Love My Art Jewelry Loves My Years Gone By

Yuppeee!

Checked the Love my Art Jewelry blog http://lovemyartjewelry.blogspot.com/ 
as I do daily, and I found out my Years Gone By necklace which I submitted to their monthly Strut Your Stuff competition is the winner for June!

Respect and recognition from your peers is the best! Happy, happy Monday!

One of those ramblings...

So I had no TV throughout the weekend. I got a message on the screen saying the service was not available.
I don't watch that much TV, but it was one of those weekends when I had to work non-stop all day, couldn't even make an etsy-bitsy pair of earrings and was looking forward to just collapsing on the couch in the evening and looking at the TV screen in that languid stupor of the tired and the weary (actually, maybe even a blank screen would have been good enough for me... but there was that message floating around on the screen...)

So I called their offices first thing this morning. The conversation goes like this:

Me: Good morning. My service was off all weekend, can you check what is going on?
Her: Sure, what's your card number?
Me: It's 1234566...
Her: Ah, yes, we had a technical problem, but I fixed it right away for you. You can check your TV now. Is it back?
Me: errrhhh, it's Monday morning. I'm working?!... But I tried calling you all weekend, and couldn't get through! How does one contact you over the weekend?
Her: You should call our Call center at the landline 123456...
Me: I did! Both numbers. It was always busy or no answer.
Her: Then what you do is call the cell phone numbers.
Me: I did! I called, 12345, and 54321, and 28967 and 96060... All busy or unavailable...

And then comes the reply:
Her: Ah, yes, when they're busy like that the best thing is to give up, really...

You know what? Unknowingly, she actually passed on some sage advice. Sometimes it's really best to just give up... For the sake of your sanity...

Long time no wrapping

My day job has been getting the best of me in the last few weeks, and I've had little time to dedicate to jewelry, let alone to blogging.

So here's just a few pics of recent items.



Be Original

Ceramic focal by Captured Moments, beads by Humblebeads and ChelleV2.




Aqua

Beads by Radiant Mind, handcut, riveted and torch patina by me


Protective

Polymer clay bird by Humblebeads, bezel nest with wire and Ice Resin



Secret Garden

Years Gone By

Blue diamond

Beads by Radiant Mind, peruvian Chrysocolla



If you're gonna learn, learn from the best

I mentioned before that I have not taken any formal jewelry classes - I had some fun initial sessions with my friend Ali who taught me how to make simple and wrapped loops and how to make a rosary chain.

From then on, the Internet and books have been my best friends in this journey. So I wanted to share with you the books that have taught me the most so far.

I'll start with the first, the one who taught me more basic wirewrapping skills and that I recommend to anyone who's starting:

"Inspired Wire" by Cynthia Wuller has some simple but very elegant projects throughout the book, and it was the only time that I actually made a lot of projects exactly as they're in the book. Not so much because they're particularly exciting, but because I really was a beginner, and didn't feel confident enough to venture out on my own. But it's great to become familiarized with the wire and what it can do for you.


Another favorite book is Kim St. Jean's "Mixed Metal Mania". If I had to recommend only one book for some metalsmithing tecniques, cold connections, etc., this would be it.

It has an extensive list of tools, explaining what they're for and how to use them, and various tricks that I have not seen anywhere else. I have not copied one single project from here, but I used tons of techniques.

Another one I just LOOOOVE is Mary Hettmansperger's "Wrap, Stitch, Fold and Rivet".

You need to love organic jewelry, the kind where not all the wraps are perfectly made, the shapes are unusual and the tools unconventional.

If you're into stamped jewelry, well then I don't think there's a better book than "Stamped Metal Jewelry" by Lisa Niven Kelly.

There's lots of tips to make sure your stamping is flawless, and projects that you can easily adapt and make your own.


And finally  "Making Connections" by Susan Lenart Kazmer.

I bought it also at the very beginning, and it scared the hell out of me when I opened it. I looked at the drawings and pictures and it was all ___(insert Greek/Chinese or any other language that is incomprehensible to you...) to me. I set it aside, and forgot about it. Then one year later, and many necklaces after, I picked it up again and was mesmerized. Susan's work is truly inspiring and innovative.
Beware: there are no projects in this book, period. Just a lot of tips, drawings of techniques and pictures of finished pieces that will open your mind to new possibilities.

It impressed me so much that I will be travelling to France in October to participate in a workshop with Susan - I learnt so much from her book, I can only imagine what I will learn from her in person. I am so excited but at the same time don't even want to think about it - it's still 4 months from now, and I registered back in September last year! Talk about delayed satisfaction...

Quick tute

So today I thought I'd share how I solved a particular problem I run across frequently, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

I'm also sure I'm not the first person to come up with this solution, but just in case you haven't found it yet, here's my tip.

Do you know when you have beautiful briolette that is perfect for the particular piece you're working on, but you want to use heavier gauge wire and the holes in the briolette are just too small? And you don't have a bead reamer, or you do (like me), but it's still not working very well for you?

