Steampunk Puffy Heart Necklac- "Burst With Love"

When I discovered the other lady who makes steam punk puffy hearts I had this one three quarters done on my desk with the keyhole, 3 small LED's and the propeller and cogs already soldered in place so it was a bit too late for me to change it much to make something like my Aviator Necklace below. I decided to just finish it as is by adding the twisted wires and tiny cogs at the top, some wings and a glass vial at the bottom. This is an etched copper heart attached to a brass base. As usual metal is hard to take accurate photos of. This shot is with the flash off and shows the warm pink it looks like IRL.

and this photo is with the flash on, which makes it look more orange coloured!

A bit closer

 View of the propeller...the propeller and the cogs have spacer beads between each one so all can move independently of the other parts.

 View of the keyhole

This is the tiny vial which has " burst with love" inside. I removed the bottom loop and attached the vial to the bottom of the heart by top loop.

I'm really liking the look of puffed metal. I have some other die shapes to try puffing  and hope to get to those soon.
hugs
Annette In Oz

Steampunk puffy heart necklace-"The Aviator" ...$4 a ride anyone?

Hi all
Recently I discovered another amazing steam punk jewellery maker out there and was totally floored when I went to her website and realized I had evolved with my puffy heart necklaces and arrived at a look that was similar to hers. My problem was that she had been doing this a lot longer then me and she is apparently well known in the steam punk world of creativity and rightly so. Also her designs are copyrighted, polished and down right gorgeous. This all caused me so much anguish as I have always tried to respect others creative licence and copyrights yet here I was making a design I loved and didn't know if I could make them anymore.
It was worrying me and making me so sad that I eventually contacted her via e-mail explaining I create similar puffy steam punk hers to hers, that I respected her as an artist, acknowledged her copyright and that I would try to make my puffy hearts different to hers from now on, now I knew of her. I sent her an image of my recent necklace that I have called The Aviator. To my relief she sent me an e-mail yesterday giving me her blessing to keep making my puffy steam punk hearts, to sell them if I want and said she loved my Aviator necklace!! What an amazing response and I feel so humble by her words. So its with great pleasure I can now show you my latest steam punk heart called "The Aviator"...$4 a ride anyone?

The cogs and propeller have small spacer beads between then so they can move even though they are soldered in place on the inner side of the heart. The man is an old tin type image and the gold toned washer has "Hope, Faith and Love" on it. I'm still in love with those tiny acrylic LED's so I had to add one here as well. My hands still shake but I am finding soldering is easier the more I do. The copper etched puffy heart I had an image of in a previous post is now currently getting adorned and I shall show you all soon.

I think having had a very stressful week with a beloved pet dying, some hard shifts at work, feeling gut wrenched about the other jewellery artist and elation of my dear hubby Grant coming home for good again at last made this one hell of emotional week indeed for me. Life certainly is full of ups and downs but in the end one always has to be honest and true to themselves and their art :o).

hugs

Annette In Oz xxx

Steampunk Puffy Heart Necklace

Have you ever had to make something for someone you think is hugely talented artist, someone you look up too and making it scared the heck out of you to do so for fear it would not work or what you make would be inferior ? Well that was me in making my second puffy steam punk heart!. I procrastinated about it so much I just couldn't even start. The first one was full of mistakes but I wear it like my own badge of honor because I problem solved and got it made in the end. Because the first one HAD been hard to make that too was playing on my mind.

Then two days ago I had the time...my desk was clear and the puffy heart I had puffed months before was sitting there waiting for me on my fire brick...so  butane alight in one shaky hand and plumbers lead free solder in the other shaky hand I started...and guess what I made no mistakes and the whole thing came together easily!! I didn't burn my little acrylic light or file the back off it like I did last time, I remembered to leave tabs for the wings to attach too, I drilled holes exactly where I wanted them, I used all solder an no glue to hold all the components in place and it all only took hours (even though time for me to free to work on it took 2 days) rather then weeks like the last one. Even I am impressed with myself LOL.

Here is my second steam punk heart necklace at last. Instead of a moving arrow I used moving gears and a cute moving propeller. It has proved hard to take photos off...too dark with flash off but colour not quite right with flash on plus little shadows here and there. 

This one is flash off and room light on and the shadows were less evident.
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Under the propeller there are two cogs. All three components move as I have a small washer between each.

A bit blurry sorry but that shows the gorgeous little brass keyhole filled with tiny watch parts and sealed in place with Ice Resin.

