I Gots Me a Saw!

OK, I actually got a sway a while ago... I takes me a while to get myself worked up to trying something new - but now I love it!  I have also tried oxidising my pieces for the first time.  I've made so many pieces that would look better antiqued, so I got myself some LOS gel and some steel wool.  I doubt I will ever not antique jewellery again!

Showing these pieces is a tad embarrassing as some of them are a bit wonky, but what can I expect when I am trying something new??  This is the first thing I have ever sawed out of a sheet of copper:

It's so wonky!  And this is actually the back of the piece - my hammering on the front is so awful that I ended up preferring this side!

I love this shape, though I feel I ruined it by adding too many dangle to the bottom which obfuscates the curve.  Also the hole in the middle is a bit smushed - though this is partially due to my rubbish hammering skills!  I'm proud of it though - and due to its slightly more 'rustic' than intended nature I will get to keep it as a reminder of how I started out on the sawing path - it can only get better!

Here I attempted an ivy leaf - I love leaves and I think you will see a lot of leaf shapes from me.  Again it is a bit wonky - but getting better!  I need to sort out the chain on this though - the idea is there but I'm not quite happy with it.

Next I tried out a shape I really love the look of - a crescent   I've seen plenty of jewellery I really admire using this kind of shape as a base, so I though I would give it a go -

And I loved it!  So much so in fact that I spent several hours sawing crescents out of copper sheet.  I made another necklace, with denser dangles as I felt the one above looked a little spare.  Sorry for the fuzzy photo, it was taken in a bit of a hurry and a master of photography I am NOT!  The distinct lack of sunlight recently doesn't help either...

I do love me some dangly bits :)

I bought myself a nice big selection of Czech glass beads at the beginning of the month and I am very much smitten by them - they are cropping up all over the place! My poor gemstone bead stash is probably feeling a little bit jealous.  The little fire polish beads above were actually free samples - and I do love things that are free :)

Carrying on with the crescent theme I made these earrings which will be a gift for a friend.  She loves big dangly earrings and I was struggling to come up with a design I liked before the idea for these surfaced in my minds eye.  They are basically just like the first necklace above, but on a smaller scale -

The two bases aren't actually different colours - that's just my pooey photography skills at play again...

One last one before I go, another leaf shape to take a break from all those crescents.  This is probably my favourite piece of them all, despite including pink which is not my colour at all.  The chain was originally designed with another pendant in mind, but just didn't fit in the end.  Such good luck that I happen to have plenty of sawed out pendanty bits lying around then!  This oak leaf seemed to fit the best, though I may saw out a new flower shaped piece that will better suit the pinky, springy colour scheme:

Do excuse my mucky yucky windowsill...

I'm very happy with what I have accomplished, but still have a long way to go before I master the saw.  It is both easier and harder than I originally thought it would be.  I'm very happy with the results so far, but need to figure out something more to so with the shapes I make.  A hammered finish is all very well but there is so much more I know can be done!  I think the next step may be riveting, or perhaps figuring out what other finishes I can use.  Salt and vinegar crisps maybe?  I do love the look of 'natural' patinas on copper and brass.

Anyway, here's to starting the long and wondrous path to metalworking!  And to managing not to saw my fingers off!