Blog partners of Rings and Things were offered a challenge to design a unique piece of jewelry using their bracelet cuff blanks. I decided to use the brass cuffs because I am not really attracted to that material and after all this was a challenge.
This bracelet was my first attempt. I used a lotus stamp to add some texture to it. I wanted an Asian look, so I found a replica of an old coin, but it had a huge square in the middle and I am a wirewrap artist so I needed to figure out how to make that work. Found a scrap of an old tea tin and used it to plug the hole. As a cold connect I punched a hole in the middle of the blank and used and eyelet. The pearl was strung onto thin copper wire and put through the hole of the eyelet and then wrapped. Dropped the whole bracelet in liver of sulfur to give it a little patina and called that one good. I wasn't really satisfied with how tame it was and so decided to try something more outlandish.
I really like using tins and wanted to figure out how to make bracelets with the scraps. I had tried a couple of different times and thought these cuffs might be the ticket. Using my disc cutter, I cut out different pieces of tin in different sizes. I punched holes in the tins and then domed them with my dappling block. Now the challenge became attaching them to the cuff because my eyelets were either too short or too long. I was having a serious Goldie Locks moment until I found some brass spacers that filled the gap. Now it was "just right". I could use the longer eyelets and I was ready to make "flowers". I am planning on making more of these because I like the way it turned out even though my husband thought the Asian one was nicer. I liked that it was whimsical and used up tin scraps.
Love to hear whether you prefer the tame or the wild and crazy one. So hey, leave me a comment .
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