copper jewelry

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Happy {Heart} Day

Happy Valentine’s Day!
Yesterday I took some time out from filling orders to make a heart pendant.  This pendant was one of the awesome lessons from the Aspire to Wire ecourse that I just completed.


This is made from strips of copper, held together with fine silver rivets.


I used one of my glass headpins to form the loop for the chain.  I thought the droplet shape fit perfectly inside the heart chamber.
Lots of fun to make, but then it was back to working on orders and packaging some up for Valentine’s.


I am starting to enjoy packing my orders as much as making them!
Have a wonderful day filled with LOVE!



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Heart of Blues Takes Flight ~ Pay it Forward February

{Have you ever heard about a situation and it just breaks your heart and you feel like you HAVE TO do something about it?A few months back I met a lady, Lovely Reckley, and she told me how she goes to four different schools in Abaco and feeds 85+ children that would have otherwise had no lunch. For some of these kids, this is the only meal of the day.Lovely even takes food to some of them when school is out.That really broke my heart. I mean, I know there are kids all over the world that are starving, but when I realized there were children right under my nose it killed me. I kept wondering what I could do. I thought about offering to help cook, but cooking for so many mouths really overwhelmed me. Then I realized what a COMMITMENT this awesome woman had made to these children…..EVERYDAY!!!At Christmas, instead of giving gifts I gave a donation to her organization (and to our Humane Society) instead of buying things that people really didn’t need.But it kept tugging at my heart. So, I decided for the month of February I would post several heart themed items to my blog. They would be for sale, and I would give 25% of the cost of the item to Lovely, to help with her costs.I may post an item everyday or I may post several items a week…..I am really not sure, but 25% will go to “Feed the Children” in Abaco, Bahamas.I CANNOT imagine going without food, or only having one meal a day that I had to rely on someone else to bring to me, and these children shouldn’t have to deal with this either, so please help!}

Happy Monday!
I am late posting today, but better later than never.
Today’s item is an enameled copper heart with filigree wings.
I am calling this piece, “Heart of Blues Takes Flight”.



From wing tip to wing tip the pendant is two and a half inches.  When it hangs on a chain, it hangs about an inch and three quarters.


I am really enjoying incorporating other metals into my work.  I have a bunch of filigree (which I think is coated brass) that I bought for who-knows-what, and never used it.



It can be soldered onto other metals, cut and enameled!  So much fun!
This piece is $44, and 25% goes to Feed the Children Abaco.  That price is for the pendant only.

I will be posting it in my Etsy shop…..{HERE}…..soon, but if you go there and it is not there, drop me a message because my internet connection is really slow right now so it may take a while to get it posted.
Thanks for stopping by!

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Copper & Silver Heart Earrings ~ Pay it Forward in February


{Have you ever heard about a situation and it just breaks your heart and you feel like you HAVE TO do something about it?A few months back I met a lady, Lovely Reckley, and she told me how she goes to four different schools in Abaco and feeds 85+ children that would have otherwise had no lunch. For some of these kids, this is the only meal of the day.Lovely even takes food to some of them when school is out.That really broke my heart. I mean, I know there are kids all over the world that are starving, but when I realized there were children right under my nose it killed me. I kept wondering what I could do. I thought about offering to help cook, but cooking for so many mouths really overwhelmed me. Then I realized what a COMMITMENT this awesome woman had made to these children…..EVERYDAY!!!At Christmas, instead of giving gifts I gave a donation to her organization (and to our Humane Society) instead of buying things that people really didn’t need.But it kept tugging at my heart. So, I decided for the month of February I would post several heart themed items to my blog. They would be for sale, and I would give 25% of the cost of the item to Lovely, to help with her costs.I may post an item everyday or I may post several items a week…..I am really not sure, but 25% will go to “Feed the Children” in Abaco, Bahamas.I CANNOT imagine going without food, or only having one meal a day that I had to rely on someone else to bring to me, and these children shouldn’t have to deal with this either, so please help!}


Happy Monday everyone!

Thanks for stopping by to see my Pay it Forward item for today!
This is going to be a quick post today since I got sick over the weekend…..UGH!!…..I havent been sick in over 3 years and I dont know what to do with myself. Woke up this morning with no voice…..not good!
Anyway, enough complaining…..here is today’s item…..



