Category Archives: Metal Work

Metal Work, Necklaces, Pendants, soldering, Techniques, Torch Work, Wire Work

Cross

October 18, 2011 Karen

It’s that time of the year when many people begin to gear up for the holidays. For designers, that often means art/craft show after show after show. We speculate by buying materials and creating our products and then hope that we’ve designed things that people will want. It often seems like design roulette. The time and monetary investment in the products can weigh us down, but could it also make us cross?

I hope the season is remaining pleasant for you as it is for me. This year, instead of being cross, I chose to make a cross. One cross led to another and I am beginning to think I should just start a cross store. See what you think. Below are just a very few of those I’ve made.

The plain wire crosses are the easiest to make being composed of two pieces of 14 gauge wire soldered and then wire wrapped in the middle. These are then patinated and textured to provide the look of wood.

The flower-like wire crosses are a little more challenging. I eyeball the shape and occasionally create one that’s not as symmetrical as I would like. Yes, I know that I could use a jig and make them perfect, but that wouldn’t be me. Although you can’t see it very well in this photo the fold formed leaf at the top shares a jump ring with one of this style crosses.

The embellished cross required some problem solving before hatching. I saw a pendant in a magazine that was made by attaching beads to a filigree with wire. I tried this and liked the look except for the back shown below.

This was one big mess! As I pondered how to cover the mess, I, of course, thought about making it into a cross. First I soldered a wire cross onto a sheet metal disc.

Rather than overlapping the wires for the cross, I cut the side pieces and placed them beside the vertical wire. This made the cross a bit flatter. Finally, I wired the decorative filigree to the wire of the cross and finished the piece.

I made a smaller cross, not pictured, by whittling down the filigree piece. This removed the lovely outer curves and I didn’t like it as well.

Finally, I created a scroll type cross using double wires rather than single.

Customers at my last show seemed to enjoy selecting a cross and then choosing either chain or leather to go with it. They also had a choice of selecting a sterling silver cross. I’ve made these in various sizes.

Now it seems that every time I contemplate a new design, I can see the product made as a cross. Yet, I guess this is better than being CROSS! (I think I just heard a loud “Amen” from the other room.)

Bracelets, Cold Connections, gifts, Metal Work, Pendants, Philosophy

I Know Who Moved My Cheese

August 21, 2011 Karen 4 Comments

I’m preparing for a few art/craft shows in the Fall and thought I would get a jump on making some small, inexpensive items that could be stocking stuffers. Last year, I made a healthy number of wire bookmarks. There were wire cats. dogs and rabbits. This year I had visions of other wire animals hanging from the shepherd’s hook bookmarks. I was happily working on these when I happened to glance across and see my husband who was reading. Then it hit me. Someone moved my cheese!

If you are not familiar with this phrase, it is derived from the title of the 1998 book by Kenneth Blanchard Who Moved My Cheese? (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Who+moved+my+cheese) Companies and educational groups bought this book by the dozens and used it to make employees cognizant of the fact that times are changing and we need to be prepared to learn new skills and to problem solve. Many of us who were “encouraged” to read the book felt we could have gotten the idea with a simple memo, but hopefully it made a difference to others. The full-day workshops on the topic were a bit much.

My “cheese” realization” came when I noted that my husband was engrossed in a book on his IPAD II and no longer needed a bookmark. With the onslaught of electronic readers, I had to rethink the number of bookmarks I might need this year. Many of my friends and customers who are readers no longer need bookmarks.

It was fortuitous that I realized I might not need so many bookmarks this year before I made a hoard of them. I garnered my bookmark energy and set out to find something else small that I could offer at the art shows. I’m currently working on a few very small pendants/charms that could go on a chain, bracelet or a BOOKMARK. (Surely, that cheese didn’t all move away.) Unfortunately, these little things take a bit longer to make, but I’m sure I will get faster as I make more and more.

The charms with a religious theme might work well combined on a bracelet or simply as a single charm attached to a beaded bracelet. Surely something will hatch before long.

In the meantime, I’ll be making just a few new bookmarks and trying to pay close attention to any other cheese that has been moved since last season. Of course, it would certainly be exciting if I had a clue what customers want ahead of time. But where would be the fun in that??? I’ve just got to follow the cheese, but in the meantime it’s important just to realize that it moved.

