hAPPY hALLOWEEN 2013

 

Just my most favorite pumpkin carver in the entire world - Ray Villafane.

Cab Sandwich

Working today on soldering.  I'd like to get this metal sandwich ready to rivet and bezel.  I took a quick snap of the soldering area because I wanted to show you something.  I've been asked questions before about some of the things I use so a picture is worth a thousand words sometimes.

It's barely noticeable at the moment but in the center of the back plate for the sandwich is my personal stamp from Infinitystamps.com.   It says ArtWerks.  After everything is all oxidized it will show up perfectly.

I put my flux into an applicator with a needle top so I don't waste it.  They're about eight dollars at Rio Grande Jewelry Supply and worth their weight in gold as dispensers.  Since I like putting the old boric acid/denatured alcohol on everything before I flux  keep that mixture in the pink plastic screw top from the personal products area in a Walmart. 

What I really wanted to show you are the tiny hard plastic screw jars (a dollar each from a Meijer's here in Michigan).  When I'm cutting up solder I put the extra pallions in a jar marked with the type.  I always cut more than I think I'll need - you never know when something will go astray and you need to pick solder a piece off your pad to use.  They just plan come in handy. 

 

Also, you can see the usual - copper tongs for pickle/ pickle pot/ and so on. 

Any questions?  You always know I'm delighted to answer.

And for today's cuteness - here is what is keeping me from posting as much as normal - they're always so cute when they're asleep!

 

Daisy Mae Belle and her older and wiser Auntie - Gertrude Jean (affectionately known as Trudy)

Cravings....

I like pie but I love a good cake - fresh and moist and decorated to the nines....how about one of these for the season -

 

I'm not sure I could eat this one with the spiders - Ooooooo

 

And bringing up the cuteness factor and fairly easy to make would be these.  Just look at the twix for Frankie's ears - love them!





 

It's not jewelry but it's certainly creative.  Maybe tomorrow...I seriously need some sugar.

 

Interim Project with Crystals

In the post called "New Stones" there are 3 fluorite crystals.  At the time I bought them I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do with them.  They were inexpensive and I liked the graduation of color that fluorite comes in.  What I hadn't checked was that the stone is about a 3 on Mohs scales (hardness) and that crystals can be brittle.  I'm so gun-ho on new pieces that I didn't think about checking that out and began making a cage for them to go along with the design I drew up. 

Turtle be damned I say! So there I was going to my fabrication class with my half done cage and asking questions about what I needed to do to protect these crystals from the heat I was about to apply to ball the second end of these wires.  LOL  That dear sweet teacher looked at me and said "are you trying to turn my hair white?" 

That's when it occurred to me that I should have looked up the necessary information before I designed a cage that required close contact heat.  Okay dokey.  So now what?

Well, like most design issues there is usually a way around the problem.  Mostly if you think about it before the initial design, duh.  Since I also happened to have a jar of Vigor Therm-A-Guard I figured I might find a way around it.  And, so it was.  I wet packed the guard inside the cage and around the crystals, stuffing it in with a soldering pick where I needed to. 

I was just plain lucky - it protected the crystals and I now have a nice cage for them and can continue on with the design.  Back to the torch....I've decided it needs a Warring States themed bead for the bottom - and maybe some matching stone dangles.  It was one of the design options I had come up with.

 

My finished cage needs polishing and oxidization but that can wait until I have more parts complete.

 

It might also look great with a necklace made of similar stones and a ceramic word bead that said "clarity".  Or something to go along with the metaphysical meaning of the fluorite crystals/ and Warring States bead yet to be made.  Choices - choices. 

 

I'm always open to ideas - what do you think?

More Progress on the Pendants

Sharon the turtle here...slowly working through these projects and going to the local gem show tomorrow.  The bullet cab piece is very nearly finished.  I might just set the stones, polish, and add a half-hitch leather to the top - or might add some half round jump rings I can string with leather or chain.  The other piece is slowly taking shape too.  Hopefully by this weekend I will have added several more of the parts.  I've a new project in mind too but I'm trying really hard not to get to far ahead of myself.  I have such a problem with UFO's (unfinished objects).  They fill drawers around here.  That's a whole 'nother psychiatric conversation - I'm sure of it.  LOL

 

Tah Tah for now !