Bead Soup

After simmering for almost a month, the Bead Soup Party has begun! As I was a bit of a late signer-upper, I was partnered with the lovely Lori Anderson, the host of the swap. I mailed off a lovely package of mixed beads that worked together well, with a hand-forged metal pendant and clasp. In return, i received such a lovely box of beauties! This is what arrived at my doorstep a couple weeks ago.

In this box were so many little lovelies! I received lovely two tone 'artistic stone', a pendant and lovely beads of adventurine, a sterling silver clasp, and some great silver beads from Bali. I was so overwhelmed with all the pretty little rocks here! I have to admit, when buying beads for myself I am usually buying fairly cheap ones, so I was awed at the chance to work with so many special beauties!

After much deliberation and hard work, here's the final product! I had not too long ago visited a history museum with an impressively inspiring collection of ancient Peruvian relics, including a lot of gold jewelry. I picked up the middle gold piece there, knowing I'd find a use for it and it's many, many holes. I used all the different varieties of lovely beads Lori sent me and am so excited to still have leftovers of some for later use!!!

Here's some more detailed shots to finish the post off. I would highly recommend joining in on our blog party day today, and checking out what all the other bloggers have to offer! Just check out Lori's post here to see all of our many, many participants in this great swap, and what they created.

Saskatchewan Necklace

I've been trying lately to create necklaces that mean something to me, something that tells a store, rather than simply something that is beautiful. While i want it to also be beautiful, i find that the extra thought and the meaning within the necklace only increase it's beauty.

This necklace was created when cutting a piece of metal, and realizing that i'd inadvenrtantly cut it in exactly the shape of my home Canadian province, Saskatchewan. Now, saskatchewan isn't exactly a difficult shape to cut, but still, it was right on the money. I set that piece asside before continuing with my regular cutting.

The necklace has references all over to what Saskatchewan means to me. From the easily recognizeable reference with the canadian flag peeking through (taken from a Canadian stamp) to the less harder reference of 306 (saskatchewan's phone area code) to the color choices of blue, green and golden brown for the beads and fibers, everything was done with a reason.

Basic technique used: I first fired the pieces of metal, till they were nice and patinated. After, i rolled up the longer piece to create a loop and created a window in the top piece with a screwdriver (who'd have thought?). I glued a stamp in the window, and drilled the two pieces together. Underneath I put a tassel made with Saskatchewan grass field colours. Later on the chain are two brass links, one with some grass from my grandparent's backyard in Saskatchewan, and the other with the numbers 306 rubbed on. Last features include a suede neck cord embellished with six green and blue beads.

This piece was created (late) for a challenge to go through Mary Hetmansperger's 'Wrap, Stitch, Fold & Rivet'. This is the 4th project, Layers Necklace, with my own spin to it.

I made my own nails

I feel kinda proud about this one. See those four pieces of metal? That used to be simple 16 gage copper wire. I annealed and patinated it, hammered on the top to form a head, and used my metal file to sharpen the bottom part. I may still use my metal files to clean up the groves left by the C-clamp (i don't have a vise). I got the general technique from Kazmer's book 'Cold Connections'... again. I really do love that book.

But here is the dilemma... now that i've made them what on earth will i do with them? An assemblage project of some kind? I dunno... I guess i'll just wait for the inspiration to strike. I really like the mint-tin style assemblage with the nails sticking out on the edges. Maybe a strange, strange christmas ornament? hahah.

I have also created the start of four bezels. Still unsure what to put in them too. They have been cut and filed, and are ready for me to torch solder them this weekend. Can't wait. The one of them is really deep... need to find something with more weight and presence to put in that one. They will also be a chance for me to try out my new ice resin!

Looking for nail-y inspiration...

Christmas present arrived!

Colour me impressed.... Objects and Elements was able to ship a box of stuff to me out in South Korea in only 1 week. I was so excited to come home and see a box waiting for me on the kitchen counter.... At first I assumed it was the presents my friend Tasha had sent me (she made me an awesome corset/arm-band/hair piece set that i can't wait to recieve), but it turned out to be my christmas present from my honey!

Ryan and I sat down last monday and picked out our christmas presents from each other online last monday. He picked a load of books off amazon, I picked a litter of interesting stuff off the Objects and Elements blog. Check out my loot in the picture above!!!!

First, I picked the Liver of Sulfer. I knew i wanted taht going in, as i have been experimenting with patinating metals, especially copper. I love the feel and working with copper, but i am not wild about always having that same bright red colour that just doesn't always seem to match everything. It's nice to work with some new colours in the metal mix sometimes. I have been working with my blow torch, now it is the time to step this up to the next level. I know i need to be very careful with this stuff... Don't worry i'll be carefully reading up on this all over before attempting use.

