Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Fine Silver + Topaz Pendat (Wirework + Metalsmithing + Art Clay) | Go to post ➜
Hello! ♥
Been a very very long while as life is super busy, but I just had time to make a quick pendant. First one in fine silver, I'm quite pleased with how it turned out though it broke halfway and ended up a bit different from what I'd planned. Posting some process shots since I don't think I'll have time to take proper pics anytime soon..
Bits and pieces - The frame for the stone was made from Art Clay Silver (which fires to 999 fine silver). Wire pieces, soldered and put through a rolling mill.
Soldering on the bezel & bottom pieces - the top bit broke off so I made do without
Added a bail and sulphurised it
Polished the piece and set the stone (Topaz) - I'm not totally happy with the length so I might saw off a bit.
All in all it was a pretty good practice piece, I wanted to try bezel setting a faceted fancy stone as well as try soldering fired Art Clay - which was harder than expected, sintered silver doesn't take solder well at all and needs a bit of filing to get a solid surface to solder to. I'm not happy with the workmanship on some parts, I think I got a little sloppy and could have planned it all out a bit better. Hopefully I'll have time to try again soon :) Cheers until then!
♥ Jasmyn
Labels: handmade, making of, metal clay, sodacrush, tutorial, wire wrapped
7:14 AM
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Fine Silver + Topaz Pendat (Wirework + Metalsmithing + Art Clay) | Go to post ➜
Hello! ♥
Been a very very long while as life is super busy, but I just had time to make a quick pendant. First one in fine silver, I'm quite pleased with how it turned out though it broke halfway and ended up a bit different from what I'd planned. Posting some process shots since I don't think I'll have time to take proper pics anytime soon..
♥ Jasmyn
Been a very very long while as life is super busy, but I just had time to make a quick pendant. First one in fine silver, I'm quite pleased with how it turned out though it broke halfway and ended up a bit different from what I'd planned. Posting some process shots since I don't think I'll have time to take proper pics anytime soon..
Bits and pieces - The frame for the stone was made from Art Clay Silver (which fires to 999 fine silver). Wire pieces, soldered and put through a rolling mill.
Soldering on the bezel & bottom pieces - the top bit broke off so I made do without
Added a bail and sulphurised it
Polished the piece and set the stone (Topaz) - I'm not totally happy with the length so I might saw off a bit.
All in all it was a pretty good practice piece, I wanted to try bezel setting a faceted fancy stone as well as try soldering fired Art Clay - which was harder than expected, sintered silver doesn't take solder well at all and needs a bit of filing to get a solid surface to solder to. I'm not happy with the workmanship on some parts, I think I got a little sloppy and could have planned it all out a bit better. Hopefully I'll have time to try again soon :) Cheers until then!
Labels: handmade, making of, metal clay, sodacrush, tutorial, wire wrapped
7:14 AM
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
DIY Watercolour Tutorial: Glow in the dark galaxy nebula stickers | Go to post ➜
Hello! ♥
So I occasionally do things completely unrelated to jewelry, and last night I made a bunch a glow-in-the-dark nebula stickers. Had the foresight to snap pictures while I was doing it, so here's the tutorial to make your own DIY galaxy stickers! :D (I used stickers, but I guess you can use this to paint cards and other things as well.)
Materials needed:
If you don't already have these, they are available at any stationery/craft store. If you live in Singapore, I bought them all from Popular for under SGD$10 altogether.
-Sheet of plain white labels
-Watercolours and brush (I used one of those cheap kiddy trays where you add water to cakes of paint)
-Toothpicks
-Silver paint marker (optional)
-Glue
-Glow-in-the-dark glitter
Difficulty/Time taken:
-Easy, 1 hour
Basically the watercolours do all the work for you, so artistic talent isn't really needed. It's really fun and even kids can do it, and there's a list of tips and modifications at the end of this post on how to make things easier :)
Start with a plain sheet of white labels - any size will do, really. These are 1 1/4" circles
Lay down a quick wash of diluted black paint - work quickly because it dries fast! Don't flood the labels with too much paint, because excess water will make them curl and peel off the backing sheet. And don't worry about leaving small gaps or messy strokes - watercolours are very forgiving :)
If you like, you can then put on another layer of dark blue paint - shown here on alternate rows
Working quickly, drop a bit of light blue paint onto the stickers - make sure your paint is quite watery or the next step won't work!
Drop a bit of pink paint onto the stickers, overlapping the blue paint a little. Since the paints are both wet they will blend together on their own, no need for you to do much work :D
Closeup!You can see that the two colours will start bleeding together :) Note that watercolours are more vibrant when wet, so when they dry the colours will be less vivid.
