Autumn Copper and Bead Leaf Pendant

Fall is rapidly approaching and the leaves are starting to change colors just a bit. I so love the changing from summer to fall and find the colors to be so inspiring. I have already posted a few of my fused glass fall pendants and have been wanting to do a bit with copper and leaves so here is what I'm hoping is my first of many.

The copper leaf was cut to a rough shape and the I went to work with my file creating the serrated edges of the leaf. I actually used a grape leaf for the general design to have a visual aid to follow.

After I was happy with the overall shape I added the hole and domed the leaf slightly. I then added to the leaf a wire wrapped copper wire bail and swirl pattern. The beads are 8mm mookaite, 4mm rose quartz and a warm cream colored pressed glass flower bell shaped bead. These are all wire wrapped using heat forged head pins that I have made and they have that beautiful rose colored bud that has just added to the collection of fall colors.

I hope you like the pendant and find a bit of inspiration to start on your own fall collections.

Have a great and blessings to you all. Deedee

New Designs

Over the weekend I had lots of time on my hands as it rained all weekend. So I had the opportunity to play a bit with my wire. I decided to make some teardrop copper wire earrings. I cut, shaped and filed the ends smooth then soldered them closed using sterling silver solder. They went into the pickle to remove the firescale then I stamped them using my two favorite patterns, added copper wire wrapped green translucent glass beads and 8mm Amethyst beads,and my own earwires that I use for all of my earrings I sell. They were given a light patina and sanded to bring out the shiny copper and show off the detail of the stamps. I love how these turned out!!!!
I also have added a few new necklace designs to my store using fused dichroic glass for one and a glass gem and copper wire chains with bead links. I was very busy and had a lot of fun making these items. Added to the chains are turquoise beads and green glass vintage beads. The one cab is wire wrapped in a herringbone weave using copper wire. I usually see this pattern on beads with holes in the center and decided it was time to learn to incorporate the pattern using a cab. I think they are just wonderful and will be adding more of these to my Etsy shop.

Sunday evening the rain finally stopped and we had gotten about 10" of rain. What a mess it made. Sunday evening my downstairs started to flood. We have a family room, bedroom, laundry room and my studio down stairs so I was really sad to see water was seeping in at the seam by the floor. This has never happened before and by Monday morning we had about 1 1/2" covering our floors. I spent all day Monday soaking up water using my new carpet cleaner that I was so happy to get so I could keep my living room carpet cleaned up after the kids, but have yet to use it for that. As of today my carpets are still soggy and I'm just hoping to be able to soak up enough water that Jerry can get them up off the floors and out of the house. What a mess.
Well I'm off to soak up some more water, so cheers to you all and I hope you have a good day. The sun is shining so it can only get better!!!!!

Autumn Tree Of Life Fused Art Glass and Copper Pendants

I'm getting my Etsy shop ready for fall and have decided to start with two of my favorite fused glass pendants.
I have used an art glass base in a variety of colors and added to this copper foil tree's then topped them with clear. They were brought to a bit more than tack fused and not quite a full fuse as I wanted them to retain a bit of there shape. This saves me time on the grinder when I shape them. My grinder is my best Friend when I'm fusing glass and I love to shape as many of my pendants by hand as I possibly can to offer a variety of shapes and sizes to my customers. I also tried something new. After grinding the cabochon to shape I then eliminated a step and cut the grooves for my wire wrapping, I then fire polished them once instead of needing to do this twice. Normally I would shape them, fire polish them and then cut the grooves and fire polish them a third time. The outcome was wonderful and it saved me a lot of time. As we all know time is precious and my free time is very limited with my girls to care for too.
These pendants have all been wrapped using 18 gauge copper wire. It's quite a lot heavier and makes for a more substantial bail when I'm finished and won't easily loose its shape.
I hope you enjoy seeing them.
The autumn leaves pendants were made in the same manner using the same techniques.
Enjoy, and have a great day.

To see more of my work please feel free to check out my Etsy Mini, it will lead you to my store. Thanks.

Kids are back in school and it's play time for mommy

Wow, the first week of school has ended. Normally I have such a hard time adjusting these first few weeks of school and I miss my girls just terribly. However this year I have decided to take advantage of this extra free time on my hands and be as productive as I can. I had a special project in mind for myself and spent the girls first day back to school being a bit selfish. I spent the entire day making myself something!!!!
I made a purchase on Etsy from a wonderful shop called RoughMagicCreations. http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5957625

Spiralaway is a beautiful pair of copper and wooden leaf bead spiral earrings. The beads are hand carved and just so unique. Upon there arrival was included a special gift from the creators of these fabulous earrings. A set of hand carved beads for my own personal use. I spent my last weekend thinking of ways I could use the beads and in awe of the fact that these great people that I met over at the about.com jewelry forums were so kind and generous to gift these beads to me.

I have met so many wonderful people at the forum and it amazes me how you can meet people that you will never meet face to face and build such wonderful caring relationships with them that they feel as if they are family.

Now that I had these hand carved wooden beads, it was time to get busy and see if I could make myself something out of the ordinary and worthy of RoughMagicCreations so they to would be pleased with the outcome too. There jewelry is far more detailed and sparkly than what I make and just beautiful, I hope every one reading this will take a minute to visit there Etsy shop and check out there blog, I know you'll be happy you did.
Maine Made Hancrafted Jewelry
http://miranda-wwwfeedbacktheatrebooks.blogspot.com

I'm not sure these links to there blog will be click able so you may want to copy and paste.

Now for my project. I hand cut the copper disc doming it with the doming block and dapping tools. I hand carved the flower shape using a file then stamped the rose in the center using metal stamps. The chain is copper with the wooden beads added and
one wooden bead dangle added to the pendant. I have included some rather simple purple glass beads. Again much more simple than there own designs but that's the fun of creating using your own ideas. It makes eveyone's jewelry unique and individual and one of a kind. I was really very pleased with the way this necklace turned out and it will be a favorite of mine for years to come and cherished as my friends are at RoughMagicCreations. I hope you enjoy seeing it as I have enjoyed immensely making it, not to mention the fact that instead of sitting around missing my girls and wishing they were home with me instead of at school, I was happy and productive all at the same time. For me this was a great way to start out the girls first day back to school. So special thanks to my dear friends. Hugs to you both!!!!