My Finished Soldered Necklace & More

Hey Sweeties, Happy Hump Day!!!

Today's the day of the big reveal...

the finished product of my 1st soldered necklace & even I must say,

I LOVEY IT!

It may actually be worth all the aggravation

of soldering! ;)

Don't you just love my little civil war girl's grumpy face?
She reminds me of Shirley Temple for some reason.

Something I DO enjoy doing, is hand-wiring together crystal beads.

When done with an annealed steel, they have the look

of a vintage rosary...Heavenly. 

Now, being that I am the Queen of SPOONIN,

I had to add a vintage spoon to the mix.

I chose one that is very close to my heart,

a souvenir spoon from

Long Beach, Ca where I was born.

I also added a small vintage brooch as a chain connector.

I love that this piece is just as beautiful on the back, as on the front.

My antique ledger paper I got from The French Larkspur

is perfect with it's 1855 date showing.

I have to tell you though, it was very hard for my to cut something

that was so old. I only know that I will cherish each little piece

& put it only in my art projects that will be loved & treasured.

And how cool is it that on the back of my favorite spoon
the date is marked 1917. This truly is an heirloom necklace.

So overall soldering is still a struggle for me, but I've found that

the end result can be worth every burnt finger &

swear word I had to go through to get here. 

Now in contrast to soldering,
making these cute little vintage coin purses into necklaces is easy

& so much fun. Since I adore tintypes, I just include them to

everything I make these days. They add that touch of the past

that really brings your piece to life!

I LOVE copper!

I love the patina it gets with time

I had a fabulous antique copper skeleton key that I used as a

chain connector for this necklace & I added a bit of

chain with an old Pepsi Cola coin dangling from it.

It worked perfectly as it is an old coin purse, right.

I even made a pair of matching earrings with a couple of metal

elements I got at Round Top from Sandy Schor. I swear,

his booth alone calls me back to Texas!

The set together...

too bad I didn't notice that the key was

backwards when I took the picture. :)

All in all, this past week has been full of creativity.

I've tried my hand at techniques that scare me,

I've learned about the concept of wabi sabi,

I've embraced the beauty of imperfection,

& I know as with all things,

I will only get better with practice.

Patience Grasshopper, patience.

XOXO

vintagesusie