Do the same for the rest of the stickers and let dry.
To make the stars, load your brush with white paint and flick it off your finger so that it splatters over the stickers. You can use an old toothbrush as well. (If your paint comes off as fat blobs, it's too thick. If it flicks off properly but there's barely any white showing, it's too thin!) If you're not sure, practise on a scrap paper first :)
Use a toothpick to create bigger stars and comets - Snip the tip off, a blunter tip will give bigger stars. Drag the toothpick to create shooting stars!
Use a silver paint marker to add metallic accents if you want to.
Let all the paint dry, then use glue to draw a line across each sticker.
Sprinkle on the glow-in-the-dark glitter.
All done! :D Let the glue dry and brush off excess glitter and you have your own set of pretty nebula stickers!
Tips/Modifications:
-I used pink and blue for the nebula cloud because that's the most common colour, but you can use other colours like orange or green too :)
-For astrology geeks or cool horoscope gifts, you can paint on the stars in the shape of actual constellations.
-Instead of splattering paint, use a white paint marker for less mess and drying time.
-Instead of glow-in-the-dark glitter, which usually comes in tubes and is a bit messy because you need to apply glue and then the glitter goes everywhere - Use glitter glue that comes in tubes. I've seen regular silver and gold glitter as well as the coloured glitter or "pearly" ones that look really great, and glitter glue is also a lot easier for kids to handle.
One last snapshot! Used a sticker on one of the packages I'm sending out today - brown paper, twine, handstamped glassine bag sealed with a nebula sticker and a bit of scrap ribbon. I have an unhealthy obsession with wrapping things. Anyway, I hope the tutorial made sense :)
♥JasmynLabels: DIY, galaxy, glow in the dark, nebula, packaging, stickers, tutorial
5:01 AM
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
DIY Watercolour Tutorial: Glow in the dark galaxy nebula stickers | Go to post ➜
Hello! ♥
So I occasionally do things completely unrelated to jewelry, and last night I made a bunch a glow-in-the-dark nebula stickers. Had the foresight to snap pictures while I was doing it, so here's the tutorial to make your own DIY galaxy stickers! :D (I used stickers, but I guess you can use this to paint cards and other things as well.)
Lay down a quick wash of diluted black paint - work quickly because it dries fast! Don't flood the labels with too much paint, because excess water will make them curl and peel off the backing sheet. And don't worry about leaving small gaps or messy strokes - watercolours are very forgiving :)
If you like, you can then put on another layer of dark blue paint - shown here on alternate rows
Working quickly, drop a bit of light blue paint onto the stickers - make sure your paint is quite watery or the next step won't work!
Drop a bit of pink paint onto the stickers, overlapping the blue paint a little. Since the paints are both wet they will blend together on their own, no need for you to do much work :D
Closeup!You can see that the two colours will start bleeding together :) Note that watercolours are more vibrant when wet, so when they dry the colours will be less vivid.
Do the same for the rest of the stickers and let dry.
To make the stars, load your brush with white paint and flick it off your finger so that it splatters over the stickers. You can use an old toothbrush as well. (If your paint comes off as fat blobs, it's too thick. If it flicks off properly but there's barely any white showing, it's too thin!) If you're not sure, practise on a scrap paper first :)
Use a toothpick to create bigger stars and comets - Snip the tip off, a blunter tip will give bigger stars. Drag the toothpick to create shooting stars!
Use a silver paint marker to add metallic accents if you want to.
Let all the paint dry, then use glue to draw a line across each sticker.
Sprinkle on the glow-in-the-dark glitter.
All done! :D Let the glue dry and brush off excess glitter and you have your own set of pretty nebula stickers!
Tips/Modifications:
-I used pink and blue for the nebula cloud because that's the most common colour, but you can use other colours like orange or green too :)
-For astrology geeks or cool horoscope gifts, you can paint on the stars in the shape of actual constellations.
-Instead of splattering paint, use a white paint marker for less mess and drying time.
-Instead of glow-in-the-dark glitter, which usually comes in tubes and is a bit messy because you need to apply glue and then the glitter goes everywhere - Use glitter glue that comes in tubes. I've seen regular silver and gold glitter as well as the coloured glitter or "pearly" ones that look really great, and glitter glue is also a lot easier for kids to handle.
One last snapshot! Used a sticker on one of the packages I'm sending out today - brown paper, twine, handstamped glassine bag sealed with a nebula sticker and a bit of scrap ribbon. I have an unhealthy obsession with wrapping things. Anyway, I hope the tutorial made sense :)
♥Jasmyn
So I occasionally do things completely unrelated to jewelry, and last night I made a bunch a glow-in-the-dark nebula stickers. Had the foresight to snap pictures while I was doing it, so here's the tutorial to make your own DIY galaxy stickers! :D (I used stickers, but I guess you can use this to paint cards and other things as well.)
