2 New Resin Bottlecap Pendants

I have been working on a new beadwoven bracelet for a few weeks now, and I like it - I like the colors, I like the pattern, but now that I have done one repetition of the pattern (there are about 12 repetitions in the finished bracelet), I am mind-numbingly bored with it, and just want it to be DONE WITH IT. Not the first time a tedious peyote pattern has affected me this way (I even have one in my Zombie box that is 6 years old: it is so tediously repetitive, with a really hard-to-read pattern graph, that I doubt I will ever finish it. It will probably remain 3/4 inch long forever!) Do y'all ever get this way? So attracted by a bright, shiny, new project, you have to dive right in, only to find it bores you to tears?

Anyway, I work on the new bracelet for an hour or so, and need a break. Yesterday I just couldn't even stand to work on it, so I started something new.

I had found these cute bottlecap bezels at Michael's a couple of years ago, and decided I needed to buy them and squirrel them away, because someday I'd figure out what to do with them.

I stumbled across them again when I taught the Cold Connections Workshop last month, and figured that if I'm never going to use them myself, maybe I should work them into a class, so I started thinking on some different ideas for a new class.

We already offer Ice Resin classes, so I wanted to go in a different direction - maybe with embossing powder? Who knows; give it a whirl, anyway.

So, fully and completely bored with my peyote bracelet, I put the seed beads away, and started trying to figure out what to try in my bottlecap bezels. I punched holes in each one for hanging, since they didn't come pre-punched.

resin bottlecap pendants

The bezels came in 2 colors: white (with a funky zebra design on the back) and antique copper.

The zebra one could obviously be reversible, so I decided to use black and white objects in the bezel. I played around with lots of different thing, but only 3 objects really fit in the cup at a time, and while I liked the cute brads (lower right, with the zebra pattern) - and had them in an assortment of 6 different black and white designs (another scrapbooking item I had impulsively purchased at Michael's and hoarded away) - no matter how I arranged them in the cup, they looked like a face staring back at me: 2 eyes, and an open mouth. Ugh.

I found some pink and white zebra striped scrapbook paper (you know the drill: another squirreled-away impulse buy from Michael's), and liked how it echoed the zebra print on the back of the cap, so I cut out a circle of it and placed it in the cup. I looked around for other black and white stuff; what I really wanted was a feather, but alas, I didn't have any feathers - at least, not in black - squirreled away. I finally chose a black button with a sparkly rhinestone center, and a half-drilled freshwater pearl. I carefully placed these on the paper in the cup, and filled the cup with clear embossing powder.

The antique copper cup was much easier - I had these pretty paper scrapbooking flowers, and fit them into the cup, and then added some ground-up malachite that I had made for a previous foray into resin bezels. (The pendant I made during that class, with the ground malachite, sold right away, and didn't even make it to the blog post!). The idea was for the flowers to look like a flowering tree (they were supposed to be pink dogwoods), and the malachite is the grass underneath them. When I was ready to pour the embossing powder into the cup, I noticed that I had carefully put everything into the bezel without noting the hole placement, and they were in there almost perfectly upside down. So I rearranged them, and poured in the powder.

Using my embossing gun, I heated them from the back, and they both liquefied fairly quickly:

waterlily pendant

The paper flower bezel generated a LOT of air bubbles - not sure why. I really like the end result - it looks like waterlilies on a pond to me, very Monet.

pink zebra resin pendant

My pink zebra cup didn't bubble, and once it cooled, I noticed that the scrapbooking paper had a glitter effect on it, which has given a very sparkly look to the pendant. Love it!

pink zebra pendant, reverse side

This is the back of the pink zebra pendant: The center has discolored a tiny bit from the intense heat of the embossing gun.

I think this will make a pretty fun class, and something students can easily do on their own at home, with minimal supply outlay!

And now that I have wasted 2 hours taking pics and creating this blog post, I am going to try to slog my way through another inch or so on that peyote bracelet!

