Flower and shell earrings

Anybody else LOVING project runway? I know I do! Ever since that season, a couple ago, with Seth Aaron (my FAVORITE designer yet), i'm totally hooked.

I also love watching it because every week, Etsy Metal does a challenge related to the episode! Usually I sort of lurk, but this week i decided to get into the spirit! The challenge: Make something from the materials on your bench!

So, to start with, I wandered over and took a picture of my desk! I'd done a big clean the day before so there wasn't oodles of stuff there, very little 'creative clutter' (really! this is what it looked like that day! it's highly out of the ordinary for it to be so clean. how unfortunate for the challenge!)

Here's my desk last friday:



at the back, you may see an overflowing green bin... this bin is 'pieces to use'. Experimental bits and bobs that have been created but not yet put into one creation... including some pieces of copper i'd etched. Grabbed the etched copper, grabbed a little pot of shell beads, the pot of chains, some brass wire, and another piece of sheet copper. The only thing not currently on my desk there was the plain sheet copper (the bail) and the brass wire (the rivet). Here's what came out of it!



If you want to see what other people made, go over to the etsy metal website: http://etsymetal.blogspot.com/

Searching Necklace

Recently, Objects and Elements website posted a tutorial about riveting domed metal to a flat surface. How serendipitous, I was just starting up a piece where I'd be doing this! Here is my submission to this challenge. The larger found metal piece was somewhat domes already. I used the method discussed to refine the curve, and riveted using a wire rivet strengthened by a brass tube.

This piece, 'Searching' was made with lots of found metal pieces. I think the top one is from some kind of audio equipment? No idea what the bottom once was... any ideas out there? Other found pieces include a round piece, and also a lens from a friend's broken camera. It works pretty cool as both a necklace and a mini magnifying lens.