Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Copper Cuff Leads to New Ideas



Aaaahh... adventures with metal!!! I absolutely love metal jewelry! Don't get me wrong, I love beads too... ok, ok, I really love most everything involved with jewelry. But I have always had a great admiration and appreciation of metal. So, I took a copper etching class at my local bead place and created a few treasures, this one pictured being my very favorite. Metal etching is a very very cool technique. Its simple but its also pretty time consuming too. I was just delighted to discover that liver of sulfur will age copper just as it ages sterling. So this finished piece is the result of a sulfur dip and some hand polishing.


I'm seriously considering developing a line of hand forged, aged components and findings in copper, brass and maybe sterling too to sell in a sister store on Etsy. There are a few other sellers doing hand forged findings already, but I have a different vision. I'd like mine to be much more unrefined and very distressed, perhaps even patinaed. I do love verdigris and there are almost zero findings available in verdigris patina! Hmmm... ok I'm just thinking out load now. Expect some experimentation to follow! =) Any feedback about my ideas?

3 comments:

  1. I say go for it because you know, I'd totally be in to buying that from you! I love the bracelet by the way! SUPER!!

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  2. Geez you MADE that by hand? like at home? AMAZING <3 <3 <3

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  3. Thanks Yvette! Yup, totally by hand from a flat sheet of copper... at home! =) I have a bunch of other pieces I've made too that I'm planning on incorporating into other things soon...

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