12/20/15

Happy Merry Whatever

I've been setting stuff using my Cosmic Rocks technique, as you see below. I shared this on Instagram cuz I feel like I should take pix of some cool things I have that aren't yet complete cuz that's sorta the point of IG... But then I don't want to share stuff there and not here.
  
The quartz below is by etsian Copperelectroforming and on the purplish middle guy, the sewn layers are by shipwreckdandy, as well as the crochet cap in the image above. (She has some cool fabric things in her supply shop, and a lot as yet unlisted. I bet if you convo her she'd list it for you.) And the two chunky polymers on the top of the purplish middle guy I made in collaboration with her. Which, as I explained to her, sounds much better than saying she had some unfinished stuff she didn't want so just tossed them over my way.
She sent me all kinds of cool stuff and when I got really PMS-y and was avoiding taking photos, I messed with them:
She sent them unpainted and I've been coloring them with pencil and adding tiny facet details and paint washes and squee-ing and clapping to myself over how great everything looks. There's actually much more. The ones that now look like flower buds are so colorful irl, basically nothing like anything I ever play with so I wonder what they'll end up as?

Here's a rough stone found on the ground in Uruguay nestled into a shell.

Imma share a little sumpin' so you can know how dysfunctionally literal my brain is. In my comment section, FadeandRemain wrote, "Melon baller! Is awesome. And those earrings! But, I've been away from these parts for a while, and returned to find....theeengs aren't being OX'ed?? Da faq is going on?" 
So I just read and re-read that every time I'd go into my comment section... "Like a mellon baller scoop for making bizarre cantaloupe balls like they did in the 50s? Did she comment on the wrong blog?" And then I'd go, "OXed? Like XOXOX, like you sign a letter? Is that like hearting or faving something? Is she saying people aren't liking my stuff anymore? What?" OK and after 5 years I finally read it without the capital letters like "OH, oxed! As in oxidized? DUH!"
(←I soldered the flower piece on to this industrial ring.)


Which I'm glad you noticed. I have been ox-ing, as you put it, but I've been using a much gentler type than the Pewter Black I always use just cuz I found it in my stash and thought I'd try it. It's called Flemish Grey, also by Jax. I used to not like it which is why it was abandoned but idk, it does take out the bright shiny of the raw metal and I'm warming up to it. However it also creates a dusty finish sometimes, tho that's easy to wipe right off. Right now I'm using a mix of Flemish and Pewter which I call Plemish Fewter. 

... Aaaanyways, five years later I looked through my post wondering if I'd mentioned mellon ballers somehow and realized DUH I had a big mellon ball bead I raved about. Moral of the story: That comment wasn't nonsensical, I was.
 (I had narrow field of view setting on the pic above by mistake so it's all fuzy oh well. It was a brooch that I removed the pin from and soldered loops to.)
And! All three above mannequin pix were taken with my iPad. Which is limited but when you can make it work is just so much easier. So yay.
I riveted this ornate stamping from Kathy haul on to a big cheap coco wood medallion I found in Uruguay which I re-enforced with plumbers epoxy on the back then finished with gold leaf for funz. And the two rough stones are set into a little miniature copper dish Tribalis sent me. And I soldered the coin... And then I just realized I forgot to take a mannequin picture of this thing, craparoo. 
And I put eyelet rivets into the connecting holes for a little extra sumpin'. As you can see I've gotten really enthused over toggles lately. The visual tension of them is so satisfying. I've soldered them and also just cold-connected pins through holes.
So this amazingly iridescent ammonite fossil. Baltic amber RomAntiqueSoul sent and a soldered Euro. Maybe the year 2002 on there isn't in keeping with the antique feel but I just think the euro coins are so gorgeous, this is like the fourth time I've used one.
And a tiny piece that was on an alligator pin clamp thing which I removed it from and then curved for an even more satisfying toggle.
Before we move on to bracelets and earrings, can I interrupt to share my addiction to the smell of this stuff: 
(Of course, I get the generic though.) Next time you're shopping pop this guy open and take a sniff. It's this crazy chemical smell but it's soooo good. I never rinsed and repeated in my life- why would I? Since getting hooked on this every single time I'm like, "Yeah I better go again just in case." Like??? And I don't even have dandruff, I just love this stuff. Plus then I read on the label that it's for... sclerosis? Psoriasis? Which is a skin thing so I decided they were definitely telling me I had to spread that stuff all over my face. Don't wanna get sudden onset psoriasis.
Where was I? Oh yes, chunky bracelets.
Toggle! This was a very tall pendant with broken loops that I hammered in the back and soldered connections to make it bracelet-able.
Did RomAntiqueSoul send me this? Or Emmanuelle? You guys gotta stop with the gifts if you want credit cuz it's all a blur. .... Look at these cool-ass baguettes that Teapotsandtelephone's Linda sent me:I found the closest I could get to settings that fit and then smooshed and reshaped them into place. I actually think they look cuter and more dear somehow with the imperfect fit, ya know?
Gold Plated Star Shape Wire Charms - (12x) (K203-C)
So yeah since these fringe guys all went pretty fast I made some more. The purple rhinestone is from a gift from French bud Emmanuelle and the crystal from Patroness. Yup, still working through mountains of gifts I've been given. So here you can see the Flemish Grey in action. It left these chains a bit verdigris-ed. Those stars were originally like so →