Well, this is what you do:

Insert the fine gauge wire that fits into the briolette and prepare for wrapping the loop as usual.

Lay a piece of the heavier gauge wire alongside the finer wire (it's a little off center in the picture so you can see clearly).

Bend both wires simultaneously to start the wrapped loop.

Form the loop using the two wires and connect to the other piece you want to attach it to.

Wrap around a few times so that the finer gauge wire is totally secure and then cut it.

Continue wrapping the briolette with the heavier gauge wire until you're happy with the look and cut the remaining wire. Et voila!

Another view of the finished piece.

And if you spotted that on pic 4 I actually attached the briolette to a differente piece than the finished necklace, congratulations! You win a lifelong subscription to the "Spot the Obvious" magazine... :)

I had finished my necklace when I realized maybe someone could use this tip, so redid the whole thing.

Cheers,

Carla

Hoarding - but not quite buried alive

So I've been hoarding handmade beads from fellow artists that I found through my blog hopping.

Here's some shots of my growing stash:

There's ceramic components, polymer clay beads, lampwork beads, wood tiles...

I love using these beautiful pieces in my work - but just as one part of the whole picture. I still want most of the components to be either made by me, and incorporate mainly gemstones; it's part of wanting the pieces to represent me. Although the other artist's pieces were selected by me among the thousands on offer, so I guess in a way they still represent who I am.

Take these earrings for example. Very pretty, heh? Made with Kristi Bowman triangles and Radiant Mind lampwork beads. Yes, but what's mine about them? I just took some commercial earwires and wrapped it all together. Although of course I'm still the one chosing which pieces to use for the final result, in the end who's to say they are "Quimera" earrings?

But with this necklace I'm using the beautiful components the way I want to: integrating them into my vision for the final piece. There's a house charm from Menagerie Studio, flower bead caps and bead from ChelleV2 and a ceramic flower from Captured Moment. Hope this one takes the wearer to her happy place when she needs it.
Now the downside of this: Africa, I love you, but you have a serious post problem. I currently have 4 packages missing - 2 from December, 2 from January. Yes, I have waived them bye-bye, don't expect to see them around this parts ever. Which is a serious dent in my budget. Plus they were pieces I really loved and was so looking forward to using.

I only contacted one of the artists of the missing packages to see if there was a way to track it. There wasn't. And although I didn't expect her to replace the items or take responsibility for it, I also didn't expect the cold shoulder I got. Lesson learnt: do not order from that artist again.

Ok, off to make more stuff with the items that did make it across the Atlantic, the african continent and landed on this patch beside the Indian Ocean.

Letting go of fear

Sometime early last year, I purchased a tool that I knew would open up many new possibilities in my work. As I usually do, I purchased the best one I could - I really don't like purchasing cheap tools just for learning thinking I'll upgrade once I'm more proficient in using the tools. The whole point of the best tools is actually making your job easier, so why start with something of lesser quality? (if you can afford to, of course)

The tool arrived, I inspected it - and I stashed it away in a box. Until now.
I'm talking about a jeweler's saw. I tend to read a lot and research before going into a new technique, so I had read extensively about how you brake numerous blades as you start, and how it's the sort of technique that you're better off learning formally. In a class. With someone who knows what they're doing.

So it remained stashed away. As I mentioned before, around here, there are no classes, no teachers, no supplies, zero, nada, zilch (is that a word?).

But there comes a day when a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. So I got my beautiful jeweler's saw out (it's red too, one of my faves), and got to it.

Well, I'm happy to report it's been easy peesy... I can even saw round shapes, and turning corners is apparently the most difficult thing to master. Not to yours truly! And not a saw blade was broken. Woohooo!!!

Here's a few things I've made:

Sterling silver strip with riveted copper round, wire wrapped amethyst briolette

A triangular shape sawed from a copper sheet with a riveted flower makes my "Enchanted" piece

The copper heart in my "Home is Where the Heart Is" was also sawn.

And while I was at it, why not teach myself to set a stone with tabs? Well, I learnt that more difficult than sawing is measuring very accurately so your stone fits inside the tabs and all the rivets are where they should be. This was the biggest pain - when I finished, I hadn't left enough space in the top layer around the stone, and it didn't fit inside. So I had to wrestle the tabs back and forth - luckily I didn't break them - until I could finally set the stone.



I find that working with metal takes so much longer than other techniques I tried before - sawing takes time, and then there's all the filing... but I also find it very fullfiling. I like to make each individual component, I like that I can see how much I worked on a piece.

Lately I have been using some handmade beads from other artists in my work, and I love to do that, but I really don't want my work to be just a nice sum, well-put together, of components others have made. I really want to sweat over my pieces. The process is 90% of the fun for me. So I guess I'm in a long term relationship with my jeweler's saw.

Now where did I put the soldering supplies I bought last year?...