Materials needed:
If you don't already have these, they are available at any stationery/craft store. If you live in Singapore, I bought them all from Popular for under SGD$10 altogether.
-Sheet of plain white labels
-Watercolours and brush (I used one of those cheap kiddy trays where you add water to cakes of paint)
-Toothpicks
-Silver paint marker (optional)
-Glue
-Glow-in-the-dark glitter
Difficulty/Time taken:
-Easy, 1 hour
Basically the watercolours do all the work for you, so artistic talent isn't really needed. It's really fun and even kids can do it, and there's a list of tips and modifications at the end of this post on how to make things easier :)
Start with a plain sheet of white labels - any size will do, really. These are 1 1/4" circles
Lay down a quick wash of diluted black paint - work quickly because it dries fast! Don't flood the labels with too much paint, because excess water will make them curl and peel off the backing sheet. And don't worry about leaving small gaps or messy strokes - watercolours are very forgiving :)
To make the stars, load your brush with white paint and flick it off your finger so that it splatters over the stickers. You can use an old toothbrush as well. (If your paint comes off as fat blobs, it's too thick. If it flicks off properly but there's barely any white showing, it's too thin!) If you're not sure, practise on a scrap paper first :)
Tips/Modifications:
-I used pink and blue for the nebula cloud because that's the most common colour, but you can use other colours like orange or green too :)
-For astrology geeks or cool horoscope gifts, you can paint on the stars in the shape of actual constellations.
-Instead of splattering paint, use a white paint marker for less mess and drying time.
-Instead of glow-in-the-dark glitter, which usually comes in tubes and is a bit messy because you need to apply glue and then the glitter goes everywhere - Use glitter glue that comes in tubes. I've seen regular silver and gold glitter as well as the coloured glitter or "pearly" ones that look really great, and glitter glue is also a lot easier for kids to handle.
♥Jasmyn
Labels: DIY, galaxy, glow in the dark, nebula, packaging, stickers, tutorial
5:01 AM
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Handmade business card tutorial | Go to post ➜
Business cards a one of the must-have things to remind customers who you are, yet oftentimes people simply pounce on the goodies and toss out the card. I confess I'm one of those unappreciative customers, mostly because I find most business cards tacky/plain/mass-produced/badly-designed. I'll only hang onto a card if it's exceptionally well-designed or handmade - I'm a sucker for thoughtful things like that.
So when I whipped up my new batch of Sodacrush business cards, handmade was definitely the way to go. I don't have time spend creating miniature works of art, but stamping is easy and fast, and makes for a unique handmade card your customers might just hang on to.
My cards:
Materials:
1. Self-arrangeable stamp - Get the biggest one you can, so you can include as much as possible. Mine came with two different sizes of letters, and I arranged it to include my shop name and URL.
2. Accent stamp - Can be anything you want, really - birds on a branch, a pretty floral motif, etc. I went for a lip print because I wanted something bold and simple.
3. Blank business cards and ink - Again, any colour you like.
Arrange the words on your stamp and test it to check alignment etc. My accent stamp is actually a hand-carved kiddy eraser, you can definitely make your own logo if you like.
Stamp on text.
Stamp on accent.
Use corner punch to round off corners - not exactly necessary, but I think it's a nice finishing touch :)
And there you have it - lovely handmade cards, handstamped and far more thoughtful than monochromatic mass-printed cards.
♥JasmynLabels: business cards, DIY, sodacrush, tutorial
8:57 AM
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Handmade business card tutorial | Go to post ➜
Business cards a one of the must-have things to remind customers who you are, yet oftentimes people simply pounce on the goodies and toss out the card. I confess I'm one of those unappreciative customers, mostly because I find most business cards tacky/plain/mass-produced/badly-designed. I'll only hang onto a card if it's exceptionally well-designed or handmade - I'm a sucker for thoughtful things like that.
So when I whipped up my new batch of Sodacrush business cards, handmade was definitely the way to go. I don't have time spend creating miniature works of art, but stamping is easy and fast, and makes for a unique handmade card your customers might just hang on to.
Materials:
1. Self-arrangeable stamp - Get the biggest one you can, so you can include as much as possible. Mine came with two different sizes of letters, and I arranged it to include my shop name and URL.
2. Accent stamp - Can be anything you want, really - birds on a branch, a pretty floral motif, etc. I went for a lip print because I wanted something bold and simple.
