Skew ChiDAMN!!
9th April 2013, 05:51 PM
Where does the time go?
It's my first wedding anniversary and SWMBO's birthday very soon... so off I went shopping. Sheesh, there's so much tat out there! Even the jewellery is rather tawdry... unless it has several zeros on the price tag. :((
Giving up the shopping in disgust, I headed to the shed to see what I could come up with...
Firstly, a pair of ear-rings. Redgum 'nuts' with spalted merbau 'caps.' Average wall thickness is just under 2mm, to keep weight down.
262273
Secondly, a butterfly pendant/brooch. Canadian Poplar wings, Redgum spots, Ebony body. I'm not much of a carver, but I think this one passes muster. Until one uses a magnifying glass (or zooms in on the pics. :doh: ) I know the wings are a tad skew-whiff, but attaching 'em was a nightmare... I got so carried away with making 'em nice and thin (again, about 1.5mm at the thickest part) that I forgot all about leaving some meat to attach 'em to the body. :- So, using a 0.5mm drill, careful tongue positioning and a lot of TLC, I drilled both wings & body to use 0.4mm wires as connecting 'dowels.' It seems to have worked...
262272
262274
All of the findings are proper sterling silver... it took me almost as long to source decent findings (like I said, there's soooo much tat out there! :rolleyes:) as it did to make, but eventually I was lucky enough to find A&E Metal. (I still need to source a suitable finding to use as a brooch clip.)
Now here's to hoping they pass muster where it counts!
:fingerscrossed:
It's my first wedding anniversary and SWMBO's birthday very soon... so off I went shopping. Sheesh, there's so much tat out there! Even the jewellery is rather tawdry... unless it has several zeros on the price tag. :((
Giving up the shopping in disgust, I headed to the shed to see what I could come up with...
Firstly, a pair of ear-rings. Redgum 'nuts' with spalted merbau 'caps.' Average wall thickness is just under 2mm, to keep weight down.
262273
Secondly, a butterfly pendant/brooch. Canadian Poplar wings, Redgum spots, Ebony body. I'm not much of a carver, but I think this one passes muster. Until one uses a magnifying glass (or zooms in on the pics. :doh: ) I know the wings are a tad skew-whiff, but attaching 'em was a nightmare... I got so carried away with making 'em nice and thin (again, about 1.5mm at the thickest part) that I forgot all about leaving some meat to attach 'em to the body. :- So, using a 0.5mm drill, careful tongue positioning and a lot of TLC, I drilled both wings & body to use 0.4mm wires as connecting 'dowels.' It seems to have worked...
262272
262274
All of the findings are proper sterling silver... it took me almost as long to source decent findings (like I said, there's soooo much tat out there! :rolleyes:) as it did to make, but eventually I was lucky enough to find A&E Metal. (I still need to source a suitable finding to use as a brooch clip.)
Now here's to hoping they pass muster where it counts!
:fingerscrossed: