Friday, April 8, 2011

METAL AND LACE - WINNING!

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to attend a class with Colleen, at The Bead Metaler, in texturing metal without hammers.  We were allowed to play with her snazzy rolling mill to imprint some fairly delicate items onto metal.  I'm talking LACE - ONTO METAL!  A fairly simple procedure involves a heavy-duty, hand cranked machine that has two steel drums/rollers that are tightened together to compress whatever you've laid onto metal, leaving an impression as it's rolled through and out the other side.  She was kind enough to allow us to play with practice pieces (pieces that I will use later...nothing goes to waste) before moving onto the real deal.  To say that my right arm is like jello today, is a bit of an understatement, but look at this WINNING cuff I got out of the deal!
My practice pieces (we sandwiched textures between two pieces of metal each time, hence the number of pieces I brought home), at the bottom of the collage, range from simple run throughs of pieces of lace (see the middle bottom photo - the piece of copper in the very center with the DELICATE lace impressions, after once through the machine), to layering of different items (including round paper clips at one point) and several run throughs on the same piece.  Texture was the name of the game, and texture I got.  The few different patinas on the pieces at the bottom (most of which are natural copper at this point) were from torch heating.

A glutton for punishment, I upped my game for the cuff, and chose a piece of inch and a half wide, 18 gauge copper (most of my play pieces were thinner, 24 ga.).  It is the reason for my sore arm today, but well worth the effort...a substantial bracelet, run through the ringer quite a few times, with various laces, burlap, etc., with a few finishing strokes from a texturing hammer.  Patina-ed with Liver of Sulfur (it's also shinier than it looks, having been sprayed with a clear shiny coating - my camera picks up glare at the most inopportune times, but never when I want it), I got some marvelous color in this one, and it will be rockin' the town tomorrow evening.  Thanks for a wonderful class, Boss!  LOVED the process, and will treasure the bracelet!  WINNING!

12 comments:

Colleen Mcgraw said...

"Winning" for sure! You are the winner, great colors and textures Tanya, it's always so fun to have you in my classes.

Jackie said...

Geez, my cuff looks so primitive compared to yours..but I guess it does not matter, I like mine just as much as you like yours..even though your cuff ROCKS this world!! Damn you are uber talented!!!

oldgreymare said...

ZOWIE! from z

By the Bluegrass said...

really cool! I love taking classes too!
xo,
Sena

Jillayne said...

Oh my gosh! I'm so jealous! This is just lovely - you have had such fun and good for you for going for broke - it certainly paid off.
Have fun showing off your new arm candy!

Ronna said...

You go girl! Love it!

The Primitive Bucket said...

Winning is right...you must be a wizard and have tiger blood running in your veins!! lol... so cool cuff, you are sooooo very talented and I am again impressed!!! Love ya!

Colleen said...

You Rock 'N Roll, girlfriend - it is absolutely fantastic and can't wait to see it in person and I know your arm is so sore after watching you yesterday - rolling & rolling - rolling down the river!

Hope you buy one of those rolling machines and we will be over there all of the time!

Katie@LeBeauPaonVictorien said...

How beautiful! I never knew that something like that could be done to metal.
You had asked me about my blog storage issue; I'm not really blog savvy either and didn't realize that Blogger gives you only 1GB of free storage so I ran out of my free space. I don't know what others have done, but for now I purchased some more storage for $5 which should last me awhile until I learn how to get around this issue, if possible.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful bracelet!

Hopewell Creek Designs said...

Winning...oh that cracked me up...I love your blog..I have never seen this process. What an awesome opportunity to be able to take this class. You are a very talented artist,the piece is too cool!
Also Tanya a certain young person was given a beautiful gift made by this talented artist and it left her speechless.I told her there was only one stipulation and that was to pay it forward.I teared up as I watched tears roll down her cheeks and she said "I promise,aren't people wonderful" I said yes honey..some are exceptionally wonderful,thank you Tanya =)

Mandy said...

I LOVE the patina you got on this...beautiful!