Warming Up for a Show

I've been accepted into a gallery show at the Smithers Art Gallery next fall with my encaustic paintings so I'm going to have to be more efficient with my time to be ready for the show and still have time to work on other things, like jewelry.  Deadlines can be a good thing.

Yellow Pear - encaustic on cradled board - 6x6"

Here's a small warm-up piece I completed in my studio today.  I love the colours.  Not a combination that I would normally use but that's why I decided to use them together.  One of the best things about an obligation that requires me to produce a lot of work over a relatively short period of time, is that I find myself reaching in different directions, sometimes deliberately and sometimes accidentally.  Encaustic in particular has a way of taking you off course just because of how the medium moves.  Sometimes the final result doesn't have even a germ of the idea I started with.  Sometimes it makes me laugh, and sometimes I cry.  I like laughing more.

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!

Playing with Patina

I've been having fun playing in my studio with different patinas on copper.  These are the humble Canadian pennies that I start from.  They have to be 1996 or earlier (American pennies have to be 1982 and before).  The newer pennies don't contain enough copper and they just kind of explode into a molten mess when you heat them.

I found an awesome tutorial for making leaves in the Spring 2012 issue of Belle Armoire Jewelry.  Thanks, Lisa Weber!  Lisa's leaves were exquisitely done in silver but I have a copper budget and a few pennies that I have hoarded since the Canadian penny became obsolete.

I started by rolling the pennies flat in my rolling mill (a recent acquisition).  Then after a few more steps: annealing, quenching, folding, cutting, texturing, annealing, quenching, pickling, unfolding, filing, bending, sanding and cleaning, they were ready for the patina. And after making more than a dozen leaves, so was I! 

MAPP gas torch

 

The flame from the MAPP gas torch is comparatively hot (hotter than propane or butane).  This lovely patina is just from waving the flame gently over the copper but not too long or you'll get fire scale. 

Peanut oil and MAPP gas torch

These ones are also done with the MAPP gas torch but first I coated the leaves with a thin coat of peanut oil using a paper towel.  They turn a lovely golden colour with a dark brown mottled effect.

Propane torch

Using the propane torch the same way as the MAPP gas torch, I got a little more variety in the colours.  I find that some of the lovely colours I get with either torch kind of disappear when I apply wax after the patina.

Ammonia and salt

This was my favourite patina.  I spritzed the copper with water and then sprinkled salt over the pieces.  Then I filled a small dish (about 1/4 cup) with household ammonia and set the earrings, right side up, beside the dish.  I then covered everything with a glass cake topper to keep the ammonia fumes contained next to the copper.  I left it overnight and the next morning I gently rinsed and wiped away the salt before waxing the earrings.

Novocan Black

For this pair I used Novocan black patina which is a chemical used on stained glass copper foil after soldering for a nice black finish.  I brushed some of the patina on the copper and, as it started to blacken, I sprinkled salt over it and got these lovely speckles.

Verdigris

This is the green colour one normally associates with aged copper.  This was the fiddliest patina so I plan to try a few other methods to see what will work the best.   For these earrings, I soaked a paper towel in vinegar and sprinkled it with salt.  I wrapped the earrings in the paper towels and set them under a small halogen lamp (about 6 inches away but be careful not to leave it unattended as the lamp can get really hot).  I left them for about 2 hours to get this green.  I gently wiped away the salt before applying the wax but I didn't rinse them as some earlier attempts had washed away the green patina. 

Oven-roasted

I did these ones in a toaster oven for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.  They turned kind of a golden brown with a hint of burgundy.  I think I'll try them in a slightly hotter oven next time...maybe a conventional oven.

I tried some other experiments that didn't give any noticeable results, such as lye, urea, and sodium bisulphate.  But I'll keep playing and share the results here....eventually.

I finished my pieces off with a coat or two of Renaissance Wax.  You can also use S100 which is a wax available at your local Harley dealer for polishing the metal on motorbikes.  It's a mix of carnauba wax and beeswax. 

Adventures in Jewelry Making

I've been having a blast in my studio creating designs for my own jewelry, primarily using upcycled, reclaimed, and recycled stuff.

Cool stuff

I believe I now have enough older Canadian copper pennies to last my lifetime or until my arm gives out from hammering them flat on the bench block.  It takes about 50 blows with a 24 oz hammer to flatten each penny.  Oh, to be ambidextrous!  Friends and family know what kinds of treasure I covet so they watch for cool stuff wherever they go - old jewelry, beads, electrical wire...  

