My Nina Designs creations

I'm a fan of Nina Designs jewellery components so when I read about their new blog partner programme and the chance for jewellery makers to get some goodies from them, I just had to ask if I could participate. And earlier this month I got a late christmas present in the mail. Inside were lovely bronze charms and components, soft deer hide leather cord and sheer silk ribbon.

Today I thought I'd show you what I made with the stuff I got (or at least most of it). I won't complain too much about the quality of my photos as I do that too often, but the light turned out to be more finicky than usual today and I just hope the pics are too bad.

One of the first things I did was to figure out something fun to do with the leaves. Thinking about it back and forth, I settled for two things I like: weaving and embroidery floss. Just like you would use a metal frame to weave and twist wire around in wirework, the 24 mm long skeleton leaf charms acted as a frame for weaving the floss. If the charm hadn't been made in such a pretty metal, I would've wrapped the outer lines with floss too, but this time I decided to keep the metal bare, which also frames the colourful floss.

I'm pretty pleased with this experiment and hope at least some of the charm of these autumn leaves will show in the photo too, which really was a balance between showing detail (which make it look clumsy, but shows up the weaving) and showing the dainty leaves in their natural size.

Originally I wanted to show them on a golden jewellery chain, which is how I intend to wear them, but I couldn't find it. So just try to imagine the leaves dangling on i thin matching chain.

 
The package also contained two coral branch charms, which I immediately wanted to embellish a bit. It was like they were crying out for some blossoms and leaves. This was my first version with tiny acrylic flowers wire-wrapped onto the branch. Simple, but fun. Not sure what chain or cord I want for this one, but will probably opt for a chain that'll go nicely with the colour and texture of the branch.

I also made a second version today with the same flowers but with added seed bead picot leaves where I strung the pendant on the green deer hide cord and finished by adding the toggle clasp that were also in my package. No pic of that as I'm still not sure whether I like it or not.

UPDATE: I just realised that it would've been a nice touch if I'd oxidized the branch first for a more earthtone colour rather than a shiny bronze. 

The sheer silk ribbon (aka fairy ribbon) I got had such a gorgeous dark purple colour I knew this would probably be my favourite piece. But what to add to it when I'm a girl that can wrap a ribbon around my wrist and find that a perfect bracelet in itself? Actually, this piece started out as and idea. It all began with the infinity link and my questioning myself what could be a fun and less usual way of using it. Why not make it into a slider, threading it onto the ribbon and adding a focalpiece to it? Which is exactly what I did by wiring an acrylic violet flower and two dark green acrylic leaves to the middle of the link.

To finish the bracelet, I added two -- for their size rather heavy -- lotus petal charms (such a simple and lovely shape) to each end of the ribbon. The idea is that they will both keep the slider from falling off and add some weight that'll keep the knot  in place when wearing the bracelet. I say bracelet, but it could probably also double as a necklace.

The final piece were a couple of earrings. Unfortunately I ran out of roses, but I didn't want to give up my idea so I simply made just one earring. The base for this earring is a three teardrops link that I attached to a bronze hook. I then played around with different ideas, arranging roses in different ways before ending up with this design. To attach the tiny metal roses I used something I rarely use: glue. A cheat and shortcut sometimes, but here pretty m uch my only option due to an unforeseen lack of suitable wire in the right colour.

 
Of cause, just making a single earring I ended up with a leftover hook and teardrop link. Therefore I made a second design using a single, velvet matte aluminium rose wired onto the bottom link. Very simple and "clean" compared to the first earring. Not sure if it'd look better on an earring with just one teardrop instead of three? But it's definitely  something for those that prefer simple jewellery and a single rose to a whole bouquet.

And that's it, my take on Nina Designs bronze jewellery components. I hope you liked them and perhaps were inspired by them.

~*~

Disclaimer: The materials above were provided as part of the Nina Designs blogging program. The author of this blog has not received any payment from above-mentioned company. The post above represents only personal opinion of the blog author.

Tinted patina

Double post today. Just a quick snapshot of a couple of ammonia patina'd bronze tags. Like most of my tags, the most intense blues faded from the crusty patina surface. Having seen metal colouring techniques and patinas that were made on a base of a "primer" patina, I thought why not dye the verdigris crust with some alcohol ink. To boost the colour in the first case (left) and add another colour in the second (right).

You could probably do something more interesting with this that just add a few drops in the middle of the tag like here. This was just a first try to see how the ink reacted with the patina, how it'd spread and how well it'd stick.

Adding the pic, I was reminded of an old photo of a rose I made using layers of alcohol inks in a two or three different shades on a brass ox flower. Add a really matte spray lacquer and you get a nice velvet-like feel. (That white smudge is made by the nick in the lens on my old camera -- will not be missing that about it!)

