Textured Copper Jewelry workshop

Just spent the day with three fun, creative ladies making textured bracelets. I hadn't done this workshop in a while and they made it so easy and fun. They did a great job. We made earring to match but I forgot to take pictures of them. 

Diane

Linda

Heather

Thanks for a great day ladies. I look forward to seeing you in the studio again sometime.

Keep Creating!

Wendy

Show preparations.

Urban Craft

I'm so excited to be part of this great show on June 9th. I went to check it out and do some shopping at their last show in March and the variety and creativity of vendors was awesome. So come on out to see me. I'm busy getting ready for it.

I've been busy with my resin and even have a few new designs.

I finished up these new designs the other day. How do you like the asymmetrical look? I always get a little chuckle when people tell me they aren't comfortable with things that are a little off. I have to admit I do feel that it takes a little more effort to do something asymmetrically. Sometimes I layer things a leave them for a while before I decide if they're okay or not.

And here are some I hope to get finished today. The two on the top are going to be bracelets, I just haven't decided if they are going to turn into leather cuffs or chain and bead bracelets. The lower gear one is going to be a necklace. I will probably just add some dangles and hang it on a chain but I can never be sure until it happens.

So let me know what you think. Are you an asymmetrical or symmetrical person? Do you like cuff or bead and chain bracelets? I love getting your comments.

Happy Creating!

Wendy

Ottawa Bead Society Challenge

Although I'm not a beader last year I decided to join the Ottawa Bead Society. It's great place to get inspired by other jewelry makers. They've had some great demos and I always enjoy the show and tell of peoples jewelry creations. One of the first meetings I went to last year was the reveal of their first bead challenge. It was so interesting to see the outcome that I was glad to hear they were doing it again this year and of course signed up to be part of it. The challenge involves groups of 3 people over a 3 month period. How it works is, the first person creates something with beads and passes it along to the second person at the next meeting and they add to the creation and then passes it along to the third person to finish it and bring to the next meeting for the big reveal. Well I was the third person in my group and this is what I received to work on.

I was loving the colours as soon as I saw it because I knew copper would look great with it. My challenge was the strings and loose ends that came with it. Not being much of a beader I was unsure of what to do with them but after consulting with a local beading store I learned a few new tricks and was able to finish it off just the way I wanted. 

I made an etched copper disc to be a backdrop for the beaded circle and finished off the ends with some interesting caps and beads and my usual adjustable copper hook. I think I was so lucky to get this challenge. There were 10 groups in all and the results were spectacular but this was the one that was most my colours which made the design part of the challenge fairly easy for me. 
I didn't manage to get a photo of all the other ones but I'll let you know when they get them up on their web site.
For my first jewelry challenge I think I can say it was a success. I really enjoyed doing it!

Happy Creating!
 Wendy

Wire wrapped chain necklace.

I finished this necklace today. I made the wire wrapped chain a while ago and couldn't decide what I wanted to do with it. So it sat on my desk where I could keep an eye on it or it could keep an eye on me, I'm not sure which. Lately I've had my mind on making multi strand bracelets. Now this chain was too long for that so I thought I'd try a multi-strand necklace without a pendant. Most of my necklaces are all about the pendant and then deciding what to put the pendant on. So this was a change of pace for me. After trying a number of different kinds of strands I didn't end up with as many as I thought I would, but these things happen. After wearing it all day I may just have to keep this for myself.

I noticed that I don't get blogging as much as I'd like to and if you'd like to see more of my day to day happenings and finished work you might want to head over and like my facebook page. I seem to keep up there a little better. Not that I'm going to forget my amazing blogging friends, just more options and I'm all about the options.

Happy Creating.

Wendy

And the winner is...

I seem to have lost a day. Sorry I was suppose to draw the winner for Monday's tag giveaway yesterday. OH well better late than never. 

So the winner of this weeks tag is NZescapes. Congratulations I'll send that out to you as soon as I get your mailing information.

Well another week has gone by.  It's getting that time of year again when Christmas shows are about to start, so a lot of my time is being spent preparing for them. I know I should work all year to have enough inventory for them but it doesn't seem to work that way. My head has been spinning with new designs and new techniques I want to try but that is not necessarily a good thing at this time. So I will try to give myself a little time for exploring but mostly stick to tried and true designs or variations of them from the past. Ya like I have control!!? Oh well I need to tell myself these thing anyway.

