Rolling Mills for Metal and Wire Workers

I read a great article today by Melissa Muir: "Tool Time Tuesday - Rolling Mill Textures."
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The article has great photos, by Valerie Heck, showing the different textures you can achieve using the rolling mill, as well as information on how to use and care for the mill. I would love to have one, but perhaps a smaller, more affordable one for my needs.

It also happens I recently read an article about a small pattern mill that is offered by Dave Arens of Gemstones Etc in Tucson, AZ. To quote the information he sent me:
"A mill for applying patterns up to 3 gauge wire or strips 3/8" by .229 thick of non ferrous metal. The nine patterns can be applied to 1 or 2 sides of the wire. The optional pattern rolls are changeable by the user. There are three sets of pattern rolls, a straight line 90 degrees to the length of the wire, a straight line 30 degrees to the left, a straight line 30 degrees to the right. The spacing is 12, 20, and 40 lines per inch. The mill comes with 1, 90 degree 12 lines per inch pattern roll."

He also offers several other products and you can get more information from Dave at Gemstones Etc. His e-mail address is gemstonesetc@gainbroadband.com.

Well, I have a birthday coming up in a couple of months - sooooooooooooo....do you know where my thoughts are going? Have a great day! Anita

Playing For Change: Song Around the World "Stand By Me"

I HAD TO SHARE THIS WITH YOU...TURN OFF THE MUSIC AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BLOG AND TURN UP YOUR VOLUME - this is worth hearing...Two young men went around the world getting street singers to all sing the same song, and then they dubbed them all together into one version of that song. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us-TVg40ExM&feature=email

MY FIRST CRAFT SHOW

DONE! I did my first craft show with the help of my friend, Jeanne! Thanks, Jeanne! You were a great help to me. We had many visitors and many oohs and ahhs for the jewelry and for Jeanne's wonderful, artsy, beaded dolls, which she displayed on the table - see her dolls at http://gammiebrat.blogspot.com/. All in all it was a good first show for me, albeit not very profitable. Considering that there were many, many beaders at the show and taking the economy into the equation, I still felt it was a successful day. Why? Because I got to see how other beaders/crafters worked their booths and how my pricing compared to others. I had business cards and larger post-card type flyers on the display, so folks who were interested in my jewelry walked away with my name, my Artfire address, and my blog address. I did get a special order and also someone who was interested in having some family jewelry restrung. I signed on to do another show in the fall and I am told it's generally a more productive craft show. So, we'll see how that goes. We met some really wonderful jewelry artists and shared business cards and general information related to the craft. And we met the many people who stopped by to browse! That's always a plus and you get great feedback as to what type of jewelry people are drawn to.

I would love to hear about your craft shows and experiences, what works, what doesn't work....so please add a post to this blog and tell me what works for you! We can all learn from each other. Thanks for blogging with me. Anita

Copper/Brass Shamrock Necklace

I've been busy, busy this a.m. I made my jumprings yesterday and cut them, and this morning started putting them together, along with the beads and findings I wired up yesterday. This is what I came up with for my latest shamrock. I plan to wear it next weekend when I do MY FIRST CRAFT SHOW at Yankee Lake in Brookfield, OH! Hope you like it. Anita

LEARNING TO WORK IN COPPER

I promised myself I would try something new over the winter months, and although it's almost spring now (yippee!), I have begun to work with copper sheet. I love the look of copper, the colors you can achieve, so I purchased a 12x12 piece of copper sheeting, grabbed my scizzors, and cut myself out a square piece of metal. I cut the square in half to make to triangles and flattened and smoothed the edges with my chasing hammer. After this, I used the ball side of the hammer and created some texture interest into the copper by simple pounding. I attached a piece of copper wire at the top and folded the pointed top edge of the copper over the wire and hammered to hold it in place. I used a small file to soften the corners of the piece and then decided then to curl them under, for effect, as well as eliminating the sharp point from contact with the skin. Now, mind you, I know nothing about metal work and was simply going on things I had picked up from jewelry shows and videos I watch. So, IF ANYONE OUT THERE DOES METAL WORK, PLEASE GIVE ME SOME POINTERS!! To continue, I found some green tinted sea shells I had wire-wrapped previously and decided they would be a perfect addition to the earrings and added them to the top/front of the pieces. And voila, put on the earwires, and my earrings were done.....but, that was not the end. I decided I needed to purchase a butane torch to add to my metal working supplies and did so at my local hardware store, along with a piece of firebrick from our local brick and stone company for 50 cents. I was ready for my next step in metal work!!! But, I was a little nervous, so waited til my friend Jeanne (and fellow beader at http://gammiebrat.blogspot.com/) was over and while Jeanne worked on her resin beads, I braved the butane torch for the first time. Now, I am telling you this, because I decided to do some more work on the earrings. I fired them up, annealed the metal, and decided to put some waves into them. I also wanted to get some color into them through the annealing process, but must have waited to long and lost the lovely colors...definitely a timing issue there. But, did end up with my lovely copper earrings shown above...not too bad for a novice who doesn't know what she's doing!! PLEASE, TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK...I CAN TAKE THE CRITICISM, AS THAT'S HOW I HOPE TO LEARN. And...let me know if you liked the post.

p.s. - I added a third picture of some metal that I torched and I did get the colors I wanted - pretty, yes? So, I am learning...it's a process. Any ideas now what I should do with them. Jeanne suggested filing, smoothing, and making pretty fish out of them! Tell me what you think. Thanks for reading my post. I hope it will encourage anyone out there to try something new. It's a process and it's fun! Anita