January 16, 2012: A spoonful of time

While in visiting Milford PA a couple of weeks ago to get my tattoo, I discovered a cool little gift shop that had handcrafted jewelry on consignment. (WAIT WHAT... TATTOO!? Yes. Perhaps I will share more later.) On display were a bunch of rings and necklaces made out of old spoons. I had never seen this... but both my friend Jenny and my mom said that they had seen them before. Even though it seemed that this up-cycling of flatware was old news... I thought it was a fantastic idea. Why not capitalize on the very inexpensive excess metal?

I started this pendant by hammering an old spoon until it was flat. Then I filed, sanded and buffed it until it had the desired look and feel. Next I placed the watch piece on the surface of to see where I wanted to solder it on. I marked where it was going to go and then punched the word "flies" into the metal using a metal punch set that was picked up at a rummage sale. I tried a new technique, sweat soldering, to attach the watch piece to the spoon piece. It worked! Although, I imagine I will try something else in the future because the watch insides do not seem too fond of the heat... smokey... yikes! Perhaps some sort of cold connection? We'll see.
Then it was time to buff it up to the desired look. Again, as usual, I like the worn and beat up look so I did not shine it up too much. Once it had the look, I put a hole in the pendant so that I could connect the jump ring and put it on a chain. To make this hole I used a metal hole punch screw. Before attaching it to a chain I wanted to make the letters stand out more. To accomplish this, I had to oxidize the metal using an oxidizing agent.  Oxidation (zing! science is everywhere!) happens as a result of a redox reaction (reduction/oxidation) where one substance is reduced (picks up electrons) and the other is oxidized (loses electrons). In this case, the metal is oxidized using a using liver of sulfur . This made the letters darker and less shiny, causing them to stand out and be easier to read. To finish up, I put a jump ring through the hole and then put it on a silver chain that I had from years ago.

I tried to put links to everything that I used so you can find what you need easier if you want to make something like this. Have fun!

January 2, 2012: Leather Cuff

I have always admired cool leather cuff bracelets. After scouting Etsy and some funky street markets in NYC I started buying used leather belts at thrift stores and rummage sales. Now I have a beastly collection! This past summer I played around with making a couple of cuffs. My father works with tons of leather for work and also has a snap fastener and hole punchers, etc. Naturally, having tools available made my dreams of creating leather cuffs more realistic. So the crafting began :). However, I had seen all types of bracelets that had different types of fabric, metal, other leather pieces, etc. attached to the leather cuff with metal fasteners. Well, this 2012 endevor inspired me to see what I could do. I learned the difference between rivets, grommets and eyelets. Not an easy task! Rivets are solid on top and are used to fasten two pieces of fabric together. Grommets (larger) and eyelets (smaller) have holes in them, creating a reinforced hole in the fabric. Anyway... I found rivets at A.C. Moore and used them to stick two pieces of leather (from repurposed leather belts) together. I stamped the word "live." in the top piece. Check it out!

Welcome 2012!

Welcome New Year!! This New Year's Eve I was struck with a memory of several New Years ago. My mother made the lofty goal to create an artist trading card every day for a year. By the next New Year's Eve, she had accomplished her goal. A binder, full of 365 artist trading cards will live on to commemorate her year of creativity and discipline. Inspired by this story and a growing library of books I have been reading, fueled by my passion for creating and learning, I have set out to either create something new or learn something new each day in 2012. In keeping with the Period Ten theme, my "new thing" each day will have to be something I am interested in learning/doing/creating... that is not a part of my work day. Please comment and/or share something new you have created or learned! I hope you enjoy each new something :)