** woo - hoo ** !!!!

My piece, "African Sun" was published in the April 2010 edition of Bead Trends magazine!

vintage brass handstamped leaf - African

colorful fire agate beads, brass rings, vintage brass bead caps

my photo of the piece

Etching on copper

Again with the pennies!!  After flattening a few pennies, I drew a freehand design on each of them using a red Sharpie (quick and simple - just experimenting!) then put them in the etching solution for about 40 minutes.

ferns and such (remember, freehand) - etched and patinaed with gun blue.

big old swirl, etched; then I added a "heart" <3 using my stamps; patinaed.

flowers and stems - this one was etched twice - once for 30 minutes, then again for 20 minutes; also patinaed.

Brass Heart Necklace

I got a pair of metal shears and some dapping punches - I so love new tools! (I got the punches from here)

So, new tools means new projects - which means experimentation!!!!

I have a sheet of red brass, 22 gauge, that I have had for a while. So, I just started cutting.

 

Remember I said it was experimentation time - this heart came out a little lopsided so I decided to roll one edge of it so it appeared more symmetrical.  After I cut it out, I used the dapping punches on it to give it texture, drilled couple of holes in it;

wire wrapped some of those wonderful 'red velvet' crystals (20 gauge brass wire);

added some petite glass pearls, some gold filled rondelles;

and a wonderful flower shaped magnetic clasp.

More copper etching

After working on the pendant for the malachite necklace, I wanted to do some smaller etched pieces.  I used the discs I made from the pennies (see here ) I flattened.  I experimented with a couple of designs - one that was very busy and one that included some initials.  For the "busy" one, I drew a web of sorts on the disc, then etched it in the etching solution for 30 minutes. 

I put it in the gun blue for about 30 seconds, then wiped off the highlights so it's a little patinaed. 

For the second one, I used a small letter template I have and put my initials on it, along with a few geometric shapes to fill it out a little.

I also used the gun blue on this one, but there aren't really enough crevices for it to look patinaed.

I got the etching solution from Radio Shack (more than a year ago though - I have heard they no longer carry it in their retail stores) and the gun blue from the local hardware store.

Copper Malachite Necklace

I wanted to do something to the copper pendant on the malachite necklace I blogged about (here).  I got the alphabet stamps but they seemed too small for the size of the copper pendant so I decided to do some etching. 

I haven't etched on copper since doing some copper cuffs, so I reviewed my notes and took the plunge.  I have to find my doodle pad (who doesn't have one of those?) as this off-the-top-of-my-head thing doesn't really translate into an arresting design but all in all I'm happy with how it turned out.