catch-up, with all the stuff I did in jewelry class in jewelry

Naturally I’ve lapsed in keeping track of my jewelry-makings. My class is over, but I plan to take the advanced class in the fall. You get to design your own projects for the advanced class!!! We did the basics in the beginning one. I looooove wire wrapping. I don’t love solderng so much. Also don’t love sawing with the teeny hair-thin sawblades that break every 10 seconds and make me want to swear like a sailor in class. BUT I’m glad I learned how to do all this stuff. Or was at least exposed to it.

Since I fell behind on this, I took pictures of everything I’ve done a few days ago in one big bunch. I’ll try to do them in some sort of order.

Wire wrapping! We did this cool wire wrapping on a doughnut stone, and then on a stone with a drilled hole. First we practiced with big washers and copper wire, though, because silver wire is REALLY EXPENSIVE. I was fairly happy with my results, although the wrapping definitely needs to be a bit smoother.

I did another one with cheapie Michael’s copper wire, and liked it pretty well too:

This was the drilled hole one- terrible glare, but you can get the gist.

Then we learned how to do a stone in a setting. This involved soldering, a whole lot of filing and twisting and more filing, and then tumbling in a tumbler (the silver setting, not the stone).

This really isn’t my thing. I love the finished product when done by someone who knows what they are doing and is good at it, but I just don’t like the soldering and tumbling and stuff that goes into it. I think I’m too impatient to spend so much time on it. But, again, I’m glad I learned how to do it. Even if I never do it again.

The silver soldered ring!

I thought this was kind of awfully simple … but I wear it all the time. And think, I MADE THIS!!! Probably won’t make another one because, SOLDERING, and very expensive silver… but I like what I ended up with.

The Copper Bracelet:

Naturally my bracelet did not end up like it was meant to end up because: can’t follow directions and hammered the whole thing out instead of just the middle bit.. so what was supposed to stay all rounded is all flat in mine – and also didn’t manage to make the pointy center bit be pointy in the same way it was supposed to be pointy. But I like it. This was something we hammered on for most of the class, and I must say, hammering on something for a couple of hours is REALLY REALLY therapeutic. Take that, Obnoxious Overbearing Faculty Member!! Take THAT, Entitled Little Special Snowflake Student!! TAKE THAT, Aggravation Receptionist Who Has A Hair Appointment Every Other Week, Yet Whose Hair Never Ever Changes One Bit and Who Had A Hair Appointment At 2:00 Today And Did Not Come Back To Work And What The Hell Kind Of Hair Appointment Takes Three Fucking Hours??!!? TAKE THAT!!!!

And, the final assignment. This was quite odd. And I’m not sure it was entirely legal – isn’t it a crime to deface legal tender? Well, whatever, we sawed a nickle all up into a moonish-face thing.

You do this using a small saw, with little teeny wispy-wire blades. That break. And break. And BREAK. AND BREAK AND BREAK AND BREAK!!!! So I sat there for hours sawing and breaking blades and sewing and breaking blades and sewing and muttering OH FOR FUCK SAKE under my breath every 20 seconds because I’d broken another blade. I also kept thinking about how I WAS NOT ENJOYING THIS and I WAS WASTING ALL THIS TIME ON SOMETHING I DIDN’T EVEN LIKE!!!! And then, at the very end, I was a little astonished at how it turned out.

I’ve also done quite a few things on my own since I’ve officially come down with Jewelry Madness, but I’ll post them next entry.