Lentil bead earrings

Lentil bead earrings , copper
©2011 Nayna Shriyan

I made two interesting discoveries lately, 1) I could actually solder better than I thought and my amazing rolling mill let me create textures with practically anything!! What better way to demonstrate both these facts than these sweet earrings! The lentils in these earrings the main feature actually took a bit of time to create, cutting out the discs, texturing them ( with a texturing hammer), doming them and cutting out the central rounds, (Whew!) But the fun part was soldering them by placing them vertically tied up with some iron binding wire. While that was a snap, it made me realize that once I had used these wires, mostly they could not be reused, they seemed to melt at points where I lingered with my torch. So I crumbled up a few wires and rolled them along with some copper pieces and voila! I had a really nice line texture. Made up ear wires and thin chains and a really cute pair of earrings !! What do you think should I use the lentil in more of my work, I am quite fascinated by them. :)

Lookout below-- jewellery being constructed!!

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       Recently I started feeling very nostalgic about my metalwork and decided that even though I wanted to concentrate on making jewelry for now, there was no way I could forget my second love ( oils will always be my first :).

          So here is one of my first pieces done about half way. As you can see in this picture that some of the design has been soldered onto the upper dome, but the two halves themselves are not yet joined.

 Though this is pretty much what it will look once done.

And here it is with the soldering done ( loads more finishing left to do though ! ) Thinking of adding a cabochon to the central portion ,what do you think?  Maybe a nice Lapis Lazuli, have a few in different shapes. 

 I wold like to apologize for the terrible quality of the pictures, been taken with my cell phone and not my SLR as usual :(

What a chain of thought!!

Chain maille bracelet 10 inches , Copper and brass wire, red glass beads

 

I recently started working on my jewellery again and promptly fell in love with this amazing technique.-Chainmaille!!
  I love chainmaille for two reasons,

1. It looks really complicated ( so makes you look like you know what you are doing !! ) 
2. And it looks Stunning !!

Having recently acquired a jump ring making machine, it was just so much fun and easy . I used 14 gauge copper  for the larger rings that form the main portion of the design and 20 gauge copper and brass rings for the smaller pieces. The only reason I thought of adding the red beads on the side was because I wanted to show off the extra rings on the side! :)

The bracelet is slightly on the larger side, but it does have extra rings so it is adjustable, and because of its length it can also be worn as an anklet.