Copper and Silver Riveted Heart Pin

Last winter (!) I attended an online workshop with Robert Dancik on making cold connections -- wire and tube rivets, among other techniques. It was great and I was fired up to try something new. I also bought a jewelers saw (finally) and sheet silver and copper to add to my stash. I worked away on a heart shaped pin and then completely lost my momentum. So it languished for 8 months, needing ONLY two rivets to finish it. I even saw it every day! Still, it sat there. Until today! I finished the rivets and polished it up (well, I want the scratchy matte finish, actually) and here it is with all it's imperfections.

I had originally envisioned the center portion as being more of a regular weave, but was having a hard time engineering the attachment, so I just put a bunch of bends in a long length of silver wire with round nose pliers. I cut both heart shapes with my new saw and did not break a single blade, so I guess my years of experience with a carpenter's coping saw paid off! The rivets were meant to be flush on both sides, but I did not do a good job of drilling through the silver without reaming out the hole, making it too big for the 16 ga. wire, so I balled the wire for the silver side instead. I think I like it better. The weakest part of the entire piece, in my mind, is the latch mechanism. I did this last January and right now I don't know what I was thinking! Fortunately, this piece is mine and I don't mind how the back appears, I just know it looks good on a sweater!

My First Rivets

The title for this post sounds like the title for a children's book, which I think is appropriate since my first project made me jump up and down with child-like glee. I couldn't bear to wait for my new tools to arrive, so I rummaged around to see what I could do with what I had. Basically, I have a lot of wire and a lot of construction materials.

I found a scrap of thin wood, drew a somewhat random pattern, and cut out the rough shape using a coping saw. I dragged out my new and unused Dremel with a flexshaft attachment, added a sanding drum, and had a blast refining the wood shape. I wanted to try putting some flush rivets of copper in the wood base, but decided I better just start with an ordinary rivet with mushroom heads.

My woodworking dowels have an interesting spiral groove (for holding glue). I resisted the urge to lay in some wire (too obvious for now), and decided to rivet this to my wood base after flattening the bottom on sandpaper first. I had issues attaching the dowel to the base. I wanted to use 14 gauge copper wire (that is all I have) with a balled head on top of the bare wood, but I could not get the copper to ball up. I switched to Argentium wire (balls up just fine), then decided the color contrast with copper would be nice, meaning making copper "washers," and why use plain copper when heat-treated copper yields such nice red-pick colors? So my washers are randomly shaped pieces of heat-treated 28 gauge copper sheet. They kind of look like leather.



My drill bit died, so I couldn't drill holes in the copper, but I managed to make holes by using an awl to deform the sheet, file down the bulge, push out again with the awl, file again. This worked extremely well! I love creative problem-solving!! The part of the project that made me jump up and down was the tube rivet at the top. This was just the coolest thing ever! I think these will start showing up in my work.

I have been "absorbing" information about riveting for several months now, but I have to thank three sources for finally pushing me to actually try it: craftcast.com, Robert Dancik, and Janice Fowler. Craftcast.com hosted the live online workshop with Robert Dancik that I wrote about yesterday, and last week I bought a very nice tutorial on tube rivets from metalsmith, Janice Fowler. All great sources!!

Explorations in Foldforming

Here is my latest new book, Foldforming, by Charles Lewton-Brain.

An example project from the book was recently published in Art Jewelry Magazine, and while I didn't pay much attention to it on my first pass, a subsequent reading of that issue had me intrigued. Book in hand, I used the tools (20 oz. carpenter's hammer) and materials (28 gauge copper sheet) I had on hand for my first try at the "Romero fold." The resulting leaf shape has some interesting texture, but there were some issues. First, a carpenter's hammer is most definitely NOT the right tool for the job. Second, properly forming the copper requires that it is annealed, which my sheet was not, after the first few hammer blows. I had never done any annealing, so didn't really think about it.

After I ordered and received the proper hammer for the job, I tried again, this time annealing the copper periodically. I made a few ruffles (one of which I am making into an experimental pin), and more interestingly, a Rueger fold. That last one was fun! I successfully applied flux to the copper to prevent firescale, and successfully annealed the copper several times, allowing the copper to begin curling and flaring with successive hammer blows.

Charm Swap - "Autumn"

This photo is an overview of the 15 charms I made for a charm swap through the Yahoo group, Wire Wrap Jewelry. Clearly, my charms are not primarily wire-wrapped! I signed up for the swap at about the time I got my two new books, Wrap, Stitch, Fold & Rivet, and Foldforming, so I felt distinctly inspired by those two. The swap theme was "Autumn" and I envisioned forms based on milkweed pods and "sewn" closed with wire, with fluffy seeds, represented by more wire, erupting from them. A few of the first charms I made follow this vision. Then I noticed that some of the pieces began to resemble footballs -- Autumn again! I couldn't bring myself to make the same thing twice, so every charm is unique and represented a chance for me to explore and play with new techniques. Of all the pieces, I am quite taken with the two that have short lengths of silver wire penetrating the copper, balled at each end. I love the look and the fact that the little wires move back and forth. Expect to see more explorations of this technique when I have more time to play in the winter! I have already filled a few pages of my sketchbook with design ideas.

Project Three-Shelf Earrings

I didn't care much for the Shelf Pendant in Wrap, Stitch, Fold & Rivet, but I could see earrings quite clearly, so that is what I did. I love how these turned out! I did a strange thing when applying a heat patina to the copper: I applied the butane torch flame horizontally to the copper sheet (as opposed to perpendicular) and then I quenched the metal in the nearest source of water, my cat's water dish. I suspect the organic material in the water caused the interesting green flashes of color. I don't really know if that is true, but I do know that the coloring on this pair of earrings is more interesting than for Project Two! I could actually read about applying a heat patina, but so far just playing with it is kind of fun!

The silver is Argentium, so no fire scale or need for flux when balling the ends of the wire. The twisted wires at the top are scraps from other projects which I pulled out of the refining bin.

Working through the projects in this book is distracting me from getting ready for my Oct-Nov show schedule! Must pace myself.....but it is so fun to explore new techniques!!!