The copper rectangles are a pinch over an inch long and half of an inch wide, with textured fine silver hearts soldered on them.
The ear wires are fine silver.



They are $28, and 25% will go to help “Feed the Children Abaco”.

{these have been sold}



I probably won’t get them into my Etsy store until later, because I am heading back to bed, but in the meantime you can message me or leave a comment below.
Luckily I have several heart items made, and I am ahead of myself for this project {for once!}, so even if I am not feeling well I can still get my posts up!


Have a great day & thanks for stopping by.

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Copper Component Blog Hop

Happy Saturday everyone!
I am participating in Kristi Bowman’s Copper Component Blog Hop Challenge. I was so excited to be a part of this because I love the focals Kristi makes from copper clay.
When I received my Sea Urchin focal I held it up to my glass rods to see which colors I should make beads from to go with it.
The pink and green jumped out at me.
I just love the opalescence of this focal. It reminds me of some real shells from the ocean.
I made one pretty huge mistake…….can you see it?
I made my headpins on fine silver wire instead of copper. I am so accustomed to using silver and copper in my work and I always make my headpins on silver.
Hope it is not too obvious. I just may have to change those.
I made a variety of pink, green and clear beads to enhance the focal.
I also added a layer of copper chain to hang next to the row of glass beads.
I wanted the beads to be pretty and stand on their without taking away from the focal and compliment the focal at the same time.
Those beads had a lot of work to do!!
This was a fun challenge!
Please be sure to go and check out what the other participants made. They are listed below. You wont be disappointed! Have a great weekend!
Kimberly Sturrup http://bahamadawn.blogspot.com/ {you are here}
Lana Kinney (will share on Kristi’s blog)
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Brave Heart Pendant ~ Pay it Forward


{Have you ever heard about a situation and it just breaks your heart and you feel like you HAVE TO do something about it?
A few months back I met a lady, Lovely Reckley, and she told me how she goes to four different schools in Abaco and feeds 85+ children that would have otherwise had no lunch. For some of these kids, this is the only meal of the day.
Lovely even takes food to some of them when school is out.
That really broke my heart. I mean, I know there are kids all over the world that are starving, but when I realized there were children right under my nose it killed me. I kept wondering what I could do. I thought about offering to help cook, but cooking for so many mouths really overwhelmed me. Then I realized what a COMMITMENT this awesome woman had made to these children…..EVERYDAY!!!
At Christmas, instead of giving gifts I gave a donation to her organization (and to our Humane Society) instead of buying things that people really didn’t need.
But it kept tugging at my heart. So, I decided for the month of February I would post several heart themed items to my blog. They would be for sale, and I would give 25% of the cost of the item to Lovely, to help with her costs.
I may post an item everyday or I may post several items a week…..I am really not sure, but 25% will go to “Feed the Children” in Abaco, Bahamas.
I CANNOT imagine going without food, or only having one meal a day that I had to rely on someone else to bring to me, and these children shouldn’t have to deal with this either, so please help!}

Good Morning!
My heart item for today is this Brave Heart Pendant.


It is made from copper, fine silver and one of my glass headpins.


The copper heart I cut out of sheet copper, stamped, filed and textured it.
The silver tear drop is made from PMC3, which when kiln fired turns into fine silver.


I finished it off with one of my glass headpins. Connecting them all together with fine silver wire.


This pendant is $48, the chain is sold separately.
If you are outside of the Bahamas, you will be able to purchase it from my Etsy store, HERE!
25% goes to help “Feed the Children in Abaco”.
Thanks for stopping by!
Go out into the world with a brave heart today!

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Bead Table Wednesday ~ i {heart} copper

Happy Bead Table Wednesday!
It is sad how long it has been since I have done a BTW post. I could have been doing them, because my bead table has been a very active place….but…..anyhoo…..I am back this week at least 🙂
I am getting ready for a show next week, so I have been working on some new components.
In this last post about the Woodland Necklace, I discovered how much I love copper……all on it’s own. Since then I have been cutting and hammering and forging and soldering away with copper.  I just love all the colors copper turns under the heat from the torch!
Here is what was on my table today…..

