Copper and Kumihimo

A productive day in the workshop - I beat on some copper wire and wove some Kumihimo!

I had some thick gauge copper wire - 10 gauge I think - so I fashioned it into a freeform bangle then beat on it for a bit.  As you know beating on wire (or metal) hardens it, so to make it a bit easier to work with you have to anneal it to work with it again. To finish the copper work on this bracelet, I put it in the sand on my woodstove (which, poor thing, is working overtime this winter!) so it would be softened and easier to manupilate.  I took it out this morning and it had such a beautiful patina on it (red-magenta tones) I had to take some pictures of it.  It's not done, but I wanted to share this method of adding a patina to copper!

I also worked on another woven bracelet - this time with some wonderfully sparkly AB drop crystal beads woven with some dark bronze 6/0 seed beads and some amber shaded 6/0 seed beads. 

I added a couple of Vintaj brass end caps

and a fabulous crystal studded brass toggle clasp