Happy Birthday To Me!

Just because I've decided I can't buy anything hobby or jewelry-making related until I get a job, that doesn't mean I can't beg my family for my fix. And even though my birthday was on January 31 and the gift didn't arrive until this last Friday, I will not complain about how late it was. This is me not complaining. My son got me this little gadget right here. A pin hole punch. I had to immediately go play with my new toy.

In this house there are four copper squares. I only know where one is, or was. As I type this I am thinking of places where I can look for the other 3 pieces of copper. In fact this entry could have been posted at 7 o'clock this morning if I didn't keep thinking of new places to look. And if I had been awake. As it was, I ripped up the one piece of copper I had into even smaller pieces to experiment with my new handy-dandy pin hole punch.

I had this idea in my head and I couldn't wait nor do anything properly at all before I got to use my new hole punch. I cut the copper with tin snips and to hell with those sharp, pointy, puncturing edges! I had hole punching to do!

Over to the left you can see how my experiment went. It went well, if I say so myself. Which is not good because now I wished I had prepared the copper properly. They would have made neat earrings or links in a bracelet or decorations on a necklace. Now they can only be jewelry for masochists who like tearing their flesh on the edges of their body ornaments.

I was much more circumspect on the next piece. These earring edges are filed and sanded down to a nice smooth finish. I used a power orbital sander to knock them down and a hand file to round the edges. Using the hand file on this thing made my teeth itch. It seriously rubbed me the wrong way. The suffering I do for my art.













In preparation for the arrival of my pin hole punch, I sanded the oxidation off of the copper square. To my chagrin, the copper started to tarnish again almost immediately. Of couse, before I sanded it it was mostly blue/green with only flashes of dark brown, but that was with years of turning. Perfect condition for another experiment.

The sharp-edged pieces not only did not get sanded, it got no special treatment whatsoever. I just cut the squares, punched the holes, added the vines and called it a day. The long earrings got re-sanded for non-stabby reasons, and it was so much more shinier and prettier than the unsanded. I wanted to preserve the shiny. I know that it is air that does the oxidation so I figured if I could get air to not touch it. . .. The earrings are sprayed with a clear coat of lacquer. Only time will tell if that'll work to keep it shiny looking.