Organic Enameled Bangles now available in my Etsy shop!

Well, I’ve been inundated with the question “Will these be for sale?”  What a huge compliment that they’re already in demand before I even had a listing available!  The answer is YES!  And right now I’m offering them at an introductory price in sets of three in my etsy shop.  Individual listings are yet to come, but will be available eventually.  However, buying the three stack will get you a discount.  Individuals will run between $65 and $75 each when they’re available but you can get a three stack for $55 each or $165 for the set!  Here is  link to the listing in my shop: Enameled Bangles

Organic Enameled Bangle Trio

And it just keeps getting better…

Okay, so you know I NEVER make two posts in a single day, but I am so excited that I just couldn’t help myself.  I finished a couple of orders up, got three of them in the mail and immediately went back to work on my enameled bangles (see previous post).  I couldn’t wait to see what the embellishments I had in mind would look like on the marigold bangle I had planned, and ohhhhh am I ever happy about the results!  Take a look and see what you think for yourself… and you’ll think it’s AWESOME!  :::flips hair:::

Organic Enameled Marigold Bangle with Enameled Embellishements

Loving these colors together like I do, I couldn’t resist making some enameled embellishments to add to my enameled bangle.  I absolutely adore the way this turned out, and of course it doesn’t hurt that the color combo on this bangle ties together perfectly with the other two bangles I made before it, so they make for a dynamic stacking trio!

Stacking Trio

And they look FABulous on, don’t you think?  There’s already a big buzz going around about these bangles and people are asking if I will be selling them.  Well, OF COURSE I will be!  Look for listings to show up in my etsy shop next week and of course I will post a courtesy message here so that my adoring fans don’t miss out!

You know you want one – or THREE!

Stay tuned if you just can’t live without one of these fun organic bangles…. or even if you can. 🙂

 

 

Experiments with Enameled Bangles

A new obsession is growing.  Of course, I’m just over the hump of the last obsession (pinned pretties) and still hungry to make more pieces like the ones in last weeks post, but I’m driven to try new things to keep the creative juices flowing.  My love of enamels is still going strong.  I love adding color to metal.  It makes something that might otherwise seem ordinary POP and I’m popping like Jiffy Pop in the studio right now!  There’s a reference there that only folks from my generation are likely to get. :::nod to my older homies:::  Anyway, what’s all the excitement about you wonder?  Organic enameled bangles, that’s what.  I’ve only made a couple so far because I have a lot of orders on the bench (not a complaint!) and I’m torn between being a good girl and cranking out those orders and being a bad girl and following the path my Muse is laying out before me.  She never wants to do the stuff I’m supposed to be doing, naughty girl.  It’s all play, play, play and who needs to pay the bills and feed the kids?  I do, dear Muse…  But she is relentless so  I had struck a bargain with her:  I must accomplish some of the must do stuff and in between I will reward myself with a play break to do the wanna-do-fun-stuff.  So here are the results of my ‘play breaks’ over the last couple of days.
A good bit of labor goes into these babies.  Of course, I’m learning now so the going is slow and I’m sure I’ll get faster with time, but some things just can’t be rushed.  First of all, there are no short cuts in cutting these babies out.  For smaller pieces, like rings, I can order them pre-cut to the width I want and then only have to cut the length, but with these bangles being 8″ in length that’s impossible.  Even the metal suppliers don’t have bench shears that will cut something eight inches long apparently, so I have to cut them by hand with a jewelers saw.  Dear God, how I hate sawing.  But saw, I must.  I had to start with a 18″ x 6″ sheet of copper.  My bench pin is only about 5 inches long (a tool used to brace metals while you’re cutting so they’re not wobbling all over the place making it nearly impossible to complete the objective) so it was almost no help in the process.  I had to cut the 18″x6″ into 8″ x 6″ pieces, then divide each piece into as many bangles as I could get out of it, marking my cut lines with a sharpie – and of course I couldn’t find my fine point sharpie. UGH.  It makes better lines to follow with the saw blade.

Here I’ve cut the sheet down to 6″x8″ already and now I’m cutting the fist bangle blank out.

After cutting out the blank, there’s filing, making sure my ends are flush to solder (solder doesn’t fill gaps – and gaps are the kiss of death in this project).  Just the cutting, sanding and filing takes a good amount of work.  Once this is done, I can move on to soldering.

And now, soldering.

After the soldering is complete, there’s a good deal more sanding and filing.  I have to remove extra solder from both sides of the bangle.  I also want to make sure that the edges are nice and smooth so that the bangle will be comfortable (and not scratchy!) to wear when it’s complete.  I love sanding and filing as much as I love sawing…

I have my bangle, cut, filed, sanded and soldered so now the real fun can begin!  Next I hammer and form to change the character of the bangle.  I really like the organic look that these bangles take.  My first bangle took me three hours or so and it didn’t even have the cool embellishments!  I wanted a ‘LOOK AT ME’ color on the first one, so I chose bitter green.  It’s a favorite for me anyway as I’m a green girl so that had a lot to do with my choice.  I kept the first bangle simple.

