Never Get Caught with Your Fly Down Again.

My boyfriend and I went on a vacation to Philadelphia last year and found ourselves wandering around South Street half of our visit!

South Street is an amazing area full of all kinds of shops, restaurants and ART WORK! Everywhere you go is a feast for the eyes. There are sculptures along the buildings and amazing signs. Some of the advertising is done in the coolest graffiti I've ever seen. The people are very interesting, dressing with attention even to the smallest details. You just want to take pictures of everything!

Fly Open!

This picture was taken outside of a delicious Mexican restaurant called Las Bugambilias. It's a great place to eat fish tacos and drink Margaritas and has this really fun metal sculpture. I almost published it on Facebook. I didn't notice my zipper was down!
I've been using Paint.Net for a lot of photo editing but I never dreamed of closing my fly with it. I've used it more for sizing, cropping and correcting color. I am new to photo editing as far as correcting something like this.

If you click on the first picture and then the second, you can see the jeans zip up!

Fly Closed!

I "zipped" my jeans back up by first enlarging the picture. You have to see the blending up close so it won't look like a patch. Use the tool called rectangle select. I selected long thin vertical areas on my jeans that went with the grain and texture of the fabric. I used the copy and paste feature next. You make the selection with the rectangle by dragging it around how you want it. Then you press copy, then press paste. When you do this it makes a moving marquis around your selection. Move your selected fabric patch to where you want it. Then press the paste button again. You can keep selecting your same patch and keep patching. I like it because you can resize your patch without reselecting it over and over. The only time you need to reselect it over is when you want a new patch. To escape from your selected patch press escape. Then pick your rectangle tool and start again. Escape to stop using the tool and press save.

I think my patch job came out ok. I think it's because I had jeans to work with. Next time I'll try to make myself thinner!

How to Make a Textured Cuff from a Plain Blank or Sheet Metal

Wide Hammered Brass Cuff Bracelet

I made this pretty pounded cuff bracelet from a very plain wide cuff blank and just a hammer, steel block, pliers and with the metal bits and pieces laying around my bead board.

You could make one using your own design of course by using a piece of sheet metal you cut yourself or a metal cuff blank made flat.

I like raw brass or copper because these take a patina but you can use any metal and experiment.

First take cuff blank and flatten it a little by bending it.   Don't flatten using a hammer because you are going to make it cuff shaped again. 

You are going to lay your metal cuff blank on top of your steel block and put pieces of metal between your blank and the block.  These have to be reasonably flat or they will slide around when you start hammering.  You don't want them to slide because you want nice print in the metal and not a distorted one. 

Very Wide Textured Brass Cuff

I used several flat brass heshi beads, washers, and 12 gauge brass wire twisted into the shapes I wanted.  You place your little metal objects one piece at a time under the bracelet blank on the side that will face outward when you finally bend it back into a bracelet, and hold the blank firm and still while you hammer directly on top of your little metal thing. 

You want to hit hard enough to see a dent make a raised form on the place you are hitting the hammer.  That's how you know you hit hard enough.  Move your pieces around and check your impressions as you go so you can see what you like.  Experiment with very hard hits and some softer ones.  You can use pennies and other small coins.  Hardware like little flat nuts or the heads snipped from screws would look good too.  Don't use anything that will shatter.  Don't use rocks, glass or gemstones.  Use protective eye wear and keep your fingers away from the sharp edges of your sheet metal.

Don't try too hard to make a definite design.  Plan you design with flexibility because since you are doing this by hand the pieces slip a little sometimes and the dents are not perfect.  My design looks a little like curling vines and I am sure my next cuff will look very different.

When you are finished with your design turn the blank over and add dents, shapes or texture  by hitting it directly on the good side.  You could add scratches with a nail or your dremel tool if you want. 

Wide Brass Cuff

 Finish the bracelet by bending it back into a cuff again with your hands.  I like to bend the edges on mine with a pair of pliers but you leave yours flat or use what ever method you want to finish the edges.  I pound the edges to thicken them and also to work harden the shape of the cuff.

The edges on my cuff are pounded hundreds of times so they are thicker than when I first started and smoothed with my dremel tool. They don't have that cut feeling.  The cuff is held on the bottom edge on the block while you hit the top edge.  I shape the cuff with my hand and set it on my block in the "c" shape and pound the edges.  This is very very noisy!  It takes a long time and my edges would be thinker a little more if I would have done this longer. 

A lot of work went into this bracelet as well as punishment to the family and neighbors with the pounding noise.
Finally I removed any sharpness with my dremel tool and felt around the edges for any places that might snag. I applied a light patina with liver of sulfur and it was so vivid with color I decided to leave it that way. It's sealed with Renaissance Wax on the inside and out.

This cuff is very wide at 3" and will fit up to a 7" wrist.   I can make a thinner one by special request.

Ideas Kind of Just Floating Around?

You know, I really believe its OK to have some random ideas if you are stuck and haven't really chosen a direction to go with your work. Get those ideas started even if its just a little here and a little there. You will discover little things along the way about each one. You might want to write them down in a journal or sketch them down.

Don't criticise yourself for working on a few or a lot of ideas all at once. I know we all have been criticized for starting several projects and not finishing them but if they all or some are moving forward in one way or another I don't think anyone should judge! We shouldn't be so hard on ourselves!
When you are experimenting with jewelry ideas you could use recycled wire snippets or base metal jump rings to hold your prototypes together so you don't have to worry about wasted materials should you choose to take your project apart and go another direction.
If you get stuck on an idea go as far as you can with it and stick it away in a plastic bag. Work on something else. You could get working on the new thing and suddenly get a bright idea about the project you are stuck on.