Now all I need to do is get brave enough to give it to the person it was made for at the end of the month. HINT she is from Poland and will be touring Australia and New Zealand teaching mixed media art classes. She loves things that are steam punk!

hugs

Annette In Oz

SEW it begins

It's Tuesday!! I love Tuesday and Friday as they are my days off. If I get the housework (sorry for swearing *grin*) done in good time I get to steal a little time for myself in my tiny art space located in my spare room. Today I wanted to get a start on some more steampunk heart necklaces...the universe heard me and I have three puffy hearts awaiting their(and mine) destiny LOL.



This one is copper that I have hand etched and then puffed. I'll keep this one aside for now as the first one I want to make I want it to be very similar to my original one here

This is the one I will work on today. I've filled a little brass keyhle that I got from Jen Crossley's shop with Ice Resin and tiny watch cogs and I think I may use this movable brass propeller? 

My first and only steampunk heart necklace took me  a week to nut out so I am hoping I can still remember the lessons I learnt doing that one so this one wont take as long! If and when I get it made I will gift it to someone special whom I know is a lover of steampunk like me. And so it begins...

While I was working at my desk I kept getting distracted by a gorgeous embossed metal egg that Grant got me from an antique shop in Adelaide. As I have said in the past getting anything antique, of good quality and good price in Darwin is impossible so I was a kid in a candy shop when we visited antique shops while I was away...the only problem was I had very little money to spend!! Grant wanted to buy me a few things with his money for me for Christmas and this was one item I chose.

The lady who sold it to me wasn't sure exactly what it was. This morning I Googled it and its a vintage thimble holder (hence my "sew" post title LOL) that was likely attached to a Chatelaine...a waist hanging Victorian keepsake holder...it would have things such as the pantry key, glasses holder, retractable pencil, stamp holder box, Etui(sewing kit) etc attached to the waste clasp with chains. I can't see any makers marks on mine and I am not sure what the silver colour metal is but I just love this treasure. You press the little spring button and it opens. The twisted vintage looking safety pin its hanging from is my own handmade faux vintage pin :o). In my research I also discovered this is worth ALLOT more then Grant paid for it... I had ideas to alter this and make it into a necklace but that idea is now scraped!!

The inside is polished silver looking

 and the outside has this gorgeous floral design on it.

A closer look at the brass detail from front and back.

Another thing that costs me an arm and a leg to get in Darwin is vintage pen nibs so I was very excited to be able to buy a whole box full of them from another antique shop using my Christmas money from Grant and at a great price too.

My last treasure was a beautiful piece of carnival glass in the form of a tray. The little porcelain bird I bought at an art shop on Kangaroo Island. I nearly forgot I also got an antique small shoe polish tin with shoe polish still in it as well....hhhmmm where have a I put that LOL?

I'm sure I'll find it sooner or later. Now I solved the mystery of the little metal egg and the washing is done I'm off to continue on the steampunk heart necklace journey.

hugs

Annette In Oz



3D Etched Metal House Necklace

Its three weeks since I had the second operation on my shoulder and all going well. Of course there is still some post operative pain but the awful pain I was getting with stretching out to get anything has now gone...range of movement is improving slowly too so all in all not too bad. My gorgeous daughter Melissa was home last week for a visit and left Friday...I miss her already. I was cleaning up my desk yesterday after her visit and a WIP just called to be completed

See I had a nearly completed 3D tiny etched metal house on my desk for months and on it were some vintage children images...it got me wondering If they did live in that tiny house what would they play with and what treasure may be found that they have left behind?. I gathered a few things that reminded me of things kids played with or that where needed in that tiny house and attached them on the bottom. I then got stuck getting the roof to stay on....finally with some hints by Jen Crossley (holding my tongue to the right really helped Jen LOL) I got the roof on eventually and the little house that Annette built was made :o). House is 4cm tall, 3cm wide and sides are 1.5cm wide.

 On the back side under the door is a tin type photo of a boy and the keys to the house

 and under the other door is a tin type photo of a girl and a brass bird. He has a broken beak which I actually liked for some odd reason

On both sides there is tiny ice resined ,vintage children in tiny bezels.

 A closer look at the dangles. The frozen Charlotte doll is so small at 2,5cm long...I was worried I would break her if I tried to drill a hole in her so I "glued" her head into a bead cap with Ice Resin...she looks like a gumnut baby!!

