Lots of Enameling Questions and Thoughts

So… I wanted to finally try enameling. Not the kind I'd done before (on glass beads), but on metal… like my own metal creations.

So this weekend I made some bronze bases that I will try enameling on. I know copper is more traditional, but is there a REASON bronze wouldn't work just as well? I will research this before trying it. (ETA: So far, the only reason I could come up with for not preferring to enamel on bronze is that the translucent enamels might get cloudy… but I think that was if there's zinc in the alloy… if it's just 90% copper and 10% tin, this might not happen anyway. Now, seeing as how I favor the opaques, I'm going to continue on with my experimenting.

Here, btw, is a photo I took of one pair of earrings that came out of the kiln this morning. The photo is with my phone… I'll take a much better photo before listing these (unless I decided to experiment with them instead of sell them).



It's a small(ish) photo because I was trying to make the picture the same size as the earrings.

But while we're on the subject, I'll ask a question: will a fixed sized photo be the same size on everyone's monitor? Like, if the beads in those earrings are 1¾ inches tall and I make my jpg so that on MY computer, the earring beads in the photo measure 1¾ inches on my monitor… will they ever be NOT 1¾ inches on someone's monitor?

Anyway, back to enameling… I did want to try torch enameling prior to kiln enameling for two reasons. One, I didn't want to ramp my kiln all the way up to 1500 for a few minutes of work at a time… and two, I really need to be able to SEE the enamel so I can get a feel for how long to fire it.

I was happy to see that my Messermeister culinary torch goes up to 2700 degrees. That's what they say, anyway. Shrug. Maybe a little kitchen torch is okay for tiny pieces. We'll see.

Some basic questions I have about enameling probably seem ridiculous to seasoned enamellers, but they are just things I either don't get or want to be sure of.

Like… you do multiple sets of coating/firing. If you're not doing counter-enameling, do you just leave the back side black until after the final firing or do you have to clean it between each firing?

Also, if different enamel colors require different firing times, then I'm assuming you don't put all your colors on and fire them all at once, right? But you also can't do each one separately because when you go to fire color 2, you'll be messing up color 1, won't you?

The Jewelry Sale, Cellphone Charging, Upcoming Bronze Earrings, and White Tea

White Tea

This product is great!




Weather

I am freezing. That's very unusual for me. I do realize the temperature has changed in the last few days here, but … I'm just not used to being cold no matter what. I think I'll take some Airborne and Vitamin C when I get home… can't hurt to try boosting the old immune system.


Bronze

Oh, if you want to see a quick and dirty photo of some bronze earrings I got out of the kiln this morning, have a look at my Going Green jewelry blog.


Cell Phones

I don't quite have the hang of the new charging routine yet. When we went in to the Verizon store last week because I had fried my battery, we were told the following:

1) Let the battery run down to one or two bars before charging it.
2) Then, only charge it for between 2-4 hours.
3) Car chargers are for emergency charging only, not routine charging.

I've been out with my phone two or three times now when I ran out of battery because I didn't plan ahead. Shrug.


Hockey

Gabe's team had no ice this past weekend and their scrimmage for the coming weekend is cancelled. Yikes!


Jewelry

I have a batch of bronze that came out of the kiln this morning, but I'm still experimenting with the pieces. I'll keep you posted.

In the meantime, just to liven things up… I put six of my items on eBay with starting bids of $9.99.
















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End of Weekend Wrap-Up

The perfect ending to a perfect(ly relaxing) day… Sense and Sensibility with no commercials.

Monica also had a good weekend… a game Saturday and then a fun day with her team on Sunday.

Gabe didn’t get any hockey, which doesn’t please him, but that happens sometimes.

I changed one detail about my Gratitude Necklaces, and we’re much closer to getting them listed.

Earlier in the weekend, I finished some small bronze projects… they’re in the kiln right now (but I kinda blew the firing portion of it… ugh!).

Oh! Very exciting… I sorted out my work books. After cataloguing them (so I quit buying duplicates!), I sorted them by groups (glass, pc, metal clay, color, gemstones, metal techniques, wire, chainmaille, ethnic jewelry, art nouveau jewelry, vintage jewelry, Egyptian jewelry, etc).

Heavens! It’s 11pm!!! Darn! Gotta go to bed now. TTYL!

Oh, before I go, heads up on a clearance sale of a few of my eBay items…. Boro, Vermeil, Sterling Silver, Etched Lampwork, etc… all starting at $9.99 with no reserve. Have fun!

More about my do-it-yourself photo cube

Due to the overwhelming positive response to my last entry, tonight I’m going to expound on the photo cube a bit.

Here are two photos of the same bracelet. The first photo was shot with my previous $100 photo cube:



The second with the new cube:



The difference may appear slight, but to me the second shot is MUCH closer to what I’m after. I wasn't happy with the inability to achieve very fine focus with my previous tent... and I think it's because it was so large that the light sources were too far from the object, thus messing up the focusing ability of the camera (I can't use manual focus because of my weird eyesight… don’t ask).

So a clear photo is all I care about, really. The low price of the new photo cube was just a bonus.

Lampshades come in all shapes and sizes; I may pick up a second one for a slightly different effect. The only thing I had to make sure of was that the metal crossbars were flush with the top of the shade...

Like this:



Rather than recessed like this:



Here is one of my shots, without any photo-editing yet... this is just how it comes out of the camera... so you can see my set-up.



The camera is on a tripod and I shoot pretty much straight down into the lamp top.

The piece of paper in there is regular 8x10 inch.

I use something dead white in the shot (you can see it next to the earrings) so that I can color correct.

My camera lens, although set to macro, is still a good 10 or so inches from the earrings.

But because I can get my lights so close to the earrings, here's how the photo turns out...

$6 DIY Photocube; and Myspace, Facebook, or Twitter

Myspace, Facebook, or Twitter

My opinion:

I don’t like MySpace because people's pages take FOREVER to load… and there's just too much STUFF on each page…ugh… too hard to navigate.

I don't like Twitter 'cause there's no pictures. Ha ha ha! Really, though, it's words and links and I guess if I just befriended (or is that betwittered?) a select few it would make more sense, but it's too linear and too cold for me.

I like FaceBook because I can "hide" all those goofy games people play and post about. If someone wants to post a photo or a long stretch of text, they may. Conversations happen (this is the non-linear part). Someone can say something and then there can be a lot of responses to that and some back and forth… and it's all in once place.

JMO


$6 DIY Photocube

If you don't know what I'm talking about, go over to my other blog (Going Green Jewelry) and have a look at my latest photo set-up.


Relaxation

Tonight I will straighten up the apartment a bit, walk Bear, make dinner, then watch the Sharks and Supernatural while I work on some new jewelry. What a great evening!


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