Great Expectations

It's the craziest thing... I buy cabochons, or gemstones, or beads... and sometimes I get a really good deal on ones that I like pretty well, but they're nothing special.  Other times, I find ones I LOVE that I MUST have because they're gorgeous.

And the gorgeous ones sit in my box of rocks.  You should see my pretty rock collection.  I sit on my lunch hour and look at them.  I can picture them finished, but there's an intimidation factor in trying to do them justice.

Then, when I go to create something with those perfect cabochons, I HATE it.  (the one above falls into this category... the wire was too thick too stiff, and one of the bail wires snapped... it's not symmetrical... I plan on redoing it)  Especially if I knew just what I wanted to do with it.  It never looks like I meant it to.  I might as well throw away my sketchbook.  But  I take one of my "ugly" rocks and some cheap copper or colored wire, and just play with it...

Those are the ones that come out spectacular. 

And my favorite creations end up being the ones that don't photograph well, and the stuff I was lukewarm about at the bench blows me away when I look at the photos.

Yesterday I decided I have GOT to get some finished products out of that box of rocks, so I grabbed the one my husband said was "ugly" (it's a gray stone with red, chohua jasper) and some copper, and... well, I'll be doing some pictures today so when I get them done I'll put a pic here and you can judge for yourself.  I'm really happy with the wrap, though.


Is nothing ever the way I expect it to be?  Does anyone else have this problem?

Diamond Rings for meeeeeeee.....

Look what's on the way to my house! These are ultra shiny copper jump rings made of square wire cut on the bias so that they're "diamond" shaped (ha, fooled you didn't I). Tell you what, though, I think I'm more excited than I would be if a "real" diamond ring were headed my way (unless it was everything I needed to make my OWN diamond ring).

These are coming at me from C&T Designs. They are cutting edge. Urban Maille is the only other site I've seen that does odd-shaped rings and I can't find any gold ones on their site (although I seem to recall that they had a site specifically for GF rings that I can't seem to find a link to.)

This is where I put in a plug (since it occurs to me that I haven't blogged one although I have raved pretty much everywhere else about them) for C&T. Are they the cheapest? Nope. If you want Wal-Mart, go to The Ring Lord, where you will find very decent rings mass produced, (please don't buy machine cut!) cheap, and I have to say it, their customer service sucks. I have twice emailed them about orders, once about something that was missed being sent to me, and got no reply. Zilch. So... I use them for anodized aluminum because their prices are unbeatable for it, sometimes enameled copper because they have more than one size, and a few other random things (I was using them for my bright aluminum as well because it was chrome shiny, but the last batch was dissappointingly dull... grrrr!). I use Blue Buddha Boutique for small batches of multicolored anodized aluminum, 20g 1/8" enameled copper (please make other sizes!) and neoprene. For pretty much everything else, C&T. If they're not the cheapest, why?











1) I'm a sucker for shiny. C&T's rings are on the left in both pictures above (copper and stainless steel, respectively), TRL's on the right. Curt tumbles all his rings before he sends them out, then you get a little nontarnish tab in the baggie with any tarnishable metals, to keep them glowing till you make something gorgeous out of them. I am talking SERIOUSLY shiny.... so shiny that when he sent me a picture of the rings at the top of the post I thought they were gold!

2) Customer service. I can email and ask for a specific gauge rings for a project, and Curt will experiment and calculate (something I suck at, so this is hugely valuable) till he finds the perfect aspect ratio. If you want to make a bracelet, he sends you enough for a bracelet, with a little extra. Then I get the stuff, make something stunning, and get to take all the credit. It feels like cheating. (although there is SOME creativity involved on my end ;)

3) Neat stuff. The square and diamond shaped rings are a new thing, but C&T is also the only place you can get rainbow anodized niobium, that is, a rainbow of color on each ring. Recently he sent me a toggle closure made of anodized niobium that was two colors, twisted... without any naked wire ends, which means he'd taken the care to anodize even those. Which brings me to...

