USING LIVER OF SULPHUR FOR A PATINA

Sometimes in life one has to take a little hiatus from the world and try to redefine their lives, this is where I have been. Often I think we have to step back and decide what in the world are we doing. The last few years of my life have been ever changing on a constant basis always some sort of drama and confusion, during this time my art  has been my savior my constant helper throughout all of it. From the age of 14 I started sewing my own clothes thanks to my Aunt Florence who showed me how along with  home ec teachers like Patsy Steagald whom shaped my life. They and my mother started my pathway to art. I then moved on to doing crafts of different kinds especially with my children during their childhood. My children are both wonderfully gifted adults secretly I have saved lots of their drawings and treasures from childhood. Now I am starting to see the artist in me come out and seek new ways to express itself. I attended silver jewelry classes in Atlanta at a wonderful school called Spruill Center for the Arts. Now I have this constant conflict of doing jewelry that I like the style I mean and the kind that sells , I question my talent constantly as most artist I think do. I am now going to concentrate on learning more about the techniques I have learned in the past and seeking new ones out to try to conquer.

TECHNIQUE ONE:  LIVER OF SULPHUR FOR PATINA


A very good friend of mine said to get really the black color I was seeking to use everything hot, the metal, the patina to mix with really hot water, the rinse you really hot cleansing water. I use the liver of sulphur that comes in a liquid already mixed so I took it and cut  a  coke can close to the bottom. which made a little container, I poured the liver of sulphur in it then placed it in a pot of water the level below the container and heated it. Then I put the earring wires in it and they turned a beautiful black color a really dark color, rinsed in hot water with soap in it and total sucess it worked wonderful for me as
a black colorant to use on silver I highly recommend it made the earwires, wore them with no problems. total sucess hurrah!

A New Week Arrives

 Tomorrow a new week will begin for all of us, hopefully everyone is fine and looking forward to Thanksgiving which is right around the corner. I have big plans for two Thanksgiving Dinners so I will be very busy with all that. I have started looking back on my life this last week and my jewelry and have decided to go in the direction of my heart and go back to doing my own personal style of jewelry and not trying to do jewelry that I don't enjoy making or stuff that is not in my heart. So that's that and so be it. I am going to design something totally new and awesome for my site and I am hoping you will like it, SO this week lets start by making some chasing tools. Now to make these tools you can use old allen wrenchs any old tools you can possibly find at yard sales or flea markets will do you can use old screw drivers nails just about anything , Find an old BASTARD FILE first off mark this file for steel use only never ever use this file on anything else again just for steel stuff.

If you tool steel ( your old tool will now be called this) is now sorta clean you will begin to anneal it.
So take the tool stell put it on a firebrick and heat it up with a torch on the end till it turns cheery red.
Remove heat and let it air cool please be careful and let it totally air cool before you mess with it;.
Now that it has cooled , take your bastard file and start filing the point of your tool flat. Remember to file in only one direction . File until end it nice and flat. This  is the time that you will need to start thinking of a SIMPLE DESIGN you would like to stamp on your silver, Maybe a square or a triangle or something else.
Okay tomorrow we will begin the making of a chasing tool , please comment on what you are thinking of making on your stamp.

Monday Nights Is not for just football

Oh it's Monday lets create something new. It is time to start to fill up the site on etsy time to move forward with new ideas, new designs taking form in the physical world and not just in my mind. Do you jewelry come to you in the middle of the night, do you notice iron work on buildings the cracks in the cement of the sidewalksomwhere. This is the little creator in your brain cells forcing its way out into the real world of your ideas. So let's start our journey this week. First stone out is a  bubble gum pink rhodinite., cut in a freeform triangular cut of course I did cut it so its bound to be a little unusual. I am thinking of components lots of cirlcles with texture, making of special tools to use in the creations , the drawing of the design I unfortunately do not own a scanner so I can't show the design. I have made the tool, a stamping tool. So the creation begins.

Bromeliad: How to make a faux zebra hide rug - DIY style, frugal home design, budget travel#comment-form

Bromeliad: How to make a faux zebra hide rug - DIY style, frugal home design, budget travel#comment-form

Moving into the small world of jewelry

Well this has been a hard wacky week, I have come to the big decision to make some pretty little small jewelry to add to the shop on etsy. I have lots of people tell me to make stuff smaller so here's to you small jewelry lovers. It's just as challenging as making the large stuff but yet a little simplier, although I am a purist I will still make my own bezels not put bezel cups on my stuff, i want to fabricate my jewelry from scratch I know what a crazy idea. In the follwoing pictures you will see some pics of the new stuff, a set of rings to be added and some other neat cool pieces. I am still on the fusing journey and finishng up my Egor cuff which is becoming quite unique or at least I think this next week you will be seeing a step further into it's creation so stay tuned lets make some jewelry together wish we could all hang together in the studio and have some fun.

