5x5 Metal Component Challenge Reveal, Chapter 3 (The copper disc with the strange cutouts)

Welcome to Chapter 3 of my 5x5 Metal Component Design Challenge Reveal
(Chapter 1, the filigree ring, is here;
Chapter 2, the copper square and the "X", is here)

Here is the copper disc component:

• It is BIG - 38 mm in diameter
• It is domed
• It is shiny and polished on the convex side, but dirty-looking and dull on the reverse
• It has a large, pre-drilled square hole in the center
• It has bizarro, offset triangular cutouts on the side

My initial plan for this piece, before I received it, and realized how big it was, was to use it as a beadcap.

Then it arrived.

True confession time: I hated those cutouts, and could NOT see past them - all I could think about was getting rid of them, or hiding them. They were THE ENEMY.

I tried wrapping stuff around the disc, using the notches as guides. I tried wire, wire with beads, sari ribbon, and probably other stuff (it is all a blur........) Nothing really worked for me.

I made a paper mock-up of the disc, and started playing - I cut out more triangular wedges. And more - soon, I was left with a funny-looking flower: the copper center with the predrilled hole, and skinny petals (all that remained after I cut the final wedge out of this piece). I didn't care for the looks of this weird flower at all.

Back to square one.

Pulling from my design inspiration for the filigree ring, I started strolling around the bead shop, trying to see what could fit inside the disc (and cover up those dang cutouts!). I found a gorgeous handmade blue lampwork button - it wasn't quite large enough to hide the cutouts, but it was close!

The button was mostly blue, but also had some seafoam green, and flashes of reddish-purple (the center of the button contains dichroic glass!) - it is a gorgeous work of art.

I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out the best way to attach the button to the disc. The disc had the pre-drilled hole in the center, but nothing on the back to attach wire to. I didn't want to carry wire around those cutouts just to attach the button. Think...think....

And check my secret stash again .... and there it was: a copper Susan Lenart Kazmer pendant I had purchased (impulse buy!) at Michael's years ago. At the time, I knew I could make a similar copper pendant, and probably should save my pennies ... but then I rationalized: she already did the hard work; why should I? (When I take on projects like this, they always take WAY more time than I thought they would, so I figured this was a great investment, time-wise!) And after I bought it? I squirreled it away for a special occasion, and soon forgot about it. Sounds familiar, right?

the disc, the pendant, & the button

The disc is the perfect size to attach to the U-shaped middle portion of this pendant! This pic shows the dingy, dull appearance of the concave side of the disc; I used my Dremel and radial disc to polish this up to a gorgeous shine before I started wiring.

In looking at the pendant, I felt like I wanted to" soften" the overall appearance of hard glass on hard copper disc on hard copper pendant. The pendant had that nice curly "tunnel" across the top, and I had some pretty blue sari ribbon, so I decided to see if I could incorporate a little sari ribbon into the design. (I am all but clueless when it comes to sari ribbon artistry!)

sari ribbon in the tunnel - I like it!

To attach the button and the disc to the pendant, I decided to use the same blue wire I used on the filigree ring necklace, because I wanted it to show as little as possible on the front of the button, and it wouldn't show at all on the back - so color didn't matter there. When wiring the button to the disc (and the pendant, since it was all done in one step) I added a 4 mm Czech firepolish bead in the center of the button (in a deep indigo color that matches the blue around the edge of the button) - I wanted as little of the wire to show on the front as possible.

the copper disc and button wired to the pendant

Y'all know I couldn't stand those triangular cutouts - I decided to stick a small piece of sari ribbon behind the button - and just like that: no cutouts! Victory! Aren't these colors and textures fantastic?

Since there was only a single hole drilled through the copper disc, it took a lot of wiring to get the disc and button securely and stably attached to the pendant.

Detail of the wire attachment:

And now - I'm in the home stretch on this one. I wanted to make a simple necklace for the pendant, because the pendant has a whole lot going on. I envisioned a simple copper chain, with some dangles for movement, color, and interest.