On a less chemical scale, but no less exciting for me, i then immediately picked up the metal punch alphabet. I have been wanting one of these for so long.... I couldn't resist trying it out immediately. The punched piece was just made earlier this evening. So easy!!! I just love the level of personalization available here. Can't wait to create my first piece with a great quote.

I also picked up a sheet of bronze, as seen on the bottom of the picture. The gage is so wonderfully thick. I was expecting it to have a more rusty kind of colour, but find the colouring to be fairly similar to that of copper. Still, it doesn't have as intense of that red tone.... this could be very interesting. Can't wait to play with it and my blow torch this weekend!

I picked up some of the cog wheel shaped pendants here, seemed like fun things to use for a steampunk style piece. I do love the idea of creating in the steampunk style. Just need to really jump in with that one.

Last, but not least, maybe if you squint really hard and use a bit of imagination you'll be able to see the Ice resin i also purchased. After hearing so much raving about it, I thought i'd give it a try. I then promptly forgot to put the bottles in the photograph! Sigh. Typical of me lol. Still, that i think will be more intersting once i start creating with it.

I now have the makings of some great bronze bezels.... and good resin to put in it too! Very exciting.... stay tuned for eventual pictures :)


All things said and done, i would call my shopping experience with Objects and Elements a total success! I really love my metal punch set, and all that remains is to check out their 'signature product', the ice resin! Very exciting...

Day of the dead hand chain

I have decided to enter a piece into the fantastic challenge on the Objects and Elements blog. This round, the challenge is to put something unusual in a bezel. I had a couple cool hand-carved skulls, so i was ready with some ideas. I really love reading and seeing all the challenges, and this time I decided not to sit idly on the sidelines.

I was currently making a piece of jewelry for a friend back home in Canada's belated birthday, and i was going on a 'Day of the Dead' theme after seeing how awesome these carved bone skulls looked with metal roses.

The bezel form was from a stuff-swap with the lovely Amber Dawn. In the bezel i put a handcarved korean skull surounded by three metal roses(echoed later in the wrist part of the chain, more pics to come). The background is simple scrapbooking paper, and after aranging everything i filled the bezel with resin. I then drilled four holes through the resin and bezel to fit it into the formation as needed.

I really encourage any of you to pop on over to the Objects and Elements blog challenge, as the voting starts tomorrow October 23rd. Good luck to all the participants!

Etsy Metal Challenge

There is a challenge blog I've found that is from various metal artists on Etsy. An amazingly talented group of jewelry artists joined as participants for a challenge that follows Project Runway's weekly challenges. Each week, they challenge themselves to create something following the theme of the week's show.

I was intrigued last week, where the challenge was to create a piece of movie jewelry in a movie genre. I chose Science Fiction for myself, and started to work on a piece in more of a narrative jewelry in a narrative with industrial (dare i say steampunk?) style. However, the piece was big and i didn't even get halfway done before the week's limit.

Luckily, the next week's challenge was to create something in blue. As i hadn't yet added any color and had just been working with metal, the change of all colored pieces to blue was an easy one. So, the plan was to have this as a guest submission to go with the others.

This plan very sadly didn't work out as i was 3 HOURS LATE!!! for the submission deadline. I had planned to work on it friday night (korea time) in order to finish by the deadline but then went to a jazz festival instead of finishing the piece(still worth it). sigh. Maybe next week i'll be on time? I'll be leaving a quick comment on the post saying that I finished the challenge but was too late.

I thought i'd post this piece anyways, as it is finished and photographed. Also, it's been a LONG while (almost a month!) since I last updated and I knew I needed to get on posting this or it would be just set aside.










As I mentioned, this is a narrative piece of jewelry. When I was designing for the movie challenge, I decided that this would be for a girl who had been part of a royal family. Her family were murdered by her evil aunt, but the girl managed to escape (kind of like Anastasia?). The girl ran off, and pretended to be a boy. She lived with a blacksmith family for a while, but was found out. She managed to escape again, but the blacksmith family was sadly killed. The girl, who has grown into a woman, swears revenge on her aunt.

I'm not sure this is really a sci-fi movie, but it isn't really historical fiction either.... It almost has some elements of an adult fairy tale type movie?? I don't know where it really fits. Still, each element of the necklace has an element of the movie within. The two tear shaped blue dangles are for her parents. The key was to her old bedroom. The picture is of her mother. The three iron pieces are for the blacksmith family. Lastly, the scraps of blue fabric are from her aunt's dress, to remind her of her purpose.

I had a lot of fun making this piece, and definately learned a lot too! Not quite sure what I will do with it, as it isn't exactly the standard type of piece people wear out on the street or to work, but I'm not your usual korean on the street here anyways! Maybe I'll wear it out and about anyways, and love the looks that it draws.

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