Wenesday Photo's

I am sorry I could not load the photo's from yesterday don't know what happened so hopefull I will try again today , now remember everyone this was a collection of experiments not an actual piece so it may look a lttle rough.

Wacky Wednesday On the BENCH

Well this weeks motto has been lets finish up old projects which I absolutely refuse to call UFO's, for whatever reason just sounds weird to me anyhow I am slowly working on getting things done. I have wanted to keep up working with the fusing idea thing yeah I am still obsessed with this technique, so in this picture you will see a sorta ring called "A Ring of NO Rhyme or Reason". Meaning it started off as an experiment in fusing silver onto copper well I oh Yes I decided that I wanted to use a thicker gauge of copper than I should have which actually soldered quite well. And then I decided to do a little warp checkerboard look using only sharpie which I will try this experiment again with the thinner gauge of copper like I was suppose to do and I think it will work. Well what should have actually happened is that the unmarked checks should have etched all the way down to the silver but it didn't , SO I once again decided to burr down to the silver which was kind of cool look which I will use again, SO I decided then to use the rolling mill to bring all the layer level which I should have not done because I lost most f my checkered pattern oh well, then turned the strip into a ring and since I have not dealt with brass before , SO I decided to add some brass balls to the ring and here she is the ring of no rhyme or reason but a heck of alot of fun with some simple scraps of silver and a day in the studio just going where the mind takes you sometimes . I will keep you up to date on the hurricane bracelet I am once again working on it soon I will add some stones and the seashell pieces if anyone has any info on fusing or making bimetal of any kind just email it to me please the brain is always looking for info , I have collected some already and am more than happy to share what I have with anyone who may need it .

New Earrings in Nancycreations.etsy.com

Hi everyone here is the new earrings I did for the shop, I made a really cool punch tool to add dots on my metal , so I already had a small piece of metal that had a roller printed image of dots on it , so I went in and forged some dots on it in several places and added some patina to bring it all out and here it is fun an exciting the dots kind of look like pieces that are fuse on really cool I like it what do you think ?

Making pretties for someone out there in jewelry land

I love to create cabochons , it is really a zen thing for me, I am always hunting for special stuff always on the hunt like a tracker in Africa looking for big game of course my weapon of choice would be camera gosh how exciting would that be huh? Well so I started think of cabs and of course you can feel a little crispness in the air even here in florida so it was fall colors coming to the forefront of my mind. So here they are my little beauties some not so little some medium and maybe a few by my standards. I love the graphics on the Picasso stones, love that hot pink on the rhodonite went a little crazy for some high domes like gum drops you can get at the fairs at this time of year, the fossils are wonderful to reminds me the summer has ended for some wierd reason all of it is wonderful colors ah and dont forget the fantastic fall sunset one these are all coming to the site this week that are pictured here some are already there some are to arrive soon so keep checking in with me . If you see something you need email me at nancy4133@gmail.com and I will give you a special discount because you like my blog !

Igor Cuff ( Honoring the people of Bermuda)

This month Hurricane Igor hit Bermuda offering lots of damage to them, well just before it hit here in Florida we were feeling the undercurrents with rip tides and lots of danger in the ocean. I was on the beach during this time picking up lots of fragments of shells that were brought to shore because of this hurricane. I was amazed at all the textures on the shell fragments you could see lots of places where water had really smooth out the shells pieces I am thinking maybe these came up from the bottom f the ocean with all the churning of the water,,so I guess walking on the beach made me decide to create a piece of jewelry about how I felt about this Igor. You know we all walk around everyday taking so much for granted we use and abuse mother nature so much with all our wants of it and then we get shocked when she cuts loose and shows us what power she really has I believe there is a reason for everything, who knows what it sis , who are we to ask, damage can occur in any moment in time. So this cuff is all about taking hold of the damage and reconstructing from it . The metal is left over parts from other pieces mostly recycled some fused with other pieces, just a little of this and a little of that. The shell fragments are to show something broken can still be used in another way, the stones added to the cuff are left over pieces from slabs that I had used for cabs, the cuff is all about using damage or left over stuff into a thing of interest and intrigue and making do with what you have which is what these poor people in Bermuda are doing right now they are rebuilding their lives like I am rebuilding this cuff this cuff is all about honoring these people for their grit and stamina to make do and get it all together again to honor the beauty of Bermuda. Please stay with this blog as we go through the building of this cuff, I work on it when I can much like the people rebuilding are doing.