Metal Work, Necklaces, Pendants, Techniques, Wire Work

Saving Time

July 12, 2011 Karen 2 Comments

I’m a firm believer in making my own findings for jewelry; but I’m behind on making chain and took advantage of the opportunity to purchase some over the weekend. Yes, the photos below show “store bought” chain.

Tonight I feel lucky that I had that chain since these three pieces needed to be completed and time was ticking away. I’m doing a little art show tomorrow and wanted these to be ready since I wanted to take a few pieces with me that weren’t composed mainly of wire armatures.

The bird’s nest necklace was so easy and fun to make. You just wrap wire round and round a ROUND object and then weave lighter gauge wire in and out of the rounds securing the eggs (beads) with the ends of this wire. I also made a couple of rings like this. Hmm, I wonder what bird would lay this color eggs.

The metal lotus is similar to something I’ve previously created, but I wanted to try a more open look. This one presented a challenge in getting it to solder in a way that wasn’t super messy on the back. Should I tell you that it took two tries?

curves The third piece probably took the longest to make. It was quite tricky to get the three middle pieces of wire to all ball together in the torch. While you cannot see this very well, I can assure you it doesn’t look very ball-like. Yet, I wasn’t going to do it again! I think the wire weaving took the longest and I really do appreciate those of you who whip out these weaves with the greatest of ease. I’m making myself keep practicing and trying to learn to do this technique without gritting my teeth.

Am I glad that I bought that chain? Yes, today I am because it helped in a crunch. Yet, I realized considerable added cost by making these purchases and that has to go into my pricing. You would think that this should work out about the same as if I had charged for the time it takes to make my own chain. Alas, it’s much easier for me to charge for something I purchased than something I made. I MUST get over that! Is there therapy for pricing anguish?

Metal Work, Pendants, soldering, Wire Work

Flora NOT Fauna

July 8, 2011 Karen

I’m making a real effort to focus on flora today and stay away from fauna. If you read the entry titled “Black and White” you know I encountered a skunk on a previous walk. Yesterday, it happened AGAIN! I was watching very closely as I went up the last hill and detected movement in the grass. Yep, there was black and white again. Yes, I did run down the hill AGAIN!

Also, Bruno the dog just brought me the last of a snake that he or some other heeler consumed in the back yard. There was enough skin left to determine it was a coral. So, with raccoon footprints on my front wooden door, a skunk in my walking path and snakes in the back yard, I’m thinking about moving to town! You’d think I live in the boonies, but you can watch the video on the opening page of the website and see that is not the case (www.dreamcatcherranch.net) .

At any rate, all I can control “habitat wise” is the work in the studio and I hereby proclaim that it will be FLORA! (did I mention the ant and mouse traps I just set?) Flora doesn’t sneak up on you. Flora is graceful. I like flora! Yet, it has to have a little metal twist to it.

While I usually work until a piece is completed, this one spread over two days. Late yesterday, thinking I had all the soldering complete, I pulled this piece out of the pickle and a leaf fell off. With hungry fauna (dogs and spouse) waiting, I set this aside and started again this morning. It has now been resoldered, given a patina and run through the tumbler. I think it’s perfectly secure this time. Now I just need to figure out what type strand to hang this pendant from. Alas, the fun part is over. Yet, there’s more flora on the table . . .

I’m wishing you a good weekend free of black and white fauna and full of beautiful flora.

Cold Connections, Creativity, Metal Work, Necklaces, Pendants, Wire Work

Black and White

July 6, 2011 Karen

Well, it happened again. Another morning walk affected my jewelry designs. Everything was perfectly fine until that last hill at the back of the property behind the house. By this point in the walk, I’m pretty weary and my legs are tired. Who knew that they could still help me run so fast. Trudging up that hill, I often meet the calico cat and this day’s encounter was also furry and just about her size, but it was black and white. If you were ever in the marching band or military, your body remembers how to do that about face where you place one foot out and turn completely around so you are facing the direction from which you came. It went something like this . . . black and white . . . skunk . . . about face . . . R U N !!!!! That black and white certainly turned me in a new direction.

