This bad boy was a custom job commissioned by the lovely pookzilla. Its the Geist logo (http://forums.white-wolf.com/cs/forums/26.aspx - the game is set to release August 2009). The pendant is hand cut from 20 gauge sterling silver and is composed of an upper and lower component that have been sweat soldered together. After soldering, it was hand polished, the background patina’d with liver of sulfur, hand polished again, and then finally put through the tumbler. The pendant measures about 1.6″ in height.
I used my new torch for this - a propane torch with fat boy - the pendant was red hot in all of 30 seconds. I’m suitably impressed - much, much more efficient than my little butane torch! I can only imagine how efficient I'll be when I finally get my acetylene torch!
I’m gonna pat myself on the back here and say I’m pretty proud of myself. I didn’t think I could manage some of the details with my hand saw, the key in particular, but I did it. Go me!
There are more pictures on my blog for those interested thoughts?
Let me preface this by saying I didn't make this. I was walking around in a neighborhood where by boyfriend works and came across a fire hydrant that some kind soul had knit a cozy for. I just thought the folks in this community might appreciate it!
I think it may have been there all winter - it looks like it started its life as a cozy another colour.
This past weekend boyfriend’s burlesque troupe had its first big show. He does a juggling act for the troupe, and what better costume for the act then the character who started it all, Jareth, the Goblin King. While David Bowie didn’t actually perform the contact juggling tricks in The Labyrinth, he inspired dear boyfriend to learn what I proclaimed “an impossible trick”. Turns out not only is it NOT physically impossible, but boyfriend is, in fact, quite amazing at it!
Aside from coordinating the project and doing the makeup, I wanted to make a personal contribution to the costume, so I replicated the Goblin King’s amulet for him. The pendant is as close to scale as I could guess, and is made from Super Sculpey III. I discovered that by using a wet bone folder, I could really smooth out the clay nicely to get an even finish. It was then painted with gold, bronze and silver acrylics, sealed, and hung from a leather thong. From what I can tell, the cord should have attached to the back of the pendant somehow, but for simplicity’s sake, I made a hole through the top of it instead. I think it was the final touch to a fantastic costume - he looked amazing up on stage ^_^
and here he is in costume, just for fun! (photos are ick, i know - grabbed a few quick shots in the hall right after the performance!)
Green means "Sent" Blue means "Received" Orange means "Late with Communication" Red means "PM me immediately" Purple means "withdrawn from swap" Strikethrough means "Feedback left"
Yesterday I found an outlet for my current Repo! obsession (ask any of my friends, I talk their ears off about that damn movie!).
The pendant is hand cut from silver and is just over 2" wide I've hung this one off-center - its heavier (visually) on the left, so I think this arrangement is more complimentary than having it centered.
What is zydrate, you ask? Look up Zydrate Anatomy on youtube or on the official Repo! The Genetic Opera website. love it ^_^
Dear boyfriend surprised me with some awesome new tools last Friday as a pick-me-up - I got two items that were very high on my omgwant list - a stainless steel bracelet mandrel, and a set of alphabet punches (1/16″). The punches are so tiny and cute! I unfortunately don’t have any metal pieces long enough to try out a bracelet just yet, so I made my first ring over the weekend at boyfriend’s request.
(in case it isn’t immediately obvious, the ring is sitting on a sheet of glass in the photo thus the reflection. I didn’t expect the reflection to be quite so dramatic!)
The punches obviously work better on flat metal but boyfriend was determined I try, so I punched out “lil devil” across the front of the length of ring blank. My spacing/placement is not perfect, but it has a certain whimsical quality to it. that's right… whimsical (indulge me) It took me literally hours to get a nice soldered joint on it - the two ends didn’t meet up perfectly when I first attempted the solder so it failed miserably. However, since it also annealed the metal, it was much easier to get the ends to meet nicely on the second attempt. This time, however, my flux failed me (I experimented with a stained glass flux I had on hand - turned out not to be a good substitute). I reverted back to the silver flux paste and finally, on the third attempt, success! My first attempt to get the ends to meet though involved pliers which resulted in some damage around the area of the joint, so it took some considerable filing/sanding/polishing to work those marks out and get a nice mirror finish on the metal. The seam is completely invisible on the exterior surface of the ring, but there is a faint trace on the inside. You can see, too, how the letters got wider in the centers from the curvature of the ring. I am fairly pleased that I set out trying to create a size 9.5 ring and that’s exactly what I ended up with Boyfriend was very impressed and has been wearing it since. I need to get some liver of sulfer to darken the letter imprints so that the text is more visible.
