Jewelry

February 15, 2018 By Karin M

Enamel – a fun way to add Color and Interest to Jewelry

One of the main reasons I love creating jewelry so much is that there are so many fun techniques to explore! I mentioned in my last post that I attended a weekend enameling workshop last Fall. Oh, the possibilities are absolutely endless! Sure, adding fun, colorful elements in the form of beads and other findings is nice. But to be able to create your own custom designs and bring new ideas to life in ways you never thought possible? It’s the cat’s meow, as far as I’m concerned!

So, what exactly is enamel?

Enamel is essentially finely ground glass powder that is applied to a base metal, most commonly copper or fine silver. The powder is melted and adhered to the base metal by applying heat. This can be achieved with a kiln, or as it is in my case, with a torch. Torch firing is as instant gratification as it gets! The drawbacks being that you can only fire one piece at at time, as well as having size constraints. You will not be able to fire an enamel bowl with a torch!

Are there different techniques?

The three main techniques are:

Torch/kiln fired
Sgraffito
Cloisonne

Currently I am mainly focused on torch fired enamel, but look forward to including some sgraffito pieces into my designs very soon!

Here are some brief explanations and examples of each technique to give you an idea of what I’m talking about.

Torch fired enamel:

As the name implies, the enamel is melted onto the surface of the base metal by means of a very hot torch. I have used my Little Torch, but prefer my MAPP torch overall. You can also use a butane torch, but you won’t get very far with the small one! Vitreous enamel powder melts from around 1400 – 1600 degrees Fahrenheit.

The firing goes through several distinct phases:

sugar
orange peel
final, smooth

Each stage is named after the appearance the enamel powder takes on while firing. With enameling it is important to apply a coat of counter enamel to the backside of the fired piece to prevent the front from eventually cracking. Found out the hard way that this is indeed true!

Insert not so happy face… Oh well, I knew better and tempted fate anyway!

Designs can be changed by layering subsequent colors and elements like glass chips and strings into the previously fired surface and re-firing them. Endless design possibilities.

I am currently placing my pieces on special trivets perched on a tripod with a wire screen, but they can also be placed on a mandrel like beads and dipped into enamel powder throughout firing. I am currently not set up to try to fire this way, but sure do want to try!

Here are some examples of pieces I have created so far!

I love combining rustic copper elements with the vibrant enamel colors.

For now I have been playing around with many familiar shapes, adding color to some of the designs that sported other textures. I am also creating the same or very similar designs with different base metals and varying colors.

Like this slightly lighter version of the moon pieces above!

Sgraffito

This technique requires the application of a liquid porcelain base layer front and back. Designs are then scratched into the front before various translucent enamel colors are applied. One of my absolute favorite artists employing this technique is Anne Havel. Not only does she have an amazing eye for combining simple shapes and colors, but her settings are just stunning. It wasn’t easy to pick just one example of her work, but you can find many more on Pinterest.

Just so gorgeous! Do be sure to check out more of her work, you won’t regret it.

Angela Gerhard is another enamel jewelry artist to check out! Do swing by her site!

I will write a more in depth post once I get started and learn more about this technique.

Cloisonne

The third technique is cloisonne which you will probably know from Faberge eggs. This technique dates back to ancient times and is the most complicated and involved of all enameling techniques. It is essentially an inlay process that requires great skill and patience. In ancient times gemstones were used as well as ground glass powder that is painstakingly packed in defined patterns. Cloisonne is seen in decorative objects as well as jewelry.

You can delve into the history, technique as well as famous examples here.

And that is my brief intro to vitreous glass enameling for you! I hope you’ll stop by my shop to see what’s new. I try to add new pieces regularly. If you see a design you like, but would like to have it in a different color, just give me a shout!

Thank you for supporting handmade!

Have a great day!

Karin

February 24, 2016 By Karin M

A journey through shapes

This month we are exploring the topic shapes as part of the JAC blog hop.

I was all set to bore you to tears with how I see a certain shape, create a whole bunch of different pieces with that shape and then move on to the next. But you know what? I just could not hit the publish button. It didn’t seem complete. There is always a story behind everything and my gut was telling me to hold off, to find the story.