Wondering if that was some sort of sign (probably just bad luck), I chose to try an about face (well almost) on the jewelry designs and momentarily attempt to focus on something other than wire armatures. I’ve made so many lately that I’m beginning to have nightmares about them! I think I could make handmade chains in my sleep.

If it’s not wire, then the designs around here must be metal. I’ve had components of the pieces shown here laying around on the work bench for a couple of weeks, but with this new direction, they had to be used.

You’ll recognize those same old bottle caps. I have a love-hate relationship going on with them right now. This bottle cap is riveted to the back piece of copper that has been run through a ringer provided by a nice friend. It hangs from a leather chord. (yes, the back is supposed to hang slightly ajar)

The second piece is more complicated and I kept telling myself that simple is better as I added more and more components. The telling didn’t work. I hope I didn’t overdo it. My home constructive critic wasn’t fond of it and had to be told to “pretend you like it” as I queried about the length of the piece.

The copper V was foldformed and hangs from jump rings on a hammered piece of wire. It’s really not crooked, but the picture is. I wire wrapped the hammered wire and made a loop in the center of each wrap for attaching the leather chord. You can see that it is asymmetrical with leather dangles on one side and black and copper beads on the other. This one hangs down pretty long.

Taking a slightly different direction isn’t too painful and is often needed to free the mind for whatever comes next. Sometimes making those wire armatures becomes too comfortable and I have to move out of that zone. Last night I purposely made a very intricate wire wrapped pendant that took about three hours to complete. It required a techniques that I’m not very good at. As I grumbled about it, my critic asked why I was doing it. I replied that I thought it was important to do something uncomfortable part of the time in preparation for whatever comes next. What do you think?

By the way, if you are wondering about that black and white, my downward hill run was successful and I did not get sprayed. Whew!

Creativity, Diversions, Earrings, Metal Work, Necklaces, Pendants, Philosophy

Heavy Metal

June 27, 2011 Karen

The creative mind is a funny thing (not funny “ha, ha”, but funny “unexpected”). My day started with an early morning walk. Early for this artist is 9 AM when it’s already good and hot in South Texas. The moment I went out the front door, I spied my mother’s cat, Callie, who has lived with us for ten years. She’s a beautiful little calico who was lounging, full body, in the bird bath which was empty due to our drought. Can you picture her beautiful black, white and yellow body against the white concrete of the bath?

As I started down the hill, I was accosted by the loud sound of one of the hawks that is homing here at the ranch this summer. We’re not talking about a sweet little bird chirp here. We’re talking about a loud “caw, caw, caw” in a screeching tone as the hawk circled my head. I wasn’t sure whether I should run back to the house or hide under a tree. Eventually the hawk went on and I proceeded down the hill.

At the bottom of the hill and on down the road between pastures the wind brought a cool mist from the irrigation machine that was watering the land. It had that marvelous clean smell to it and reminded me of fresh rain. It was cooling for a while, but soon thereafter, my own mist was dripping off my brow as I trudged on in the heat.

The sights and sounds of the ranch engulfed me as I continued walking, encountering little birds, startled calves and lizards swishing through the grass. Just as I was thinking how pleasant it all was, I got to the top of the hill and there stood four of the bulls. They really are beauties in this own right, but the final sound I heard on my walk was the splat, splat as the business of those guys hit the ground. What a bummer!

Long ago, Dr. Sidney Parnes, taught me that one of the best ways to get creative ideas is to engage the senses. From him, I learned to bring fragrant tea or other natural aromas into the creative thinking process. I remember a tactile experience I provided for graduate students who, with eyes tightly shut, gently held a large strawberry in the very middle of one palm while touching it with one finger of the other hand. It sounds crazy, but they did some great descriptive writing following this experience.

With this in mind, I sat at the workbench and let the results of the morning walk wash over me. I thought I might produce something organic and natural looking, but I did not! I ended up with heavy metal jewelry. The pieces below started as foldformed metal and ended with chain. Even though I tried to put pretty beads on the pieces, they just didn’t work. How could the sights and sounds of nature drive me to this?

The piece on the left is a pendant hanging from leather. It started as a rectangular piece of metal and just kept changing. I used a ceramic bead on the leather.

