I'm melting warts n all

saltwater etch 1

enamel attempt 1

 While I wait for the scrapings from my fridge to melt to give me an approximation of distilled water for this week's round of experiments I thought I'd share last weeks with you.

First of all I need to credit The Steampunk Workshop for the excellent technical info on how to do the etching. So above is the first piece of my bracelet to be after a few hours of etching. I used the press n peel circuit board paper as a resist for the design and on the back some metal laquer that I had lying about. In typical Breezy fashion the etch is not really deep enough for what I had in mind but I was desperate to get on with it. The result being the rather crap bit of enamelling you see here where I wasn't able to build it up to get a nice finish without going over the lines (am I being too technical?). BUT I learnt some useful stuff along the way which is what it's all about (life lessons now get me). The first thing being leave the black stuff on when you've finished it's far easier to see to cut round than copper on copper.

So . . . second verse

I went too far

 A bit of carelessness with the laquer on the back. Combined with a bit of an afternoon nap. And . . .  just a tad on the deep side in places.

Lets hope for third time lucky folks

Electric Dreams

I don't like to do things by halves so the saltwater etching & enamelling has now developed into a saltwater etching, enamelling and electroforming project.

I'm creating marvellous stuff in my head so can't wait till all my supplies arrive and I can set up my kitchen laboratory.

Peapod Earrings

Meanwhile have this picture of something I made earlier that has absolutely nothing to do with any of the above.

Other than the fact that they are enamel on copper (damn! should have picked out a polymer clay picture).

New Skills

Doodly Fishes

Ages ago I got CorelDraw but never really got round to learning how to use it but, inspired by the gallery on Grains of Glass, I've decided to try my hand at etching some pieces and enamelling them.

I went on the browse looking at various techniques and decided on press and peel paper as a resist with saltwater etching (which I've done before but with not very permanent permanent marker as a resist) .

So . . . I needed some images to print and because I like to use my own  stuff I thought I'd better learn to make my own images.

I've done a lot of scribbling so far and tried to familiarise myself with the various tools and got a bit captivated by the calligraphy pen. I don't think my little shoal of fishes will work out well for enamelling but I do like their smiley faces.