The Year of Jewelry Project - Week 1

I entered a challenge to produce one piece of jewellery (jewelry) each week for 2013.  Here is my entry for week 1.  The disk and "stone" are made from polymer clay, but the beads on the cord are metal.  I made the design on the disk using cutters and a small screwdriver while the clay was raw and then antiqued it after baking. 

More metal fun

Playing with fire and copper is like a box of chocolates.  You never know what you are going to get.  And you never know if it will stay when you try to preserve it.

The center of this convertible brooch/pendant is made from copper which was heat treated with my torch.  I got an amazing array of colors.  Then I sprayed it with PYMII, to prevent further oxidation, and the color stayed.  Sometimes a heat patina will go away when you seal it, no matter what you use.  Then I framed the copper with some black clay with a torn-out window.  The edges are torn too.  There is more black clay for the backing and the convertible pin back is held in place with a clay covering.

Faux knitting

In addition to the heart-shaped faux knit pieces I've been doing using a tutorial by Claire Wallis (on Flickr), I also made some pendants and bracelets using Judy Belcher's Micro Knitting with Polymer Clay tutorial from CraftArtEdu.  These pieces look like Missoni Knits, and when I displayed them at a craft show, people always felt them to see what they were made of.

More metal work

I made this necklace by etching the hand-drawn design on copper and then doming the piece.  I used a brown patina to give it a nice warm look.  I made two paddles by hammering bronze wire and wired the two pieces together with very thin copper wire.

Working with metals

I'm taking a bit of a break from shawl pins and working on some jewelry.  I've been experimenting with copper and looking at different patina options.  Of course, the best patina I've seen is some that occurred naturally on some old copper flashing.  I just wish I had more of it.  In the necklace below, the disk beads are faux turquoise made of polymer clay and the patina on the copper panel is all natural.  I sealed it with Renaissance Wax.

My second craft show

I haven't been blogging because I've been making inventory for shows.  On the 13th of October, I participated in the Woodstock Fleece Festival in Woodstock, Ontario.  This time I got to use my own tables and table coverings and my cell phone credit card reader worked just fine.  I sold about as much as the last show, so I'm happy.  Now I need to find more shows to do.

One problem with being a vendor is that you don't get to see all the other booths.  This show had lots of lovely natural wools, both roving and yarns, from people who raise alpacas, llamas and sheep and rabbits.  

My first craft show

I did it!  This weekend I participated in my very first craft show, the Kitchener-Waterloo Knitters Festival in Kitchener, Ontario.  I wasn't sure how I would like doing shows, but I'm pretty gregarious and really enjoyed the process of talking to people and trying to convince them that "you don't really need a shawl to wear a shawl pin.  It can be a brooch, or a scarf pin or".....you get the idea.  I sold about $900 worth of pins, a bit jewelry and a handful of buttons, so after a booth fee of $200 and $75 for liability insurance (required by the show), I ended up with over $600.  I think that's pretty good given the low cost of the items I'm selling.

There were a few glitches.  After all that work to build my own tables and make custom coverings for them, I wasn't allowed to use them.  The venue made me use their tables and their fire-resistant table drapes.  Apparently the fire marshal is quite strict.  And then my credit card reader that fits on my iPhone wouldn't read cards.  It had worked fine when I tested it at home.  Fortunately people were very nice about paying with cash and I don't think I lost any sales.

Next I will do the Woodstock Fleece Festival in October.