 These two necklaces are variations of past ones. I've been working a lot with horizontal rectangles either etched or textured. These are both etched and then elements are riveted on. I think it's the first time I've used a fairy on a necklace and these flowers are different variations of ones I've done in the past. I've also been playing around with different ways to hang the pendants instead of just a chain. The first one has a combination of Adventuring and seed beads, while the second has a combination of seed beads and a fine brass chain. I've used this chain and bead combination a few times. It's a great way to add some extra colour to a piece.

Well I better get back to creating jewelry.

Happy Creating!

Wendy

Herbfest

I've been a busy jewelry maker this week for the Herbfest show this Sunday July 29. It's my first time participating in this show so I'm excited to see how it goes. I've been to the show a few times and highly recommend it. They have lovely gardens to view and a great variety of vendors. Check out their web site to see their schedule of activities.  The Tin Man usually finds lots of food samples to taste!

I still have much to do but I just wanted to share with you a few of the pieces I finished this week to bring along.

 I recently purchased these blue/green crystals and just had to use them some where. I'm hoping to get a bracelet done with these crystals too.LOL

 My birds nest necklaces are always popular so I was able to finish 5 this week. They are all different designs. On this one I let the pearls take over.

I'm still having so much fun with making and using funky dangles on almost everything. I can't seem to get enough of them. This flower has a layer of leather for a little change .

Well I'm off to make more jewelry and start to pack things up. I hope to see you at the Herbfest!

Happy Creating!

Wendy

Play and dream

I hope this long weekend you find a little time to...

And maybe a little time to...

Happy Creating

Wendy

New Design.

This winter has not been terrible productive for jewelry making for me. I don't know if it's the winter doldrums  or just not having any deadlines that has caused this but I'm trying to get back at it.

This design has been slow in the creating. The idea of riveting together some etched copper pieces has been floating around my head for many months. When I finally got around to doing it I realized that it needed something more and that's when the dangles came into play.

This bracelet that I made last year came to mind, so I made more dangles similar to these. I thought I would just have it on a copper chain but this didn't really do it justice so I made some bead and funky wire connectors and that did the trick.

I'm pleased with how it turned out. What do you think?

Wendy

January confusion...

Winter visitor.

January is a month with great expectations for me. Unfortunately it never lives up to my expectations for it. I've realized that their are a few things that I do to create this disappointing phenomenon. During the fall months when I get busy with shows, workshops and then Christmas preparation I use January as my "In" box for anything I don't have time to do. I just tell myself I'll have lots of time in January so I can get it off my mind at the moment. Also without meaning to, I think I get caught up in the the New Year resolutions, list making...it's a new year anything and everything is possible, excitement.

Then January arrives and with it comes my long list of things that didn't get done the previous year and my long list of dreams for the coming year. And the fall and Christmas seasons have left me with little energy for these list. The first few weeks I recuperate with small easy task and lots of Tai Chi. The Tin man works outside and with the harsh Canadian winters here he is often found at home in January. This can be great company when I'm hibernating but something distracting from getting to those long lists.

Although I was slow as usual at getting thing going in January I did do some creating and I think I may have even learned how to prevent this dilemma next year. LOL!

 I got some etching done.

Did some hammering, sawing and stamping. I'm trying out some new shapes and possible new clasps. This bunch is ready to be antiqued and tumbled.

So although the first month of the year is already gone I'm kind of glad to have it over with. I'm ready for you February...bring it on!

Wendy

Just part of the journey...and my first tutorial!

For the most part I'm a self taught Artist. I have no formal training other than taking a few workshops here and there. I love to explore and teach myself a variety of techniques.

So when I decided I wanted to combine metal and leather, I just went ahead and got started. It all went well until it was time to attach the copper to the leather. I had seen a few examples of this kind of think on line and my first impression was that the metal had been attached with wire.  After some time fighting with the wire, copper and leather, I discovered that this was not going to be as easy as my brain had led me to believe it would be, as is so often the case. When I get stuck on an idea my best solution is to start doing some google searches. This usually delivers endless suggestions for how something should or could be done. But in this case I came up with next to nothing. Not one tutorial or video to be found. Etsy as usual was a great inspirational source but I could only guess at how some of the lovely leather and metal cuffs had been combined. So it was back to the drawing board. I started to think about any conceivable method of attaching these two elements. It wasn't long before I had a number of methods to try. So I went ahead and tried them all

With this first one I attached it with waxed linen. Something I had handy from doing some book binding. Once the holes were made in the leather and copper I sewed it together. For fun I added some rivets to the leather band with my Crop-a-dile.

The next one I decided to try some mini nuts and screws. I had bought these earlier this year but hadn't tried them yet. Although they are very small to work with they proved to be very easy to use. I was able to cut the extra length of the screw off with my wire cutters and just give the ends a little sanding with my metal file. I will definitely be using these more in some upcoming projects.