These, very organic copper flowers, for some reason, were very difficult to clean after oxidizing them…..not sure what I did!  My fingers were black!


I have been experimenting with Shannon LeVart’s tutorial, called Turning Leaves, which you can purchase on Etsy. It is a great tutorial which will lead you step by step through creating mixed media leaves. Again, I used copper!  Fun! Fun! Fun!


I’ve also been playing with PMC Clay some more and need to turn these components into some finished pieces of jewelry.



Well, that’s all I got for now.
Back to creating……..

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Woodland Necklace

Hello!
Hope you are all enjoying your weekend!
Remember my post, *Coming Soon*?
I was awaiting the arrival of a copper leaf clasp from Daisy Chain Designs in England. That tiny envelope took almost 2 months to get to me!
Now that the holidays are over and my house is empty again, I had a chance to make a piece using this beautiful clasp.
There were five jewelry designers that participated in the challenge, so be sure to check out their blog posts if you didn’t already, right here.
While I was waiting the arrival of this package my lampworked owl was born, and I thought he would be perfect with this clasp.



This is the first time I have done a necklace completely out of copper wire and chain, and I really like it.



I have had this chain for quite some time and wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it.  It works perfect with this necklace.  Heavy enough to add to the design, but not so heavy that it takes away from the oak leaf clasp or the beads.
Mr Owl has a birdie friend accompanying him also.


Hope you like my Woodland Necklace!
I think I am keeping this one for myself 🙂


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Coming Soon……..

Hello!!
First of all, today I am supposed to be a part of a group of bloggers taking part in a challenge with beautiful oak leaf copper jewelry components from Jo at Daisy Chain Designs.
Unfortunately, I am stilling waiting to receive my package, with the oak leaf, that seems to be delayed in the mail.
These are the beautiful copper pieces I am waiting on…..



In the meantime, please check out the Daisy Chain blog & website, as well as all the bloggers participating in the challenge:

Jo Tinley of Daisy Chain Designs
Melissa Meman of Art, Life, Love
Niki Sayers of SilverNikNaks
Amber Boorman of Larksong Studio
Rebecca Anderson of Songbeads
As soon as my oak leaf arrives I will post my design. I have had a design idea in my head since I saw the oak leaves on Jo’s blog, so I cant wait to get started!

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Creative Project #17 ~ when supplies are low

I have let myself get dangerously low on my fine silver wire supply, and the urge to create jewelry hit me today so I had to turn to copper.  One of my favorite sayings (I am not sure who’s quote) is “Do what you can with what you have”.
So that is what I set out to do with my creative challenge today.
I learned how to make the coiled circles from an issue of Step by Step Wire Jewelry.  In the magazine they were on a silver necklace as spacers, but the copper worked just as well.
I strung the pendant on two satin ribbons for an elegant necklace.

Yesterday I told you about my asterisk blocks I was working on.  I worked on them some more today.  Here are the pressed and trimmed blocks.
I hope everyone is having a fantastic week!
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Stepping Out of My Color Comfort Zone

Not sure how many of you have noticed, but every piece of jewelry I have created this month has been in blues and greens (maybe with a hint of purple).  So last weekend I had a gift to make and decided to throw in some RED!  This friend has adopted a potcake, and for those of you that don’t know……potcakes are the Bahamian mutt.  Like this one here……
That is my potcake Trixi.  Potcakes are smart dogs who are always willing to please.
Here is the necklace I made as a gift.  “Potcake Love”
I am having a great time with the book “Totally Twisted” by Kerry Bogart.  Every jewelry artists need to take a look at this book.  Great techniques and even some tips on color.
This necklace is made up of sterling silver and copper components, as well as copper colored wire (that is non tarnish) and my own flame worked beads.
As I was looking back over my photographs of the jewelry I had made this month, I could not believe that EVERYTHING was blue and green, or some shade close.  So for this necklace I threw in some red to push myself outside of that color comfort zone.
I also have components pulled for two more necklaces.  One color combo is pink and green and the other is red, orange and pink.
Hopefully I will finish those in the next few days, and be back to share those finished pieces with you.