It's a little hard to tell, but the dangles include more of the beautiful tourmaline from yesterday's necklace, plus some kyanite, peacock freshwater pearls, tanzanite-colored Czech glass, and a few of the deep indigo Czech firepolish beads I used on the button. I clustered all the dangles at the front of the necklace, and saved one kyanite dangle for the back.

The necklace closes with an S-hook, and I left a generous length of chain so that the length is widely adjustable.

I absolutely love this necklace, but nevertheless, I'm letting it go: it's available in my Etsy shop!

Stay tuned tomorrow for Chapter 4: the filigree "diamond".

Looking for Chapter 1 (the filigreed ring)? Here it is.
Looking for Chapter 2 (the copper square and the "X")? It's right here.

And don't forget to check out our feature (pages 21-26) in the May Issue of Bead Chat Magazine:

Lace-up Aluminum Cuff

Here is one of the metal projects I started in the studio on Monday:

 Handforged aluminum lace-up cuff with blue sari ribbon

It started with sheet aluminum, which I cut, sanded, hammered, and folded (after testing the dimensions on a paper template, of course!) I then placed grommets across the front, shaped the bracelet on a mandrel, and then laced it up with this gorgeous blue sari ribbon.

I had never worked with aluminum before, and it's so much more affordable than sterling! It's easy to work with, too - I never had to anneal this piece, which is amazing, considering all the folding and hammering it went through! But I tried to highlight the texture with liver of sulfur, and discovered that the aluminum won't take the LOS - it just sheeted up and beaded right off, like water on a duck's back!

The cuff is somewhat adjustable, as most are, and will fit from sizes 6 to 7. It's very lightweight (the ribbon might weight more than the metal!)

It's available on Etsy!

BSBP Deconstructed: Sari Ribbon Cuff with Bluebird

For those of you looking for my BSBP reveal, it is here - I hope you'll click the link and check out the whole reveal!

This is the 4th in a series of posts devoted to breaking down the design process that went into each of my BSBP creations. The series so far:

1. kumihimo lariat with gemstone chips
2. sari ribbon and enameled bead necklace
3. Vintaj charm/cha-cha bracelet

If you've been following along, you know that so far, I have used 2 clasps AND bunches of beads sent to me by my partner, but I haven't yet used any of her focals, so I still haven't met the BSBP challenge - gotta make something with one of the wonderful focals Kate sent me!

The Vintaj charm bracelet I made started out as a design for one of the focals, but as often happens, the creative process took on a life of its own, and edged the blue bird right out of the finished piece.

{Reminder: this is how the charm bracelet started}

I had specifically shaped and  patinated the (formerly silver) bird blue FOR this charm bracelet, and I really wanted to use this happy bird, so I started ruminating on bracelet designs that could accommodate this focal.

I have a huge stash of sari ribbon, but it's not something I am real comfortable using - I want to work with it more and figure out innovative ways to add it to my designs! I had some gorgeous grass green sari ribbon that looked terrific with the bluebird, so I started playing around with ways to work both elements into a bracelet.

I finally settled on a wrapped cuff, using this copper-plated steel lattice-style cuff as a base:

I have used this cuff for a number of different designs, and it looks different every time! This BSBP cuff used up my last one - I need to get more!

I started carefully and methodically wrapping the ribbon around and through each section of the cuff, taking care to make sure the ribbon didn't twist and get folded, and still covered most of the cuff, just letting the twisted dividing pieces show through. I crossed my fingers that the long piece of green ribbon in my stash would make it all the way through the wrapping!

view of inside of ribbon-wrapped cuff

Once the ribbon was secured, I used some fine gauge copper wire to attach the bird, as invisibly as possible, to the front of the cuff:

I love this piece - it is out of my "normal style," and reminds me of a bird flying over a green field. I love the textural variations: the soft ribbon on the hard cuff, and the bright colors!

And this fun size 7 cuff is now available on Etsy!






Stay tuned - more deconstructing tomorrow!

