Scrap Metal Rustic Bead Cap/Spacers

Scrap silver, I don't know about you but I have a whole tub of the stuff! I know that you can send it back to be recycled but it always seems like a lot of fuss for not a lot of return, so I challenged my self to try and use some of it.

Piles of Scrap

The first thing I did was sort through it to see what I was dealing with, I left all of the sheet metal, large silver blobs (from when I get over enthusiastic with the soldering torch) and failed soldered pieces in the tub and then piled up tiny pieces (less then 5mm), coils (from my chainmail days), eye pins, cut jump rings, lengths and wrapped wire. 

I'm not going to lie this was mind numbingly boring and I did not get half way through before I decided that I had plenty, now on to the fun part!

Coils

I started with the coils and cut any that were longer then 8mm in half, they were then placed onto the charcoal block and heated slowly until the outer surface fused together forming one piece. I did play around with the heat and found that if you turn the torch up really hot and pull away just before the whole thing melts into a blob (timing can be difficult) you can get them to look less coiled and a lot more rustic/ancient looking!

Once melted I put them into the pickling pot and moved onto forming bead caps.

Forming Bead Caps

The eye pins, cut jump rings, lengths and wrapped wire pieces were all arranged on the charcoal block into small piles making sure that there was a hole in the middle and then again slowly heated until they fused together making sure that all sharp edges were either tucked in or melted.

Soldering Balls

I then melted the tiny pieces of silver to form balls and soldered them onto the larger soon to be bead caps (you could possibly fuse them together but I really liked the shape and did not want to risk melting the whole lot into yet another blob) and then into the pickle pot with the others.

Finishing Up

Once removed from the pickle pot everything was rinsed/neutralised and cleaned up with a brass brush the spacers were hammered slightly on the anvil to make the ends more even and the larger bead caps were domed in a doming block and then all was thrown into the tumbler for half an hour while I sorted through beads to put with them!

Spacers and Bead Caps

Over all I rather like how they turned out, and the first thing I made with them....

Ancient Pendent

A simple pendent made of Roman glass discs topped with an ancient dig bead, now to patina or not to patina that is the question!!!

The Making of a Rustic Stoneware Coin Pendant

This month, I am providing my rustic stoneware coin pendants for the August Component of the Month.  I thought it might be fun to show off how these pieces are made.

First 3 Steps

All rustic stoneware coin pendants start their life as a ball of speckled brown stoneware.  I then flatten each ball and impress the texture into it.  I have two texture sizes I use for these pieces.

Removing the center

Once each piece has been textured, I remove the center using a variety of cutters.  

Greenware coin pendants

The pendants are then left to dry for several days.

Cleaning up the pendant

Once the pendants are completely dry, I clean up any rough patches with water and a sponge.

The little kiln and some bisque

After all the pieces are cleaned up, I load them into my little kiln and bisque-fire them.

Glazed bisque

The next step is to glaze the back and the textured portion of the pendants.

A tray of glazed pendants

I then use a wet sponge to remove some of the glaze, leaving glaze only in the textured sections.  This leaves much of the brown stoneware exposed.

Adding crackle glaze

After the initial glaze, I apply a white crackle glaze to each piece.  This helps give the piece that primitive, aged look.

Tray of glazed pieces

Once I have enough pieces to fill my large kiln, I load it up and turn it on.  The kiln will run for several hours and I'll unload it the following morning.

Finished pendants

If all goes according to plan (it doesn't always), then these are the fabulous end result!  Thankfully, we had zero issues with the kiln and all of them came out great.  And that's how rustic stoneware coin pendants are born!

Happy Beading!

P.S. If you are sad that you weren't randomly selected for the COM, I do have some of these pieces available for purchase in my Etsy shop, so you can still play along!  

August Component of the Month Giveaway!

It's time for the August Component of the Month Giveaway!

Rustic stoneware coin pendants

Up for grabs this month is one of my rustic stoneware coin pendants!  Each piece is made to look like an ancient finding just dug up from the depths of the earth!

Want to play along? Here are the rules…

• I will giveaway 1 stoneware coin pendant (chosen at random) to each of the 2 winners selected randomly from those who leave a comment below this post. Your comment MUST include your EMAIL AND BLOG address so we can contact you should you win.
• Please — only leave a comment if you can commit to creating a finished piece and blogging about it on the reveal date.
• The names of the 2 winners will be announced on Tuesday, August 4, 2015.
• This giveaway is open to US and international countries, but please be aware that these will be posted from the US and international addresses will have longer postage times… sometimes up to 3 weeks.
• The blog reveal will take place on Sunday, August 30, 2015.

Good luck!

~Diana P.

Suburban Girl Studio LLC

On My Clay Table

I'm FINALLY back in the studio making beads again.  I've been lacking bead mojo for awhile due to a variety of reasons.  It was nice to be back in the studio but I'm taking things slow.  The focus right now is to catch up on swaps I owe people, fulfillment of pieces for event donations and restocking the shop with some popular pieces.  Hopefully once these things are done, I can spend some time just playing and get some of my mojo back.  Let's have a little peek...

Porcelain

Here's the block of porcelain before I got to work.  I love the weird, earthy and musty smell it has.  

Porcelain slab

The first order of business was to roll out a slab of the porcelain.  I pulled a bunch of leaves outside for the autumn collection.  Because I use real leaves, I have a limited time in which to make this collection.  Once the cool weather rolls in and the leaves fall off the trees, I can't make more of these pieces.  They truly are seasonal work.

Porcelain leaves

I made a series of buttons for a friend who does leatherwork and the rest are pendants and charms destined for the shop and the Ceramic Art Bead Market. 

Leaf cabochons

There was also the business of making lots and lots of little leaf cabochons for Beki Haley's Beaders Dream Retreat.  I'm sponsoring the event, so each attendee will get a porcelain or stoneware leaf cabochon in their bag.  I am working on the stoneware pieces today while the little kiln runs a bisque-firing.

Porcelain beads

I'm also running dangerously low on beads so I rolled some up.  Most of these will be glazed to coordinate with the leaf pieces.  

Speckled stoneware

After I completed the porcelain work, I cracked open my speckled brown stoneware.  Mmmmm there was that nice earthy and musty smell again.

Rustic stoneware coins and beads

I made a bunch of rustic stoneware coins for the shop AND for next months Component of the Month (you won't want to miss that one).  I used the center cut-outs to roll some beads.  I also made a bunch of disc beads for a wedding order I'm trying to complete.  

As of right now, I'm still working in stoneware and I've got a bisque-load running in the garage.  Sea urchin cabochons and more little leaf cabochons are on the table today.  I'm really looking forward to completing this batch because I plan to move away from so much production work and start playing more.  I'd like to spend some time coming up with new designs and also working in art that isn't necessarily bead-related.  Change is good.  

So, what's on your work table?

Happy Beading!

AJE Eye Candy

I'm going for earthy and rustic blues today.



Love these Earthenware Disc Beads by  BHClaysmith



Beautiful Night Life discs by LoriLochner



Rustic Sky Blue Ceramic Discs by JanelGoolsby



Cleopatra's Hoop Verdigris Charm PatinaWorx



Love these Dusty Denim Clay Grid Shards MarshaNealStudio



Raku Bricks from starspiritstudio

And there's still time to join us for Component of the Month and Blog Hop, just leave a comment HERE choosing a Large or Small Component and I'll invoice you. More details HERE.

Kristi

KristiBowmanDesign.Etsy

KristiBowmanDesign.Artfire

KristiBowmanDesign Blog