Hot off the press

I orginally started out as a fiber artist then moved on to include metalsmith, jewelry artist and lots of other stuff, anyway after daisy and bella got a bath iI looked at their collars yuck was my reaction. So I started thinking about getting new collars of course the ones I wanted were expensive and I love the cute etsy collars but I wasn't sure if they would be strong enough for daisy who can really misbehave a pull you like a crazy woman sometimes. So I thought about it and came up with a enhancer that simply fits over your collar, can be easily removed for washing, then I decided to sell it on etsy and donate part of it to an organization to help anmals find a home. The fabric is recycled mostly will come from a thrift store who is for a cause so that helps them out to so everyone wins. They are cheap $5.50 each with .50 going to animal organization. And here they are http://www.etsy.com/listing/57427900/go-green-dog-collar-enhancer1-sz-lg

Sunday mornig at the beach !

Isn't mother nature just the best, it is so beautiful and about as far removed from Atlanta as you can possibly get, I feel like I am finally home. In the remaining pictures I will show you a little bit of mother nature at her finest and hope you can enjoy this majical moment with me on this beautiful Sunday Floridian Morning.

Then this family caught this baby shark when they were fishing, looks like a baby hammer

head I think anyway they showed it to me and then took it off the line and through it back in the ocean to grow up. Notice the gloves !

The girls all dressed up to go to the Beach on Sunday Morning. They were so excited ! This was Bella first visit to the beach and she seemed to get right in the swing of things with Daisy and I . My little Daisy loves the water she is such a water babie my little beach bum.

UMMM!

Here's one of my assistants her name is Bella she is the point guard and Daisy is the muscle or her backup in case of any trouble, she is a mix girlie of red heeler and Australian Shepard someone who needed a new home urgently, she spent the first 9 months of her life basically in a cage , she now enjoys the freedom and a loving family us she has really came out of her shell she is doing great. I do share info on jewelry designs, some don't and that's okay everyone should find their own style and not try to reproduce someone else, make your own with your own personal imprint on it , it takes a little time to get it just right just keep practising until you do, make your own designs not someone else's.

This is some sterling silver spoons I have had for years, sometimes I make rings and bracelets out of them, these two spoons had the most wonderful designs on the spoon part so I flattened them to make some restyle pendants out of them., they deigns are so pretty and romantic I use to deal with alot of antiques so I have a million of these everyone says melt them down I say no way !

In this picture you will see the shells after they have been filled in ready for the designs , I use plummers putty found at any hardware store. It comes blue an white and you mix them together umm get ready it really stinks! but the smell does go away.

These are two shell pieces I chose to do more jewelry designs with, their texture is so wonderful and inspiring. I love these shell pieces , these pieces were picked just prior to the hurricane even though it was far away from us in Bermuda the ocean brought in so many shells some whole and some in pieces . I wonder where the other parts to these shells are, what far away beach did they wash up on?

Well I think I was staying up a little to late last night and somehow missed putting the pictures up of my work yesterday sorry. This is the components I will be using for the bracelet that I am working on with the seashells and a little fusing.

A wonderful Wednesday coming up

Thank goodness tomorrow I am off from my little normal job and onto my have great fun job. I got up really early this morning to finish up these little pretties, I had already made some for myself and thought I would feature them on my etsy site. They are the greatest of earrings I just love them. Tomorrow fun is to begin work on the shell pieces I showed you the other day. I want to do some pendants of them, they're texture is so intriguing to me, I am always drawn to sea shells they seem to mysterious to me , I often wonder where the rest of the shell on what distant shore it landed upon. These shells are some of work of the hurricane that the rough seas brought ashore here in Jacksonville. I am enjoying being near the beach for the first time in a long time, I really don't think I knew how much I missed living in Florida. My little Daisy who is not so little anymore is enjoying her sister Bella so much, poor Bella has had a rough time in life but fate landed her with us , it's a little rough getting her use to living outside a cage which is where she spent alot of time in before she came to us , now she has total freedom and is finally learning what "calm down baby " means thank goodness and she is now loving to ride in the car and go for walks although she is still a little scared of the walking she is doing great.

It's a Super Sunday

I have just spent the most wonderful Sunday , Frank and I went to the beach first and of course I picked up at least a million sea shells bits and pieces, jewelry ideas kept blowing through my mind. Why is there something so magical about seashells I mean really do you always pick them up to? I always like the broken pieces with all the texture on them that's me the texture queen. Now all these ideas are everywhere in my head going toward being put down on paper before I forget them. The biggest treasure was all the holey stones I found lots of them, now through out ages they are said to offer protection to those who wear them, the stones have holes carved through them from mother nature which is said to have healing and magical properties in them.

It is also said if you look through the hole during the light of a full moon you will see faires I will try this out.Folklore is so interesting , I enjoy reading about the properties of the stones.

Well after a visit to the beach we kept on Highway A1A on towards St. Augustine. It was great there was a wonderful breeze from the hurricane that is off Bermuda please say a prayer for these folks, we went into all the little cool shops, had a wonderful lunch in OLDE TOWNE which is of course where all the tourist shops are but it was fun and relaxing which is what Sundays are all about, sorry no Pics except of my treasures from the beach I forgot the camera.