I thought these shoes were kind of cool. I found them above South Street in Philadelphia like someone just threw them up there kind of random over the power lines. In a strange way they sort of look like they belong up there like the art all around them.  We could view them as hopelessly stuck or we can view them as art!

Enlarge Your Photos Before You Publish Them!

How often are you in a hurry when you compose an ad and post your pictures on Etsy?

I know my pictures have much to be desired on my jewelry sites but this is not the angle I am going to discuss today. When I learn to take better pictures that will be another post!

This is about checking your work. I mean check your jewelry for obvious flaws in workmanship like scratches on stones, wires sticking out, mismatched colors, dirt, etc.

I got the idea when I was bringing my jewelry to work and the girls were bringing it to the bathroom. They weren't just trying it on. They were scrutinizing it really up close behind those closed doors!

This is what happens to our work on Etsy. We all publish our pictures so they will be enlarged. Etsy will let you publish a picture that is 1000 x 1000 pixels. That's pretty big! It's about 7 x 7 inches! (abouts) You can see everything! Everything! EVERYTHING!

Sometimes we all get in a hurry. That's why I am bring this up. Enlarging the pictures before and immediately after you post will save your butt from a lost customer, Regretsy, laughter, and out right humiliation or embarrassment!

You are putting yourself in the seat of the customer. You will find those deciding factors that make them buy your jewelry or not!

I clean my vintage jewelry well but I have enlarged pictures only to find that there are hairs stuck in a brooch or earrings. Or gross makeup caked on the side of a rhinestone. Ewwww!

I've made earrings using briolettes only to find a flaw in the front of the glass or the stone. This is my opportunity to remake the earring again and hide the flaw in the back behind the filigree. If I would not have enlarged the picture like the customer would have; I don't think I would have found it. (I constantly change glasses between bifocals and magnifiers.)

If you forgot to tuck in a wire in your wrap this is your chance. Tuck it in and take another picture. If your forgot that little bit of glue, well here's your chance to see it magnified 8 times! Enlarged pictures show all. ALL!!!!

Enclosed you will find another fly in the ointment so to speak. I take my pictures outside sometimes. I don't mind the occasional ant in the picture, those can be funny. I will even get a dragonfly to flirt with my dragonfly brass stampings. Take a look. What do you find?

If you love this little clown brooch he is clean and still available in my shop with several other figural type brooches!

Tell a Story to Go with your Work



Mrs. Owl Gets Rose for Honorable Mention

 I think that by letting your work tell a story or telling a story to go with your work captivates your customer audience and keeps them in your shop just a little longer. 

In the case of this articulated Owl necklace "Mrs. Owl Gets Rose for Honorable Mention" I tell a story to go with my work.

Your visitors will enjoy going to your Etsy shop just for the sheer pleasure of the visit, even if they might not purchase anything at that moment, they will love your shop and may at the very least heart your item or shop and come back.  They might also be inclined to visit your other items to see what you wrote in your descriptions.

When customers do searches on Etsy and use the "All Items" feature they might use search terms that are more theme oriented other than just what might be used for the tags and materials. 

"Mrs. Owl", as an example, when searched for under "All Items" brings up several owls with female personalities and cute whimsical features. 

This way of searching can be more helpful than the other ways in the Etsy search pull down menu because the tags are mostly used to describe the basics and get used up really fast. Other searches that my Mrs. Owl comes up in because of the story are "honorable mention" and "pageant".  Who knows maybe she will end up being an award for someone in her exact predicament!

The description that I used not only describes the owl necklace I made but tells a story so the reader knows that this is also a two part story which draws the consumer to possibly look at my sold items to see part one. 

Make a Pendant From a Briolette

Make a Pendant From a Briolette Experiment with Hammering for Different Effects

I made this pendant with a beautiful big deep ruby red faceted glass briolette but this is just an idea. You pick your own briolette and metals and beads to use. My briolette measures 25mm long and 18mm in diameter.

A bright 5mm dimpled brass bead accents this pendant and pretty filigree bead caps. The accent bead you use will need to have a hole large enough to accommodate 20 gauge wire doubled. The bead caps can't be so big that they stick out past the edges of the briolette. When you bend the wire up they need to lay flat and fit snug. Experiment.

To Create this lovely Deep Red Faceted Glass Briolette Pendant I used 20 gauge wire because this briolette is heavy. You decide what you need. I threaded the side drilled holes with the wire and took the ends of the wire and added vintage style filigree bead caps and made sure they laid flat against the briolette. I then brought the wire ends up through a 5mm dimpled shiny brass bead. The doubled brass wire was made into a sturdy double loop with about a 3mm opening. Tip - When you wrap a double loop try to keep the wires side by side when you make the loops and wraps. Stick the point of the round pliars through the loop to shape it and align the loops. If you carefully lay your wrapped loops on a metal block you can hammer the wraps and the loops to make a faceted look or just leave it plain. Be careful to not hit your accent bead. Twisted wire would look very nice, too.

The pendant hangs from a Hammered Brass 10mm Jump Ring. I took a link from a big 10mm round chain and hammered it to make my jump ring. Hammering really changes the look of jump rings and chain links. Make sure they keep their shape when you hammer them so the ends meet properly. You might have to bend and align.