Have you ever "Captured" an Angel?

Well I did, after a fantastic class with MARY HETTSMANSPERGER from America.  I learned how to burn copper with a gel flux, fold, wrap, cut with a screw driver and alter the surface to achieve amazing results and so much more at this class held at the Eclectic Studio in Sydney.

This is a locket that I created by forging copper sheets and wrapping wire.  If you look closely you will see an image behind the textured strips.

Yep, you guessed it.  It's an angel captured between a sheet of mica and copper, all secured with rivets so that he doesn't get away.

Mary Hettsmansperger is the author of - "Wrap, Stitch, Fold & Rivet" and the wonderful "Fabulous Woven Jewelry".  She has a new book out now called "Mixed Metal Jewelry Workshop: Combining Sheet, Clay, Mesh, Wire & More".

Mary Hettmansperger has been a much sought-after crafts teacher for 25 years. A successful author and magazine contributor, she appears regularly on the PBS show Beads, Baubles & Jewels.

The image on the right (pod) with cube beads, I purchased from Mary.  I love her work and just had to take home a piece of Mary H.  I shall wear it proudly.  Thanks, Mary!  I think that the cubes are made from Bronze Clay with a patina finish with liver of sulphur.  It's got an organic feel about it, doesn't it?

Please click on any image(s) to see larger view.

Bangle Bracelet

Tonight I did a little playing around with wirework and some polymer clay after finding a downloaded project by Connie Fox on the Beading Daily website from a while ago.

It's all about wire wrapping and creating links.

In the project Connie says "What do tangelos, werewolves, and bangles have in common?  All three are combinations of 2 elements: tangerine-grapefruit, man-wolf, and bangle-bracelet."

So there you go.  The definition of a Brangle Bracelet. 

I actually made more polymer clay beads than I needed.  I liked them all so much that it was so difficult to decide which ones to use in the bangle bracelet.  Had to edit it a few times to get it to the right size.  There are so many wire working techniques that I wanted to use here.  But not to worry... they'll turn up on other ones.


Description: wirewrapping,  wire wrapped jewelry, wire bracelets, wire jewelry.
Materials:  Handcrafted polymer clay beads, fine silver balls, fine silver toggle and clasp, non-tarnish artisan wire, black agate stones, and sterling silver jump rings.
Techniques:  Wirewrapping. twisted wire formed with a power drill and coiling, simple eye pins.

A New Ring: "Baby's Pacifier"

I'm playing around with making rings at the moment.  I had a bit of scrap clay left over from a cane that included some translucent clay. 

So I wadded up a bit of it and really liked the look.  I formed it into a little bowl and began to get some really good ideas on what to do with it.  I could have filled the bowl with resin, perhaps even wired in some seed beads and other stuff.  But instead had a look into my shoe box of treasures and found this perfectly sized black agate stone.

Then I had to find a way to connect the stone to the polymer clay bowl and to the ring frame.  That was easy... inserted a head pin into the black stone and wired through the ring base and covered it all up (the machanicals) with another bit of left over clay.  And there you go.

Ronna Sarvas Weltman's book "Ancient Modern" off my personal library shelf was a good reference for what I had in mind.  This book contains a fantastic gallery on polymer clay and wire.