Domed Floral Copper Pendant

I love this little piece - it was an experiment/teaching piece during the Cold Connections Workshop weekend, and it turned out really well:

Domed floral copper pendant

I cut the copper circle out with the disc cutter, then cut 3 very small "flower" shapes out of the sheet copper. My intention was to color the flowers, somehow, and attach them to the domed copper circle.

The circle itself is less than an inch in diameter, so these little flowers are really small. I puzzled over the patination and the flower attachment. I had several options for getting colored flowers: alcohol ink (quick), Gilder's paste (unreliable and messy), perfect pearls (often gives me the best result), and colored pencils over gesso (takes longer than I intended to wait!).

My issues were:

• I feared the attachment process (I intended to rivet the flowers onto the copper) would destroy any patination I apply before riveting
• But if I waited and tried to color the flowers after the riveting, I knew in my heart that no matter which method I chose (except, maybe, the colored pencils) - I wouldn't have enough control, and the color would go everywhere: onto the other flowers, onto the copper disc.

So, what's a girl to do? I sat and pondered, and worked on other stuff.

I finally decided to suck it up and proceed. 

I alcohol inked the flowers, and got beautiful, vibrant colors (I surprised myself). I sealed them with 2 coats of Krylon. (lots of time here, waiting for the Krylon to dry - I forgot about that part in my estimation of how much time each patination method would take.)

I inserted copper rivets (one at a time) into the center of each flower, turned the piece upside down, and placed it on top of a stack of about 10 paper towels on top of the bench block. One by one, I riveted them, and no color came off. (I surprised myself, again.)

I put a sock inside my metal dapping block's cups, and domed the disc, flower side down. The disc domed almost perfectly - no flower damage at all (surprise, again!). At the bottom of the pendant, one of the flowers caused a slight dent in the copper dome (under the purple flower). No biggie. Hardly shows.

I used chain nose pliers to slightly bend out each petal of each flower.

I drilled a hole in the top for hanging.

 Multicolored floral copper pendant

Inside of the pendant, showing the rivets

I decided not to push my luck by tumbling the pendant: what if THAT was what finally removed the color? So the inside of the disc is splotchy looking, but I polished the front, and that's what shows!

It's available on Etsy!

Woven Mixed Metals Pendant

Mixed Metals Woven Wire Pendant

This is my favorite piece out of everything I made during the Cold Connections Workshop I taught last weekend.

It started with sheet copper, which I cut and sanded, and then fold-formed. This is how the copper looked when the folding was finished, after multiple annealings with the torch, a soak in the pickle to remove all the fire scale, and after I drilled all the attachment holes. (compare the finish on the copper below with how it looks after tumbling (above).

fold-formed and drilled copper

Next, I cut 4 pieces of 16g sterling silver wire, and hammered them into "paddles." Then I attached them to the folded copper rectangle, one at a time, by coiling and weaving 26g sterling silver wire around the paddles and through the holes in the copper. It would have been very handy (no pun intended) to have had 3 hands during this step - the pieces wanted to do everything, and go everywhere, except where I wanted them to be.

Mixed metal woven pendant

I drilled holes through the tops of the side paddles, and added silver jump rings, so this piece is ready to hang from leather, ribbon, chain, etc. - or to be incorporated into a fabulous jewelry design of your own!

Here is the back of the pendant, showing a bit of magenta heat patination from all the annealing:

Back of the pendant, with magenta heat patination.

It's available in my Etsy shop!

I Upcycled the Lid from my Felted Vessel to make this Pendant

Shiny aluminum pendant with upcycled felt in the window. Peek-a-boo!

Remember my felted vessel?

 embellished felted vessel

I had a 4 inch circle of felt leftover after I cut the lid in the vessel, and I've been hoarding it. I had no idea what to do with it, but I worked VERY hard to make it, and I couldn't just throw it away!