On these last two I used rivets and my Crop-a-dile. I was able to use the Crop-a-dile to make the holes in the metal and the leather and then set the rivets. On the tan one I added flowers with more rivets to the band.

I started out thinking if I try lots of different methods for attaching metal to leather, I would at least find one that worked well or that I like. But in the end I discovered three methods that are quite easy to accomplish and I really love the look of.

So what do you think? Which method is your favourite?

And let me know how my first tutorial went. Did I give you enough information or too much? I can take it, let me know how I can improve.

Also if you know of any other methods for this I'd love to hear about them.

Wendy

Show prep.

I'm still plugging away at finishing up some pieces for Fibrefest this weekend. I'm in the assembly stage. I have a number of copper focal pieces ready to have things added to them and then put on some kind of chain.

 This banner design is a new one for this year. I enjoy making a bunch of different word banners and then I lay them out on the table and chose what charms and beads will go with the word. No 2 ever come out the same. It's also one of my favourite every day necklaces to wear because it's simple and very comfortable but the word is great inspiration for my day.

 The word Bloom seems to pop up a lot in my work this year. I think it's to remind me to do just that.

BLOOM WHERE YOU ARE PLANTED!

This necklace sat on my work table for some time as I decided if it needed more than one flower. I was so tempted to rivet more flowers on but I loved the etched background so much I didn't want to hide any more of it. So I solved my dilemma by hanging a butterfly and flower at the top.  I've been playing with creating different kinds of chains lately. This one is seed beads woven through a simple copper chain. Sometimes I just get tired of hanging everything on a plain chain.

I have a little jewelry break this morning as I head out for some Tai Chi but I'll be back at it this afternoon.

Have a creative day!

Wendy

New bracelets

Here's what I was up to this weekend. Found some time to finish off these two bracelets I started a while back. I'm slowly getting use to the jewelry creating process. I find it quite different than other things I create  It's been a little frustrating and difficult to concentrate on one piece because of the waiting time for some of the metal processes that I do like tumbling, etching, antiquing etc.

Sometimes when I have a vision of what I want to create I lose it during the process. Things seem to go in their own direction and I've learned to trust in the process. I think I need to make myself a sign "Trust in the Process" to remind myself sometimes though. Or maybe a bracelet...oh here we go again!

So what did you create this weekend?

Birds and birdhouses.

I had a very productive day today. Finished off a few of the necklaces that you saw on my desk yesterday. And even got a couple of them listed on Etsy.

 I tried some different chain, bead and ribbon combinations for a change. The embossed bird in the middle is a fine copper chain entwined through a purpley brown seed bead. I've done this combo a few times and really like the look.

Here I used a new kind of silk ribbon with some thin leather. I'm not sure yet if I like this ribbon. It's got raw edges and I'm not sure if it's going to keep fraying or not. I guess I'll have to wear it to see how it holds up.

So that was my day, how was yours?

Sneak Peek.

This is just a quick post to tease you a bit. I'm almost ready for tomorrows Handmade Harvest show. I've been busy trying out some new designs.

This bracelet is made with textured copper discs and carnelian beads. I have 3 more similar bracelets I hope to get together by tomorrow. No pressure!!


These earrings are just one of many new design I've been playing with. Some are etched, some are textured with hammers and some are riveted.

So that's all you get. Come and see me at Handmade Harvest tomorrow from 10am to 5 pm. If you get their early enough you might even get one of the 50 Swag bags they're giving away for those that show up first.

Have a great weekend!

So busy and WOYWW.

Well I keep telling myself I'm going to blog more. I'm going to keep some kind of schedule in my life but then life gets away from me again. But I'm back on track, at least the blogging track any way. I've been busy preparing for this weekends Handmade Harvest show in the Almonte Agricultural Hall. It's a must see show on Saturday May 7 from 10am-5pm. The first 50 people get free swag bags. Now who can resist that. At the last show people were lined up before the doors opened! So now you know why I haven't been blogging and here is what I've been up to.
This is how I left my work table last night. See the white box that says ready for tumbling?That's todays job. Well I might get a few more pieces ready to tumble first, but then it's into the tumbler and then they have to be assembled into wonderful jewelry creations. Mostly I'm working on some new earring designs but a necklace and a few bracelets got in there when I lost focus on earrings. Does anyone else have this problem? When I'm set on creating one thing other things take over. I've learned to go with the flow. I usually get some of my favourite pieces during these times.
This is the long side view of my work table. As you can see I've been using my new disc cutter and dabber. Sooo much fun!! I've finally been able to make some of those designs that have been in my head for ages. You would think this would leave a little empty space in my brain but no, the more I ideas I use the more ideas come into my head. I've been thinking about what I'm grateful for lately and today I think that is what I'll be grateful for, an endless supply of creative ideas to work with!

