My baby girl is now 6 months old and my eldest is going to be on school holidays very soon. This year has definitely been one of the fastest. Ever.
I am thinking about my goal list for 2014 as this year I've mainly focused on baby (as you do). Next year she will be crawling and walking and eventually talking, so I do struggle to see how I'm going to find that extra bench time I'll need to fulfill my goals. But I'm sure I will manage somehow.
A couple of weeks ago I tracked down a hardware store with foldable market tables and I got one! And I've even ordered a table cloth for it too. I'm actually on Vistaprint right now looking at banners and posters. I'm serious about the markets. I'm dying to see how the locals receive my kind of work.
The enameling experiments continue.
I'm still enjoying it. My other half even offered to buy me a kiln! Yes, That is how supportive he is of my metalwork. Basically though I want to continue to torch fire, until I see a steady sale of enameled pieces. (none have sold yet) I don't think it would be a wise investment if there was no opportunity of recouping the costs. Do you? Right now, I am still able to do decent sized pieces with my torch. Just. It's hard to keep the whole piece hot enough, when you have a large area to fuse.
Instead of a kiln, I am thinking of a nice bench guillotine. I have my eye on a Pepe one. Their smallest. It will help make some of my work a bit swifter. Not a big fan of sawing out big squares and then sawing out the shape. I just want to get in and saw the shape and be done. Especially if there is piercing involved too. Plus I like the idea of being able to cut my own bezel wire easily. Sawing in a dead straight line tends to send me cross-eyed!
Below are a couple of pairs of enameled earrings:
The green ones are in my Etsy store and the crescent shapes I'm still yet to list.
I have been having a play with drawing on enameled pieces with Graphite pencil. My ideas of 'drawing' would just be patterns mainly as I can't draw to save my life. It's a great addition to the enameling. I have found you can even do it on coloured enamel pieces too.
I have run into a bit of difficulty. I can't for the life of me pin anything (ball up both ends of wire to secure a bail). I have tried a big bushy flame, a very small hot flame and nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero. My wire. Just. Won't. Ball Up. Super frustrated. As I really wanted to pin my enameled earrings and pendants. Someone on Instagram suggested riveting, but I'm not really any good at that either. Guess I will just have to practice that, as I really need a solution to attaching a bail to my pieces.
So that is about all for this post.
Might go and have a little snack before Poppy wakes up.
Have a great week all.
Em ♥
2 comments:
I love your new enamel stuff, the shapes are lovely!
I tried riveting enamel pieces using a ball rivet and being really careful but the enamel still cracked. I also tried pinning enamel pieces but had the same problem as you! I think the wire for the pin is too short to ball up. I did manage to burn the enamel horribly though so gave up on those methods of connecting.
I know some people can do it I'm just not one of them.
Wishing you luck with the markets :D
Thanks Hun.
I think I might give tube riveting a go. Just one time though lol as silver tubing is pricey. I don't have any copper to practice with right now. I don't know if it will be any better than trying regular riveting, but I've got to find something!
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