I first started making simple beaded jewelry about 25 years ago but I was more passionate about collecting pretty beads than I was about actually making the jewelry.  More recently, I became inspired by all the beautiful creations showing up in jewelry making publications on the market and started looking for more information.
 
I loved the look of metal but was intimidated by all the technical information.  I was wishing I could afford to take a course somewhere when I discovered a wonderful book called "Making Metal Jewelry" by Jen Cushman, an awesome designer and writer, who delivered the information in such a friendly way that nothing seemed too difficult to try.  That was my course!  I highly recommend this book.

Of course I had to set up another zone in my studio to accommodate my newest passion.

Jewelry making zone (shared with encaustic painting cause I really didn't have the space for another zone without giving something up and that's not likely to happen!)

One of my favourite techniques is creating a patina with the heat from my MAPP gas torch like on this pair of earrings that I made from copper pennies.

It's a good thing I did this blog post cause my work space was a bit of a mess and I had to tidy up to take the pictures.  Now I have enough room to spread out again, so... back to the studio!

Summertime and the living is...busy!

Summer is way too short!  We're lucky if we get 2 months of real summer weather so every minute I get to spend out on the water is precious.

That's me in my floaty chair!

Summer is also when I gather most of the plant fibres for my handmade paper.   Rather than give up any time on my lake, I take the plant stalks with me out on my floaty chair and, as I drift happily in the sunshine, with a nice cold beverage beside me in the cup holder, I strip fibre.

Stinging nettle fibre stripped from the stalk.

July was super busy this year so I'm making up for lost time.  I can make the paper in my studio anytime but it's a very messy process so I'm glad for the nice weather to do it outside.  The fireweed and stinging nettle are already almost too dry to strip easily so I'm a little frantic to gather as much as I can now. 

Paper drying in the summer sunshine.

It won't be long before the flowers I need for my natural dyes are faded and gone, too.

Goldenrod blossoms for natural dyes.

With so much pulling at me to be outdoors, it's a challenge to find the time to spend indoors in my studio.  But when I do, I've been having a great time making jewelry and trying out new techniques.  I'll share more on that later, including some sage advise about chemicals and common sense! 

Check out these links for complete tutorials on making handmade paper from plants and dyeing paper pulp with natural dyes.

Now I'm back...really!!

Sorry, friends!  I did mean to get back sooner.  I had trouble getting back onto Blogger but I got that part figured out now so hopefully I'll figure out any other changes as I go.  My goal is to post once a week but here's a bit of catch-up.

I had a solo show of my encaustic paintings a year ago February.  Our local arts council sponsors excellent cultural performances throughout the year and they invite one artist to show their work at each performance.  It's a great way to get exposure in the community and the arts council gets a commission on sales made at the concert.  Here are a few of my favourite pieces from the show.

Vincent

 

 

 

Festival of Friends

Here Comes the Sun

Moon Shadow

Moonstruck

Colours

I'll have to work on my photography.  The shiny finish to the encaustics is a bit of a challenge for me.

My Etsy shop has been "on vacation" as long as my blog has so I'm gearing up to get active there again, too.  I sell locally through our Lakes Artisan Centre and at craft fairs but I haven't been travelling to sell nor teaching workshops for the past couple of years. Perhaps it's time?  I've recently added jewelry making to the list of things I do and I seem to be a bit obsessed!

Another birthday has just passed and each year I reflect on how I'm spending my life hours and evaluating how I want to spend them in the years ahead.  Sometimes my head feels like it might explode with everything bouncing around in there but from what I hear, I'm not alone!

Happy New Year!

I can't believe it's been over a year since I last posted.  I am so pleased to see that most of you are still here.

I moved away from my lake in November 2011 with plans to sell.  It felt like the right thing to do at the time...to move forward.  But here I am again...on my lake.  It's so nice to be back here, and sharing it with 'J'. 

I've just restored order to my studio after the production chaos before Christmas.  I know that most of you can relate to that frenzy that leaves your space looking like a tornado hit.  It was a successful season but now I'm ready to slow down the pace a bit and perhaps even clean up between projects.

I'm looking forward to catching up and sharing some of my own work from this past year with you.  I wish you all the best in 2013!