Finally, while teaching the Cold Connections Workshop last week, it hit me: work it into a piece of metal jewelry, somehow. That's about as fully formed as the inspiration was when it occurred to me, but after playing around for awhile, this is what I came up with.

Shiny aluminum pendant with upcycled felt window

I loved the blues and reds in the felt, and I just really thought they looked better with silver than with copper. Using silver metal creates a couple of problems I'm still trying to overcome - sterling is awfully expensive, so I'd rather not use it. Aluminum is fairly inexpensive, but it won't etch (more on that later this week), and it won't take liver of sulfur patina. So, while I could easily texture the aluminum with hammers, or stamp on it, I still couldn't accentuate the texturing/stamping with LOS, so it really wouldn't show up very well.

So, if I was going to use aluminum, it was going to untextured - and I decided if it was going to be shiny, it was going to be REALLY shiny, so I tumbled it (before the felt was added), and after the whole pendant was finished it, I polished it with the Dremel and the radial discs, so this pendant has a brilliant mirror finish. So shiny that my camera lens is visible in almost every single pic. How do professional photographers get around obstacles like this? Beats me.

After cutting and prepping the aluminum, I used my disc cutter to cut the circle in the front piece of aluminum. I put the 2 pieces together, with the felt in the middle, and grommeted the stack together with matching blue grommets.

The back of the shiny aluminum pendant, reflecting my camera lens nicely! :(

 It's available in my Etsy shop!

I have more blue felt leftover, so I plan to make more jewelry with it - just need to figure out some more ways to incorporate the felt. After all, this window design is so last week, literally (LOL!)

2 New Resin Pendants

Happy Memorial Day!

These are 2 more of the pieces that I created during our marathon Cold Connections Workshop last week:

Metal dragonfly and blue flower resin pendant

• A gold striped metal dragonfly (with gold rhinestone head and thorax!) -  (scrapbooking dept, naturally)
• An iron flower, which I enameled bright blue
• A paper branch with leaves (more from the scrapbooking section)
• A bright red 6/0 seed bead for the flower's center

After cutting and prepping the copper, I placed all these objects where I wanted them, and added embossing powder. I tried to get fancy, and added a little green glittery embossing powder around the edges, but it all disappeared.  I love the mirror finish I got on this one - it is incredibly shiny (so shiny that I couldn't even get decent pics: every pic shows the reflection of my camera lens. Boo.)

This dragonfly pendant has 2 holes (and 18g copper jump rings) for hanging, and is available on Etsy.

Green quilled paper butterfly resin pendant

I chose a green quilled paper butterfly for this copper pendant, and I think it's really cute. It also has 2 holes (and 18g jumprings) for hanging, and is available on Etsy.

I still have lots more pieces to show from the Cold Connections workshop - stay tuned!

Reviving a Mini-Zombie

Remember the Zombies? Those projects you're so excited to start, but then never finish?

I'm not doing very well on my resolutions to dig up some of my Zombies and finish them, but let's not dwell.

I AM doing better at not creating Zombies - much better. I used to start projects left and right, casting them aside a few days (or weeks) later for something newer and shinier. Now, I make a concerted effort to finish one project before starting a new one...but sometimes, stuff gets in the way. Know what I mean?

In the wake of the flurry of creative activities surrounding the 5x5 challenge I just finished, I almost created a new zombie!

Remember this piece?

Mojave turquoise pendant

I was just about to take it apart and redo it, when I was chosen for the 5x5 challenge - I set it aside on my workbench, in a safe place - and .... 2 weeks later (seems like 6 weeks!) - forgot about it!

It never made it to my box of Zombie projects in the Zombie cabinet, but trust me - I completely, totally forgot about this piece. Yesterday, I was itching for a new project, wandering around the bead shop looking for ideas and inspiration, and decided to wander back to the workbench for a stronger pair of glasses, and caught sight of this pendant.

