Silver Wire Wrapping

Yesterday, Martha and Patricia and I did some silver wire-wrapping to make some more funky earrings. Here are the results:



My SS triangle earrings with Toho triangle beads. I think I'll try again with a heavier wire.


Martha's pod-shaped earrings with dyed freshwater pearls. I like the size and shape of these earrings, and they will go with everything.


Patricia's arrowhead earrings with white freshwater pearls. She was concerned that they wouldn't show up with her white hair, but I think we convinced her that they are very elegant and beautiful!

In the meantime, Ann came to keep us company, and while we played with silver wire, she worked on replacements for her woven beaded bracelets that are selling like hotcakes at the Copper Shade Tree Gallery http://geraldtobola.com/coppershadetree.htm in Round Top, Texas. I wish I had a picture of one of the bracelets to show you ... will get an image next time.

Thank you, Annie, for teaching me the Spiral Rope beading technique yesterday ... I worked for many hours last night and today, and here is my finished 19" necklace:

PMC for Me

I took a PMC (Precious Metal Clay) class this weekend, along with my friend Patricia, and we had a blast learning all the "ins and outs" of dealing with this easy-but-finicky medium. We'd been wanting to learn about it for a while, and this was the first class we could find here in Houston.

PMC, once fired, is .999 pure silver ... purer than sterling, and a little bit softer. These are my first efforts ... not exactly professional, but I'm pleased enough with them to share them here. Definitely more to come!


Above are the pieces, fresh from the flame, with no antiqueing added. They've just been brushed with a brass brush to take down some of the bright shine.


Next the pieces are shown after being taken from the Liver of Sulphur solution. The color in this image isn't exactly true, but pretty close. I didn't like the gold-y color, and so wanted to go back to the more silvery tone.





And above is the final version ... most of the Liver of Sulphur has been brushed away with the brass brush, leaving only a little darkening in the crevasses, which I like better. The penny is shown for size reference.

Some day I'm going to learn the secret for photographing shiny stuff indoors. Sorry for the poor images, especially of the large pendant. It has a rolled self-bail that's actually kind of neat.