3. Blank business cards and ink - Again, any colour you like.
Arrange the words on your stamp and test it to check alignment etc. My accent stamp is actually a hand-carved kiddy eraser, you can definitely make your own logo if you like.
Stamp on text.
Stamp on accent.
Use corner punch to round off corners - not exactly necessary, but I think it's a nice finishing touch :)
And there you have it - lovely handmade cards, handstamped and far more thoughtful than monochromatic mass-printed cards.
♥Jasmyn
So when I whipped up my new batch of Sodacrush business cards, handmade was definitely the way to go. I don't have time spend creating miniature works of art, but stamping is easy and fast, and makes for a unique handmade card your customers might just hang on to.
My cards:
Materials:
1. Self-arrangeable stamp - Get the biggest one you can, so you can include as much as possible. Mine came with two different sizes of letters, and I arranged it to include my shop name and URL.
2. Accent stamp - Can be anything you want, really - birds on a branch, a pretty floral motif, etc. I went for a lip print because I wanted something bold and simple.
3. Blank business cards and ink - Again, any colour you like.
Arrange the words on your stamp and test it to check alignment etc. My accent stamp is actually a hand-carved kiddy eraser, you can definitely make your own logo if you like.
Stamp on text.
Stamp on accent.
Use corner punch to round off corners - not exactly necessary, but I think it's a nice finishing touch :)
And there you have it - lovely handmade cards, handstamped and far more thoughtful than monochromatic mass-printed cards.
♥Jasmyn
Labels: business cards, DIY, sodacrush, tutorial
8:57 AM
Friday, April 1, 2011
Motivational inspirational matchbox handmade diy gift | Go to post ➜
MOTIVATIONAL MATCHBOXES.
(in 10 easy steps!)
Pretty, no? :D This is a really quick walk through of how to make these simple matchbox gifts for a friend! All you need is some imagination, and lots of love ♥
1. Start with a plain matchbox. (I made my own using this template)
2. Take a sheet of decorative paper. You can use scrapbook paper, but I decided to go simple and use a grid lined paper from a notebook.
3. Trace out the shape of your matchbox tray.
4. For this, I decided I wanted a pop-up 'STAR' to be part of the quote, so I cut two small pieces of craft foam, smaller than my sticker.
5. Mark out the placement of the quote with pencil.
6. Ink with pen, let dry. Erase pencil marks.
7. Double-sided tape, stack up and stick foam cut-outs.
8. Place sticker to complete 3D effect!
9. Cut out quote.
10. Trim to fit matchbox tray. Glue into tray.
For the cover, I just glued a strip of grid paper around the cover and put a matching star sticker on it :)
And there you have it! Quick, simple, and something meaningful that will definitely brighten up anyone's day. You can put in quotes that mean something to you and your loved one, or even tiny trinkets or mementos of a special trip.
♥JasmynLabels: DIY, handmade, matchbox, motivational, tutorial
9:21 AM
Friday, April 1, 2011
Motivational inspirational matchbox handmade diy gift | Go to post ➜
MOTIVATIONAL MATCHBOXES.
(in 10 easy steps!)
(in 10 easy steps!)
Pretty, no? :D This is a really quick walk through of how to make these simple matchbox gifts for a friend! All you need is some imagination, and lots of love ♥
1. Start with a plain matchbox. (I made my own using this template)
2. Take a sheet of decorative paper. You can use scrapbook paper, but I decided to go simple and use a grid lined paper from a notebook.
3. Trace out the shape of your matchbox tray.
4. For this, I decided I wanted a pop-up 'STAR' to be part of the quote, so I cut two small pieces of craft foam, smaller than my sticker.
5. Mark out the placement of the quote with pencil.
6. Ink with pen, let dry. Erase pencil marks.
7. Double-sided tape, stack up and stick foam cut-outs.
8. Place sticker to complete 3D effect!
9. Cut out quote.
10. Trim to fit matchbox tray. Glue into tray.
For the cover, I just glued a strip of grid paper around the cover and put a matching star sticker on it :)And there you have it! Quick, simple, and something meaningful that will definitely brighten up anyone's day. You can put in quotes that mean something to you and your loved one, or even tiny trinkets or mementos of a special trip.
♥Jasmyn
Labels: DIY, handmade, matchbox, motivational, tutorial
9:21 AM
Search ★
Looking for something specific? A tutorial, tip or design? Use this search box to find what you need!
Search ★
Looking for something specific? A tutorial, tip or design? Use this search box to find what you need!
About ★
Currently on HIATUS but leaving this blog up for those who are still looking at old tutorials/process shots :) Will be back one day maybe!
About ★
Currently on HIATUS but leaving this blog up for those who are still looking at old tutorials/process shots :) Will be back one day maybe!