4) Precision and care. When I order those TRL AA rings, sometimes I throw out TONS of them because whoever does their anodizing kind of sucks. The colors are not right, the colors rub off, they scratch really easily. C&T saw cuts everything, which means perfect closures (closures are EVERYTHING in chainmaile), even steel, which is nutty :) Everything anodized is completely anodized, and perfect. If I throw out any rings it's because I mangled them myself.

5) Custom service. This fits in with the customer service, but you can ask for pretty much anything round and made out of some sort of wire, and C&T will do their best to get it or make it.

6) Free stuff with every order. Rebecca at Blue Buddha does this too. I tell ya, I'd much rather get a little bagful of free rings than 10% off my order. It's like Christmas every time I get a package in the mail. And since I chat with Curt about the stuff I'm doing on a regular basis (because of the custom thing), he always puts the coolest stuff in.

7) Humbleness. Not too willing to sing his own praises, so I make up for it. :)

What I'm Working on

I keep running out of rings :) This past Saturday Brandon and I made a choker sort of similar to Rhiannon (see my shop) in bright aluminum with a red inlay diamond, a celtic cross pendant, and red Swarovski beads along the bottom. It came out really pretty and was made as a birthday present for our friend Mary Ann. I wish I'd had time to get a picture of it but I didn't... maybe I can bug her to get one of her with it on, with her gorgeous red Renaissance costume dress. However, as a result I'm out of 3/16" BA rings and can't do the Dragonscale belt I planned on... back to TRL.

I bought the pretty ceramic leaf pendant above from Etsian Hannahfaerie a month or so ago (go visit... her work is beautiful). I originally intended to mix this with titanium and crystal, but I really didn't care for working with titanium, and the aluminum green was closer to the shade I wanted than the niobium was (and cheaper!). And the 4-in-1 drape I intended didn't hang the way I wanted it to, so I went with Japanese, with copper linking rings and a Swarovski leaf (sheesh those are expensive). The leaf-ish shaped unit pictured above will be duplicated on the other side of Hannah's pendant and probably hung from a copper chain, but... is it too much? The more I look at it the more I think it sort of overpowers the pretty ceramic. Maybe it'd be better if I did the maille in all green. Love to hear innocent bystanders' opinion on this so please comment if you don't mind ;) If this turns out cool I will probably submit it to Belle Armoire.

Beyond that, I've gone a little hog wild buying cabochons from a really cool supplier, some of which I will resell and some of which I will use to practice wire wrapping. Stay tuned for pics of that. Seems like I haven't had much time for crafting the past few days, and the near future isn't looking too good either. I think I will steal a few hours Monday.

Fish and Chips

So, experiment results. I know the pictures are crappy but all I had available was my cell phone.

Lemon juice: safe for anodized aluminum, does take some of the oxidation off copper, but it doesn't shine it, just lightens it. Not impressed.

Vinegar + salt combination: didn't work that great for the copper (although I didn't boil it as the directions indicated), and it didn't strip the anodizing, but I think if I had rubbed the finish at all it would have damaged it. Thumbs down.

When Russ heard about this experiment he said it sounded like options for a fish & chips restaurant :)

I also tried a baking soda paste on a penny. My thought was that it wouldn't be a great option for chainmaille because of the links and nooks and crannies. It didn't work that great on a penny, either. Also not recommended for fish and chips.

I am still looking for a good option for cleaning copper without destroying the finish on anodized aluminum on the same piece. Know any?

Base Materials

[Photo of The Ring Lord's anodized aluminum colors]

I'm just going to review a couple of base metal materials that I've worked with, how they are to work with, and how they wear as far as long-term life. There are several that I have not worked with, including precious metals, and I suppose I'll get around to them later.

Bright Aluminum
When I'm done working with BA my fingers are black. As a result, I haven't used it for jewelry at all, because I can't imagine it wouldn't do the same to your neck if you wore it as a choker. It washes off easily enough, but a blackened band around your neck doesn't exactly make for oohs and aahs. What I have and will use it for is anything that doesn't touch a lot of skin:

• dangly earrings
• belts
• headdresses
• decorative items, bags, etc.
  