Like so often before, my instinct was spot on. You see, when I took a closer look at the reasons why I was so drawn to explore a specific shape at a specific time, it became very clear that each one represents a stepping stone on my creative journey, that has brought me to where I am today. And, that by following these shapes as they present themselves to me with all of their design promises and possibilities, I can only grow as an artist. Let me show you how…

One very early example would be my discovery of the use of copper washers to make jewelry. It was liberating to move past bead stringing and chain making, to be able to incorporate more rustic elements into my jewelry. This old post describes how excited I was to find a tool to punch holes into the washers:) I proceeded to add circle shapes to a lot of my jewelry at that time. But soon I was longing for a way to bring a different vision to life. I had recently learned to weave wire, but wasn’t quite sold on all the ornate and overly complicated looking designs I kept coming across. Simplicity coupled with geometry was what I was craving and that is how this earring design came into being.

And even though I have recreated this pair of earrings numerous times, I have not tired of them and I doubt that I will.

You may have read my recent post about the way I have devised to cut jump rings. With the introduction of the jewelers saw another shape entered my designs – the square. Sawing straight lines is good practice! It started out small, incorporating squares in earrings and as connecting elements in bracelets and necklaces.

The purchase of my disc cutter enabled me to finally produce consistently what I had not wanted to even attempt to do with my jewelers saw. Cutting consistent holes many times over and with relative ease. With some trial and error I arrived at this design, a gorgeous pendant that incorporates a bead created by my friend.

as well as a couple of bracelets I created with this technique

The bracelets are also a good example of how I love to use my favorite little Fretz riveting hammer for texture.

Playing around with my disc cutter resulted in many more design options like this assortment of earrings.

I am currently completely smitten by half moon shapes. And their creation has the added benefit of resulting in little leaf shapes like the ones I included in the silver earrings above. This journey through shapes has been tremendously inspiring to me and keeps nudging me on to walk down the path of creativity.

I leave you here with my latest piece.

The original plan had been to put a Czech glass bead in the center, but the links remind me of a spine and adding a fossil component made so much sense. What do you think?

Why not hop on over to my facebook page and give it a like and follow my journey:)

See you there and happy creating!

And here are the links for the other participating blogs:

Karin

*disclaimer: all of the links provided are for informational reasons only. I was not compensated in any way for any of the statements made in this post.

August 31, 2015 By Karin M

Buffin’ up Brass

Today I want to share a quick little tip with you that will save you time, costs mere pennies and leaves you with fantastic results. What’s not to love about that!?

I love creating my jewelry pieces from solid core wire, not the plated stuff. Copper, silver and jewelers brass. While cleaning the first two is relatively straight forward, the brass has been giving me fits. I chose jewelers brass, because it lacks the bright, brash yellow cast of regular brass and resembles the warmer glow of 14k gold, due to its higher copper content.

But it is still brass and that means that unlike real gold, it will tarnish and look gross eventually.

So far, I have always reached for my trusted jewelry cloth and just sat and polished, polished and then polished some more. Buffin’ up the brass made my hands hurt and somehow it still never looked quite as evenly shiny and sparkly as I had imagined. In short – too much work for too little shine.

So, what to do? Brasso? Maybe, worth a try… While I looked for my Brasso, I came upon this bottle of lemon juice, a major cleaning staple of mine.

And I remembered that an acid should clean the tarnish right off. So I decided to give it a try. Here is a picture of three bracelets: the one on the left was cleaned by being submerged in lemon juice for just a couple of minutes, then rinsed with water and dried with a paper towel. The middle one was polished with a jewelry cloth and the one on the right hadn’t been touched yet.

Actually, this picture doesn’t begin to show just how tarnished the bracelet on the right was!

Another before shot:

And here it is after a quick bath, rinse and dry:

All this with so much less effort than the less effective method! I don’t know about you, but I have better things to do than sit around and polish jewelry! I would rather be making it than cleaning it any day! So next time your brass jewelry turns grungy, pour yourself some lemon juice in a bowl and let the acid do its magic!

*One word of caution: all of the pieces I cleaned with this method were strictly brass, no other metals, beads or stones. I will try this method with some of the beads I use frequently to see how they hold up and post those results for you very soon!