Dark metallic bronze bead

Just wanted to add a pic of a wooden bead my sis painted in Magic Metallics dark bronze paint.

She bought the paint for the same reason I bought their steel paint: to paint objects we wanted to add a patina to. These paints contain real metal particles and when treated with the appropriate patina solution, they patinate. Bronze and copper paint turn a beautiful verdigris while the steel paint rust -- like in this example I''ve shown before.

But I must say this paint is very pretty as it is: a matte black with a discrete copper shimmer. In a way it reminds me of my etched goldstone.

Blue, bluer, bluest

As promised, here are some pics of my first baker's ammonia buried patinas. The top row is vinegar/ättika patina as a comparions while all the bronze tags in the bottom row are coloured using a mixture of baker's ammonia (half a sachet), sawdust and spirit vinegar (ättika 24 %) to moisten it.

The two first tags were rinsed in water almost immediately after being "excavated", which pretty much washed out all the cobalt blue, leaving a turquoise blue, crusty patina. The last tag has had another day in the sawdust and then been allowed to dry before being carefully brushed and rinsed.

Blue isn't normally my favourite colour, but I must say it was cool to open the jar and find an intense cobalt blue patina -- created from nothing more than two common household products. (Well, at least baker's ammonia is sort of common in Scandinavia: don't know if it's often used in baking in other countries.)

This patina became awfully "crusty" compared to just vinegar or vinegar and salt. Now that I know baker's ammonia works so well, I'm also going to try a fumed patina. That is, after I get some more of it -- and some more metal blanks...

And just to round it off: one more vinegar patina tag. Before burying it, I hammered it a bit, causing it to dome slightly, the idea being that the patina would be more protected inside the cupped tag. (Colours are a bit off in these pics, I'm afraid...)

Resist patina

I've been playing with my patinas today too and thought I'd just show a somewhat more successful example of resist patina (as mentioned in yesterday's post One more patina'd bronze tag). This time I used some sort of LOS (liver of sulfur) mixture I bought ages ago and had forgotten about. Because the sticker was left on for a much shorter period of time it was easy to peel off and there were no glue residues to remove, risking to harm the patina in the process. The surface of the tag was also sanded to get more of a tooth so the patina would stick better.

As with e.g. etching, though, you should avoid stickers with narrow lines. In this case I really just had to go with whatever sticker fit the small size of the bronze tag. Next time I'll get some bigger metal blanks to work with so I can be more picky in my choice of sticker and so I can create bigger images. (But it looks slightly better IRL than in these huge close-ups I show you.)

I also dug up this from the vinegar-soaked sawdust. It's a tag I'd partially dipped in copper brown embossing powder one day because I was bored (heated it with my butane torch and dipped it straight into the jar of powder, which -- being a plastic powder -- melted almost before the metal touched it). Notice how the verdigris can the seen under the embossing powder. Embossing powder normally isn't matte: this tag has been sprayed with a matte lacquer.


PS! Using baker's ammonia for patina (in lieu of other types of ammonia I'm guessing most people use) as I mentioned in this post seem to be working a charm. Might have some pics for you tomorrow.

Patina again

Just one more tag that I buried in vinegar-soaked tea leaves. This one I haven't washed to remove some of the patina, but let the patina form and then dry slightly before removing any stuck leaves and rinsing it. This resulted in a darker and bluer patina than in my previous attempts (check out the patina tag in this blog for pics).

It's just one tag: the first and second pic is of the same side, it's just the light playing tricks with the colour and patterns in the patina. I included both simply because I like the colours. The tag is the same size as always, roughly 16-17 mm, much smaller than they appear in the photos.

Patinated bronze tags

I'm on a blogging streak right now, posting every day! Showing you my patina mishap yesterday, I thought I'd show something that went more according to plans today. These are the same bronze tags I've used in some of my previous patina posts, including the one on peanut oil patinas.


The first pair of tags (above) were buried in jar of old tea leaves -- from teabags saved from a tea dying session -- soaked in spirit vinegar (ättika 24 %). They were left in there perhaps 48 hours or less. They were covered in verdigris that I washed off to reveal the pattern underneath.

[No pic of it, but I did use the same sealer as in the valkyrie stamping on the back of one of the tags to see if I got the same result: sure enough, this morning the back was  covered in green verdigris. So it's a good sealer if I want to amplify the patina, but not so much if I don't (as with the valkyrie). It doesn't behave like this on heat patina'd stampings, though, so I can keep using it there. One more reason to add a spray sealer to my shopping list.]

For this sample, I mixed some ättika in a heap of salt and placed the tags on top. After 24 hours they started to form verdigris around the edges, but nothing like in the buried patina. I then placed some salt on the top of the tags, which created the patterns by next day. This solution is too wet for verdigris to form if buried: by placing the tags on top I got more of a fumed patina than anything else.

