Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Making Metal Jewelry at The Blue House with Courtney Fischer!

Posted by Crystal

I went to an AWESOME metal jewelrymaking workshop at the Blue House Ann Arbor recently!

Courtney Fischer of Courtney Fischer Jewelry lead the workshop.  I learned sooooo much about how to cut, solder, hammer and patina copper into gorgeous earrings, pendants and other pieces.

Courtney Fischer started with an introduction to metal jewelrymaking.  Isn't her smile just so pretty and genuine?  :)

Blue House Ann Arbor (locally owned and operated by Siobhan Lyle) provided jewelry tools and findings.

The table of tools!  Notice the torches, tin snips and power drill.  We love heavy-duty crafting! 

I applied flux to two copper pieces in preparation to solder them together into a pendant.

Andrea soldered these two pieces together for her pendant.

Liz used the torch to melt the solder and stack two copper pieces together for each of her earrings...

...and didn't they turn out great?!

It took a few steps for me to make my earrings.  First, I cut out, sanded and hammered the copper.

Then, I applied patina to the front and back of the earrings.  I waited a few minutes and then rubbed off the excess patina with steel wool.

Next, I torched the earrings to add color variation.

Finally, Courtney helped me drill holes and add hooks to my earrings.  :)

BONUS PIC: Courtney was the randomly selected winner of the Owl Print Lunch Bag from the October Second Saturday Giveaway!  I was so excited to be able to give her the bag at the workshop!

Be sure to visit the 4th Annual Flint Handmade Holiday Craft Market for more awesome handmade goodies!

2 comments:

  1. Crystal, I just looked to find out when the Holiday Craft Market was and found this post. Love it! What a great class -- Thanks Courtney! Unfortunately I will miss the Holiday Market, and seemingly all other crafting events. School is really cramping my crafting style. But! So glad I was able to make it to this class and meet you lovely ladies. Hopefully our paths will cross again very soon!

    ReplyDelete
  2. So glad you found the post, Liz! Bummer you can't make it to the Holiday Craft Market, but school does have to come first! Lol

    If you want to get on the Flint Handmade email list to get regular updates, just email us at flinthandmade@hotmail.com. Take care!

    -Crystal

    ReplyDelete