Making Chain

With the news of my imminent employment, I went ahead a purchased a boatload of jumprings and have begun The Boy's chain mail bracelet. Here is the base.

It is in a circle only because I wanted to check to make sure it fit and also, it was the only way the whole thing fit in a picture.Having spent 3 days making this thing, I have a few observations.

1.I wish I were rich enough to not have to hunt for dropped jumprings. I'm thinking I drop about one in twenty. What a pain in the ass.

2. I would probably drop less if making chain did not involve beer. The chain pictured used about 2 and a half bottles of Killian's Red.

3. The more I look at this chain, the more it looks feminine and dainty. Not at all the manly chain mail The Boy is probably expecting.

4. Basic European is probably within my capability. But only with much larger rings. Too late- I already have a boatload of this size.

5. I used to think I was pretty good at opening jump rings. I didn't know what good jump ring opening was. I am now a world champeen jump ring opener.

6. This bracelet is gonna take a while.









Queen of Sheeeba's Etsy


PinkSlinkie's Artfire Studio

My Geek Search For WoW Jewelry Continues

World of Warcraft Jewelcrafting Winners: Copper Division

My search of World of Warcraft Jewelcraft skill jewelry has come up pretty empty. So I’ve decided that instead of looking for real jewelry crafted specifically with WoW in mind, I’ll search for the best representative Wow jewelry that Internetsians inadvertently made. Since I do not know how deeply the Venn diagram of World of Warcraft players and people who make jewelry intersects (I suspect that may be an intersect of one—me), I’ll describe the WoW spell for the jewelry I picked.

Braided Copper Ring
Regents: Delicate copper wire.
The Winner: ME!







Woven Copper Ring
Regents: Delicate copper wire, copper bar.
The Winner: Wabbit-t3h of Deviant Art






Heavy Copper Ring
Regents: Delicate copper wire, copper bar.
The Winner: ME!





Malachite Pendant
Regents: Malachite and delicate copper wire.
The Winner: Artbrasil (site no longer active)





Tigerseye Band
Regents: Tigerseye and copper bar.
The Winner: Beavjewels from Etsy






Ornate Tigerseye Necklace
Regents: Tigerseye, copper bar and delicate copper wire.
The Winner: Nancy Woods of Wear Art



Judge's note: This entry was almost disqualified because of the poor quality of the picture. Nancy Wood would do herself a large favor if she dusted her display and focused her camera before taking a picture.



Inlaid Malachite Ring
Regents: Malachite and delicate copper wire.
The Winner: Nobody! I could not find an inlaid malachite ring made solely with copper. But I did find these very cool inlaid malachite rings. The only problem with them is that they won't give you any buffs if you wear them in Azeroth.

Wood and malachite:




Mokume Gane and malachite:


P.S. Mokume Gane is mixed metals layered sometimes 16 times, forged and twisted together to make distinct patterns. It is very cool looking.








Queen of Sheeeba's Etsy


PinkSlinkie's Artfire Studio

Yes, Son. Your Mamma Does Love You A Little.

It was perhaps 7 years ago that my son, after hearing me say more than once that I'd sure like to try my hand and making jewelry, bought me a bead kit and a this book: The Complete Guide To Making Wire Jewelry for Christmas. Although I have used many of the beads in the bead kit, it was the book that fired me up. To this day it is still one of my favorites. And the only thing The Boy asked was that I make him a chain mail sleeve.




"As sure as as you fruited from the flower of my loins, I shall make for you this majestic chain of mail!" I promised him. 7 years ago. The book he purchased has two chain mail projects in it. It did not take long for me to realized that I didn't know what the hell I was doing. All I ended up with was a tangled mess of jumpring chains. Years went by and I got no better at it. In fact, it got worse. I couldn't even get a single chain going. It was hopeless and I finally admitted defeat to my son. "Son," I intoned, "the dark pallor of shame will color my every mood and thought from here until the dark dwarf sun-death of our Universe. I cannot make chain mail."




