Friday is My Fun Day!- Leafy Bronze Bracelets

I am delighted to show these bracelets off!
They were fun to make...

First and most importantly, I chose metal that had already been worked with and aged. Each of these pieces had been worked with and then discarded. I loved the texture and images already embedded in the metal.





Then I heated the copper to make it malleable. I chose leaves and ran the metal and the leaves through the rolling mill.
(A rolling mill is the tool I covet the most from our shop. Yes, I want a torch, but I WANT a rolling mill in a really bad way. The cheapest good one I've found was around $500. It's gonna be a while before I have one...)



Next, I soaked the pieces in liver of sulphur to age and darken the leaf impressions.
After the liver of sulphur bath, I sanded the surface to lighten the raised metal.






Then I drilled holes on the sides. After speaking to an artist on Etsy I used clear finger-nail polish to coat the backs of the bracelets. Copper has a tendency to turn skin green when worn repeatedly, but the clear nail polish will prevent the copper from touching skin.






Finally, I took them home and beaded them, which was a blast! I wanted a heavy, rich appearance so I mixed chain in with vibrant glass beads and luscious stones.








I created the green bracelet specifically for me, but the red and blue one are both for sale!


Take a peak down at Farmer's Market on College Rd. in Fairbanks or on Etsy.