First enameled bangle

It’s not exactly what I was going for, but overall, I like it.  It was enough to make me want to continue and make more.  So on my next play break I made one in turquoise and this time I added some pinned embellishments.  I also tried flame painting the inside of the bangle.  I couldn’t get the colors the same on both sides.  On one side it came out more pinky, blue and on the other side it came out more bronzy.  I really liked the bronzy look as I thought it make the turquoise pop.  The green one has  bright, clean copper finish on the inside.  The next one I plan to oxidize.  What do you think about my turquoise?

First, here it is with the bright, clean copper finish.

Now a close up of the pinned embellishments.

Now, here’s the bangle with the flame painted finish.

I’m diggin’ it!  How about you?

I’m planning on making a third one to complete a full stack in my favorite color combo; Turquoise, bitter green and marigold.  Alas, I must get more ‘must do’ stuff done before I’m allowed to take a play break again.  Meanwhile, here’s a picture of the two I’ve completed on… I think they look even cooler stacked.  Can’t wait to see these two with the marigold!

Stacked!

Now, back to work with me.  I have orders to get to the post office and orders to produce.  If I’m really good and get enough done to reward myself with a play break, I’ll be sharing a new marigold one soon.  I have different ideas for embellishments on that one.  No telling… you’ll just have to wait and see!

Eventually, these will be available for sale in my etsy shop!  So if you love them and can’t live without them, hang tight!

Pinned Pretties – A New Technique!

Pinned Kyanite Earrings

So here’s a technique that I’ve wanted to try for years – literally!  Don’t judge… it takes time to get to things.  I have tons of techniques and projects that have been on the back burner for some time but haven’t had time to get to.  The important thing here is that I finally got to it – and I love the results!  Loved the results so much that I was kind of obsessed for about a week.  It’s all I wanted to do – though grudgingly I had to put aside play time and do the stuff I actually needed to do.  So I stuck a deal with myself – I’d do the ‘must do’ stuff, take a break and make a pendant or pair of pinned earrings, then go back to the must do stuff so I could reward myself with a little play break again.  I created quite a few petite necklaces over that week under this arrangement so I thought I’d share them with you here.  I was, after all, very kindly admonished for my lack of social media presence over the past year by some faithful followers at the Art in the Park show in Foley a couple of weeks ago – you know who you are. 🙂  I wish I had taken your pictures so I could include you in my blog – maybe a photo of you wagging your finger at me, like ‘shame on you, abandoning your fans!’  lol  So here I am, sharing, to show my loyal readers that I really DO care about them…  Can you feel the love?

Well, since I purchased a number of those amazing kyanite drops I thought I’d create a necklace to match, and so I did.  Sure it’s petite, but the stones are beautiful and I didn’t have to do much else but show them off and this technique is perfect for putting the focus on the stone – and of course, there’s that fun kinetic element since the stone swings freely in it’s setting.  Kinetic fun is always a plus!

Blue Kyanite Pinned Necklace

You can find these pieces in my etsy shop here: Pinned Kyanite Earrings and Pinned Kyanite Necklace.

And if you know me, you know I love the color green and I love the stone chrysoprase.  A beautiful, bright green stone.  I’m get all dreamy eyed just thinking about it… no, really.  I find this green simply entrancing.  I scored some AMAZING quality chrysoprase, triple a grade, and created this little treasure.

AAA Chrysoprase Pinned Necklace

This is a healthy little drop, not so dainty.  The second picture here shows the scale of this lovely stone.  You can find this piece in my etsy shop here: Pinned Chrysoprase

 

Now if those aren’t lovely enough, I decided to make a very simple pinned pearl necklace and as much as I love the kyanite and the chrysoprase I have to say I think I find the simplicity of this setting paired with the pearl to be quite striking.  It makes for a classic sort of beauty. What do you think?

Pinned Pearl in Mixed Metals

16″ 14k Gold Filled Chain

Showing scale:  A plump pearl

You can find this necklace in my Etsy shop here: Pinned Pearl Necklace

I also had fun with a turquoise bead.  It needed a little something extra though so I made some mill textured bead caps in sterling and copper to cap each end before setting it.  I liked the way it turned out.  A very different look for the same setting, I thought.

Pinned Turquoise in Mixed Metal

Close up view

You can find this beauty in my Etsy shop here:  Pinned and Capped Turquoise

And there were many more.  Some sold before I could get photos.  Some I haven’t gotten pictures of.  There are more earrings too.  Maybe I’ll get some photos of them up eventually as well?

Peach Aventurine

In my Etsy shop:  Pinned Aventurine Necklace

Green Onyx

In my Etsy shop: Pinned Green Onyx Wishbone Necklace

Pink Peruvian Opal

Listing coming soon.

Blue Amazonite

Listing coming soon.

I really enjoyed this technique and there will be many more pinned pretties to come.  I can’t wait to experiment with fun new ways to incorporate this technique into other jewelry designs as well.  Stay tuned!  This obsession is sure to grow.