A new, improved "unabashed" 33 pendant!

To quote one of my least favorite pop tarts... …“oops, I did it again!”

Another “unabashed” #33 Clint Bowyer pendant. Copper, brass and sterling rivets. All cold connection. Made the numbers a little neater, different texture and treatment to the copper. I left it all unantiqued to let it develop a patina on its own. Of course the wearer could keep it looking as fresh as a newly minted penny by giving it a periodic cleansing in ketchup to keep the tarnish off. :)

 Slightly different treatment on the copper. The numbers were derived from an actual typeface rather than a rough sketch like my original “unabashed” pendant. Still it conveys the spirit of the piece, and the wearer would get a lot of attention from it.

This is the backside view of the piece showing how the rivets look. They shine up kinda pretty, like a constellation. Its the Clint Bowyer constellation, baby! Oh yeah! Rising star!!

Some Odds & Ends (Catching Up)

I’ve been neglecting my blog lately, so here's a few new projects to catch up with:

Skull charm. Cut out of brass sheet metal, engraved & polished. My husband claimed this one as soon as he saw it:

Thumb ring. Used loose woven emery cloth and a rolling mill for the texture. Comfort fit (rounded inside, much more comfortable than the “flat” bands):

My very first bezel setting. Cross stone cabochon. Soldered all the links on the chain too:

Working with Connie Tescar’s Sleeping Tree tutorial (for my mom). More of these in the works:

A different variation of Connie’s Tree of Life:

Learning a new weaving technique. A pair of earrings using the wonderful tutorial provided by Nancy Wickman:

I’ve also finally gotten a few items photographed that I will be posting on Etsy. Stay tuned for that!

The Wrapshody Continues…

A friend and fellow Clint Bowyer fan liked the coiled bangles so much she asked me to make her one in silver. She has wrists that are a bit larger than mine, so I made a “rough draft” in copper first…

Then made the silver one. Never ceases to amaze me that copper and sterling, while similar in softness, behave so differently. I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out. (Thanks again, Stacy of Hodgepodgerie for providing such an excellent tutorial on this technique!)

Decided to play with this a bit more and create one with some chunky carnelian beads I found a few years ago. Problem with stone beads is often they do not have straight holes drilled in them. On the entire strand I was lucky to find three that had holes large enough for 12 ga. wire. One still needed a little “persuading” with a bead reamer. Seriously considering an electric one.

I was so thrilled by this one, I had to design and create a matching pair of earrings. Necklace in the works, so stay tuned!