WEEK 1 - YOJ
11:54 AM Posted In Beads , Chain Edit This 0 Comments »
So I finished my first piece for the YOJ challenge at the Creative Wire Art Forum at Delphi. I actually had it finished on the 2nd of January, but I have been procrastinating putting it up this whole time because I wanted to photograph it with my digital camera. Unfortunately, we cleaned for the holidays and now I can't find the camera. So, I had to scan the earrings.
For my first project I made a pair of maille earrings. They are large diamond shapes done in the 4in1 weave. (I am almost positive, that shows how new I am at this). I can't really afford to use Sterling Silver yet, so I did these in bright aluminum. They are so light I might actually be able to wear them. I copied this design with much variation on how they are embellished, from a pair I got on clearance at an outlet store. But the ones I picked up, purely because I love the look of them, are MONSTROUSLY heavy... much to heavy to wear. So I am really pleased that these are light. I like the look of them too, they just don't sparkle like silver does.
Anyway, they are embellished with Swarovski crystals in amethyst and crystal AB. They worked up very fast and I did notice that the aluminum is much tougher to work then the copper I had been working with over Christmas. I wasn't prepared for how much more effort it took to get a really good closure on the rings. That is my goal to work on now. I want to get perfectly closed rings every time. It's easier with the copper, but I can see I am going to most likely be using aluminum for a lot of my starting projects.
What I did discover, is that I desperately need another set of pliers. I have been using on chainnose and one jumpring tool. I very much need a set of flat nose pliers and maybe a set of bent nose too.
Oh, the rings are bright aluminum, 20g 1/8" ID. I had to get them that size for a different project I am working on, but in future, I am going to try and get my rings in metric sizes.
0 comments:
Post a Comment