Kind of Strange

Working on a few new pieces tonight, one far enough along in the process to share a first look.

The copper spiral will be shaped, hammered and buffed to be a bit more flat before the leaf charm is attached, and the brass wire bits will be wrapped up and sealed.  That was an exercise in patience as the brass wire is one continuous piece, hand threaded and wrapped.

More images to follow as it wraps up.

Also experimenting with more natural materials in other pieces, so more images to follow soon. 

Happy Fox Steals the Moon has been sold! 

I am both happy and a little sad to see him go.  I know he’s going to a good home though, so that certainly mitigates the majority of the protective twitching I get when I sell something and have to let it go. 

The precioussss has been acquired.  Earnings from SakuraCon have been transformed into a Foredom 2230  setup.  Of course I’ve had absolutely no time to play with it just yet, but hopefully soon.  My Dremel, it weeps with the knowledge that its days are numbered.

I was asked over the weekend whether or not I ever work in bones other than mink.  The answer is yes, but not often.  The only bones I can tend to find in bulk of the right size outside of mink tend to be bird bones.  If you’ve ever gotten to take a good look at a bird bone, you know that they’re very light and brittle.  They’re designed to fly and thus their bones are hollow and light.  Good for flying, not so good for adornment or re-imagining through hand drilling and reworking.

Occassionally I find a good turkey bone that will work, though they are few and far between as most turkeys have been cooked and/or boiled before I get at them and their bones degraded in the process. 

But it is possible!  Just a considerable amount more tricky to find.

The Navigator here is an example of a turkey bone being used in an OotB piece:

Another shot:

The Navigator will always be a bit more fragile than his mink-based brethren, and will stain a bit more easily (I’ve had a hard enough time trying to keep the varnish where I want it) so I’m hesistant to sell this one off when it’s done without knowing the owner will take good care of it and understand the limitations.  I am rather protective, though I know I need to get a bit better about letting them go on to their new owners.

Another option is putting this one in a display case of some sort.  I like to angle for wearable pieces, but I can entertain the idea of something neat to hang on the wall as well.

Adding pieces up to Etsy at a fairly steady pace. I still have a decent amount to get through, but they’re coming along.

Order of the Bone – Gutter Brat:

Reminder, if you can show you were at SakuraCon this past weekend and would like to buy one of the pieces for the special event pricing, just drop me a line and I’ll give you the special convention discount!