Fiesta Earrings-Take 2

Uhhh...

Well, I promised I would put these earrings up again once I remade them. I am, but since this has become a blog mostly where I talk about my experiences making jewelry, I'm sure you won't mind a short commentary.

So, instead of using more metal to make some more earrings that I still wasn't sure would come out right, and because the other ones didn't look all that great, I decided to just clean the other ones up and reuse them.

This is what I did.

1. First I used a trusty pro polish pad to take off all the colored pencil.

2. Then I used some Liver of Sulfur to antique the earrings, which was very exciting because it was the first time I've used it. Well except the part when my sister-in-law came in the house and was kinda freaked out because the she thought my son got into something when she smelled sulfur!

3. Then I used my pro polish pad again to clean off the high spots.

So, what did I do right, and what did I do wrong? Well, if I had done another pair from scratch, I would have textured the metal and then used the Liver of Sulfur to give it a better look. Now it just looks kinda tarnished and that's all. To be honest, I really miss the pretty colors. I am bound and determined to figure out a way to get those cute colors in there, but still have a high quality pair of earrings.

Oh well. Better luck next time. Now to get the sulfur smell out!

P.S. Remember the beads from yesterday? Come back soon to see what project I've got in store for those beauties!

Fiesta Earrings

I had a lot of fun making these cute earrings. Of course these like all other projects have pros and cons. I obviously LOVE the corrugated feel of these earrings. This project actually came from a tutorial from Rio Grande. I liked them so much that I had to try them. A new technique always has the potential to do great things, and that's why I decided to make these. I can make different kinds of jewelry using this same technique!

These earrings are made out of copper and fine silver ear wires. And I love the beautiful color they give to this piece of jewelry. I love the red and blue colors on the copper and the fan-like appearance as well. The tutorial I used said to use colored pencils to create the stripes. I used some sandpaper to scratch up the surface of the copper and used some Crayola colored pencils. The picture makes them look great, but I didn't like how that part turned out. The color still didn't stay very well on the metal. I felt like if I rubbed it a little, the color would come off. Another part I didn't like so much was the corrugation. I know, I know- you just said you loved it right? Well I do, but I think it could be better. And next time it will...with a few little tweaks.

So, how can I make this piece not look cheap...as my sister-in-law gently put it? I decided that using a patina to antique the earrings is a great idea. Using a patina is probably my best bet in this case because I can get almost a rainbow effect on the metal and get almost the same effect as before.

So, let me know what you think about these earrings. And stay tuned to see how my second pair turns out.