Reclaimed Copper (WIP)

[Ominicci]

Silly question I know ... but is there anyway of slowing down the oxidising process for copper? What sort of effect would it have on skin etc? I love the look of it, just a little concerned about using it in jewellery.

Now I've seen your beautiful piece I want to have a go.

Don't forget copper is supposed to be good for preventing arthritis (or is it rheumatism?) and many people wear copper bangles for that.

[Paula]

Thats fab! I love the fact that you have used old copper piping and made it into something so gorge!

[The Dragon]

Sounds good to me, do Cooksons do renaissance wax?. I assume it will work for items made from cooper art clay as well?

Oh dear looks like I'm going to have to speed up the saving for a kiln, too many things I want to try out need one. lol

[The Bijou Dragon]

Hi Yes you can get wax and also spray lacquers to prevent the metal oxidizing too fast but most people don't generally bother as copper is good for arthritis and joint care etc

I will however be treating this as being a pendant I don't want the oxidization to rub off onto a white blouse lets say!

Anyway, here is the piece so far, including what one of the leaves started out as:

How it all started out:


After much processing:


After Oxidizing and making a second pendant:


As I say, this is a learning curve for me as I wasn't born with jewellery making equipment in my hand and we all have to start somewhere.

After some spiteful comments recently I was about to give up altogether but decided to ignore said remarks and carry on as I never said I was a master jeweller, I'm a chef and Civil Engineer by trade!

Anyway, when the Royal Mail finally decide that they want to actually do some work the bits to complete this item may actually arrive at some point so I can finish this piece.

It is quite a gulf away from my 'normal' jewellery and will look rather different but I'm actually enjoying working with the copper and learning how metal works properly before moving onto good Sterling Silver because I'd rather throw away a piece of reclaimed copper than a piece of Fine Silver!!!

The three leaf pendant is only temporarily held together with the plated silver wire, don't worry that's not a design feature, it was just to get it off of my desk where it was getting lost under the chaos

Edit - I should say the oxidized leaf is actually a rather nice peacock blue but the bad light in the living room didn't help with that look lol

[MuranoSilver]

That pendant is turning out really well, the contrast between the three layers is very effective. The heart is neat too, are you going to make that a double layer pendant too?
nic x

[The Bijou Dragon]

Not sure yet about the heart as it's actually really deeply dished but it does need... something else!

I did think about drilling a hole in the other side of the top bit then some holes around the bottom to hang Swarovskis from but it's all up in the air at the moment waiting for inspiration to strike lol

[kymbi]

The pendant is looking good - I love the look of the layers with some of them being oxidised. I like the shape of the bail as well, albeit a temporary one.

I'm glad you are pleased with the outcome and hope it's given you the inspiration to do more with the copper piping

[The Bijou Dragon]

I oxidized the second leaf because it gave the piece some depth, three pieces of the same colour just disappeared so I needed to do something

When all this moving business is over I will do more but at the moment I'm doing it all between packing and trying to get all the junk on e-bay lol

Funnily enough there's two places down where we're moving to reknowned for their copper work, Newlyn and Hayle so I'm quite looking forward to that as I've seen some of the Newlyn Copper trays that my Dad had... beautiful, beautiful stuff!

[Petal]

Absolutely lovely designs and textures Bijou, thanks so much for sharing them with us.

I must admit, they're doing building works next door to us, must go and have a scout around for some spare copper piping! BTW, what cutters do you use to cut copper with?

lotsaluv
Jules x

[The Bijou Dragon]

Absolutely lovely designs and textures Bijou, thanks so much for sharing them with us.

I must admit, they're doing building works next door to us, must go and have a scout around for some spare copper piping! BTW, what cutters do you use to cut copper with?

lotsaluv
Jules x

I use my OH's plumbing pipe cutter (From B&Q) and then my jewellers saw to cut it open and my Moms old pliers (she had them when she was 18 and use to make circuit boards) to pull it apart enough for me to grab Pats ruddy great hammer and belt it flat lol

Nothing special at all... then it's all down to processing with saws and files etc