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Gallery of Brass Patina Designs, Ideas (September 12, 2009)It is SO much fun to patina raw brass stampings at home! So many ways to go! Here are some of my favorite experiments, let me share them with you....I hope it takes you on a whole new journey in your jewelry making.
Here is the basic recipe for home patina that I use ALOT: make a solution of dark vinegar and salt, about five parts vinegar to one of the salt. Use a large shallow glass baking pan. Degrease your brass by washing in hot soapy water and drying THOROUGHLY. Then place in the solution, being careful not to overlap or let anything touch together. Soak for at least an hour. Take out of the bath and put on a metal baking sheet and bake 450 degree oven for an hour or til you like how they look. Take them out, swish in the solution and bake again for another thirty minutes. Remove from the oven, swish in the solution while hot with a tongs, don't touch them! Metal is hot! and then let them dry on two-three layers of wax paper. This will achieve the beautiful blue-green patina. If you don't want the verdigris, don't swish them in the solution again after the final bake. After they cool or achieve the verdigris (sometimes you have to let them set overnight) then you can take them and buff them out, enhance with inks, acrylics, Rub and Buff, whatever you like. You do really need to seal this sort of finish. I prefer Renaissance Wax but for lack of that, you can use Turtle Wax from the hardware store---it, too, is a form of microcrystalline wax and the seal is very muted, matte, almost appears not to exist.....but is VERY durable, whether you use Renwax or Turtle. For sure, however, Renwax is the more professional finish.
This way of placing patina on brass is something I've successfully done for a long time now and so happy to share with you! I'm not done in my journey, yet. I have MANY more experiments to make. Continue to tune in to this gallery and watch it grow as I try out new ideas and make jewelry from the stampings I have patina'd and colorized. The stampings used are available from us at reasonable prices at http://www.bsueboutiques.com; be sure to check the Raw Brass Stampings and Raw Brass Filigree sections of our website as they will be growing constantly, too! |
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Getting to Know Us at B'sue Boutiques (August 31, 2008)| Here and again we have some fun and take some pix of ourselves at work, sometimes doing silly things! We work really hard to get your orders out but sometimes we just have to have a laff. Get to know us, and our cats, Evie and Meep. |
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Easy Designs Made from Brass Stampings (January 23, 2007)| Here's a little gallery to get those creative juices flowing....a few little things I've made up over the years from the brass stampings I carry. Easy and fun, you won't need to attend a jewelry making class to figure them out! Some of the stampings are carried on our home website at http://www.bsueboutiques.com. If you don't see what you need, give me a holler by emailing me at bsue1441@aol.com, or I can perhaps suggest other things we carry that would work. Please refer to this gallery and the photo number, if you are making an inquiry. THANKS! |
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The Romance of an Old Stamping (December 5, 2005)| It's occured to me that I've handled so many wonderful, rare old stampings in the last several years that I ought to be making an album of them to share. Many of late have been old European stampings the likes of which we'll never see again. Most of the stampings shown here are definitely things of the past---they've sold through and I have no more, just memories of having handled them and some pictures to share. The color of them is also a delicate, rare thing. Known as gingerbread brass, or gingerbrass, this color is a product of time, air pollution, dirt and old machine oil---as unappetizing as that sounds, it has produced over time via oxidization the remarkable color you find here. There is no commercial solution that will quickly produce it or no way to fake it so that it looks legit. It is what it is, like it or lump it....really rare and quite beautiful. I do carry some remaining product on my large website at B'sue Boutiques (http://www.bsueboutiques.com) and you will also find a revolving door of antique/vintage product---glass, brass, chain and other findings---in my big Ebay store at http://www.ebay.stores.com/bsueboutiques. We customarily load 100-150 new items per week into our bargain auctions and our Ebay store. If any of these items are still available, you'll find them there or on our website. Most however, have sadly come and gone. |