I spent some time yesterday afternoon trying to extract the cabochon from its bezel:

 prying the bezel open like a sardine can - the stone is still stuck tightly in place!

finally: the cab is free!
Today, I'll get busy with this redo - starting with measuring and cutting the bezel wire. This was actually the hardest part last time, because of the irregular shape of the cab.

Stay tuned - I really will get this pendant finished. Soon. Fingers crossed.....

Mojave Turquoise Pendant

I have decided to take a break from beadweaving for awhile, and get back to working with metal!

I started this pendant on Sunday, and it is almost finished (it needs the final ultrafine buff, to really bring out the shine in the silver):

Contemporary Sterling Silver pendant with Mojave turquoise and CZs

The Mojave turquoise cab is just gorgeous - nice pinks and purples, and beautiful veining. It would make a gorgeous piece all by itself, but then I put it next to these 8mm lilac CZs, and - wow!  I really love this combination!

Mojave turquoise and lilac cubic zirconia

I started playing with designs on paper, and what you see in the 1st pic above is very close to my final drawing.

Freeform cabs are a little harder to work with; here is the soldered bezel:

Fine silver bezel

Getting the bezel the perfect length was quite a challenge, given the irregular shape of the cab!

The irregularly shaped bezel really didn't want to lie flat on the sterling silver table, and needed a little (a lot) of encouragement from the t-pins. Notice all my solder paillons,  lined up and ready for the torch!

Bezel on table, with solder paillons, ready for soldering

Despite my best efforts, the t-pins changed the bezel shape a tiny bit during all this maneuvering, but once soldered, I was still able to get a good fit with the cab.

Next, I added the wire support for the CZs - I used 18 gauge wire for this (a decision I now regret)

18g wire soldered to bezel

The next step was to add the pronged settings for the CZs - I soldered these to each end of the 18g wire.

I forgot to take a pic of the finished piece before I set the stones - sorry!

Here is the back of the completed pendant, showing the bail:

Back of sterling silver pendant

Here is the front of the pendant again:

Pendant front - Mojave turquoise and CZs

I am not thrilled with the outcome - I love my design, but there are a couple of flaws in the execution. For one, I should have used a thicker wire for the CZs - when these are bumped, the wire moves and bends. Not really what I was going for!

The second thing I don't like is visible at the top of the cabochon - where you can actually see the wire along the bezel. Notice how it isn't visible at the bottom beside the bezel. This has happened because the cabochon narrows to such a sharp point there at the top, and when I was setting the stone, I had to push the bezel more there at the top to get a good snug fit, and when I pushed the left top side of the bezel over as far as I needed to, it revealed this wire. If I had foreseen this, I would have figured out a different way of soldering the wire to the bezel. Live and learn, right?

As I said, this piece still needs a final polish (and tumble) - if the wire hardens more, I may decide to live with the design. If the wire doesn't harden more, and keeps bending, OR if I just can't accept the way the piece looks at the top of the bezel, I will probably take it apart and redo it.

What do you guys think? I'd love some feedback!

Copper and Dichroic Glass Pendant

I just love this piece! Geometry is one of my biggest design inspirations, and this piece really demonstrates that.

I made these dichroic glass pieces myself, and wanted to see if I could work them into a cold connections design. I noticed how well then went with the Swarovski crystal Cosmic Ring, so I wanted to include that, too.

I cut out the copper square, and then decided to push myself with the etching, and I stamped 4 different textures on the copper square, creating 4 smaller squares that met in the middle. It's hard to see in the pictures, but they show up well in person!

I hit upon the idea of turning the Cosmic Ring into a porthole-type of window, so I pierced the center of the copper square, cutting a wide-enough hole for the ring, and left tabs to hold it in place.

Next, I needed to figure out how to form a frame for the window with the pieces of glass. Glass is fragile, so building on the way I attached the pewter tree to the copper earrings yesterday, I drilled small holes in the copper, and used 30g sterling silver wire to attach the glass to the copper.