I think I'll darken the wire that I used on the dangles with some black patina for solder but other then that I think its all done and ready to be worn.
hugs
Annette In Oz

Steampunk Adjustable Rings And A Card

I had my second shoulder operation this year a week and a half ago. Post op I struggled a bit for the first few days due to some swelling that was hindering my ability to do the Physio exercises. Once the swelling went down I have dedicated myself to the Physio exercises with in pain limits. I still can't get full range of movement yet but I think its slowly improving. Before this last operation I did allot of house work and also made a few things. My daughter Melissa comes home for a week on Saturday so yesterday I tidied the spare room which is also my art space and found a few things to share with you. First is a steam punkish birthday card for eldest daughter Carlia's boyfriend Cory.

Then I found two almost completed adjustable brass rings. They only needed a rivet to attach the top part to the ring which I did easily with my handy rivet/eyelet tool I got from Jen Crossley's shop. The left ring has a vintage typewriter key and the right a lovely metal rose embedded in Ice Resin.

I've also uncovered an almost complete 3D etched, metal, house necklace, my 3D metal house (etched but not put together) and three puffy hearts awaiting transformation...all a great inspiration to go do more Physio  exercises so I can get the strength back in my arm to get them done!!
hugs
Annette In Oz

Zipper Bracelet

I was blog surfing here and came across this tutorial to share. I have 2 daughters in their early twenties and just thought this would be fun to make for them...



Now I must    get   away   from   the   computer NNNOOOOWWW and get some stuff done. Operation tomorrow YICKS!!!!
hugs
Annette In Oz xxx

Gorgeous Glass

I've been still madly getting things done pre operation on Monday and I am fast running out of time. I haven't had a chance to post about my glorious glass necklace and ear ring making day( I was supposed to be cleaning up the art desk and got hopelessly side tracked making stuff). As I said most of the lamp worked glass beads and all the dichro items were made by my talented friend from Tasmania  Gail Hart . Gail has patiently taught the basics of lamp work bead making and I am still trying every few days to replicate what she has taught me. They are getting rounder but are still mainly crap LOL. I'm sort of ok at spacer beads so even though I have used mainly Gail's glass work allot of the spacers are made by me. I having allot of trouble with finding a good height for the torch so my stupid left shoulder wont complain. Hopefully after operation on Monday that problem will be solved too.
Allot of the beads and some of the dichro items I have from Gail and used in my making fest are not her "gallery" quality BUT I still love them all and had fun playing with them.....no cringing Gail Ok ?  Sorry some images are a little blurry too I have a natural shake in my hands which gets worse when I concentrate.

This gorgeous hollow red and white lentil bead is huge(approx 4cm in diameter) yet lite as its hollow.

Another large lentil in blue,white and black colours. The blue parts are far deeper in colour IRL.

When I was trying to clean up and put stuff away I came across two large tear drop shaped stones. I think I'll give one of these each to my girls. The beads at the top have lovely soft purple and greens in them.

The green one I had a whoops moment with as I should have put the brighter green spacers closest to the green stone but I had already crimped the closer and can't get it off. ALSO I don't like the brass toned jump ring so shall change that to dark silver or gun metal grey when I can get to Spotlight to get some next. I've ordered some more vynil covered necklaces so when they come I'll fix it and attach it to a new necklace.

This huge 4cm long hollow heart is really more red brown IRL...I am so in need of a new camera.

I LAURVE the coral colour on the lime green of this solid heart

HHHmmm the spacers are too large for this little heart. I'm thinking it will get fixed too and maybe turned into a dangle for a charm bracelet instead.

Gail makes the most amusing fish beads. They of course all turn out differently and have some funny "expressions"

And cute cup cakes. You can't see it in the photo well but there are clear pink "sprinkles" on the top.

Some of Gail' dichro rejects. Photos NEVER do shimmer justice but these shimmer like all heck depending on how the light hits them. See that centre on how it looks black...it isn't it has the most gorgeous blue/purple shimmer when light falls on it...see the image below this one where I picked it up.

These large approx 4cm square dichros are some of my favourite made by Gail.

I still have loads of spacers so made a few ear rings as well.



So there you go...not gallery quality at all but Annette quality is fine by me *grin*. I'm off to bury myself in the trying to tidy my art room more...wish me luck with not getting further distracted LOL.

OH before I forget...I am not very good with promoting myself but when I upload stuff here I also load an image in which ever page tab it goes in (at top of my blog) they belong too and YES I do sell stuff so if you are interested just ask me the price. In the jewellery tab I also will say underneath in red if the item is sold :o)

hugs

Annette In Oz