Works in progress...and a finish

As promised here is what has been happening in my studio this week.  Some of the pics aren't the best quality but I think you will get the idea.  Weather was a lil less than cooperative, and one got finished after dark so it wasn't taken in that lovely natural light.  Someday, I hope to have a light box for better indoor photography.

This first piece is a set of links for a "story board" bracelet.  This was inspired by my friend Linda Rheault overon the Painting with Fire ning.  She has done some really lovely ones with liquid enamels.  Mine was done with a combo of sgraffito and wet packing to "paint".  My links are far less realistic looking than I would have liked, but I will keep practicing.  It is called "Northwoods" (wonder where I came up with that?).  The links are supposed to be 2 branches of white pine, cattails, pine trees and a robin's nest.

These are some tube beads I played with this week.   My 6/20 mesh enamel came in and it really builds your bead much fatter, much faster.  It is still a bit of a process though and takes several minutes per bead to build them up nice and plump like the one on the right.  The tubing is copper and slightly smaller than refrigeration tubing.  6/20 mesh enamel is sort of finally crushed glass.  I need to play a bit more to figure out and solve why my colors are going "muddy" with this technique.  The top one with the stripe shoud actually be a vibrant orange.  the stripe is a thin piece of glass that I belive are called "cat whiskers".

Headpinus Gigantucus, also know as Giant Headpin.  OK, not as giant as it could be, but this was an experiment I will be working more with this week too.  It is 18 g copper wire that was balled on the end with a torch.  Then a few coats of 80 mesh enamel to make it "sticky".  then added some of the 6/20 to see if one could build bigger headins like you would build bigger beads.  Now we will have to see just how big I can get them without cracking :).

These are of the finally finished "Painted Daisies" bracelet.  I had originally finished it with fiber to go around the wrist, looked at it for over a week that way and still wasn't pleased so today I redid it.  This finish is foxtail (or full persian) chainmaille.  I cut my own jumprings for the first time for this, they are made from 19g dark annealed steel.  I don't mind making my own rings but really need to get a saw to cut them apart so that they will close more smoothly.

That's what I have for you for today.  I have some ideas rolling around my brain for tutorials.  Once our "outside" weather is finished and the garden is put to bed for winter, I will try to get those up for anyone who may be interested.