In the darkness of my shame there shone one tiny half-glimmer of hope. It was two years ago that I purchased Chain and Bead Jewelry Creative Connections: New Techniques for Wire Wrapping and Bead-Setting and the strange magic of aspect ratio was explained to me. I could again make a chain. And, not only could I make a chain, the reason why I couldn't make a damn chain all of a sudden wasn't because I was brain damaged! It was because I was using the wrong danged sized jumprings for the job. Perhaps now I could elevate my status once again to the greatest Mom to ever slide a squalling creature out from within. I could create a chain mail sleeve for my only born son!




Yeah, no. I was reminded of when my Abuela tried to teach me how to crotchet when I was 8. I learned how to make a chain easily. I enjoyed making crotchet chains so much I'd make them a yard long. But when she tried to show me how to make rows. . . let's just say the yarn would have been put to better use strangling kittens. It took a while for my grandmother to give up on me-- she was a fighter-- but she finally just sighed and let me continue to make yard long chains.






Still, the book did show me how to make different types of chains. Not the most intricate ones, I am too stupid to understand how to read the patterns, but the simple ones. Two weeks ago I used one of those simple patterns to make this chain and turned it into a pair of earrings. I have incorporated this chain pattern in other jewelry because I think it looks neat and a hell of a lot more complicated than it actually is. The Boy caught sight of these earrings.




"You CAN make chain mail!" he accused. It sounded like an accusation to me, anyways.

"Alas, no my son. I can only make chain-- no mail," I answered with my head hanging. Just like The Temptations' mama when she had to explain to them what a bastard their rolling stone papa was.

"Why can't you just put two chains together?" he asked as if it was that simple. Sorry son, life is never that simple.




But the more I thought about it, the more I wondered-- why can't I just put two chains together? I looked at patterns again. Unfortunately I was reminded of how stupid I am. Here is the basic European pattern. I am at WTF! by step 3. But my son's words still rang in my head just put the two chains together. . . just put the two chains together. . . just put the two chains together. . .. My head is mostly empty, hence the echo. So I sat down and, without a pattern, just put the chains together.






I think I can make him a bracelet of chain mail. All I need is, like, 30 dollars worth of jumprings. Maybe more. That won't happen for quite a while seeing as how I'm unemployed and flat busted. But one day, Son, I will be able to walk through the halls of Motherhood with my head held high.

One Post A Month? Why The Hell Not!

It's a good post, though. A one-handed tutorial! Not as good as a Sunday Silly but you do get to see my messy craft room since this tutorial involves a mini torch and that is one thing I won't do in bed-- just ask my husband.









This is the finished product. A textured copper fire colored cuff ring. Now there's a name that simply rolls off the tongue like silky pearls of soothing sounds. P.S., don't put pearls in your mouth.

The reason there have been so little entries is the simple fact that I have nothing to say. I'm a boring, unemployed tinkerer who is a lousy and very bad blogger. Wait! That's not true at all. I don't have lice.














Queen of Sheeeba's Etsy


PinkSlinkie's Artfire Studio

Oh, It Just Got Real Up In Here!

This blog post is to all the jewelry ganstas out there who ain't frontin'. They're designing and making authentic bling that don't lie. They're keeping it real. Really, really real.

Take our first realist. RosaMillieICARO. She dips real roses in resin and makes jewelry out of them. These rosebud earrings are so real, the only thing missing is the prick. And, let's face it, we all have enough pricks in our lives.

Laura McCabe has a whole art studio full of real. One section of her shop named Exotic Eye Cuffs got my hopes especially high. Alas, those bracelets are made with real fake eyes. They are antique glass eyes so there is a chance some poor WWI vet wore them in his head, but they aren't real real eyes. I did not leave Laura's studio without a measure of realness. The choker pictured is made with real beetle wings.