The earrings below were planned as leaves, but that chain just kept getting on them and I finally gave in. They have a nice little swish to them and I’m pleased that they aren’t noisy little fellows.

So here’s the question. How can a morning walk end up as heavy metal jewelry? The answer lies in the nature of creative thought which often erupts from experiences. In this case the experiences were sensory. Those sensory experiences can open the artist to possibilities that were previously blocked. The idea/art produced may have no seeming relation to the experience; yet they are connected. I think it’s important to remember that when ideas cease to flow or your muse has gone home, there are many things you can do to find your way back home. The trick is to be open when creativity knocks on your noggin. A closed mind bears no art!

You see . . . creativity really is a funny thing!

Earrings, Metal Work, Uncategorized

Upcycled Cans

May 25, 2011 Karen 2 Comments

Designing with cans, reminds me of my childhood. In my small town neighborhood in Medford, Oklahoma, there were no fences; so the backyards sprawled from one to the next without interruption. All ages and sizes of children often played “kick the can” at dusk and I remember that it was great fun. Have you ever played? We actually did not use drink cans, but usually had something larger. I learned quickly that you really should pay attention to the condition of the can. Since I played barefoot, if I kicked a rusted can on a rough point, I came home with a bleeding foot. Yet, this did not deter me from playing again and again. I don’t remember the rules of the game, but it had something to do with running and hiding while someone else counted. Then as the person looked for the hiders, one of us could sneak up and kick the can. Then it all started again. Occasionally, I hid so well that when I finally came out everyone else had gone home. Bummer!

The earrings pictured here are made from Coke, Sprite and V-8 cans. I appreciate that these are lightweight enough to be cut with paper cutters designed for scrapbooking. I’ve found that it is important to use the flattest parts of the can in order to get them into the cutter. Thus far, I’ve been riveting the can pieces onto copper discs, but feel there are many other possibilities.

The earrings on the left seem appropriate for Memorial Day weekend or the Fourth of July. Although the beads appear purple in the photo they are actually blue.

The colors on the V-8 can are more subdued and don’t show up as well on copper discs as shown below. If I wasn’t so cheap, I would try them on sterling silver. But, I AM SO cheap!

I haven’t yet put the earwires in the pair on the right. I think they might also make interesting necklace charms or small pendants.

I’ll continue to play with cans a bit more and especially want to layer several flowers on one disc. I think there are numerous possibilities for some fun summer pieces.

As for any other “play” with these, I’m afraid my days of “kick the can” are over. Now, the freedom I found playing this game is slower paced, but comes from creative expression.

Metal Work, Necklaces, Pendants, Techniques, Torch Work

Foldforming

May 6, 2011 Karen

The term in today’s title may not be familiar to you. As I think about possible meanings, I realize there could be several connotations if we consider a literal interpretation of foldforming. Here are a few of the definitions taken from Karen’s dictionary of unknown terms:

1. the folds formed by a garment from being pressed into a suitcase;

2. folds that appear on a face mainly in the later years of life (more commonly known as lines);

3. the formed folding of the human body resulting from an imbalance between calories consumed and calories burned; . . .

We could keep going with those incorrect definitions, but the truth is that foldforming refers to procedures used on metal to create a variety of forms. I’ve been interested in this for several years and finally purchased Charles Lewton-Brain’s book Foldforming. I appreciate the author’s commentary regarding how foldforming can help a practitioner better understand the manner in which metal adapts to folding, hammering, annealing, etc. I’m attempting to work through the book slowly and learn technique as opposed to rushing ahead to just make something new. This particular book is good for my exercise since the author’s goal is teaching technique and I don’t feel that his emphasis is on how to make specific pieces of jewelry. Perhaps due to this, the book hasn’t always gotten the best practitioner reviews.

The procedures in foldforming largely involve folding the metal, hammering the fold and then annealing it with a torch. Then the fold is usually opened creating a line or ridge in the metal. You can see three different line folds in the above pendant.

The second pendant sports a line fold in the center, but I positioned the ridge of the fold in the back. Hammering the edges of the metal produced its expansion and the rippled effect shown in the photo.

Several people have commented that this one looks like a lily pad. I guess I need to go out and search for a little frog bead for the center.