BSBP Deconstructed: Sari Ribbon and Enameled Bead Necklace

For those of you looking for my BSBP reveal, it is here (2 posts down) - I hope you'll click, and take a look at my entire reveal!

This is the second in a series of posts devoted to deconstructing my BSBP (Bead Soup Blog Party) reveal, providing the nitty gritty design details.

Yesterday I  described how my gemstone chip kumihimo lariat came about, and today we'll look at my Sari Ribbon and Enameled Bead Necklace.

I fell in love with this sari ribbon, sent to me by my partner, Kate:

It is a deep, rich hunter green with a shiny gold pattern interwoven.

I knew I wanted to use it for the BSBP, but I just couldn't make it mesh with any of the beads Kate had sent. So I decided I would just make my own beads to showcase this gorgeous ribbon. I didn't have any enamels the right color, so I spent a day mixing and blending colors at the torch until I finally hit upon the right combination of 3 colors that when combined in the right order, did the trick.

I didn't have any clasps in antique gold, but since I had already mixed and match Kate's toggles to suit my lariat, I had a leftover toggle ring and bar that went together very nicely, only they were silver....so I patinated them to a matching antique gold. I also patinated some ribbon crimp ends the same color, anticipating a need for them at some point!

I enameled 6-8 beads each in 5 different styles/sizes, figuring I'd rather have too many than not enough, and have to come back and fire up the torch again. And it's a pretty color, so any leftover beads will eventually get used in another project!

Then I set about stringing the beads. After several missteps, I hit upon the combination you see in the finished necklace. At the front, I used 3 of the "squash" beads as a focal point, separating them with some antique gold metal wave beads - I really like how this looks!

I continued stringing, decreasing the bead size as I went, for a graduated look. I kept having to stop and remove beads and restring, because I wanted to use them all, but the necklace was approaching crotch-length, which is never really attractive!

As you can see, stringing these hollow beads presents the problem of visible bead wire. I used antique gold Accuflex wire for this necklace, and it shows if you look hard inside the filigree beads, but....it is what it is.

Small antique gold Czech fire polish beads separate the enameled beads. This shot also shows how my patinated toggle matches the ribbon.

When it was time to crimp the beading wire, I had to start thinking about how to finish off the strand AND connect it to the sari ribbon. Probably should have started thinking about this earlier....but it turned out well.

I didn't want to have to fold the sari ribbon, so I wanted a wide ring for it to go through. I tried several large jump rings and connectors, but none of them worked well. The jump rings were too small, and the larger connectors were hollow sterling, and the silver didn't go with my antique gold. I decided to enamel them green to match the beads (thereby blowing my plan to NOT have to go back to the torch!) - but they actually didn't hold up to the heat of the torch. I finally remembered all the copper washers I have hoarded away, and I enameled a couple of those, and they are perfect!

I strung seed beads onto the end of my Accuflex, making a loop with them to go through the washer, and then crimped off the Accuflex.

I brought the doubled sari ribbon up to the clasp, and connected it with the patinated ribbon crimp ends:

This is actually my favorite piece of all the ones I made. It is very different from what I normally design - I am not much of a stringer, preferring to beadweave, or work with metal or chainmaille. It is much simpler than the bold statement pieces I usually create, and I love the color!

Stay tuned ... tomorrow we'll look at one of the bracelet designs.

A Matching Bracelet for my long ago BSBP necklace

Remember all the way back to last year's BSBP (Bead Soup Blog Party)?

This is the necklace I created with my bead soup:

I like this necklace, but I almost feel naked if I don't wear bracelets, so I finally got around to making a bracelet to go with this piece:

This bracelet has the keishe pearls and glass from the necklace, button pearls, more faceted aventurine plus some faceted green fire agate, some brown freshwater pearls, and more of the turquoise-colored seed beads from the bead soup. I used Vintaj Natural Brass findings, chain, etc. and wound some green sari ribbon through the larger chain. I love this bracelet!

I hand-forged the toggle from Vintaj Natural Brass wire.

And that's not all I made to go with the necklace....