Thursday, March 24, 2011

Soldering Art Glass Pendants: A Video Tutorial

I was asked recently how I made the art glass pendants I posted a while back.  I'm no pro at this technique and am still very much a novice, but I found this video on YouTube and I think it explains everything you need to know to start making your own soldered art glass pendants.  I have also listed another tutorial under My Pages on the right hand sidebar.  It's listed under the Non-Video tutorial page or you can click here.  One last note, here is what I used to make my soldered glass pendants, a starter kit from SimplySwank.Net

Great Informational Tutorial on Domino Art Pendants


I am so excited to share this tutorial I found on making Domino Art Pendants.  This website, TheEnchantedGallery.Com, is so full of detailed information on all sorts of great crafting techniques, as well as a store that you can buy beautiful stamps (and other fun stuff) by the artist and website owner, Kimberly Crick.   My favorite tutorial pages from this site are Decorating Dominoes with Rubber Stamps and Coloring Media & Techniques.  I was blown away by the amount of information that is shared here.  The photographs are beautiful and a variety of techniques are explored, along with different products used and their pros and cons.  So, instead of having to learn by trial and error, and waste your money on products that you don't end up liking, you can read what this artist experienced with different media and sealing agents, and make a more informed decision when buying your supplies for this project!

Most of the domino pendants that I make are not actually rubber stamped.  I have been using small prints of my artwork and adhering them with acrylic gel medium, then sealing them with glossy accents or modge podge.  Now that I've seen these tutorials I have a lot more ideas to use in the future!  I hope you find this information useful.  Making domino art pendants is addicting and I think I'm hooked! Let me know what you think and share some of your creations if you decide to have a go at this project!

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Obsessed with Dominoes!

I've really been into making jewelry lately (as you can see from my last few posts), partly because I feel afraid to start a new painting as I have several unfinished laying around.  I can't seem to get anything going that I like.  So instead, I've been using some prints of my existing art and few new small artworks to make dominoe and soldered glass slide pendants.  I LOVE the dominoes!  They are so fun to work with, and I just love the weight and feel of them (I also love the sound of them when they click together).  I'm starting to amass quite a collection!  Here is a look at what I've been doing!
















Sunday, March 13, 2011

Original Art Jewelry: So fun!




These are some pendants I made using prints of my original paintings.  I'm just experimenting, but I really like the way they look.  I'm not sure how to attach the bales so that they are durable.  I sealed the backs and then painted a layer of black acrylic, then using jewelry glue, glued the bale to the back.  I wore one of them for a few days and soon the bale and layer of acrylic paints peeled off.  Any ideas on how I can make these better?  On another note, photographing these is no easy task!  They look much better in person, but I am a very amateur photographer and don't know how to get rid of the reflections in the glass.  Tell me what you think about these...do you think they would sell on Etsy?


These I made using stainless steel washers and shell buttons and wire.  I used jewelry glue to put it all together and they are very durable.  What do you think of these?  Do you think something like this would sell on Etsy?
Front of Pendant

Backside of pendant
More attempts at soldering.  This is the back and front side of one pendant.  I'm still working on the soldering technique...My husband built me a rheostat (controls the temperature of the soldering iron) using a dimmer switch and a regular plug in thing.  I plug the rheostat into the wall outlet and my iron into the rheostat.  I use the dimmer switch to control how much electricity is being fed to the iron (thus regulating the temperature!  My husband is a genius!  It has helped a lot and I think my pendants are starting to look a little better.  Here are a few more pendants I've made recently...




Thanks for reading and I'd love to hear your feedback on these, good or bad!  Happy Creating, have a great week!