The Pink Hare

Fire is oh so fun

 Well yesterday I broke out the propane torch. It was a wee bit harder to work with then the ones at pennland for two reasons. One, it didn't have different sized tips and the one it came with is huge and two theres no hose so i'm holding the tank and everything. But I think I did pretty well
Now I need to go buy a steel ring mandrel and a rawhide  hammer so I can clean up the ring shapes. I also need to file off the excess solder and few other bis and bobs.

 The other problem is that the flam is clear ish this makes judging  where the hotest part of the flam hard. So it take me forever o get anything done .
  I think I'm going o do something shrine like to the arch and the squares will have tin collages inside them . I have no idea what i'm going to do with the rings.

Hmmm decisions decisions.

Cold joins !

 I did make other jewelry while at penland. These two pieces used no soldering what so ever. The first is a necklace. I used my handy dandy saw to cut the pieces out and tiny screws and nuts to hold the pieces all together. I really love it ! . I'm thinking about doing another pendant but etching the open piece.
  These are the main components. I hadn't finished  the large one or sawn of the excess screw.

All finished. It hangs so beautifully !
The last piece I made was made because i really wanted to learn how the use all of the awesome power tools. So I took a large piece of mahogany and cut out the rough shape. Then it was smoothed out with a belt sander. I got to use the flex shaft to carve it and tada !
   The tooth and silver loops are held in the same way. I took 18 gauge wire ,drilled a hole thru the tooth and then drilled holes {the same size as the wire. I then notched the wire with a file coated the pieces with epoxy and shoved them in. It was a tight fit but it looks great. And no the tooth isn't mine. hehehe

What a new post ?

Hi guys ! yeah i've been super quiet . penland was a lot of fun and I can't believe the amount of things I've learned  . There are now so many ideas running thru my head .

  The first thing I learned was how to use my jewelers saw. If you are even remotely interested in learning to make jewelry get one and make it your best friend !  At first I broke a lot of blades ,which is to be expected .. but the amount of things you can do is just so amazing .
 For my "big piece" I decided I wanted to make a shadowbox diorama type pendant. So I got to use my trusty saw to cut out the bits. Using a saw beats the pants off shears and tin snips. These are the shapes I cut out .
Next I learned how to make and form a bezel which is also in the picture. It's so not easy !!! Traditionally you form the shape and the ends touch, no big deal right ? Ha !The ends should touch with out a gap so that when you hold it up to the light none shines thru. I think I filled and shaped that oval for an entire day ! But I'm proud that I took the hard way and idn't just overlap the ends . You can do that but I wanted to realy learn the more traditional rules.

 Then I learned to etch ! I'vce done it before with th stuff you can get at Radio Shack and stazon ink but this time we used PNP ,which stands for Peel and Press paper. You take your images and print them on this paper with a tonner printer or copier . Then on clean metal you iron it on . It acts as a resist for the etchant . I did a ton of these !
Lastly I soldered my bezel to the background that I had etched . Working with a torch is too much fun. And I started to play with the composition .  
 Then we marked how I wanted to attach the parts drilled hole and riveted it all together . I clean up the piece a bit more added some saw work details and tada !
  I also learned to carve wood and generally had a blast . So i bet you can guess what I've been up to? I'm saving up for a torch ! and all the equipment that goes with it . The whole experience has really changed the way I want to approach jewelry . 

 Tomorrow I'll post pics of the other things I worked on and various shots of penland.