Monday, July 6, 2015

Testing the "Totally Tubular" Tut


Happy Monday!

A couple of weeks ago, Karen shared her tutorial on using copper tubing with cross-pinned accents here.  Well, I was stoked!  I have used copper tubing before....

The beads below were made with 1" slices of copper tubing, to which I soldered tiny discs to the ends, with a hole in the middle to create a bead.  I baked on slices of textured precious metal clay.



It made such a pretty bracelet - and it also took a long time to create.  It was one of kind for sure!




The next bracelet features copper tubing hammered flat, to which I riveted a strip of twisted Argentium silver for the focal.


Again - flattened copper tubing and some rivets created a nice little focal piece for this bracelet.



The earrings below feature thin slices of copper tubes which I did not darken with liver of sulfur - going for a contrast mixed metal vibe.


Feeling brave after reading Karen's tutorial, I ran to Home Depot to get some more tubing! I wanted to see if I could make that bangle!


I was not so sure I could solder the ends, but solder paste certainly helped! If you look closely in the bottom right corner of the bangle, the seam is barely visible.


Time to cross - pin!  Karen was right - the hardest part is determining the length of the "pin".  My first piece was not perfect - or even close!  But, I kept at it....


Not so very easy for me to take a picture of this necklace - the focal does not bend - lol! This necklace represents my use of beading wire and crimp beads...I swear, I have not used crimp beads in AGES.


Last up are these earrings - I soldered some jump rings to the edges of the tubing, and added a few extra silver beads, as well.


I have so enjoyed using this copper tubing!!! Many, many thanks to Karen for re-inspiring to try something new!

Anyone else tried Karen's techniques???  


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