A penny for your thoughts? Thoughts on coins...

Happy Boxing Day to our UK readers, team mates, and friends!

 (The exact etymology of the term "boxing day" is unclear. There are several competing theories, none of which is definitive. The European tradition, which has long included giving money and other gifts to those who were needy and in service positions, has been dated to the Middle Ages, but the exact origin is unknown. It is believed to be in reference to the Alms Box placed in places of worship to collect donations to the poor. Also, it may come from a custom in the late Roman/early Christian era, wherein metal boxes placed outside churches were used to collect special offerings tied to the Feast of Saint Stephen,which in the Western Church falls on the same day as Boxing Day.)

From Boxing Day to coins wasn't that far of a creative association if you think if the Medieval alms boxes. And It is most definitely coins that have inspired this post.

Examples of ancient coins, many of them Greek. 

I want to start with Niky Sayers of Silver Niknats - for she was the driving source of inspiration to me for this topic. We recently participated in the Beads of Courage Charm swap and Auction, which I know you heard about here. I received a coin "locket" made from a 40's era copper British farthing. (pictured below, canvas backdrop) It thrilled me no end. The bird is a wren - at times called "Jenny wren" and there are myriad folklore and tales associated with the bird... There is a garnet inside, a secret treasure. I love her use of coins, both her creative vision, and the recycling nature of the coins as material. And I admit to being an Anglophile - if you have seen any of my tiles and shrines you know they are inspired by myth and lore, mainly that of the UK, Ireland, etc. 

The six pence coin ( top left) pictures the four plants representing the UK: Tudor rose/England, thistle/Scotland, leek/Wales, Shamrock/N. Ireland.  Thanks to Niky for the use of her pix. 

So coins. Coins IN jewelry. Coins as material to make jewelry... not just a wonderful coin, prong set simply... on a chain. But more integrated... Here are my inspirations: 

Richard Salley. These older pieces of his show his mastery of mixing found objects, wire, metal. The union of quarter and a watch casing as the front of a hinged locket? Brilliant. Found washers, steel wire, visually compelling mechanisms that are simple and function flawlessly. 

Keith LoBue. Keith is a Stuffsmith, an artist working with all matter of materials and found objects to make wearable sculpture. This spinner ring of his showcases a three penny coin, and the patina of age  is gorgeous. 

Hairy Growler. Caroline, my fellow AJE member mentioned this UK artist to me... And his work is... well, just look! I am in love! His take on reworking older coins is beyond creative. I really appreciated the inclusion of the original coin in the images - to see King George and then the altered version really illustrates the amount of work carved/engraved into each piece. And of course - the moon hare is a favorite!!! 

Stacey Lee Webber. I had the good fortune to meet Stacey at the ACC Craft Show in Baltimore a year or so ago. It was so interesting to see these pieces in person! Taking a commonplace coin and elevating it, challenging our associations of a mundane object, given and used... now becoming a treasure, a work of art. Really interesting! 

I am inspired by these artists and more - coins are miniature works of art, designed and carved by artists whose names are not recorded for posterity... I find coins can be very evocative souvenirs of a place, a trip, a time. I plan a more hands on coin post in a few, when the new year has me back in my studio. 

I hope you are all enjoying the post holiday period! Have a merry holiday - wishing you all the best! 

Upcycling - Part Two

In my last post, I showed you some raw electrical copper and some small ceramic tiles I was planning on upcycling into a new creation.  I wanted to show you my progress.

This is the raw copper I was using from an electrical job I worked on.  It's 12 gauge copper, I determined, so it needed to be annealed before I could do anything with it!

 This is the copper after annealing and hammering.

 This is the copper after adding some texture.  Have to anneal again to make it straight!

 Copper after being annealed, it has a lot of firescale on it.  You can get rid of this easily with pickle.  I use warm pickle, I don't have a pickle pot so I just make a fresh batch each time. Maybe some day I'll get myself a pot just for pickle!

  This is the copper after pickling, then patinating with Liver of Sulphur, and doing a light sand on it to bring out highlights.  Filed the ends to make them smooth.  Then I sealed it with renaissance wax.

 Arranging the tiles.  I found out E6000 glue will not stick to a piece polished with renaissance wax, so I had to sand the area where the tiles were going to go.

 Making sure I like the placement of the tiles.

 These tiles are finally glued on.  I now have to decide what type of necklace to make with this pendant.  I really like it as a statement to what you can do with "spare parts" but don't know that I would actually wear something like this - would you?

