I’ve recently lost a very big piece of my heart. The sorrow is soul crushing. Daily functions are difficult to complete. These are times I find that if I can keep busy, I may can get through it.
God never gives us more than we can handle right? It’s a fine line and I’m on the line.
I found a box with some watch parts from a time I made some steampunk jewelry. It stayed on my mind and a plan started to develop. Incorporate the parts with resin? Hmm.. interesting…
So I’ve been wrapping a couple of pendants for the past couple of weeks and I have been wanting to make something in line with an amulet. Something different. So with a little weaving and then a little more weaving I have come up with these new two. The first has 2 tourmalines and a Mexican fire opal, the second has a faceted red garnet and blue green piece of apatite.
I am once again addicted to wrapping. Seems like I can’t stop for awhile then I take a break then back to being addicted. Crazy stuff.
Well thanks for stopping by! Hope you get to enjoy the the three day weekend. I know I am. 🙂
While looking thru some videos on youtube, I came across a really interesting one about taking a quarter and making a ring out of it. Well! I had never heard of this, and I just couldn’t stop looking for other videos or links to read. There are actually 2 ways to do this. You can make the ring to where the writing on the coin shows on both the inside and outside of the ring, or you can make it to where only the inside will show the writing and outside will be a beautiful shiny band of whatever metal your coin is made of. I tried to make one out of a new penny but its pretty sad that even a penny isn’t really copper anymore isn’t it? Made for a pretty ugly ring. So thankfully a couple of really good enablers gave me a couple of quarters that are actually made of silver. Anything older than 1964 works great. I drilled a small hole in the middle of the coin, then used a jewelers saw to cut out the middle. Then I put the donut looking piece put it on a ring mandrel and started to pound on it with a rubber hammer. You just keep hitting it down the mandrel until it won’t go anymore, by then its pretty flat against the mandrel. Just make sure you hit a couple times then turn the mandrel a little then hit some more. Then you take it off the mandrel, I annealed it to soften it, put it back on the mandrel, the other side up and hit it some more to take the cone shape off and finish it with a little polish. You can use a little oxidizer to make the writing really show. With practice you can make them any size you like. It was fun and there are so many pretty coins out there!
This is my favorite link about the coins, the pictures at the bottom of all the different coins is what hooked me.
I think that since its a pdf it won’t show as a link so you have to copy the whole link and put it in a browser. But its really worth the read.
Here’s a couple of pics of my attempt and I think I’ll be making more of these. I like the thought of a couple having rings of each others birth year. But then you would have to be born 1964 or before, to get the really good silver.
Well thanks for stopping by and I hope you get to try and make a few rings for yourself. Let me know if do or if you find any other cool jewelry making ideas.
Didn’t get too much done this weekend. I cut some more Morgan Hill poppy jasper and an unknown rock with some pretty colors. It too was found in Morgan Hill. I do like the poppy cab. The pattern in the red reminds me of flowers, it gives the area a depth and in the yellow part the poppies look like ghost poppy.. Ok, so maybe it just seems this way to me. 🙂 I also put a seashell pendant together for a friend. Her son found it and it already had a small hole it, so its now a lil keepsake to wear.
Hope you had a really nice weekend. Thanks for stopping by…
Well, no holiday weekend, and rain. No rock fun, other than finishing a couple of wraps. I wrapped a couple of morrisonite cabs that I polished little while back. Here they are.
The druzy cabs are awesome. So wrapped in silver they are even prettier. The blues are bright and the crystals very clear. This is a really nice stone to work with. I can’t wait to cut some more. I’m hooked is all I can say. I wore one of these pendants to work and let me just say, it was an attention getter. I love it when people just can’t help but comment on a pendant I’ve made, but all I heard was, love that stone.. yeah, (me too) .. lol. I suppose since I’ve worn it I’ve claimed it.. 🙂
So I cut the Chrysocolla side of the rock from the prior post. It was a little tough, being that I didn’t want to cut it wrong or lose any of the druzy. I then cabbed it and was really happy with the outcome. I also cabbed a piece Morrisonite that takes a shine like glass with very little effort. Love this stuff. Here’s a few clickable pics.
Love these three day weekends.. Wish they were all three dayers. The weather was pretty nice so we got to get out and do a lil rockhounding. Found some nice colored pet wood and just checked out the scenery. I also got to finish a few wraps. Fun weekend so far and another day to go.
Its been so hectic. Getting ready for a small Christmas show and then Christmas itself. The boutique turned out ok and it was really fun. I hadn’t set up for one in quite awhile and it turned out pretty good. I wrapped so many pieces that I burned out for a little while it seems. I didn’t even want to look at a piece of wire. So I cabbed a little, very little, went out and found a few pretty rocks. Mostly red jasper and pet wood. Until a few days ago a friend sent a few awesome cabs and wanted one wrapped. I was back into wire. I couldn’t stop! I’m just grateful it was the weekend since I got no sleep. lol I hope he likes his pendant half as much as I like the cab and slabs he sent me. I even got a lil cabbing in today. Looks like I’m slowly getting back in the swing.
Another long weekend coming up.. yay!
Hope this one was great for you.
Just a little that is. Time has not been a friend, but I have been able to get a few things done. I cabbed a couple of Malachite cabs and although it was messy, I really like this stuff. Its pretty soft material and it takes a good shine. I cabbed a Morgan HIll poppy jasper and dino bone cab but the pictures, didn’t turn out so well. I also wrapped a couple of pendants. A dino bone and a turquoise pendant.
Well hope you had a great weekend and have a great week to come!!
Raqyz's Rocks 