anyway, for a first attempt at a ring, I'm satisfied.
I made this necklace for Pookzilla's birthday It's hand cut from 20 gauge sterling silver, and measures about 1.25" across. Its hung on a 18" sterling chain. Designing script is a major pain in my butt, but I'm really happy with the end result. And once again, my little ghetto tumbler did an awesome job of making it really shiny ^_^
I think I'll do a few more of these word pendants, they're pretty fun ^_^
UPDATE
I made another necklace in the same style for Nven who's birthday is today!
Frak It is also handcut from sterling silver, and is on a 16" sterling chain with Swarovski crystal accents.
My darling boyfriend isn't really into the whole Valentine's thing but I wanted to make him a valentine anyway since I so rarely get to craft something just for him. The theme of the valentine probably makes more sense if you know us - we dress up as zombies a couple of times a year (zombie walks/halloween/whatever excuse we can find). I thought it would be cute then to do a zombie valentine ^_^ My idea grew into a triptych: the first, a zombie nurse (ala silent hill) to represent me; the middle, a heart; and the last, a zombie boy to represent him. Both zombies are reaching for each other and the heart - it must be love! His zombie is wearing the God Save the Queen hat that Nven knit for him, and his Lucky Jeans (it was a challenge to make a very rotted zombie look like him!). These are done on illustration boards (my first time using them, and they're great!!) and each measures 4x6". The drawings are done using ink and brushtip markers and the backgrounds are a combination of inks and acrylic paints. I completed them as a single piece and then cut them at the end, so that the background would flow between the images. I'm hoping to find a frame to mount all three in tomorrow.
Here's what they look like all together
zombiegirl <3 zombieboy!
and close ups
Unexpectedly, the heart turned out to be my favorite. I also like how the little flies look like hearts!
So, I know its not exactly a traditional valentine, but i figured it's something he can enjoy year round, and (under all the gore) it still has a lovey sentiment to it.
I just wanted to share these spoon rings I made over the Christmas holidays. My gramma passed away last summer, so my mom and I thought it might be a nice idea to make spoon rings for each of the women in the family out of my great-gramma's sterling silver Birks flatware that mom inherited. So far I've finished 3 out of 4, and I think they turned out really pretty This is the ring I made for myself:
I neglected to get a before shot, but this is one of the demitasse spoons from the same set that I'll likely make the forth ring out of. The monogram is the initial of my gramma's maiden name.
If you want to know more about how I made these, I posted a bunch more information on my blog (www.acidtrix.com). Overall it was a pretty easy process, it just required some brute force and polishing finesse. Mom and my aunt were both very pleased with their rings, and I wear mine every day. I think they wondered about how gramma might have felt about cutting up valuable silverware like that, but I really think she would have appreciated the creativity and sentiment behind it. And frankly, its better than having the silverware sitting in the back of a closet, unused. This way we can carry a keepsake of her with us every day
I made these pendants for my girl friends for christmas which we all celebrated together this weekend. Boyfriend and mom got me an amazing jewelers work bench for christmas and I spent the good part of last week working at it to make these ^_^
1 Up silver and copper
Rain Cloud hammered silver and Swarovski crystal
Rubber Duckie copper and silver
Tree silver
Robot no1 silver and copper
Cherry Blossoms hammered copper and silver
I realized after I gifted these away that you can see silver polish gunk in the cracks in the photos >_< oops.
still learning how to polish my projects up better... need more polishing paper to start i guess. got lots of practice sawing though!
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