Show Off Your Hooters?

The girls over at the ning site, Artisan Whimsy have been showing off their hooters! Owls that is, LOL. They put together a challenge showcasing owls. The challenge was to create either an owl component or a finished piece that featured an owl.

I'm not really crazy about owls, so I had to think really hard about what to create. I went for something fallish and embossed the owl onto sheet copper and then stamped the feathers in with my V stamp. Next came hole punching and then the dangles were added.

For my dangles I used a Russ Powers boro bead accented with Citrine rondelles. A brown glass pearl and crystal were accented with some gorgeous goldenrod yellow Aragonite rondelles. I suspended my plaque from some pretty solid copper rolo chain and finished it off with a hand forged copper S clasp I made.

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with how my little owl came out. If you like him too, please go to the Artisan Whimsy site and give me a vote!

What sort of owl creations do you make?

Bead Soup Book Review!

Lori Anderson's book is chock full of beadie goodness and is definitely eye candy for the jewelry makers soul. These 32 projects will inspire countless designs. Packed with helpful tips and loads of gorgeous photos! A must have for those needing a boost for their creative muse! Lori's writing style is very personable and warm and her designs are just gorgeous! I give this book an enthusiastic 5 stars!

A Little Day of the Dead Project!

I had a great time with this project. It was pretty involved and by far, the hardest project I've attempted so far in my metalsmithing journey. These little Day of the Dead pendants involved cutting with shears and with a jeweler's saw, filing, stamping, sweat soldering, more filing and cutting, more soldering and then finally, antiquing the sterling and polishing. These little skulls are from a project from Joe Silvera's book, Soldering Made Simple.  His directions are easy to follow and I feel like I've learned a good bit from this project. I am still working my pieces too hot, bordering on fusing them instead of soldering, but I am starting to get the hang of most of the techniques. I was pleased with my results so I put these up for sale in my Etsy shop, you can find them here...