Monday, August 24, 2015

Earring Monday ~ again

When I began this challenge back in January, I had every intention of keeping up with it. I really do want more exposure for my blog.
I have to say I am impressed that Sarajo is able to keep up with posting, even with her travels.
So after a few months hiatus, I'm ready to give it a try again.

Recently, I've been experimenting with enamels and hotter torches. I found my trusty butane torch doesn't work that great with larger pieces or multiple firings.
I raided my husband's tool box and pulled out his "plumber's" torches - with his blessings, of course.
He had both mapp and propane hidden in there!

For this batch, I used the mapp torch. I definitely need to get used to the heat because there are a few "crispy" edges.

These first two actually have  the same color enamel - transparent copper green.  The teardrop has a white base, while the oval was enameled on bare copper. I love the color variations!
Hover, you can see where there was too much heat on the first pair - that brown is not supposed to be there. And if I didn't tell you, some of you would have thought I did it on purpose.
There I go giving away trade secrets again.



stump gray

love this color - aquamarine green
It's tricky because different amounts of heat will change the color























This last pair was my test run for the buzzard pendant I created in response to Swamplandia. It took three firings with several differnt colors.
You can check out that post here.

In case you're wondering, I used Kevin Potter's pancaked dies to cut my shapes. Then I added dimension with my oval, wood dapping block from Contenti.

Don't forget to  Sarajo Wentling's blog to see who else is playing along this week.




I'll do my best to be back in two weeks with more earrings !

















2 comments:

  1. Glad to have you back, Jeanne! Love all your experiments with enamel... even though it wasn't intentional, I love the brown around the edges of that first pair. Those and your last pair are my favorites. BTW, what is a mapp torch?

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  2. Thanks Sarajo! A mapp torch might commonly be known as a plumber's torch. Burns hotter than propane, which is even hotter than butane. It was a lot of fun to play with tecniques for the last pair!

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