wandering spirit designs

Enamel Sampler and Do-Overs

The Thompson Enamel Sample Pack for Med. Temperature Medium Expansion arrived in the mail on Friday and I immediately wanted to play around since my first attempt more than a year ago was..weak, to say the least. I usually have a hard time visualizing units of measurements. These packets are each around .5 oz. , usually .6 or .7 to account for the baggie I presume. Now, if I would’ve known on the website that they were each 1/2 oz. – it wouldn’t have meant much to me other than telling me it’s less than one whole ounce. So this is for other people like me who like to SEE what a measurement looks like, not just reading it 🙂 Hope that helps.

My Turquoise pendant used .1 oz. Theoretically, I could make another 5 in this size before running thru my sample baggie- not bad, eh? The box w/ opaque and transparent enamel cost less than $90 w/ shipping. There are A LOT of colors- no, I haven’t counted yet..but I will.

Oh, this red is so very luscious- Orient Red is one I’ll be reaching for quite often, no doubt.

This is just the opaque colors, haven’t done the transparents yet..

Enameling on Copprclay is next, got some pieces and just need to clean them up. I’m currently cleaning and reorganizing my studio and will post pics of the space and some beads once it’s done.

Big Hole Beads

Being part of an online exchange usually stretches my boundaries and makes me try something new. This time the exchange is for big hole beads and since I never do anything the easy way, I decided to see how well I could encase some long big hole beads, these were made on 1/4″ mandrels. The last pic is the four I made with only the two on the top pic making the cut for possible inclusion for the exchange. The second bead cracked since I admired it for too long and the one on the far right has a sharp end. I was able to make these with my Electric Mandrel Spinner– there’s no way my wrists could have managed otherwise. The short one is 14.5 mm long and the large one is 35 mm long or 1-1/4″.
I knew that thing would come in handy one day.

And Again..two more sets for Etsy

These look nice together- totally by accident that I put that strand of encased crackled beads together and after setting them next to the hollows noticed how nice they look together..hmm, I can see a new set in the future w/ a mix of matte and encased beads.

These will be going up shortly on Etsy 🙂

Work, work, work

Trying to get the time to get all these listed is causing me a headache. About to head out of town for an appt. that will take most of the afternoon. Maybe tomorrow?
Argh, and all of these still need to be etched and photographed..maybe the in-laws won’t notice me slipping off while they admire the little man this next week?

And a closeup of a favorite bead.. still trying to figure out which color of coral it was.

Pagoda Ring Class

The Pagoda Ring class at Ornamentea was great and especially nice since it was just me and one other student- which made it possible to pick our instructor’s brain. Ndidi was a great teacher and we learned how to etch, something I’ve been wanting to learn to do for years now and it’s so simple! There are a couple things safety-wise I might change, like the ventilation and wearing an apron, etc.

The leaf disc is Copprclay, not etched. For some reason my Copprclay hasn’t wanted to sinter properly..not sure what the problem is, but planning on opening a new packet and will see if that makes a difference. A handy trick using tubing as a riser- got to use a tube jig for the first time and must say it’s pretty handy. Which reminds me that I need to get over my fear of the saw from HF and use it for things like this. Got lots of compliments for the texture on this ring, reminds me of tooled leather. Still need to do some finishing touches, like filing and cutting the extra length on my fastener.

Stayed tuned for etched bead caps and new work soon. Planning on re-opening my Etsy shop sometime this week, just have a whole lotta work to photograph.