Thursday, April 14, 2011

Copper

I never really thought I'd be a copper girl:

it can turn the skin green where you sweat
it oxidizes far more quickly than silver
it's a challenging learn when it comes to soldering

But then the price of silver began this astronomical skyrocket, and I grudgingly placed a piece of copper under my hammer to make a prototype flower ring (seen above in my banner).
Thus began the wonderful, exciting journey into a new relationship.

When I first started wearing the ring, it was with a curious eye; how does this new metal respond to water? cold? pressure?
And soon it was love, sweet love. I wear the ring nearly every day, even still.
A prototype!

I have a very sensual attachment to it now; sometimes sterling even feels cold to me when compared to the sweet, generous, earthy warmth of this new frontier...

I am soon embarking on a new portion of my learning: enameling and china painting: I want to combine the two and someday create custom portraiture, like little cameos...

It's nice to look ahead and see new disciplines you know you'll love and work hard to understand, but it's even more exciting to fall in love with something previously dismissed as 'less-than'....

It's the underdog getting the girl, metal-style.

xoxoxo,
Allison

12 comments:

Gemheaven said...

I've been working with bronze and brass (prefer the richness in colour of brass) and I'm really loving it ~ I've been protecting it with wax and so far so good. Not attempted anything but earrings but I am planning too ~ might try for myself so I can test if the wax works on my wrist. ~ Jo

Naomi Mimi said...

i love copper. soft pink golden metal to warm and heal. helps that it exactly matches my hair ;) seeing you work that metal has made my heart jump - your lovely hands making lovely things.

xoxo

Allisunny S. said...

Jo:
I've been making sure that all of the places where the skin touches the metal are buffeted with sterling silver: ear wires, ring shanks, etc: I would love to hear more about wax!

Mim my love: you are the sweetest ever.

Gemheaven said...

Its renaissance wax ~ I'm in the UK but I know some of my US friends use it. I have been using sterling wire earwires too but will be testing some bronze complete with wax on my arm and let you know ;)

I have a customer who can turn sterling silver black really quickly ~ but her brass waxed earrings so far are still bright and shiny so fingers crossed. ~ Jo

MrsLittleJeans said...

I love copper too and do not discriminate against it, such beautiful blue salts copper makes...but prefer it enameled...and I also cannot have it in my ear lobes : )

resolute twig said...

"the underdog getting the girl, metal style"... I love it :)
xo

Anonymous said...

So glad you are loving your original copper beauty (you know how much I am enamored with this ring!)
Hope I can adopt one for my very own one day xoxox

Susan

Belinda Saville said...

Copper has a lovely warmth which cannot to matched by any other metal! And the price is oh-so-right :-)

I'm working on a few sterling & copper pieces at the moment. Once they are patinated and polished, I give them about 6-7 light coats of spray satin acrylic...Krylon, I think it's called? I can get the pieces wet, wear them constantly for weeks, and the colour of the copper remains beautiful through it all :-)

B.
-xo-

kerin rose said...

A good substitute for Renaissance wax ( you can get it here too...I forget where, just google it!) is bowling alley wax...giant tub for 12 dead presidents at home depot...works fabuloso!....yes, the price of silver makes me wanna cry....! :)

lynn bowes said...

I use Renaissance Wax, as well, even on some of my sterling pieces as it's just an incredible sealer and will sometimes give my finished stones a nice buff with it.

I too have been working with copper and torch-fired enamels since sterling silver prices have me puffing into a paper bag to catch my breath! And wondering about aluminum . . .

:: lynn ::

Taddyporter said...

I adore the warm earthiness of copper. Does anyone have experience with the metal as a healing/anti-inflammatory medium? I always wondered about that and would love to experiment with a Sunny original copper cuff(oh it would be gorgeous).....

studio.delucca said...

i love you.