works great too. Then, quickly submerge your piece in the liquid and take it right back out, putting it in the water bath or rinsing it under running water. Really: just dip it in and take it out, then rinse it thoroughly.

Repeat this step several times - dry off the piece, dip it quickly into the patina, then rinse thoroughly. Every other dip in the patina, use the green scrubby to even out the color - no soap or cleanser, just the scrubby and some water. After anywhere from four to six dips in the bath, you'll have a beautiful, even deep brown patina with highlighted texture.

Sorry this one's out of focus too!

Put the piece in a tumbler for at least an hour - if you have a vibratory tumbler, you can get the same effect in 20 minutes or so. You're looking for a deeply burnished surface that glows, and you'll start to be able to see the dimensionality of the patina.

Toss in a piece of large link copper chain to tumble with your piece - it helps create a random organic texture.

After an hour of tumbling, these pieces have mellowed to a beautiful, deep chestnut.

Use your fingers to rub a little bit of Renaissance Wax (I love that stuff!!) into the surface of the piece. A little goes a long way, but you want to make sure you get thorough coverage. Set the piece aside and allow to dry for at least 15 minutes - longer is better. Then buff with a soft cloth.

All of these pieces have had Ren Wax applied, but only the center one has been buffed. Note the matte appearance of the other two?

The Renaissance Wax will continue to harden over several hours - this is my favorite finish of all because it is so durable and imparts such a pretty glow - not too shiny, just right.

All the pieces buffed.

So that's how I do it - I get consistently deep, rich, dimensional color and beautifully highlighted textures with this technique, and the finish is extremely durable and stable.

Do you have any tips to add? How do you add patina to your copper?

Until next time!