I decided to hang the pendant from 2 holes on either side, rather than from the center. I added Swarovski crystal dangle to one lower corner for a little touch of asymmetry. Love it!

And it's available on Etsy!

Copper Pendant with Dichroic Glass

I love blue and copper together, and made this deep blue dichroic glass cab awhile back, and it was looking for a good home. I decided to craft a fold-formed copper pendant to display it:

I played around with various sizes and shapes on paper first, and once I had a design I liked, I cut and filed the copper, gave it a deep textural etch, and then started folding.

The bail is very deep and wide, and could easily accommodate a beadwoven rope (I beadweave so much, I usually make sure all my bails are fairly large!)

It's available on Etsy!

Enameled Copper Pendants

Sonya and I had a metal studio playdate yesterday, and I made these enameled copper pendants:

After cutting and prepping the copper, I textured one of the pendants (the reddish one at bottom left) with the Sissix Big Shot. I knew from previous experience that texturing pendants before enameling is often wasted effort, because as the enamel liquefies, it tends to pool in the depressions of the texture, obliterating any texture you've worked to achieve. But I had a plan for that!

I applied 3 coats of clear enamel via torch immersion, so that the front and back were well covered. For the blue and green pendants, I chose opaque colors, placed the pendants on trivets, and sifted on the chosen colors (lichen for the green, peacock for the blue). For the textured pendant, after placing it on a trivet, I sifted on a transparent color (raspberry), hoping that even when the enamel pooled, the fact that it was transparent would allow the texture to show through. Then I fired them in the kiln.

After cooling, I sifted one more coat of the chosen color on each pendant, and then started decorating. I had wanted to try kiln-firing for these because I was hoping that the even heat of the kiln would allow the large millefiore pieces to flatten nicely; they flattened some, but not entirely. But firing these in the kiln was so much easier than in the torch (and preserves my precious MAPP gas!) that I am going to make all my pendants this way - the initial coating in the torch puts on a "sealant" coat of enamel that prevents firescale in the kiln, so I didn't have to worry about using Klyr-Fyr, sifting on the enamel, waiting for it to dry, then flipping the piece over, only to have most of what I had just applied fall off. No more worrying about firescale and counter enameling - successful experiment!

Plus, 3 cool pendants!

After finishing my enameled pendants, I switched gears and starting working on some cold connections projects. It's been ages (it seems) like I did some metal work like this, except for the clasp I made for my partner for the recent Bead Soup Swap - and I guess I'm not counting that because I gave it away.

I got several things started, but not finished, so I'll be working on them later this week, and hopefully sharing them soon!

Let's go to the beach!

This piece is one of my favorites! 

I used a piece of my own dichroic glass, one with lots of vivid, swirling blues, aquas, and teal. Looks very watery, right? Then I did some freeform wire-weaving around it, occasionally adding a freshwater pearl as I went. It reminds me so much of the beach!

I hung it from a simple silver chain so that all the focus is drawn to the beautiful pendant.

Green Swiss Cheese

And...now you know why I rarely name my pieces - I'm just not very gifted in the "clever name" department!

Here's how this pendant developed:

19g annealed steel from the hardware store 

I wrapped some annealed steel wire around my fingers to form a roughly oval shape, using the ends to secure the oval and created a bail for the pendant (the bail is at the top, but it is somewhat hidden in this pic):

annealed steel ready for firing

The torch has to be really hot, and because the piece is so large only a small segment of it gets hot enough for enameling, so the piece has to be immersed in small sections in order to get good enamel coverage. Multiple coats were applied - but don't ask how many! I lost count as I slowly rotated the piece round and round to get it covered.

after firing

Don't ask me what colors I used - sorry! I had 3 different colors on the table, and would dip into one, then switch to another, and now I have no idea what 3 I used - and this actually comes back to haunt me!

I really liked the shiny blue-green pendant, but the large open space in the middle was calling to me - can you hear it? "Fill me!" "Embellish me!" "Don't leave me naked like this!!"

