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Monday, June 11, 2012

Making Chain

With the news of my imminent employment, I went ahead a purchased a boatload of jumprings and have begun The Boy's chain mail bracelet. Here is the base.

It is in a circle only because I wanted to check to make sure it fit and also, it was the only way the whole thing fit in a picture.Having spent 3 days making this thing, I have a few observations.

1.I wish I were rich enough to not have to hunt for dropped jumprings. I'm thinking I drop about one in twenty. What a pain in the ass.

2. I would probably drop less if making chain did not involve beer. The chain pictured used about 2 and a half bottles of Killian's Red.

3. The more I look at this chain, the more it looks feminine and dainty. Not at all the manly chain mail The Boy is probably expecting.

4. Basic European is probably within my capability. But only with much larger rings. Too late- I already have a boatload of this size.

5. I used to think I was pretty good at opening jump rings. I didn't know what good jump ring opening was. I am now a world champeen jump ring opener.

6. This bracelet is gonna take a while.









Queen of Sheeeba's Etsy


PinkSlinkie's Artfire Studio

Thursday, June 7, 2012

My Geek Search For WoW Jewelry Continues

World of Warcraft Jewelcrafting Winners: Copper Division

My search of World of Warcraft Jewelcraft skill jewelry has come up pretty empty. So I’ve decided that instead of looking for real jewelry crafted specifically with WoW in mind, I’ll search for the best representative Wow jewelry that Internetsians inadvertently made. Since I do not know how deeply the Venn diagram of World of Warcraft players and people who make jewelry intersects (I suspect that may be an intersect of one—me), I’ll describe the WoW spell for the jewelry I picked.

Braided Copper Ring
Regents: Delicate copper wire.
The Winner: ME!







Woven Copper Ring
Regents: Delicate copper wire, copper bar.
The Winner: Wabbit-t3h of Deviant Art






Heavy Copper Ring
Regents: Delicate copper wire, copper bar.
The Winner: ME!





Malachite Pendant
Regents: Malachite and delicate copper wire.
The Winner: Artbrasil (site no longer active)





Tigerseye Band
Regents: Tigerseye and copper bar.
The Winner: Beavjewels from Etsy






Ornate Tigerseye Necklace
Regents: Tigerseye, copper bar and delicate copper wire.
The Winner: Nancy Woods of Wear Art



Judge's note: This entry was almost disqualified because of the poor quality of the picture. Nancy Wood would do herself a large favor if she dusted her display and focused her camera before taking a picture.



Inlaid Malachite Ring
Regents: Malachite and delicate copper wire.
The Winner: Nobody! I could not find an inlaid malachite ring made solely with copper. But I did find these very cool inlaid malachite rings. The only problem with them is that they won't give you any buffs if you wear them in Azeroth.

Wood and malachite:




Mokume Gane and malachite:


P.S. Mokume Gane is mixed metals layered sometimes 16 times, forged and twisted together to make distinct patterns. It is very cool looking.








Queen of Sheeeba's Etsy


PinkSlinkie's Artfire Studio


Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Yes, Son. Your Mamma Does Love You A Little.

It was perhaps 7 years ago that my son, after hearing me say more than once that I'd sure like to try my hand and making jewelry, bought me a bead kit and a this book: The Complete Guide To Making Wire Jewelry for Christmas. Although I have used many of the beads in the bead kit, it was the book that fired me up. To this day it is still one of my favorites. And the only thing The Boy asked was that I make him a chain mail sleeve.




"As sure as as you fruited from the flower of my loins, I shall make for you this majestic chain of mail!" I promised him. 7 years ago. The book he purchased has two chain mail projects in it. It did not take long for me to realized that I didn't know what the hell I was doing. All I ended up with was a tangled mess of jumpring chains. Years went by and I got no better at it. In fact, it got worse. I couldn't even get a single chain going. It was hopeless and I finally admitted defeat to my son. "Son," I intoned, "the dark pallor of shame will color my every mood and thought from here until the dark dwarf sun-death of our Universe. I cannot make chain mail."




In the darkness of my shame there shone one tiny half-glimmer of hope. It was two years ago that I purchased Chain and Bead Jewelry Creative Connections: New Techniques for Wire Wrapping and Bead-Setting and the strange magic of aspect ratio was explained to me. I could again make a chain. And, not only could I make a chain, the reason why I couldn't make a damn chain all of a sudden wasn't because I was brain damaged! It was because I was using the wrong danged sized jumprings for the job. Perhaps now I could elevate my status once again to the greatest Mom to ever slide a squalling creature out from within. I could create a chain mail sleeve for my only born son!




Yeah, no. I was reminded of when my Abuela tried to teach me how to crotchet when I was 8. I learned how to make a chain easily. I enjoyed making crotchet chains so much I'd make them a yard long. But when she tried to show me how to make rows. . . let's just say the yarn would have been put to better use strangling kittens. It took a while for my grandmother to give up on me-- she was a fighter-- but she finally just sighed and let me continue to make yard long chains.






Still, the book did show me how to make different types of chains. Not the most intricate ones, I am too stupid to understand how to read the patterns, but the simple ones. Two weeks ago I used one of those simple patterns to make this chain and turned it into a pair of earrings. I have incorporated this chain pattern in other jewelry because I think it looks neat and a hell of a lot more complicated than it actually is. The Boy caught sight of these earrings.




"You CAN make chain mail!" he accused. It sounded like an accusation to me, anyways.

"Alas, no my son. I can only make chain-- no mail," I answered with my head hanging. Just like The Temptations' mama when she had to explain to them what a bastard their rolling stone papa was.

"Why can't you just put two chains together?" he asked as if it was that simple. Sorry son, life is never that simple.




But the more I thought about it, the more I wondered-- why can't I just put two chains together? I looked at patterns again. Unfortunately I was reminded of how stupid I am. Here is the basic European pattern. I am at WTF! by step 3. But my son's words still rang in my head just put the two chains together. . . just put the two chains together. . . just put the two chains together. . .. My head is mostly empty, hence the echo. So I sat down and, without a pattern, just put the chains together.






I think I can make him a bracelet of chain mail. All I need is, like, 30 dollars worth of jumprings. Maybe more. That won't happen for quite a while seeing as how I'm unemployed and flat busted. But one day, Son, I will be able to walk through the halls of Motherhood with my head held high.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

One Post A Month? Why The Hell Not!

It's a good post, though. A one-handed tutorial! Not as good as a Sunday Silly but you do get to see my messy craft room since this tutorial involves a mini torch and that is one thing I won't do in bed-- just ask my husband.









This is the finished product. A textured copper fire colored cuff ring. Now there's a name that simply rolls off the tongue like silky pearls of soothing sounds. P.S., don't put pearls in your mouth.













The reason there have been so little entries is the simple fact that I have nothing to say. I'm a boring, unemployed tinkerer who is a lousy and very bad blogger. Wait! That's not true at all. I don't have lice.














Queen of Sheeeba's Etsy


PinkSlinkie's Artfire Studio