Hello friends! I hope you are having a great start to your Saturday. Anything interesting happen this week? Tell me about it in the comments section! I love to hear from you all! Storms are rolling through every day, and the thunder claps so loudly over the ocean that you feel like the earth is cracking too. So quickly everything changes from one moment to the next, you never know what you will get day to day.
This week I pulled out my metal working equipment. I love making metal jewelry so much, but I haven’t practiced this art in a few years, for a couple reasons. Finding material vendors here in Costa Rica is difficult sometimes, and online purchases often only ship to San Jose. I also have been slowly building my inventory of tools. Also fine metals are really expensive, and a lot of perfectly useful metal is just waiting to be repurposed. So, in the spirit of resourcefulness, I spent my week experimenting with copper wire. And you know what? I like it a lot.
Most household electrical wires will work, that’s what I use, and a universal solder that works well with various metals.
I like the way hammered wire looks, and by hammering the wire thin I made a bezel for a small stone. I’ve been using river stones that I find when I bring Axel to swim. Most are easy to sand by hand or with a dremel. Most of the rocks are already polished, but I usually I stick them in a homemade rock-tumbler that Alex made.
One of the biggest soldering tips I can give is not to use too much solder, especially with jewelry. Later you will have to grind it off, and solder is much harder to grind then the copper itself. The most time consuming part of metal work is the grinding and polishing, getting every little nook to be even and smooth.
Working with one’s own hands is fulfilling, and I enjoy the slow process of metal working. The little river next door becomes a sacred place of inspiration. Little stones become tiny monuments. I think the most beautiful part is when you realize you can learn to weld or solder anything….the sky is the limit. These arts aren’t impossible for anybody, you can do it too.
Checkout these design, all rings and jewelry are available for purchase, but beyond that it hope you are inspired to make something today. To practice your own art.
With love,
Mariah Danae
mariahdanaeart.wordpress.com 