60in60 Day Two and Three

Yes, I know, behind already!  I had the day at home yesterday due to a temporary closure at my work place so I spent the day in the yard doing hard labour.  While I was doing some tidying up, I spotted some ficus branches that I had pruned from my plant and thrown off the deck in the winter.   I noticed that a good amount of fibre was showing under the bark and it had just the perfect amount of moisture to come off easily so I stopped to strip all the branches for papermaking.  Now my live plant is in danger of severe pruning!

Day 2 Creative Act - stripped fibre from Ficus branches for papermaking

Today, I made some Boho style earrings.  I hammered these copper pennies to flatten them and then used a brass embossing template from my scrapbooking days and the ball end of my hammer to create the hearts.  The patina is from a gas torch.  Banded Agate, Tiger's Eye and copper beads on sterling silver wire and sterling silver ear wires complete the pair. 

Day 3 - copper earrings with sterling silver wire

These will show up in my Etsy shop in the next day or two.

More Patina Play on Copper

I'm trying to get into the habit of posting on my blog more regularly but life has a way of getting in the way and that's okay cause it's all good.  All I have to do is schedule myself a bit better.  Ha!!

I had a bit of time to play in my studio this weekend so I spent some of it playing with some more patina on copper penny earrings.  The first one, Liver of Sulphur, is pretty common.  I used the gel so all I had to do was stir it into some hot water (1 tsp of the Liver of Sulphur to 12 ounces of water).  I heated the copper a bit with the torch first so when I immersed the earrings in the solution, the colour developed very quickly and got quite black.  After rinsing and drying, I sanded the high points lightly for some contrast.

Copper earrings with Liver of Sulphur patina

On this next pair I decided to try layering a  couple of different techniques.  First I did a heat patina using peanut oil and the MAPP gas torch.  I lightly oiled the copper with peanut oil on a paper towel and then heated the earrings just until I got some colour variation - shades of brown and orange mostly.  Then I cleaned off the oil partially and spritzed the earrings with water, sprinkled with some salt, and left under a glass cake topper overnight with a small dish of ammonia.  This added some lovely turquoise blue colour to the mix.  Perfect compliment to the turquoise nuggets I added to these earrings.  If I had scrubbed more of the peanut oil off, I would have had more blue.  Maybe next time.  I love how they turned out anyway.

Copper earrings with peanut oil and MAPP gas patina topped with patina made with ammonia and salt

Jewelry making is so much fun!

Gathering Willow

It was a glorious day yesterday so, even though I had plenty of projects on my list needing attention, I let myself be side-tracked.  As Jo Packham said in the current issue of Where Women Create, "you will never "find" the time to do all of those things that inspire and nourish your creative soul...you simply must MAKE the time..."

Willow heart card on handmade willow paper

My handmade paper supply needs replenishing after a busy winter of card making and soap wrapping so it's time to start gathering materials. I love Mother Nature's Craft Store, where everything is free!