And don’t forget to stop by and like my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/echoesofela to get the latest news and pictures!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Karin

March 13, 2015 By Karin M

Create what you love

My philosophy is that if you create with what you love in mind, you – and others – will always love what you create. Are you looking for ways to incorporate things you love to do into your jewelry design? I have found that when I create with something that I love in mind, the ideas come freely and make me smile! Recently I told you about my connection with autism and I wrote about the trend to personalize jewelry more and more in recent years. One way to do that is to incorporate what is important to you in your designs. It could be something as simple as your favorite color(s), animals, travel destinations and hobbies. One of my favorite things to do is yoga.

I came to yoga relatively late. Sure, I had heard for years that it was good for a variety of reasons, like increased flexibility, range of motion, pain reduction and most importantly stress relief. And who couldn’t use all of that?

However, the thought of attending a class with a roomful of hyper-flexible twenty somethings was not appealing AT ALL. And then, by nothing less than divine intervention, I found Kim’s Gentle Stretch yoga course at the local, ahem, senior center. Cue the rainbows and harp music. Over the past few years this class has become such an important part of my life that I will only miss my Thursday morning session if my household was struck by ebola or I am out of the country or somebody in my family cut an artery;)

Why? The regular practice of Kim’s style of yoga has given me all the benefits promised and then some. It has given me the tools I need to calm and de-stress, to focus when it seems like I am putting out one brush fire after the next and to relieve my aches and pains from sitting at my work bench creating sparkly goodies! Please feel free to check out her website here!

Naturally I wanted to express my love for yoga through my artistic medium, which is jewelry, of course. So I decided to come up with several designs that incorporate the colors of the chakra, better illustrated and explained here.

I chose copper washers for this bracelet because copper has a wonderful, warm feel and its patina harmonizes beautifully with those gorgeous rainbow hues.

One day when I was playing around with various wire weaving designs, it dawned on me that I could manipulate them into little yoga people in various poses. And that is how this pendant came about!

I am always tweaking and fiddling to improve upon the original and I have a couple of small changes planned for this design. I have several different pendants of poses in my Etsy shop with earrings coming soon!

The third example is a mixed metal bracelet and earring set in which hammered copper bars are connected by silver jump rings, which in turn serve as anchors for several different silver plated yoga themed charms.

So there you have it – one of my many inspirations! What are yours? Do you create with a specific subject in mind? Do you buy jewelry that has a theme? To me it just gives me yet another chance to incorporate things that make me happy into my everyday life!

Karin

June 14, 2014 By Karin M

A new design line is born

One of the reasons I started writing this blog is to give you a little peek behind the curtains. And today I would like to share with you how my design process works – most often.

I love exploring a shape or concept and try to work it into all kinds of variations. The idea of developing an entire design line rather than creating unrelated pieces is growing on me. And over this past week I’ve been up to my eyeballs in copper washers.

I’ve owned them for almost a year, shuffling them from one place in my work studio to the next. They have stared me in the face from my work table for some time. Still – nothing, nada, zilch, nichts.

Sure, I fiddled around with them, but they just didn’t get my creative juices flowing until I got my little hole punch that I talked about here.

And since I had so much fun creating the necklace and earrings in that post:

I was just itching to do something else! [Read more…] about A new design line is born

June 6, 2014 By Karin M

Add bling to your life

Jewelry is not just something your wear, but it ~~can~~ should be a lifestyle. Little changes and additions can have a huge impact and today I want to show you some examples of how you might beautify your surroundings with relatively little effort and likely on the cheap as well, ’cause that is how I roll!

*Please pin from the original source!

The first example of house bling comes from a blog I found fairly recently and have already come to love:

A stylish and simple solution for your kitchen sink brought to you by:

Dimplesandtangles.blogspot.com [Read more…] about Add bling to your life

Jewelry

Enamel – a fun way to add Color and Interest to Jewelry

Are there different techniques?

The three main techniques are:

Torch fired enamel:

Sgraffito

Cloisonne

Karin

Like this:

A journey through shapes

Karin

*disclaimer: all of the links provided are for informational reasons only. I was not compensated in any way for any of the statements made in this post.

Like this:

Buffin’ up Brass

Karin

Like this:

Create what you love

Karin

Like this:

A new design line is born

Like this:

Add bling to your life

Like this:

Jewelry

Are there different techniques?

The three main techniques are:

Torch fired enamel:

Sgraffito

Cloisonne

Karin

Share this:

Like this:

Karin

*disclaimer: all of the links provided are for informational reasons only. I was not compensated in any way for any of the statements made in this post.

Share this:

Like this:

Karin

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Karin

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