Our little group had a play day today and I made this solderless bezel pendant. It’s solderless because the bezel is formed by punching a circle in copper, then dapped into a bezel shape. I planned on using a glass cab but I made the bezel too large so I enameled a domed copper circle and use that instead.
Not my best work but this was all an experiment.
I sold all the enameled bangle bracelet sets I made at the craft show. Yeah!! But that meant I had to make more for gifts. These are two I finished yesterday.
I really like making these. It’s a surprise how the colors are going to come out. I use a couple of opaque colors and three or four transparent colors and I never know what I get when I layer them. When I have more time, I want to make some wider ones that will be riveted together.
I finished up some more enameled and copper wire bracelets. I’m going to sell them as sets. I think they look good together.
I gave up on trying to enamel round wire. For some strange reason, the enamel on round wire keeps popping off. I mean likes shards of it just flying off. It’s the weirdest thing. I tried several different experiments and this happened every time. So, instead, I tried some flat copper wire tonight and I had no issues except where I solder the wire together. I used silver solder since it’s supposed to be compatible with this enamel but I got some crazing. I put it back in my torch flame and heated it up so the enamel pulled away from that spot. It doesn’t look bad but in future ones I’ll either have to fuse the copper together or overlap the piece and rivet it together.
I made this for my cousin’s daughter for her Christmas present. It’s kind of plain but I like it like this. I hope she likes it too.
These are my first attempts at making wire enameled bangles. They weren’t totally successful. It’s hard to see in the picture. The enamel kept popping off in slivers, probably from thermal shock.
The bottom one is made with 6 gauge wire. It had the most enamel cracking off. I finally took my alundum stone and just filed down all the rough spots. Kind of made it look more organic. The top one is out of 8 gauge wire. The enamel stayed on better. I have more experimenting to do before I can sell these.
I cut some pipe as thin as I could with a pipe cutter and enameled these pieces. I just hung them temporarily for this picture. Not sure what I’m going to do with them yet.
I played around with using different color base enamels then put on top some transparent enamels. If I overheat the enamel, it will bubble and bring up the bottom layer of enamel color. I think it gives the pieces more character.
I made another similar to one I made before. This one has bigger beads and sari ribbon as the fiber.
Since I’ve been working with wire and making spirals on the ends of wire to enamel – see below pix….
I thought why not try a heart like this. After I wound the wire around my heart shape, I realized that it would have been easier to make the heart with a side open so it would be easier to wind the wire around it so on the next one I’ll try that. I coated it with enamel the best that I could. I have a zillion colors but really tiny quantities which makes dipping big pieces into the enamel hard to do. I have to dip in sections. This one I used three colors, a dark blue, yellow and white. After I put all the colors on, I didn’t like it. I tried to reduce the enamel to bring out the oxides in it. I didn’t get good results so I fumed the whole thing with silver. It’s hard to tell but in person the shine from the silver shows. I like it much better this way. It gives it an organic look which goes with the heart.
Not sure what I’m going to do with it yet…..
These are some that I used enamel pieces in.
I like the potato chip beads. I’m going to have to get more enameled.
A couple more. Not sure if I like the wire heart.
Mewkittie Creations 