A Gorgeous Day.

It's beautiful outside today!

My baby is asleep in her swing and my eldest is out with the Grandies having fun shopping with a little bit of pocket money tucked in her hot little hand to spend on whatever she wishes!

The other half and I are still sick :(
Either we are coming down with a new flu, or the old one is renewing its ugly self?

Below is another pair of etched brass earrings I made this week:

♥ SOLD ♥

Did I mention how much I am enjoying etching? Well I am. It's so much fun. I have ordered some more Ferric Chloride this weekend and patinas. I feel like throwing caution to the wind and busting out the Nitrate to etch some silver!! But, I am waiting. I have ordered a new lovely bench to come, hopefully early this week. I found a guy who makes them locally and for a decent price too, I really need the extra work space and this will give it to me. I can't wait to get it and set it up! It even has a peg board :)

Spent most of Friday changing my product photos for my etsy shop again. I wish I could be happy with what I had, but I am forever changing my tastes and love a fresh change. What do you think? Do my pictures look okay?

I have decided the other new skill I want to teach myself by the end of 2013, is flush setting. I have been on the brink of trying it many times, but never got around to it. So, I ordered some small 3mm cubic zirconias to practice with. I have read a few tutorials on it and watched a few Youtube vids on it too, so I feel I have the gist of it, just need to make a little burnishing tool of my own and I'll be set to give it a shot.

Is there something you hope to teach yourself or learn by the end of this year? It's flying by, it will be here before I know it!

Em ♥

Etch Success

I am slowly getting there with my etching.
Even feeling a little confident enough to perhaps try my hand at etching some silver ... in a very small amount.

Below is a pair of earrings I had started when I last blogged about etching:

♥ SOLD ♥

They sold as soon as I'd listed them! They're on their way to a Lovely Lady in Malaysia. My first time shipping to that country too.

Below is another pair that I've finished and listed. I used some of the Vintaj Patina Inks on them and they turned out great - or at least I think so lol

♥ SOLD ♥

I have a couple of other pairs I am working on. And I've also got 2 other sets of patina inks to play with too. The resist I've been using is Sharpie pens and StazOn Inks, I've just purchased a paint pen too, as I've heard they make for a good resist as well.

A while back when I first wanted to try out etching, I purchased a pack of the PNP Blue sheets for the resist. I might give one of those a go and see how they do sometime soon.

The weather here has been pretty awesome, definitely Winter is on her way out and early might I add - I don't mind a bit of cold - as much as I enjoy spring like weather, when it comes early I worry that the Summer heat will too and I'm not looking forward to that :(

Well I have only a couple of hours left before picking up the eldest child, so I'd best cram all I can into it!

Bye for now
Em ♥

Having Fun.

Yes I have been back at the bench a lot more this past week, all thanks to etching. I'm actually having lots of fun! It's all trial and error, but as it's only brass and copper at this stage, it's funds worth risking.

My favourite of the two, is brass.
I didn't think I would like it so much. But I love the colour and I love how the etching stands out against the soft golden colour. All of this practice with the base metals is helping me iron out the problems before I move onto the silver etching. Which I am really looking forward to. I got my hands on the Ferric Nitrate this week too!

I haven't quite conquered the 'Jesus rays' just yet, but I have at least largely minimised them. I figured out a way that I might reduce them and it worked :) I also asked someone on YouTube and they confirmed it, so I am headed in the right direction. The one problem with etching is, I have to be free to agitate the solution often, so I need to work etching out around Poppy's feeding times, or I can't give it the attention it needs. Though the other evening, my other half kindly did it for me, whilst I fed her. So I figure that if this is something I wish to pursue a lot of, I will need to find something that can vibrate my solution whilst in use, or get one of those fish tank pumps I've read about. The one thing I don't like about the fish pump idea, is that whenever I have come across pictures of such a set up, there is always chloride/nitrate splashed all over the place. That isn't ideal. I need something like a tumbler.  I'll figure it out. Eventually. In the meantime, it's working okay how things are.

As for those patinas by vintaj, I'm still very much in the 'playing with' stage. I've got the greens/blues set (which is my fave) and the one you see above and I've also got a rust set coming. I am experimenting with whether to patina before doming or after and seeing which looks best. From all of this I am thinking up all sorts of earring designs - not necessarily with the patinas, just with the etching and doming etc. It's great to have some of my creating mojo back! Just can't believe it's taken me this long to try etching!

Well Poppy is asleep and Summer is watching kids tv, so I might make a cup of tea and head out to the bench again :) Have a great weekend all!

Em ♥

Etching.

So finally on Sunday, I got a little time to play with my Ferric Chloride and Brass/Copper. Here are the results:

With the brass I had the design face down in the solution and ended up with those lines all around and with the copper I suspended the piece vertically and ended up with lines also, but they just look like 'run' lines if you know what I mean?! Being this is my first attempt at etching ever, I realise I haven't given it enough tries/experiments to see what I'm doing right/wrong. Spent most of Monday researching and asking advice in forums/blogs to find out what I might be doing wrong, but haven't really gotten anywhere yet.

Sooo, if anyone out there has any ideas/advice for me, that would be much appreciated! In the meantime, I guess I will just keep on experimenting.
I am also trying to get my hands on some Ferric Nitrate for silver etching, but I probably won't bother trying with that till I have the brass/copper etching fine tuned, thought I have read that it's basically the same procedure.

There hasn't been a whole lot of time at the bench lately. I've been working on some new earring ideas that came to me in the middle of the night (never had that happen before!) and the etching. Really really want the etching to work out as it's rather quite fun and all the ideas and designs I could make are endless.

Anywho, I've just made myself some noodles for lunch, so I'd better go and munch them down before school pick up!

Ta Ta For Now :)
Em ♥

Parcel joy :)

I have got my parcels with my new tools and supplies :)

I finally took the plunge and got myself a Swanstrom disc cutter. I've played around with it a couple of times and I'm happy with it thus far. There is some 6ga twisted silver wire, which I am going to make myself some bangles with. Some ring shank wire, earring wire, a charcoal block and some wire screens for my tripod and finally some Vintaj patinas.

I've never used the patinas before, but I have heard (and watched) plenty about them. So I hope once my Ferric Chloride arrives, I can go ahead and etch my own designs and then play around with patinas to help the patterns stand out. As much as I love to oxidize absolutely everything I make, sometimes I like to mess around with colours. It's an inexpensive way to expand my skills and inventory, as mostly I will be using brass and copper for etching, so the patinas will be perfect for that....I hope.

Oh and I also bought a silicone polishing set (you can see that under the charcoal block) I haven't used any polishing things like that before, not really even sure How to use them, but I'll figure it out.

Thus far I have made myself 2 bangles from the twisted wire.
I had to dig out the MAPP gas for that though.

Not a huge fan of the MAPP gas, but needs must. Still have another 2 to make and I might be making one for Summer as well.

Thanks to the new supplies/tools I am dabbling at the bench a little this week. I have some scrap gold (from an old ring of mine) that I am making some nice weighty studs with, just waiting on the solder and stud parts to finish.

Annnd there is a student open day on Saturday the 3rd, at a place that holds workshops and courses for silversmithing. I have been pondering attending a workshop there for some time now, but never got around to it before baby was born. I checked out the website again and saw that the owner/teacher now offers private tuition and studio hire. So I figured now's my chance (well Saturday will be) to see what it's like there and to meet the owner/teacher and see if it really is something I want to go ahead with.

I am chuffed with how far I have come on my own.
But I feel I need some guidance and help to further my skills and private tuition every now and then would be great for that! Also I would like to hone the skills I already have so that my work can be better.

I am getting sick again :(
Summer has had a cough for quite a while now, if it doesn't disappear in the near future, we might have to take her to the doctors and go down the medication route - which I don't like to do. That's the only reason I hate Winter time, sickness. It's everywhere and it's so contagious too :( I can deal with it, but the thought of poor little baby getting sick again makes me very anxious!

Okie Dokie, I don't have much else to write about today. Not sure if you've noticed, but I have been blogging more lately?! Off to look at cabochons (and to buy a few lol). Have a great week.

Em ♥