PS! Don't forget to help choose a twin bead design to write a free tute on -- check out this post!

Patina and decoupage

Because of work, I haven't felt like starting a new project. Instead, when time has permitted, I've just experimented with bead-weaving ideas, played with patinas and colouring etc. Here are a few things I did today. The round tags are bronze and the flower vines are brass.

I've been thinking about combined patinas lately, what with the gesso and heat patina stamping here and the heat patina'd vinegar etched/buried patina stamping here. Therefore I picked out two of the tags from this experiment and added a peanut oil heat patina. (As a comparison, see these tags, which are just peanut oil with no prior patination.)

The dark tag above is almost burnt peanut oil on a "buried patina" (= leave metal in vinegar soaked sawdust).  [UPDATE: mixed up the info so here's the correct description of the tags.]  I'd polished the patina off with fine steel wool to get a shiny, textured surface so it was textured but not patinated when oiled. I also dabble with a second tag where the etched and slightly verdigris surface wasn't treated in any way before brushing on the oil. No pics of the front that one (i.e. the side the heat was applied on) -- but below you can see the back of it. I liked the softed colours it got.

These pics are macro shots: the actual size of the bronze tags is 17,5 mm in diametre.

If you've read this Manekis Pärlblogg post, you might've seen the branches below. I wasn't satisfied with the gesso finish so I dipped the whole thing in oil (rapeseed, not peanut this time) and heated it. Carefully as I'm not sure it's a good idea to torch acrylic-based gesso.

Nothing special, but I think it's an improvement. It's much darker, but you can still see some of the gesso, especially on the flowers.

And then, finally, a WIP photo.

One day I said to myself: "well, I've had this decoupage glue for textiles forever, when will I actually use it? Napkin decouapage on a piece of fabric could be a good foundation of embroidery or bead embroidery and I am looking for some fun, exciting and unusual surfaces to stitch on. If I don't do it today I'll probably never get around to it." So I found a cotton fabric scrap and a rose patterned tissue and begun work. It's one of those boring techniques were you have to wait for the glue to dry for 24 hours before heat setting it and being able to use it.

Now it is heat set and dried, but it's still laying around as I'm not sure what to do with it. Thinking jewellery (bracelet), but how do I want to embellish it? Could leave it as is, but using the decoupage as a surface was the original idea and I want something fun to stitch on... This is one of the bits and bobs laying around that I hope to be able to devote some time to after midsummer.

Apart from embroidery of various kinds, I'm really, really looking forward to some patina and colourisation sessions this summer. I'm obsessed with those two things, embroidery with or without beads and colour on metal, right now. (One patina I want to try soon, after seeing this, is heat patina on rusted steel and then of cause I'm dying to try coloured pencils and perhaps add some distress embossing.)

To end this post, another pic that'll appear on my other blog later this week: gold wax on black brass stamping (no, it's not Gilder's Paste). The wax really brings out the details, which the original shiny black finish didn't.

Peanut oil patina

I'm editing photos for the Challenge of Music reveal, but thought I'd just show a couple of other pics while I'm at it.

Some time ago I heard about peanut oil patina and researched it a bit. Liked what I saw in the photos I found and in the end I decided to try it out. Now, finding peanut oil turned out to be a little tricky and none of the text found talked about any other oil. In the end I did find the right oil, but then after buying it other things got in the way so the bottle just sat there by the worktable for weeks and months. This weekend I tought it'd be a good subject for my other blog so I had to give it a try.

First piece, the copper blank on the right in the photo above got a bit too dark. Did know all instructions said to heat the metal slowly and stop when the right colour was reached, but I just had to add a little more heat. And a little more. And in the end it turned out very dark. But still nice and shiny so it isn't ruined.

For the second piece, a bronze tag, I didn't torch the oil as much and it turned out a nice dark golden colour. The unflattering light spots are water drops. There were some water on the pin I used to suspend the tag while torching and it spattered when heated by the torch, I guess.

I then had to ask myself if it was possible to use other, more common, oils and took some rapeseed oil from the fridge and also found some castor oil leftovers from the time me and my sis dabbled in making DIY make-up and cosmetics.

Now, at this point I should've read this list because while the rapeseed worked pretty much as well as the peanut oil, I set fire to the castor oil. The others just smoked. This one was suddenly engulfed in flames. Ooops... If nothing else, I should've known enough about cooking to consider the smoking point! But in the end, that bronze tag too got a nice patina.

The rapeseed oil tag looks better IRL, really. Also keep in mind that not only are these the result of my first try at the technique, I was too lazy to clean any of the tags befor torching them so with better preparation and careful torching the result would probably be even nicer.

Top row: plain bronze, peanut oil

Bottom row: rapeseed oil, castor oil