So, after a week or so, in which I experimented with wire, wire and crystals, and other ideas to embellish the pendant, I hit on the idea of suspending something in the middle.

I cut a smaller oval from sheet copper, and then drilled it to achieve an open, perforated look:

perforated copper disc

And while this would have looked interesting on its own, suspended in the middle of the pendant, I decided to color it to go with the beautiful blue greens on the enameled oval.

Except that I couldn't remember what colors I had used. Arrrgh! So I had to spend some time experimenting with different colors to try to get something close - and I didn't hit the nail on the head, but I got close enough! (And then forgot to photograph the disc after it was enameled - sorry!)

Then it was time to attach it to the pendant, and this called for more experimentation. I got really lucky here, in that I had some 26 gauge artistic wire that was almost a perfect match for the pendant (and since I only had 6 colors of 26g artistic wire in my stash, you can see what I mean by lucky). But I wasted a BUNCH of wire trying to get an attachment method that suited me!

And here is the result again:

I absolutely love this piece! But now Barbara Lewis has challenged me to try to make it all in one fell swoop - shape the annealed steel into the form, attach the perforated copper with copper or steel wire, and then enamel it all as an assembled piece! I'm saving that challenge for a long, rainy day!

So here is a challenge for you - please, please give me a better name for this piece - then I can list it on Etsy with a clever moniker!

New Enameled Pendants

Here are a couple of enamel pendants - I've been playing with some new techniques this week.

This one has lots of millefiore and stringer, and I raked through the hot stringer with a mandrel. The pendant's hole is a little off center, but for some reason it is way more obvious in pics - maybe the extreme macro (?) than it is in real life.

More millefiore and raking, and this one got a bit overfired. It used to be a pretty lilac color, and now it is a deep metallic olive green - but I like this distressed look!

I painted this pendant with liquid enamel, and then sifted orange enamel onto the wet liquid. Once it dried, I placed a millefiore disc in the middle, and layered some stringer randomly over the top, then fired.

Wire-wrapped Copper Heart Pendant

I'm going to dedicate a few posts to describing how I made the focal pendant and clasp I sent my partner, Kate, for this round of BSBP (Bead Soup Blog Party).
This is the copper wire pendant I sent Kate:

It's freeform, in that I had no pattern to follow. I was basically flying by the seat of my pants, with just a rough idea of where I wanted to end up. But that's what makes it fun!

I started by drawing an abstract paper heart, the size and shape I wanted the pendant to be, on some scrap paper. Then I cut out the paper heart.

Using a tape measure, I (roughly) measured the circumference of the heart I'd drawn, and added about an inch. I believe my measurement was about 6 inches, so I cut a piece of 14g dead soft square copper wire that length. If you don't have 14g, 12g is fine. And if you don't have dead soft, you'll probably have to anneal the wire before proceeding. (Which will lead to having to pickle the wire to remove the firescale - which is why I love dead soft!)

I knew that wherever I started forming the heart would also be where I ended, in other words, I needed to pick my starting point carefully because that's where I would end up doing some wire-wrapping to join the ends together. (I could have soldered them together, but this was a wire-wrapping project, not a soldering project!)

I chose the center top of the heart, figuring that adding some binding wires there would result in the best balance in the finished design. I started my design about 3/4" from the end of the wire, and laid the wire on top of my cut-out paper heart. Using my thumbs, I gently bent the wire to follow the various curves I had drawn, with the except of the 90 degree bend the heart takes at the bottom right - here, I used my flat nose pliers to put a 90 degree kink in the wire, before continuing to curve the wire along my paper template.

When I reached the beginning/end of the design, I left about another 3/4" of wire, and then cut off the excess.

It's important to point out that during this whole shape-forming process, you have to be very careful not to twist the square wire while you are bending it. You want the same surface of the square wire to face upward during the entire process.

