Sharilyn Miller is one of my favorite wire jewelry designers and instructors. I credit her with introducing me to bail forming pliers. She has a wonderful idea with her Fisherman's Cuff wire work bangle tutorial over on her blog. I love how she used a very, very thick gauge copper wire as the form underneath.
She then used sterling silver coiled wire sections coupled with wire netting on top of the copper form. The result after patination is wonderful as the copper darkens while the sterling silver parts can be polished to reveal some of the original shine.
The only hiccup would be if you cannot get already soft thick gauge copper as you will have to anneal the hardware store variety. Annealing involves heat softening metal with a torch. Then cleaning it off with an acid solution (pickling) etc.
I also like her tip on how to hasten the patination process if the liver of sulfur (LoS) gel is too slow. Also consider using Gun Blue solution which doesn't have some of the issues of LoS (see link below).
Before You Go:
Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
Jewelry Making Tips - Jewelry Business Tips
She then used sterling silver coiled wire sections coupled with wire netting on top of the copper form. The result after patination is wonderful as the copper darkens while the sterling silver parts can be polished to reveal some of the original shine.
The only hiccup would be if you cannot get already soft thick gauge copper as you will have to anneal the hardware store variety. Annealing involves heat softening metal with a torch. Then cleaning it off with an acid solution (pickling) etc.
I also like her tip on how to hasten the patination process if the liver of sulfur (LoS) gel is too slow. Also consider using Gun Blue solution which doesn't have some of the issues of LoS (see link below).
Before You Go:
- Gun Blue vs Liver of Sulfur Patination
- How to Coil and Wire Wrap an Easy Bangle
- How to Recycle Knitting Needles into Bangles
Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
Jewelry Making Tips - Jewelry Business Tips
very interesting, thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteShe does indeed do things differently! Very inspiring!
DeleteGreat idea Pearl!
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking you have to really think about how the coils and wire will affect the size of the bracelet. Will have to take that into account when measuring for the base.
Yes, I agree. Best to work with copper first to determine the proper size before moving on to precious metals.
DeleteFYI I tried clicking How to coil and wire wrap an easy bangle under Before you go, but it says service unavailable Error 503....
ReplyDeleteThanks for your great site. I enjoy it every day. :-)
PKae
Don't know what happened there! Must have been a temporary glitch. Here is the tutorial :
Deletehttp://www.beadinggem.com/2013/12/how-to-coil-and-wire-wrap-easy-bangle.html
Thanks so much for your kind words and for reading my blog everyday!!