Katie VanBlaricum not one-ups, but two-ups, Laura in the keeping it real department. Katie doesn't use just wings, she uses the whole beetle. And then, to top that off, uses a real leaf dipped in copper, driving the realness factor up by eleventy. If you click the link, you will see that Katie has a whole shop full of realness and that she really likes bugs. Or hates them. I can't tell which.

Over at ArtFire TheHouseThatCrowBuilt has a whole slew of Morpho butterfly wing pendants. This shop name makes me wonder if the designer had a pet crow who would present her with "presents" like a cat will sometimes do. Except instead of dead mice and birds, the crow delivered mutilated butterflies. I sure hope morpho butterflies aren't endangered.

These beauties were found on Care More's creations photostream. They are ammonite pendants made with real fossils. Poor ammonoideas, they didn't make it out of the Cretaceous Period, so these pendants have been real dead for a real long time.

Last but not least is this bitey pendant. It was sold on Etsy a long time ago but the Etsy seller is no longer there. And yet, this artisan's work is so real it has outlived the artist, surpassed real and spring-boarded, jaw first, into legend. It is said the designer found this mandible on an island owned by one Dr. Moreau.


I was going to once again link to some taxidermy jewelry. However, I have linked to some in the past and really, once you've seen one hamster hair ornament you've seen them all.



Queen of Sheeeba's Etsy
PinkSlinkie's Artfire Studio

It Is 5 AM And I Am Melting Metal

This entry's subject is two lies strung together. It is not 5am, it is ten to seven and I am not melting wire, I am at the computer typing. But it was 5 am when I first thought about typing this entry and I will be melting metal, oh yessiree! I got my micro torch and I'm gonna set the world on fire.

Meanwhile back at the asylum, I thought about entering Rings & Things' contest but then on closer inspection, I saw that, in order to enter, you must buy at least 30 bucks worth of beads and chain from them and the prizes are all Rings & Things gift certificates. That isn't very sporty of them, is it? Still, if I had the money I'd enter. Not like I haven't spent far more than thirty bucks on jewelry making supplies without any hope of getting something back.

And then, on an even closer, less stupid inspection, I saw that not only do I need to buy at least thirty dollars worth of jewelry making supplies, I also need to build a time machine as the contest ended on my birthday, which was in January.

And lastly, on a slightly less retarded note, I have continued my search for World of Warcraft jewelry. A few items were found but none of them-- NONE-- are from the jewelcrafting profession. Still, I must put a picture in my entry or I will feel naked for the rest of the day. So here is a cute hearthstone keyring. My search for a fitting Westros crown continues unsatisfied.







Queen of Sheeeba's Etsy
PinkSlinkie's Artfire Studio

I'll Finally Get You Out of My Brain!

There were over five thousand e-mails in my gmail account and, well, it was time to take out the trash. I searched my e-mail for the word "amazon" and went through all 20 pages deleting three shitons* of Amazon mail. On page eleven or so I see that Katie is wishing me Happy Birthday! So I open it up. Katie has sent me a thirty dollar Amazon gift certificate for my birthday on January 31. Of 2011.

Found money? Well you just know it's going to feed my jewelry making habit. And what better way than to do something about that design I have in my head. The one that is killing me all up in my brain crevasses unable to be worked on because I don't have a torch. Well, no more! I ordered that sucker. Soon I'll be able to clear my head. Hopefully, this piece isn't crap burnt up good with a torch, but even if it is, at least it will be gone!

And because I hate to not have a pretty picture in my blog posts, here is a picture of the Bleeding Hearts in my shade garden in the backyard:



*Shiton (pronounced SHIT tun)is a new unit of measurement. It's basic unit is the number of e-mails received daily from sites where you have shopped in the past. It should replace the word 'google' as the biggest number ever, especially since the word 'google' is busy defining something else.



Queen of Sheeeba's Etsy
PinkSlinkie's Artfire Studio