Susan Kennedy
SueBeads

Upcycling? Recycling? Which am I doing????

I'm not sure what the exact title of this post should be, because I'm not sure what I'm doing!  I am "re-using" some things in a different way so I suppose it's both.  I'll start at the beginning!  Below you see my work bench - excuse the mess.

 The last time I made glass beads (months ago), I noticed that the sheet metal that was applied to my wood table was coming up at the seam where hot glass generally flies.

 You can see that it's right under my torch, and was going to continue to happen.  I didn't want the table to get totally ruined because it has some sentimental value - it was my grandmother's kitchen table!  Also, I was concerned that at some point, a hot enough piece of glass might start the table on fire...

 So my boyfriend made me a table top out of wood, and he covered it with ceramic tile.

 Ever the professional, he couldn't let it go without adding a little finishing detail!  He's just like that!

 When he was finished with the edge, he had a few pieces of this small square tile left.  They were sitting on another table of mine, and I just couldn't help but think I could do something creative with them, other than mosaic.  I guess this is the upcycling part.

 That's when I thought about using them for a pendant.  I really like the color combination and even though they aren't using any of my own beads as the pendant, it would be my creation.  So, how to connect them?

 Since my boyfriend is a general contractor, when I am out on jobs with him and we are doing electrical work, I get all the leftover copper wire!  This is probably 14 gauge copper wire (I think) and I think this might be my answer.  So this would be the recycling part.

I'm going to try and flatten the wire, and use it on the back of the tiles to connect them.  I think I'll texture the wire, use E6000 to glue them together, and have a little bit of the wire showing between the tiles.  The bail will probably start out at the top of the piece of wire as a simple curve.  I hope it works.  I can see a necklace with this!

Stay tuned, my next post will be my progress and (hopefully) completion of this little project!

 Susan Kennedy
SueBeads Etsy
SueBeads Web Site

Using Scrap Copper to Create your own Elements, a Tutorial

A girl needs to play sometimes, and I've spent a little bit of time this week using up scrap copper bits during my playtime.

If you use sheet metal in your designs, you may be like me and have a difficult time getting rid of it. If you're using precious metals, you can always send it in to places like Rio Grande for credit or money. But what about base metals like copper and brass? Don't throw it out, because you can do some really interesting things with it.

For example, I enameled scrap copper to accent the focal in the necklace I made for the Kalmbach bead soup party:

The good news about using scrap to play? If it turns out ugly or it gets messed up, there's nothing lost, except time. However, even time isn't wasted because it's a learning experience.

So let's start with this copper piece snippet. It came from a much larger sheet that I cut discs from. For this one I thought it might be fun to not cut a straight line to remove the holes from the rest of the sheet. Because I live life on the edge.

If you want your copper to have some texture, do it now. I did some hammering on my piece.

File all edges, corners, etc. you don't want sharp bits.

Next, anneal your piece of copper. I usually use my lampworking torch (a Mini CC) to anneal, but for this tutorial, I used a butane torch. My favorite is the Lenk 500 LPT. And yes, I have several varieties...about 5 or 6. It may or may not be excessive.

If this is your first time annealing copper, wear eye protection, tie hair back, make sure clothing is natural fiber (cotton) and doesn't flop around where it can get in the flame. Also, make sure you are working on and around fire proof surfaces, have a cup of water in a heat proof cup for quenching, and a pair of pliers to hold the metal.

You do not need to burn the crap out of the metal. Just heat it softly...the metal will change color.

Once your metal is annealed and quenched, use one of those multi-grit nail buffers to clean some of the fire scale off the piece.

Make a couple random folds. Using a chasing hammer, hammer along the fold. Unfold the metal. It will look like this:

Anneal the metal again, clean it, and make more folds.

Hammer the folds.

Unfold.

Repeat until you're happy with the results.

File any new sharp edges created by the folds.

You can also leave folds in place like in the final result below. And while torch-uring the metal is fun, now you get to start designing with the results. I'm thinking this one will make a great pendant and I will use some bronze wire (my new favorite wire...I LOVE that stuff) to trap the bead in the hole.

Here's another scrap copper pendant that will become a pendant.

This was a long strip of disc holes that I made into a cuff by folding it in half lengthwise then twisting the length of it then forming it onto a bracelet mandrel. I then enameled it in white and cobalt.

If you try this, please comment with a link to your results, or post it on the Art Jewelry Elements Facebook page.

Have a great week and hoping your holiday season is stress free.

-Jen Cameron

Glass Addictions

 

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