Thus far my foldforming pieces have not received rave reviews. Rather than becoming discouraged, I have admonished myself to remember that I’m learning technique at this point. I believe that it may take a while to make this my own, but don’t dismay – I’ll get there!

By the way, if you are doing any foldforming, here’s hoping it’s all in metal!

Articles, Creativity, Metal Work, Necklaces, Wire Work

Double Wire Series

May 1, 2011 Karen 2 Comments

Have you ever noticed how some design ideas are addictive? Working with double wire necklaces has become that way for me lately. The chaos necklaces let to other double wire designs and one piece seems to lead to the next. Double wire refers to the manner in which these designs initiate. I use one long piece of wire and double it over at each end to form the portion that either goes around as a neck wire or attaches to a chain. You can observe this at the top right and left of the piece below.

The joyous part of the design comes in deciding what to do with the extra wire. Should it curve up or down? Where should it cross? I’m trying to do something different on each one. Once the armature is complete, it has been challenging to figure out where the beads should be placed. I wore the piece in the first picture to a bead show yesterday and asked several other artists what they would change on the piece. A synthesis of their comments with my own opinion yielded several changes to the piece last night. One of the reasons I enjoy working with wire is that you can make changes to a piece without having to completely start over. Another challenge is that since the armature starts the same way each time, I have to be diligent enough to take the wire in a different direction and create something new. You wouldn’t want me to get in a rut, would you?

The piece above initiated a giggle when I turned it upside down and a bow legged something or other appeared. Dr. Torrance, educational creativity giant, encouraged us to look at things from different perspectives before deciding on a problem solution. I also try to remember and turn my wire designs various directions before making a final design selection. My other challenge remains the need to look at these armatures and NOT see something other than a design. The second piece does, of course, bear some resemblance to a flying creature, but I was determined to resist turning it into a butterfly. Although replicas of nature can be quite nice, they can also be limiting. I’ll continue with this double wire series and need to see what might hatch with it in terms of earrings. Now that could be a real conundrum! By the way, I just finished another article for Magpie Gemstones. This one pertains to ways to add a patina to copper. If you have interest, you can find it at www.magpiegemstones.com/copper_patina.html

Cold Connections, Metal Work, Necklaces, Ranching, Wire Work

More Chaos and Cattle

April 27, 2011 Karen 2 Comments

If you read the blog entry for March 29th, you will recall that we experienced considerable consternation here at the ranch when another person’s bull was hit by a car in the middle of the night. You may remember that I wrote about how we always get the call and it’s never our animals. Last night, it happened again. Luckily, this time there wasn’t an accident, but some cattle were out so the Sherriff’s department called us at 12:30 AM. We always go to check and see if the culprits belong to us, but anyone can see that our cows live in a fortress and it would be hard for these inmates to escape. Of course last night when we went out to check, by the time we arrived, no cows or deputies were in sight. The dispatcher phoned the deputy who reported that the animals went back to where they came from; so he went on. Now why that warranted a call to wake us up, I do not know, but UP I was. It was just another chaotic night at Dreamcatcher.

Since I’ve experienced these calls so often and know that I can’t normally get back to sleep, I started in on several unfinished pieces of jewelry. It seemed fitting to finish the “chaos” necklaces that I had on the workbench. I wrote about this style on February 24 and have since made several other chaos necklaces. The first one shown has a riveted charm.

A second chaos necklace is a bit larger and the middle charm has a soldered flower on it. This one has sponge coral and jasper beads.

One of my customers called and ordered a couple of these the other day. I had previously told her I could make them with “less chaos” if she wanted. She called and ordered two confusion necklaces and one with less confusion. Hmmm – I had to think about what she meant for a bit. The “less confusion” pieces are pictured below.

An article with chaos in the title caught my eye today and a read enough to learn that in time of chaos, we are supposed to rely on our creativity in order to be innovative and work our way through a tough period. It looks to me like I’ve certainly found the chaos and it’s time to be creative. Taking this to heart, I’m playing with new designs based on the double wire structure of these chaos necklaces. I hope the new pieces hatch and pull me forward. Yet . . . I rather like this decorative chaos – what do you think?

Dreamcatcher Designs