New Crafty Techniques!
On my most recent visit, to my beloved Silver Bay, I finally got to take advantage of the craft shop!
The craft shop at the Bay tends to focus on crafts that need some sort of expensive equipment, like a kiln or a loom, that the average jane crafter probably doesn't have kicking around her house. The customer goes in, chooses a project, then pays for the materials after the fact. Easy peasy!
I tried out two new to me crafting techniques while I was there.
This little whale brooch didn't look so cute the first time it came out of the kiln! The pooling effect you see is created by pieces of glass laid over the enamel. I wanted the pooling, but the first time it came out the glass pieces stayed beaded on the surface like some sort of whale acne! Luckily, the enamel chipped a bit, earning me a second chance to touch it up and a second round in the kiln. Hence pooling. Yay for cute whales!
The second craft that I tried was leather tooling. I discovered that I LOVE IT!
Those are my initials in the middle - pretty snazzy, eh?
Every mark that you see on the cuff is created by individual hammer taps. Once I got the hang of it, making the repetitive pattern settled into a nice rhythm, and I could zone out while working. It was actually kind of peaceful, much like knitting. And all of that banging with the mallet was stress relieving, HA!
The craft shop at the Bay tends to focus on crafts that need some sort of expensive equipment, like a kiln or a loom, that the average jane crafter probably doesn't have kicking around her house. The customer goes in, chooses a project, then pays for the materials after the fact. Easy peasy!
I tried out two new to me crafting techniques while I was there.
This little whale brooch didn't look so cute the first time it came out of the kiln! The pooling effect you see is created by pieces of glass laid over the enamel. I wanted the pooling, but the first time it came out the glass pieces stayed beaded on the surface like some sort of whale acne! Luckily, the enamel chipped a bit, earning me a second chance to touch it up and a second round in the kiln. Hence pooling. Yay for cute whales!
The second craft that I tried was leather tooling. I discovered that I LOVE IT!
Those are my initials in the middle - pretty snazzy, eh?
Every mark that you see on the cuff is created by individual hammer taps. Once I got the hang of it, making the repetitive pattern settled into a nice rhythm, and I could zone out while working. It was actually kind of peaceful, much like knitting. And all of that banging with the mallet was stress relieving, HA!
Labels: copper enameling, leather tooling
posted by Geek+Nerd at 10:37 AM
7 Comments:
Yay, I love trying new things!!
I totally love your whale! LOVE IT!
And believe it or not, somehow I see you as a leather tooling kind of girl! And from the looks of your first efforts - "you have a gift my friend"!
those are both so incrediably awesome. and - word to the wise - you better take up leather tooling permenantly because i totally forsee needing to comission you for something cool someday!
Awesome leather! They had a big tooling table for kids at Maker Faire, and I was sooooo jealous... Your pattern came out perfect.
WOW!!! But that brooch has got to be my favorite!
oh FUN!!!!! Can I come next time?!!!
BOTH your creations are super dooper cool.
I am seriously in love with that whale. If he needs a home let me know...
....and leather tooling!!!! HOLEY COOL! I so so so want to learn to do that! Lucky you!
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