Leather Interchangeable Bracelets and Necklaces

We tried to purchase premium-quality interchangeable leather cord jewelry for our sterling silver cored (and capped) beads. When we couldn't find any that met our high standard, we decided the only way to offer such pieces was to make them ourselves.

We researched and tried various different sterling silver end caps, clasps and leather, and finally came up with this line of double-clasp, interchangeable necklaces and bracelets. These will fit any European-style beads with holes larger than 4mm diameter that are made for Pandora and Biagi chains. Our bracelets also come with six rubber stoppers so your beads won't all hang below your wrist.



These pieces were very popular at our jewelry show last month. We put together bracelets and necklaces with our signature silver cored Leaves Series beads, our metal clay discs in bronze and copper, and our silver cored silver glass spacers.


These interchangeable bracelets and necklaces are available now on our ArtFire and Etsy online stores.




How the Double-Clasp System Works

Open the end with the smaller clasp to add bead(s)

Use the end with the larger clasp to put the necklace/bracelet on and off so the bead(s) will not fall out


For Bracelets Only
The rubber stoppers should be placed along the entire length of the bracelet separating the beads evenly, especially if you don’t have beads to fill the entire bracelet.

We recommend placing a stopper at the beginning and at the end of the bracelet even if you do have enough beads to fill the entire bracelet.

IMPORTANT
To remove, make sure that you ease the rubber stopper OVER the end cap with your finger nails instead of trying to pull it and the end cap off together.

Enameling on Hadar's Clay

I had the amazing opportunity to submit to Thompson Enamel a few pieces of my work using Hadar's copper clay for testing by Bill Helwig. Unfortunately my inexperience with enameling created a few issues - thus only a couple pieces were of acceptable quality to be used.

My failure, however, proves to be an excellent learning experience for all of us who may be interested in pursuing enameling with this new and exciting new medium. I have transcribed some of the notes to share with you so we may all be better prepared when we decide to try again!

These are the overall assessment:
• Hadar's clay can be enameled but certain considerations and preparations must be made
• Metal clay in general is a porous material so the surface must be worked so it's highly compressed
• Methods to compress the material include – burnish, chase, engrave, and/or tumble with steel needles
• Metal must be of a uniform thickness
• There should be an edge for the enamel to stop against
• Recessed areas should be 0.012 - 0.016 inch / 0.3 - 0.4mm
• No undercuts
• If a mirror finish cannot be achieve, use gold/silver foil with transparent or use opaque enamel




Packed with 2020, 2510, and 2110. Dried overnight on top of a furnace and fired for 3 minutes at 1450F.






This piece was tested for enameling on the back since the surface turned out to be more appropriate (compressed and mirror finished) - 2020 was dry sifted and fired for 3 minutes at 145F, some red copper oxide appeared.



This piece was not used in the enamel testing because the outside edge of the inner form has a second depth which could create a problem.



This piece was not used in the enamel testing because the crude surface would show.



This piece was not used in the enamel testing because for the basse taille design to show, the metal must be compressed and the enamel clean and thin. Also the C and S curves were too deep and of two different depths.



This piece was not used in the enamel testing because it was too deep.


I hope you find this information helpful.

Playing with Hadar's Bronze and Copper Clay

A few of us have been taking classes with one of the premier metal clay artists, Hadar Jacobson, for the last few weeks. She is not only amazingly talented, she is also an incredible teacher! Moreover, she developed her own line of bronze and copper clay and she is very generous in sharing her invaluable experience in working with those clays on her blog.


A lentil I made in Hadar's class

We started playing with the Rio Grande pre-packaged BronzClay and were very frustrated with how varied the clay consistency from package to package. Rio's BronzClay was also very finicky - the actual time when it was in "perfect" working consistency was very short. It also needed to be chilled frequently.

We almost gave up working with this new metal clay!

Then we discovered Hadar's (and her newest copper clay)!

Here are some of the reasons why we love Hadar's bronze clay:
• It is in POWDER form, thus has an unlimited shelf life.
• Its powder form allows YOU to get the exact consistency every time by adding distilled water. It only takes a few minutes to do so.
• It's much more pliable and surprisingly malleable!
• It doesn't get brittled and dried as quickly as BronzClay
• It doesn't need to be chilled!
• It doesn't need lavender water!
• It stays in "perfect" working consistency for a long time.
• It doesn't need slip.
• You can combine her bronze clay with her copper clay! See her blog for some of her beautiful pieces!

Last but not least, she fires multiple kiln loads a week and has ironed out the firing schedules to ensure that YOU don't have to do the firing testing. All the information, again, is on her blog.


I love the patina on this simple pendant!

Metal Clay

We are lucky to have been taking a series of workshop with Hadar Jacobson! For those of you who are not familiar with her work, she is truly an amazing artist. Her website, artinsilver, is like an online museum! In addition, she has developed a line of metal clay - bronze and copper - that has superb workability. The best part is that you do NOT have to keep the clay cold! It comes in powder form thus has an unlimited shelf life. Mixing is easy peasy. You can find information, including a video on how to mix the powder, at her online store, as well as her blog.

We have been busy playing with rocks! Here is a pile (with a pillow and lentil beads) - they all still need to be fired except for one.