Swimming in Bead Soup

By: ornamento.blog
A Garden Life, Art, beading, beads, blogging, recycling, repurposing, Spoon Jewelry, Spoon Pendant, , , , 4 Comments on Swimming in Bead Soup

I signed up for Lori Anderson’s 7th Bead Soup Blog party and my reveal date us April 13. My partner is Miranda Ackerley who runs MirandackArts.  Miranda obviously takes these bead swaps seriously because she sent me SO MUCH STUFF.  I mean, they had to drive a truck up to my house (only kidding).

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Lots of stones

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Some beautiful crystals

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Chain and some metal stampings

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Some semi precious beads

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Some glass and shell beads

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And a lovely focal and clasp.

Here’s what I sent Miranda

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A sterling clasp I made

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Some vintage buttons, leaf dangles and chain

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Some of my small lamp worked beads and tumbled glass shards

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And a focal set I made from glass my friend Sandeye  gave me.

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And that’s not all; I was interviewed by a new on-line called line magazine A Garden Life,  about the jewelry I made from sidewalk finds and found objects.

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     Click on the image to open the article in Adobe Reader.  Or you can view the web page here.

New Ideas for Making Jewelry from Spoons

By: ornamento.blog
inspiration, recycled art, recycling, repurposing, silver plate, Silver Ware, Silversmithing, Spoon Bracelet, Spoon Earrings, Spoon Jewelry, Spoon Pendant, Torch Enameling, , , , , , , 6 Comments on New Ideas for Making Jewelry from Spoons

A couple of years ago, I posted a tutorial on making a bracelet from old spoons that proved to be quite popular.  Here are examples of more types of jewelry you can make from old spoons.

Here’s a torch enameled spoon bowl pendant that I drilled  for a jump ring before enameling.   The copper ring is a big jump ring soldered shut, hammered flat and textured.  When my friend Terri saw it, she remarked that she would have used the concave part of the spoon bowl instead of the convex side as I did.  Which opens up a bunch of new design possibilities that I plan to explore.

Here are two pairs of earrings made from different parts of the spoon handle.  First, I cut the pieces to the proper length and filed them smooth.  I filed a gentle curve on the top pair because I think it looks more attractive than a straight edge.  Then I drilled holes and filed off the burs.  I patinated them in liver of sulfur,  and made ear wires from fine silver on which I had previously balled the ends.  After inserting the wires through the holes in the earrings I gently hammered fhe balls flat so the  wire would stay in place and the earrings would hang  properly.  Finally, I smoothed the  other end of the wires with a cup bur in a rotary tool.