A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

Today has so far turned out to be a fairly productive day. I've spent bits and pieces of this week trying to come up with some earring designs. Today I hoped to see some finished results. Well......not so many results as I'd like, but headed in the right direction.

I drew a heart design for earrings, transferred the design to cardstock and cut it to make a template. I cut out four in copper. One set I embossed, then filed smooth, colored with alcohol ink and finally sealed with a matte coating.



These earrings have now been listed on etsy

I then took the other copper set and tried to solder a sterling silver design on the front. Well, that didn't work out so well. I need to brush up on my soldering skills :
The other pieces I've been working on were given a good cleaning in a pickle solution, then antiqued in liver of sulphur. So now I have a pile of dark black pieces that need to be polished, but I don't have the energy at this moment.

I also started playing around with photos on gradient paper which I obtained from a fellow SRAJD jewelry designer, Laura Bracken. These papers make jewelry photos much more interesting than a plain background. Here's a lanyard on the gradient paper: