Sunday, June 24, 2012

This was the week that was ..

not really worth talking about! On the plus side I caught up with some awesome women I had met earlier in the year and I got to hang out with my daughter and 2 little great-nephews. Sadly the week was pretty much downhill from there but I will spare you the Moaning Mona routine. Suffice to say that at the end of it I was undergoing root canal treatment and leave it at that shall we?! I have spent today engaging in a far more pleasant undertaking - I have been in my little studio thrashing out some ideas and actually making something. Not a completely complete something, but something nonetheless. I have shared so little this week I am gonna take you through the process ... Lucky ol' you!


I started out with a spoon, a copper ring cut from some plumbers pipe I found in the shed (please don't tell the ManBeast - I remain hopeful that it wasn't anything terribly important) and a dolls eye. And yes, I did indeed pluck that peeper right out of a dolls head. She was forlorn. A previous owner had given her the haircut from Hell so it was a mercy that I cut her face off. Really. Hhmm - does that sound a little creepy?


Okay so this is stage one - making a bezel cup. After cutting off the handle and bashing the spoon about a bit I soldered on the copper ring and a cool milagro. The milagro has come from Mexico and is made from sandcasted pewter. Now a little clean up is required.



It takes a reasonable amount of elbow grease and tenacity to clean off all that fire-scale. I was reluctant to put it in my pickle pot 'cos it might have contaminated it. That could be bad. So I stuck to steel wool and emery paper. Nice and shiny now and a tube rivet added to the bottom.


Then of course I had to go and make it grubby again - with patina this time which is much easier to tidy up.



And here is the almost-but-not-quite finished piece! I am hunting up a crystal or somesuch to hang off the bottom. For some reason I want to call her "Lady of the Lake Protector". I learned a thing or two making this because I haven't soldered like this before. Creating a semi-proper bezel for the eye is a new trick too! Soldering the milagro was a gamble as I had no idea how it would respond to the heat but it has held up beautifully. I am looking forward to finishing it of as soon as I can. I think it deserves a pretty chunky kinda chain to swing from don't you? I do believe there could be more "eye jewellery" yet to come which means I get to cut more faces off of more dollies and pluck out their sparkly baby blues ... mwhahahaha!

6 comments:

Enchanted Moments said...

Its certainly an eye opener isnt it...
I love the surrounding bit, but the eye is freakin me out...great bit of jewellery though, bound to make a statement...I love seeing all the things you make from your recycled bits and pieces...

Ms Kath Pathwalker said...

Eye eye, ever feel like you're being watched? Great to see you back to plucking out the odd eye ball! All is indeed right in the world, freaky, but right. Love the great metal-worky talents shining through here, very clever, looks wow-wee!

Two Dog Pond said...

You have me bowing down to your talents again!! I love it! Perfect name too. How about hanging a little ceramic hand from the bottom? Contact me if you need some - I have a million!

seabreezequilts said...

Love it. Sorry bout the tooth had a wisdom tooth out myself the other week which wasn't fun I hear the root canal thing is pretty bad. Feel better soon

sue said...

ha ha ha - "eye-opener" - boom boom, nice pun Ms Enchanted! Yes Miss Kath the eye plucker is back in town! Thank you Rachel - I have some of those hands around here somewhere but cheers for the offer. Amanda it doesn't seem at all wise to have wisdom teeth does it? Thank you I am all better now!

Melissa said...

LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!