Here is a somewhat amateurish photo of a pair of earrings I made from copper wire, copper sheet, and a glass bead. I cut copper into squares, embossed them with a stamp, domed them on a doming block, and pierced them with a drill. The dangles were made from 18 ga copper wire. I balled the ends with a torch, and hammered them flat. The ear wires were handmade from 20 gauge copper wire.
The picture to the right is what I really wanted to show you. This is a closeup of one of the hammered and embossed squares of copper sheeting. Look at that patina! I acheived this using a liver of sulphur bath, sanding down the edges of the sheet to round then and expose the shiny red of the copper underneath, and then I tumbled them in a cheapie rock tumbler made for kids, with stainless steel shot and and a little water and dish soap for 2 hours or so.
How cool is that!
Check back again for more about how to use a tumbler and why you would want to.Cheers, Christine
5 comments:
Wow, the earrings look great! I just purchased a tumbler yesterday and I'm like a kid at Christmas. I love my tumbler!
Those are great! I had no idea there was so much work involved. I have a new appreciation for your art form.dc
great ideas!
i've tried making earwires out of 20G copper wire and they seem so unstable even after tumble hardening - what am i doing wrong??
Hey there! I oxidize silver and copper for jewelry pendants and I am trying to find a faster way to polish them. I just recently bought a vibrating tumbler with walnut shell grit. Do you know anything about vibrating tumblers? Will they do the job with removing some of the black oxidation? Or is the rotary tumbler with liquid better? Thanks for any advice you can give me!!!
I've never used a vibratory tumbler. Maybe someone else has an answer for this?
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