Fun and Games with Patinas

Last week I posed the vexatious question - mould or mold? - and obviously more people are reading this than my counter lets on - people very kindly posted their answers to my question - there was one suggestion on Facebook that it depended on where I learned to spell - the answer is, in India, from nuns, and an Anglo Indian lady - the lovely Nora Jessie Laffery who supervised my homework as my parents were busy anaesthetists, working hard all day. 
I have mentioned the different patinas I have been trying out on my kiln fired copper - there has been Liver of Sulphur, Kosher salt and ammonia fumes, salt and vinegar crisps, proprietary Patina kits from Vintaj, patinas from the USA from a lady who calls herself Miss FickleMedia (this name brings to mind a cat whip and thigh high patent leather boots - but she is actually called Shannon LeVart, from Missouri USA, and is probably nothing like my imagination has conjured up) and now a Butane torch.

 To think that this jewellery making lark started with some beads, a couple of toggle clasps, a reel of Tigertail (it has 49 strands of fine stainless steel wire coated with nylon and is very strong) and some crimps to end the necklaces I wanted to make in a small storage chest of drawers!
I now have a chemistry kit, a kiln, a library of jewellery making books, two new cupboards to release my dining table for its original purpose, kilometres of wire in different gauges, three drawers of gemstones and beads, a Butane torch, boxes of polymer clay, resin, acrylic paint and alcohol inks, moulds (molds??!) - and this list grows. No wonder I spend all my waking hours thinking up ways to use all these up - and this will never happen, the way new stuff keeps finding its way back to our house - we should have shares in Royal Mail!
But I am enjoying it, so onwards and upwards I go! I have some pictures here of my journey into jewellery making over the last few years.

When I first started, I bought this box of drawers as 'storage' - deluded wasn't I???

Stuffed full of beads, tools and wire in the tool box

The first pieces dried and ready to go in

Vintaj patina

Reclamation project - I reclaimed my dining table! - at least one can see its outlines now

My crafty corner, in front of the television

Just out of the kiln

Heat patina

Moved from the dining table to a purpose built cupboard, and every Tupperware box /steel container in the house has been pressed into use - container overload!

My little kiln - no room at the inn, so into the conservatory it went.

A batch just out of the kiln,burnished and waiting to be tortured! before being turned into jewellery

Kosher salt and ammonia fume patina

Girl About Town Earrings

Having heat patinated, varnished and waxed these copper discs from my kiln, I added wire wrapped amazonite drops, creamy Biwa pearls and chrysocolla Heishi beads to match the green oil slick colours from the patina and provide a contrasting shape to the discs. These earrings are really cool, and fit for a Girl about Town!

Livin' La Vida Loca

I have always loved Latin music - the rhythm and sounds are second to none. It has been my dream to go to the carnival in Rio - all those fabulous girls in those fantastic headgear - maybe one day. This latest offering is a polymer clay face made by me from one of my moulds, in a faux granite finish - believe it or not, I used coarsely ground pepper to get the grainy effect of the granite!

Donna Spadfore aka Gailavira wrote this very complicated tutorial for the wirework surrounding the focal, and I have made this many times in different forms. Her tutorial was for a pendant, but I readjusted it so I could attach it to a frame and added wooden beads, the roses I made from the same clay as the face - stone roses!, and some turquoise ovals. A lot of work went into this necklace, and I am sure it will be well received - it has a mellow vibe which belies its name - La vida loca - but look into the focal and you will know where I am coming from.

Livin' La Vida Loca

The next piece came to me when I was relaxing in a hot bath, looking up at the ceiling. I painted it with stars when we first moved in, having taken a fancy to a passage from The Merchant of Venice in a conversation between Lorenzo and Jessica in Act 5 Scene 1...

How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!
Here will we sit and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears. 
Soft stillness and the night
Become the touches of sweet harmony.
Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patens of bright gold.

We read The Merchant of Venice in school, and I knew it particularly well having been made to learn it almost off by heart as punishment for various minor misdemeanours and infringements of tiresome rules - I was always taken by the idea of the patens of gold, and I got some of my own - so some good came of all that! (ssh, don't tell those nuns!) 

The ceiling

I made a Man in the moon which I stained with alcohol inks and studded with tiny watch parts from my Steampunk stash. Another moon shape from the same mould was converted into a whimsical sun with the addition of some brass filigree circles, these were painted and distressed  in copper acrylic paint. I decided to make a necklace with the sun, moon and stars, all in one and named it Celeste after the Celestial bodies in it.

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Real 'patens of gold'

I haven't had time to make much more than these offerings this week - the rigours of the day job have overtaken me. I hope to be able to add some self made components to each piece I make and along with bought elements, like gemstones, beads etc, have pieces of jewellery on offer that are most definitely one of a kind. People who have bought from Caprilicious have commented that the jewellery they received in the post is better than in the pictures on the site - maybe that's an indictment of my photography skills - I don't mind that one little bit - my fervent wish is to put a smile on your face when you open a package from me.
Have a good week and I will catch up with you next Friday.
xx