Crashing headlong into oblivion
I made these a while ago for my girlfriend. She seems to like them. The sea glass was collected by us while visiting the Caribbean.
The earrings are very simple to make, just a bit of square silver wire wrapped kind of artsy around equal sized chunks of sea glass. Then finished with some bead store silver findings. Easy enough that just about anyone should be able to make them. Simple yet elegant.
Posted in I made this.
– September 9, 2010
Got my first custom head badge order from Etsy.
I was sent this:
And came up with this:
Gave it a nice high polish and burnished the edges (I know no one ever looks but I like to make them classy). It was a simple design, but I enjoyed making it none the less.
Posted in I made this.
– September 9, 2010
Patrick showed me his sperm whale top tube badge after it was applied.
He got a little bit of black stuff on it while installing it, but I showed him how he could buff that off easy with some sand paper, I actually think it looks pretty awesome all dirtied up.
Posted in I made this.
– August 31, 2010
I found a bunch of pictures from some of my old projects, you can see them below. Wow I had totally forgotten about these pictures, a bunch of old head badges that I made for races, and some other stuff like silver bike chain earrings. I will keep looking and see if I can find some more.
Lots of pictures, you might want to click below to read the rest.
Posted in I made this.
– August 11, 2010
Lately I have been making a lot more things than I usually do. Chains, bracelets, head badges (lots of head badges), earrings, pendants, you name it I have been trying it lately. While my work is not always that good, its getting better. I have been trying a lot of new stuff (at least for me). Tube riveting, etching, found objects, forging, chain making, all sorts of new things.
Working on some bike chain stuff
Its been amazing. I am really starting to enjoy the process. Making jewelry is not so much about skill as it is about forcing yourself to be patient. You can’t rush, rushing almost guarantees failure. I have been enjoying the sanding, and the filing, and the assembling of this little part that goes into that little part. I have been enjoying all the sawing and the copper dust, and well…the whole process.
I have found myself staring at every piece of jewelry I see now. Looking at trees differently. Seeing patterns in places I used to just see roads. I mean I am still crap at making stuff, but at least I am starting to appreciate other really well made things. You will never appreciate jewelry until you try to make something, then you realize just how stunningly hard this shit can be sometimes.
As the little pieces of stuff pile up before me, I feel a little twinge that I might be getting just a bit better at this stuff, and it makes me happy. Now I just have to keep making as much stuff as I can and hope that I can manage to eek out a bit more improvement, cause I still got a long way to go.
Posted in Ramblings.
– August 8, 2010
Even though these little guys take forever, and are very hard to finish (polishing requires a very fine touch), I really like the end result, and I bet it would look dead sexy on a bicycle, or a journal.
Posted in I made this.
– July 31, 2010
Its a super huge pain in the ass, but cutting really thick steel is possible with a jewelers saw. I have cut several R’s and H’s for a local bicycle maker Royal H.
Its especially hard to keep a straight line when working with this thick steel, and you will break about a million blades but the results look nice and are durable as hell, so much so that they can be welded.
Posted in I made this.
– July 31, 2010
Its really hot, and all the copper dust is mixing with my sweat and turning my hands green. I like to sit and work on these in one continuous cut, it takes about two hours and my back gets very sore from hunching over, but if I take a break or do it in more than one cut they never seem to come out as good as if I just power though…
Posted in I made this.
– July 29, 2010
I made a headbadge for the race to Candy Land race next month. With all benefits going to support the American Diabetes Association.
Posted in I made this.
– July 22, 2010
Made this for my partner. The silver wire took a long time to wrap delicately around the “bones” of the pendant, with special care spend on spacing and making sure each one is well adjusted. The shell had been weathered to a fine polish which really looks good when combined with the silver. I am happy how this came out as it was my first attempt at anything like this. I will be making more of these in the future. It is also nice because I really like to pick things up off the ground and put them in my pocket and I have a bucket of little nick nacks that I need to do something with.
Posted in I made this.
– July 22, 2010