Oh and I had to re-do these because that one stick biwa was bugging the crap outta me. Now harmony reigns once again.

Piano ivory and below, tiny Kathyhaul stampings on pits of bone from an antique fan, also Kathyhaul.
From the same stampings collection. Except a lot are die cast. As you may remember, last post I told you about coiling wire. This above is what happens when you twist half-round. Also bits of soldering and hammering on the random wire shapes I told you about last time? That I used with the fringe pairs?... Also a very old Uruguayan game piece and a mop disc.
Some super involved coiling and hammering led to these wacky guys.
See, not exactly a successful experiment but I used the results anyways and learned how different shaped wires respond to different treatments.
Thick soft bezeling wire, coiled. Hope you can see how very chunky this pair is.

The crystal was translucent (also Kathyhaul) so I painted it with white pearl paint, sort of my version of foiling the back, which is what they do to make rhinestones look so cool and not just like faceted glass. ANYWAYS, usually its gold colored but I grabbed what was on hand and the effect is kinda magical. Birdie by potterygirl1.
I 'foiled' these gifts from Teapotsandtelephones the same way.
The white pearl makes a very bright silver reflection. I also used the paint to glue these into the findings. Then I created connections with tiny eye pins at the tops and bottoms. When will the cleverness end?!?!?!
More from the hammered shapes collection seen in the fringe pairs.
More tiny die-cast stampings. Look at how perfectly rustic this pair is. The thickness of the African prayer beads harmonizes perfectly with that of the game pieces.

These look straightforward enough but in reality took an almost Herculean effort, if you allow me some hyperbole and fancy vocabulary. The shell drops were crazy thick at- and only at- the tops. I had to slice that off with my flex shaft over the course of 58 dust-filled hours. When I drilled the one on the right, the whole tip broke off. Good thing I like asymmetry or I would never get anywhere with my makings. Anyway.
And finally, these random guys. I put a scrappy scrap of silk between the glass stones and the settings cuz the bezels had a circle cut out in the center which landed right at the pair's booty area, like a very bad metaphor or something. The tiny red guys were actually also a gift- greybirdstudio.
 So many things. 
Too much holiday/family/PMS to get myself to list anything. So yeah, write if you're interested they won't be up for a while yet.
An sneak attack by a santa hat.
Cats feel like I do about holidays, I think. Generally unaware.
And finally, some lions playing catch.

Full video here.