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Photographic Image Jewelry (November 13, 2004)| This album was entered almost 5 years ago, before alot of folks were mounting things in resin. I have become more and more intrigued with the idea of embedding photos and scrapbook paper images under lenses, glass cabochons, and in the equivalent of what some are calling 'liquid crystal'. Here are a few designs that I have photographed in the past, you can use our art bubbles instead of resin to top your scrap collages. We sell the bezels and lenses on the site at http://www.bsueboutiques.com in 25mm and 30mm. At this time no 2X art bubble lenses are made in the oval shape, but we do have clear, unfoiled cabs in 18x13mm that do a nice job in our 18x13mm mounts. Check my blog archives(you'll find the link at our website at http://www.bsueboutiques.com, click on the link that says Jewelry Making Outside the box) for more projects I've made with lenses and cabochons. |
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Beady Rings Project (May 25, 2004)| Just found....this COOL ring shank finding both in rich goldplate and shimmery silver. These findings have eight loops to their tops, from which you can suspend beads, charms....whatever strikes your fancy. If you are handy with a pliers, you can have a fun new ring for hand or toe in minutes! Approx size 8, slightly adjustable. |
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Button Jewelry Projects From B'sue (February 23, 2004)I im LOVE with old buttons. But unless a button is common, it's a rotten dirty shame to risk harm to it by making jewelry from it. If you leave the shank intact, and don't clip it off, you can use E6000 glue and one day pry it out of the glue and it not be harmed, so long as you don't lacquer over it. Still...
I searched for a source for reproduction buttons and it looked like most companies that were using them were having them custom-made---especially imaginative ones. Finally I found someone who still had dies to make old cufflinks and tie tacks. When stamped into heavy gauge brass, the result looked like old Victorian and Deco metal buttons! But they are flat on the back.
NO MATTER.... To these button shanks (see the pix below) can be added by simple glue, or soldering with a gun, if desired. I use E6000 glue, and have had fab results!
This is an easy project: instant gratification for an accomplished jewelry maker, or an easily-made gift; sweet, quick success for a new, novice jewelry maker.
You will find the button tops and chain findings used in these products on my website at http://www.bsueboutiques.com
HAVE FUN! |
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Favorites (February 8, 2004)| These are some favorites from among past and current designs, as well as vintage things, that appeal to me personally! |
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We Dolls Have Been Busy! (November 22, 2003)| So many people wonder what B'sue and Shelley look like, what our place looks like, what we really do! Well....it's time to show you! |
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NEW PATHWAYS for B'sue (January 30, 2003)| Here you will find some of my explorations with other media, sculpey bead making, Shrink Plastic, Rubber stamping and other eclectica as it comes along! Hey, an artist has to stretch! |
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JEWELRY $20 and UNDER (December 10, 2002)| In response to a challenge! CAN beautiful bibs and bobs be transformed into lovely pieces of jewelry, in a timely fashion, and sold for $20 and under? This page will PROVE it. $20 and under DOES NOT have to look like dollar store jewelry. It DOES NOT have to look like a mass-produced trend. It DOES NOT have to look like unimaginative department store boxed goods....Handmade CAN be attractive, textural, appealing, one of a kind and CERTAINLY!! under $20. |
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B'sue Design (July 30, 2002)| Here's the place to see alot of big glitzy/floral collage jewelry made by B'sue. Most of these pieces were made between 1997 and 2003, and almost all of them were sold long ago. Some were custom projects, which I no longer take on. BUT! I'm happy to help YOU in YOUR creative journeys. We sell the components to make alot of this sort of work, and collage jewelry is my personal forte. Check our site at http://www.bsueboutiques.com for components to make fabulous collage designs...bases, findings, large leaf and flower findings, filigree to manipulate and to wire in the old cagework style. Have questions? Write me at bsue1441@aol.com and please send me the item number and the gallery name so I can come and have a look for you. |
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New Work (Custom Designs in Progress)| If there are pix in this album, they are current designs in progress for special clientele. Your ideas and input are always welcome, though! |
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