So I'm off to get more out of my brain.

If you'd like to check out some more creative desks go over to Stamping Ground for WOYWW.

Have a wonderful creative day.

WOYWW

I'm guessing that a few of you are wondering what WOYWW is! It's okay I haven't lost it(at least no more than usual) and I didn't even make it up. It stand for What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday. Now that's a mouthful. Julia over at Stamping Ground is the creator of this weekly sneak peek into other peoples creative spaces. I follow a few blogs that participate in this event each week and I love to check out how other people work(I feel like I'm peeking in when no one is around!)

So I've finally decided to give you a glimpse of my work desks. Yes that is plural. I am lucky enough to have a very large studio with many work desks. I know it sounds wonderful but really it just means I can leave one mess and start another without having to clean up the last one. I'm a messy creator and I've come to terms with that part of me. I let her have her messy time and then every once in a while the organizer in me comes by and does a mad clean up. It seems to be working so far as long as the two don't meet, then nothing gets done!This is my crafty area, where I do paper crafts, metal embossing, stamping, painting etc. Right now I'm working on my pages for a Book swap my ATC group is doing. The theme is Black and White. Can't show you what I have done yet or I'll give away the surprise element but I've been using my India ink and pens which I hadn't had out in ages. Lot's of fun. I really must play with them more.
This is my hard core jewelry desk. It is here that my copper jewelry starts. The hammering, sawing, riveting, punching, antiquing etc happens here. The copper on the book that you can see is waiting to be antiqued, sanded and tumbled. After all the ruff messy stuff happens to it I head over to yet another work desk to add the finer details of beads and chains to finish it off. I won't show you that desk today. I have to leave something for another day right!?

I hope you enjoyed my little studio tour. I'm heading over to the Stamping Ground to sneak a peek at the many other creative souls linked there.

Have a creative day!

Textures of spring

Yes we're all looking for Spring to arrive. I wish I could say that this will help but as I look out my window it's snowing again.
This is a variation of a design I did last year. I was able to get even more dimension for the flowers now that I have my disc cutter. Now I'm looking to purchase a good hole punch for those smaller discs I've made. There's always something you just need to have next isn't there!

Have a great day!

What do you think?

I've been trying out some new designs and would really like to know what you think. This is one of my new birdhouses. I saw out the shape from a sheet of copper and then use different shapes of hammers to get the texture. It then gets antiques, sanded and put in the tumbler to polish it. The rectangle charm dangling from it is done the same and then a heishi bead riveted to it.

So what do you think. Is the birdhouse too flat, should I rivet some flowers and vines on it or leave well enough alone?

Leave a comment to let me know or e-mail me.

Banner necklaces.

This a new design I created. I first got the idea to make these little banner tabs by cutting, texturizing, stamping, antiquing and polishing some copper strips. I wasn't sure how I was going to incorporate them into a necklace right away but when I made the curl at the top it limited what I could hang it on so that made things a little easier. I chose this chain, which I have in both copper and brass, because it's one of my favourites and I don't get to use it a lot . It's on the fine side so it doesn't go with a lot of my other designs. Sometimes I use small amounts of it combined with other chain but I've never had a chance to let it stand on it's own. I think it works pretty well here. Once I slipped the tabs on the chain I immediately knew that I just wanted to keep it simple by adding a few beads and such. I'm happy with the end results, actually I think I may just have to keep the Dream one with the key for myself. LOL!

Next time I'm going to share some of my new resin designs with you.

See you soon!

Copper...I can't get enough!

That's right I've been back at the sheet copper that the Tin man got for me. I've been sawing, hammering, dapping and riveting. I love it. I get lost in it. There is so much to learn and try out. This is my dapping set I got at the Beadfest last month. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get the disc cutter at the same time but I think I see it in my future! LOL.
These earring are made with my new dapper. It forms the dome shape of discs. For now I'm sawing my own disc.
The background on this piece has been hammers to give it texture and then rivet the brass bloom word and "flowers". I also antique it with Liver of sulphur and tumble it.This is my steampunk version with a similar textured background as the above necklace.

Today I experimented with etching copper. I think I can say it was a success. I'll try and get some pictures of the etched pieces on soon.