12/2/15

A lot to show

So buckle in beeches.Essomenic. Purple assemblage earrings.
Essomenic- adj, 1771 -1771, showing things as they will be in the future
The metal findings on these were linked together in a something-maggigie from Uruguay. One's silver colored and the other yellow.
Magophony. Yellow Victorian tribal earrings. 
Magophony
Can we all appreciate pictures of earrings where the top part is 10x fatter than the bottom but it's all still visible even though the earrings are lying down...? Well, if you've ever tried this you'll know its a feat.
Reserved for Anita.
That Look of Otherness.
So here I was still in my Grandma Glam zone. Not that these are grandma glam, but the basic structure...
Your Sorrow Unmasked. Rustic blue earrings. 
Your Sorrow Unmasked
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
 And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
-Kahlil Gibran

These are sold except the purples, the rest of the stuff isn't even listed. But I thought I'd blog first since I feel like it's been too long since my last post or something.

Which thank you guys for the support with my dumb self-questioning thing with the making stuff from scratch which I know I shouldn't even but I do even.

So here's an example of not-from-scratch. Y'all saw it a while ago but it took me forever to remove the rivets I'd originally finished this bracelet with so I could make it adjustable. Sheesh.

And this was an empty ring finding in an oval shape which I futzed with until it fit this stalactite, then soldered the whole way around cuz the metal was pretty jacked up by this point. It's a big 'un tho, size 10 and a half. In case any of you have some chunky digits that need adorning. Show off those sausages!
So did y'all hear the exciting news? SparrowSalvage is back! She's doing these amazing Galactic Bohemian pieces that got me so turnt up!

In fact, I'm pretty sure I was channelling her when I came up with these meteor comet things here.

Even though her stuff looks nothing like it, go look.
But these came about because on a whim I bought this random shape assortment
Assorted Mix of Wire Shape Charms (10grams) (K210)Random Mix of Vintage, Deadstock and New Chain - Plated and Raw (1 ounce) (C692)
And this random chain assortment just to see what I'd do with them. The shapes I discovered I could make interesting by hammering with the side of my ball-peen. The chains, I was collecting the tiniest pieces on a wire when I realized they would make awesome fringe. And that was not such an interesting story, hu?
Now these are my final inspired-by-Sparrow pair. I'm concerned these are a bit too inspired by. Like she's barely back to making, I should give her some breathing room before I start stealing her ideas.
Anyways, it's her style of piling things up in overlapping layers which... which I think these are ok but I'm not doing anymore, I'm just not cut out for it. I'm like, "Each thing has to be clearly visible in its own allotted space with nothing left to chance!"

Oh, speaking of hammering shapes, these rings RomAntiqueSoul sent me have a similar look to my hammered shapes, except these are made from scratch, lol. You can tell cuz there's a patch of solder on each.
Oh and the amazing thing here is these buttons are the same design but one is flat and one is domed. I don't even think they came to me from the same source...
And I finally finished my kokeshi.
So that's it for ears and hands. Lets look at some lariats, shall we?
This pink stone is a big slab of something Patroness left me with forever ago. I made the wire ring then encrusted it with plumbers putty just cuz why not. And the other bit is my cast pewter solder shape thing.
Oh! And I soldered the links- with a new soldering iron!!! Excitement in the studio!! So, I don't know what kinda piece of excrement I was soldering with before but holy excrement this is so much better! It might make me solder a lot more now that I don't have to struggle so much. Excrement.

Look at this sweet little squee! And I put the leather in the key and the toggle and the thing! Squeee!! And the focal is some sort of archeological find Patroness left with me, as you can see I'm still working through those. And who knows it might be worth a zillion dollars and I'll totally undercharge... or not be that rare and I'll totally overcharge which I've also done.


Another one I did the key thing with, but a much bigger piece. This cast bronze demon(?) from Nepal is ALSO a Patroness abandoned gift bit thing.
And I have like four so I used two this batch:


I finally set this extra-rough amethyst. You can't see but the tip has three different iridescent colors I added. The tip facets were dark and opaque so it worked perfectly.
Also two leather cords instead of one cuz I said so.

This one has two bulbous chunks and a coiled wire ring, along with some of the fatter chain that came with the random chain mix.

