You can view my work this fall, at these wonderful events:

   
    22nd Annual Southwest Flair A-fair, October 24-26, 2014, 10AM-5PM

    Gifts from Nature Art Festival - Audubon Arizona, Phoenix, Nov. 21-23

 

Copper Tee Plumbing Fitting Rings

I recently purchased some copper from an estate sale. I love to make rings from copper tubing by annealing the copper, hammering it until it is the size I want, and finally enameling the ring which is conveniently not soldered. With my purchase at the estate sale were 3 copper tee plumbing fittings and I wondered what I would do with those pieces. The other day I was looking at one and decided to saw the ends off to make some enamel rings. After doing that, what I had left looked like a ring possibility to me, so I annealed the copper several times and hammered it repeatedly to achieve a ring size that would fit a finger. With the one ring I soldered a brass disk into the top hole in a concave position and the other ring I made copper balls and soldered those into the top ring. The rings are rustic, commanding, interesting, and are absolutely one of a kind. They are definitely attention getting. I will probably never do this again but I enjoyed these creations and plan to have them along at my fall shows.

Tiny Copper Flower Pins

I wanted a few tiny flower pins for my aprons that I wear to shows and have been planning them for a long time. Well today I finally created 4 tiny flower pins: one will dot the "i" in Restring It, on one apron, and the 3 others will be worn on the heads of my 3 javelinas of my other apron. I started with a sheet of 22 gauge copper and cut each layer of my tiny flowers out by hand with a jeweler's handsaw. Then each flower was sanded and annealed (or heated) so I could form the flowers into 3 dimensional shapes. Next I soldered pieces together, soldered the tie tack back onto the backs, and soldered the sterling silver centers in each flower. Finally I cleaned them up and polished them. I love my tiny flower pins and hope you do, too.

Polishing Metal Jewelry

I love having my studio in my garage! After purchasing shop lights, the lighting is fantastic. I'm so glad I did that. However, lately I've been having a problem with the polishing compound getting everywhere... what a mess!
After cleaning the place up this past week, I really didn't want to do anymore polishing. Then I decided to purchase a portable workbench on craigslist and put it outside of my yard. It works! I polished an order of 9 bracelets today and no mess in the studio. Yeah!  I guess I'm back in the polishing business again. :)