Brass rings

Sometimes I wonder if I'm crazy to do so much of the fabrication myself. Making the band for this type of ring requires:

1. cutting a strip out of my brass sheet
2. sanding off the rough edges
3. annealing with my torch
4. running it through the embossing machine
5. punching a hole in the middle
6. bending the metal strip around a ring mandrel 
7. pickling to get the fire scale off 
8. tumbling to make it shiny

That's just the band, but the rest is easy. I look for a bead, nut and bolt that fits. Usually I need a metal disk as a kind of washer/bead cap. I make those out of sheet metal as well (which involves most of the same steps as the band). Crazy? Perhaps. But I have to justify purchasing all of those tools.

Playing around with photos

I tried to make a logo and add it to a photo. Here's the result:

Considering I'm using free online software, and I have no idea what I'm doing, I'm pretty satisfied. I just wish I could get the text to be white.

Ta da!

And now I need a rustic background.

Getting closer to my goal. 

Some progress

It figures - I had a week off from work and no creative juices to be found. I think I use jewelry making as a way of avoiding work. If there's no work to avoid, the drive just isn't there.

Anyway, after a week of work I'm back in the flow, more or less. I'm really excited about my new metal shears. I cut a one-inch square out of my 24g copper and hope to rivet a bead to it or something.

Or maybe I'll emboss it. That was my other recent major purchase - a Sizzix embossing machine. It's AWESOME and there is no other word for it. You can see the result on the two discs above. However, in true Emily style, I also broke down today and ordered some etching solution. For some reason I just feel the need to try out more and more new techniques.

I also finally cleaned up my copper headpins in some natural pickle solution. Works like a charm.

I spend the bulk of the day working on a gift for someone who might read this blog, so no pictures or info until she's received it.

Drudge work

Okay, that is a rather negative title, but what else do you call working for hours on components without having a single piece of jewelry to show for it?

Friday I got the torch out and made headpins:

Another great thing about bronze is that you can take off the fire scale with some steel wool. Copper has to go into a pickle solution for at least 24 hours, and then also scrubbed with steel wool.

Saturday I got out my disc cutter and my earplugs:

Most of these will become bead caps. I just ordered a fancy piece of equipment that will emboss them, but it will take a few weeks to get here.

When I'm too braindead to make anything, I like to admire my bead collection. My mom made these. She's amazing, isn't she?

So, lots of work but nothing to show for it, really. I love the idea of making my own components, but it is a rather labor-intensive process.