Since aluminum is the most plentiful metal on the earth (in fact the most plentiful element after oxygen and silicon), BA is cheap and therefore terrific to work with for learning new weaves. It is also light weight (one third the weight of steel), so it's great for costume maille shirts, coifs, etc. It's not difficult to work with in terms of opening and closing rings at all. TRL claims that there's "little to no noticeable ruboff" from it. I may have to test this. Bonus: it doesn't corrode.

Anodized Aluminum
I love the stuff. No, the colors aren't as vibrant or metallic as niobium, but it's easier to work with, much less expensive, and I actually like some of the colors better (green being an example).
Anodizing apparently triples the price of aluminum, at least at TRL. It's worth it (and still no more expensive than copper). I especially love working with their black, which has a silky finish on it.
I have no ruboff on my fingers when working with it, which I assume means it won't rub off on the wearer, either. There is only one drawback to AA as far as I can tell: how durable is the finish? It can't be cleaned with ultrasonic or harsh chemical cleaners, although I'm not sure how much cleaning it would need since it won't oxidize or corrode. I intend to test the longevity of the anodized finish, as well, by making and using a keychain out of the stuff. More info on that to come.
I have had to throw out a few rings because my pliers popped off a ring and damaged the finish, but I'm using bare pliers (no tool dip or masking tape). Planning on trying out the tool dip.
Verdict: might be my favorite base metal for the cost.

Oh, by the way, check out this nifty studio doing a variety of jewelry and seriously cool mobiles out of AA: HSU Studios

Copper
It's supposed to help arthritis, wearing copper jewelry. There's no scientific evidence for this, but hey, it can't hurt, can it?
Copper's major drawback is the fact that it oxidizes quickly. You can tell an old penny from a new penny instantly. Some maille artists use this to their advantage and mix various-aged coppers in the same piece. It looks cool, but will they all look the same eventually?
Copper can oxidize by just darkening, or greening. It will turn some people's skin green, depending on body chemistry.
Since I like to mix metals (copper and some colors of AA are so pretty together), I am conducting an experiment: I dropped BA, AA, and copper rings into a mixture of white vinegar and salt, which I have seen recommended for cleaning copper, and another with lemon juice. Stay tuned for the results. What I am after is something that will clean copper without destroying the anodized finish on the aluminum. Preliminary investigation makes me think it's gonna eat the anodized layer. A rock tumbler will also polish up your copper, but that definitely will eat the aluminum's color. I'm starting to think my mixed metal pieces are going to have to be disassembled for cleaning. Ick.
Copper is, for the record, very easy to work with as far as malleability.



Steel
I haven't worked with it yet. You've got options for galvanized steel (affectionately known as "galvy"), stainless, or mild steel. Stainless shouldn't rust, so it may be a nice option for jewelry. "Mild" steel is meant to look "medieval", and it will rust. Quickly, I think, especially exposed to moisture or in this humid Tennessee air. Galvy has a zinc surface layer that will keep it from rusting, but it has a dull finish I don't care much for. More experimentation needed here, as well.

Anodized Niobium
I'm in love with this metal. No pictures do it justice. It anodizes in gorgeous metallic, almost iridescent hues. It's hypoallergenic. It's easy to work with (except, I think maybe, for cutting your own rings, which I haven't tried). Once again the only drawback is the longevity of the anodized layer and propensity to scratches. I'll need to wear it more to talk about this stuff.

Anodized Titanium
Doubt I'll be buying much more of this, though I may try a different supplier. Titanium is stiff and hard to work with, the cuts were not flush (I assume because it is so very difficult to cut), and it's hard to make the rings close back the way you want them to because of its "memory." The plus side is that it anodizes in really pretty muted hues.

Bronze, Brass, Silver and Gold, Inconel, Enameled Copper
Haven't worked with any of these in chainmaille, so stay tuned. I have used some brass findings, and EC wire (impression: lacks strength because of the enamel coating). Since I want to play with Vintaj products a bit, I may make some brass things to match them. And I'm considering winding my own silver rings to save a few dollars. Stay tuned for part 2: Precious Materials.