But wait! Lemme tell you about the ring.
The other day, I went into one of those internet vortexes where you find yourself reading about the history of Slavic theater after googling, like, "Is popcorn healthy?" At the end of this particular vortex, I came upon these creations:
And yes I realize I don't have links just google image search "vape advanced coil builds". (I can't even see the word "vape" without cracking up.)
Welcome to the wacky world of e-cigarettes and the people obsessed with making unnecessarily complicated coils for the tiny part that heats up to create the vapor. I say "unnecessarily" but they will go on about how each coil affects the flavor and how many ohms pass through the wires, neither of which we joolri makers have to worry about, thank god.
I ended up watching all kinds of youtube tutorials on how to make all of these... Then I found myself on Instagram where people post these images... Then I discovered the tag #coilgraveyard, see below: 
So I started messaging these people like "Give me these now!... Err I mean, do you know anyone who'd like to sell me their old coils or where I might ask..." but Instagram told me I was spamming and stopped me.
Wouldn't those make awesome beads? And instead of bothering to follow the tutes and make them myself, wouldn't it be awesome to just have a bunch already? Which is totally in keeping with my not-from-scratch thang?
I only managed to get an answer back from at etsy coil maker who was like "geez maybe I'll stop throwing my old ones away." ARRGH!
So after all that... I just ended up with this thing:
Not too exciting, but I made a few with different coiled rings, so I ended up using them in a stacked ring necklace, which I haven't made one of those in years:

And some more for my earring station... So yeah.

That's not my only recent internet vortex. There's also been the tacky-tacular world of nail art! Look upon me and tremble in horror!!
And it takes time, effort and... talent to produce these terrors.

Deep breath. But the reason ... The reason.... hold on I gotta go back and shrink all these images to small lest their aesthetic spread like a contagion to the rest of my blog... The reason I was in this particular vortex was these meticulously painted eye sores:
OS-drape-4
They come with very detailed tutorials on how to paint tiny flowers with all kinds of details.
So but if you combine them with, like....
Image result for chintzImage result for painted folk artImage result for painted folk art flowers
See where I'm going? For beads I mean, not nails, duh. Plus add tons of grunge... and I was all jazzed and got a set of teeeeny nail brushes... But then I thought why bother and just bought a bunch of flower decals... idk. we'll see where this goes.

Sorry about all that, lets continue...

Speaking of tiny things. It's a game piece.
The hammered fringe below it was actually already assembled, but not hammered. It was just a bunch of stiff wire sticks on an old broken necklace from Uruguay. I annealed it- actually right on my stove top, cuz why not- and then hammered my heart out. Everything went wonky and the wire paddles would overlap each other wrong... but yeah, finally I got it to lay right. Even all pre-assembled there's a ton of ways to fuck up. But still those imperfections make it look extra cool! So yeah, from scratch vs. found bits, the conundrum continues ... I guess it's about your patience, mine being minuscule, and where your inspiration comes from. 

The antique, African carnelian melon is on this wire bit that was originally a fan handle. Instead of drawing a ball with torch, I used solder and I freaking love it more than oxygen omg why do I love this ball on this wire so much I can't even breathe.





And finally, phew, this last one with an ornate medal I paid a whopping $25 for. Which it was well worth but knowing me and my cheaps... and Uruguay and its cheaps.... For some reason I spend a hundred times more money when it's cash for things in front of me than when it's paypal or credit cards for things on the internet and that is bass ackwards.
And I'm the anti-hoarder and I'm anxious to get rid of anything I make as soon as I make it... Also I swear like a sailor and... I... um... snort catnip? I'm trying to say I'm a special snowflake all kinds of different from all y'all. But not really at all. And I don't snort catnip, why would I, don't snort catnip kids.

If you are interested in any of the not-yet-listed guys, please inquire via etsy convo and save me from the bother of listing!

funny animals cute video birdreblog birds follow cute s too cute
Now some birds getting pets.
cute bird bird gif funny birdscheezburger  animals cute birds bunnies
Lets go crazy and do all parakeets.
cheezburger  animals cute bird tennis ballcheezburger  funny cute dancing birds
I've shared this bag one before but it's worth many repeat viewings.
cheezburger  animals cute birds cosycheezburger  animals cute dancing bird
Man I wish I knew someone with a bird I could cuddle.
cheezburger  animals cute dancing partybird parrot conure
But do I?
cheezburger  animals no bird moving