Seeing Green

I have thoroughly been enjoying this journey of jewelry design. There are so many creative possibilities that I have tried and hopefully will try in the future. This is my newest "fun with jewelry" piece that has been a design in progress to get it the way that I wanted it.

I hand cut a sheet of copper into a flower design, then added this beautiful green patina. When you give copper or brass a patina like this you have to let it sit and cure to get most out of the color. It takes about 24 hours to do this. Totally worth it!! And so much fun! Then I added a sterling silver chain which I oxidized and then lightly hand buffed to give it a rustic antique look. Hope you like it!

Copper Cuff

This is one of my newest copper creations. I felt like I discovered a secret in the jewelry design industry and wondered if anyone else knew about this. I was supposed to make copper hoop earrings for a customer and give it a heated patina color, which turns the copper a rosey reddish color depending how long you do it. It is a complicated process to figure out and it takes time and patience and mistakes. All of which I think I accomplished and maybe got a couple of gray hairs.

Well, when I told my customer that I would give her earrings a red patina, I didn't realize that my torch stopped working. (It was broke and had to buy another one..boo hoo.) And it was Sunday and my supply shop would not reopen until Tuesday early afternoon. I really wanted to get these earrings done and shipped out to her on Monday morning. I try very hard to get my items out asap. Being a stay-at-home-mom I never know when I will be able to get back to it.

So....I searched my brain as what I could do to turn these copper hoops red. And then I thought.."Hey, I have a heat gun, used for embossing, let me try that". IT WORKED!! And is so hard to mess up the metal. I would love to know what you think about it and if you have had an experience like this before....discovering another way to get the creative results you were looking for.