Where the beginning and end of the wire met at the top of the heart, I crossed them over each other and then used just enough 24g round copper wire (also dead soft) to form a binding wrap that held the heart shape together. Then I used my round nose pliers to form a loop in both the free ends, bending them around to meet the inside border of the top of the heart, using care again not to twist the square wire. Then I wrapped around these loops and the outside frame of the heart again, until it was secure, and carefully tucked in the ends of the binding wire. No sharp edges!

Then I used a chasing hammer to texture the copper heart frame, resulting in this:

I could have added a bail or jumpring to this and called it a day, but I felt like it needed ... more. So I went searching for suitable embellishments, and chose turquoise blue matrix jasper.

I played with this a little on the paper heart template first. I had already decided against wrapping the jasper directly on the frame, encircling the heart with beads, because I really wanted to fill the wide-open center that was staring at me. I wanted to see how to best wire the jasper to the heart on paper before proceeding, because I didn't want to mar my pretty, shiny, textured copper heart. I really wanted an odd number of "strands" of jasper crossing the heart, because there is something so right about odd numbers in jewelry design. But 3 wasn't enough, and I couldn't make 5 fit. Until I hit upon the idea of having the 5th strand just cross one of the shoulders of the heart!

I used the 24g round copper wire again, securing it to one side of the heart, stringing on some jasper rounds, and then taking it across to the other side. I had a few false starts - one too many jaspers, one too few, attaching in the wrong spot - but I finally hit my rhythm, and got the 5 strands on there in a way that was very pleasing to me.

Next, I cut a 14g jump ring on the largest mandrel I had, and placed it in the top shoulder of the heart. It looked a little plain, so I wrapped it in more of the 24g round copper wire to give it a little texture. Then I put the whole piece in the tumbler for 2 hours to shine it and harden it, and here it is again:

I like the texture that is mirrored by the wrapped jumpring, the joining wrap at the top of the heart, and the wraps that attach the jasper wires to the frame. Very unifying!

Bright Red Shiny Metal Heart

This is yet another piece I created in the metal studio on our playdate last Sunday - I guess I had a really productive day - there are still some earrings I haven't even shown you yet!

This copper heart was cut using a template (I have no drawing abilities whatsoever, sadly); I sanded and smoothed all the edges, sawed a smaller heart in the middle, and then started enameling. One side was enameled bright shiny red, and the other side took 2 coats of clear enamel, revealing the beautiful natural copper color. I then freehand painted some red squigglies on that side, trying for a paisley look. Only you can be the judge of how successful I was, but I like the result!

The pendant hangs on bright red satin cording, with a lobster claw clasp.

I know it is a little late for Valentine's Day, but I love hearts, and think they are perfect year round!

And this one is now available in my Etsy shop!

New Copper and Swarovski Pendant

This is another piece I created in the metal studio last Sunday:

 Here is how the copper looked after all the cutting, drilling, and sanding, in preparation for adding the frame and crystals:

This pendant actually was inspired by a distressed, rust-colored frame that I found in the scrapbooking section of Michael's. Love the scrapbooking section! So many inspiring objects and fascinating tools and ingredients there!

I noticed how the frame matched a 20 mm Red Magma Swarovski Cosmic Square I had, both in color and in shape, and started designing the pendant on paper. Once everything fit and worked on the paper model, I cut the copper and did all the smoothing, sawing, and drilling.

Next, I textured the bail, then annealed it and rolled it into placed, then grommeted it to secure it. (The rivet is hidden in the front by the frame.)

Next, I placed the Swarovski Cosmic Square in the center, and then I attached the frame to the pendant. My initial plan had been to rivet the frame to the pendant, but the frame itself was way to thick for me to pierce, so I decided to do a little free-form wiring instead, adding Swarovski crystals (in Crystal Padparadscha) as I went. I love a little bling with my pendants!

So this is the back of the finished pendant, everything all tucked away and smooth!

And the pendant is available in my Etsy shop!