copper – A Smith of All Trades

Key and Crystal Wind Chime

July 23, 2013July 22, 2013 Jessica Smith

As promised — new craft project!!!

Remember how I altered my aunt’s beautiful wind chime to match her preexisting one? That project inspired me to think out of the box to create her a final wind chime to complete her set. Both of her chimes are copper with key and crystal accents, and I happened to have a ton of old keys and chandelier crystals in my craft room. What luck!

I set out to make my own wind chime using keys, crystals, wire, chain and an embroidery hoop.

First, I separated my hoop into two pieces. I went outside and hit each side with some copper spray paint to match my aunt’s existing chimes.

Once the hoop was dry, I brought it inside and drilled six holes around the inner of the two hoops. This is where I attached the actual chimes, using the outer ring as a safety measure against the wire getting too much wear and tear.

When the holes were drilled, I started making each strand of the chime. I didn’t want my strands to be even, so I didn’t bother measuring out the chain. For this step, I laid out my supplies: pliers, wire, chain, keys, crystals.

I had two sizes of crystals from a leftover chandelier: Large drops and small faceted octagons. I used the large drops at the end of each chain to give them weight. For keys, I had a nice mixture to choose from. I opted to not be matchy-matchy. I spray painted a few copper, but left others natural.

To get the crystals onto the chain, I took a copper wire and looped it through the pre-drilled hole.

Once the wire was in and trimmed to a good length, I started to twist it around itself, creating a loop at the other end and hooking in the chain. Once the chain was hooked onto the wire, I came back down the wire, wrapping it around itself until the wire ran out.

After the anchor crystals were on, I continued this process up the chain. Crystal, key, crystal, key. I added more keys to some chains, and fewer to others.

Once the chains were created, I attached them to the embroidery hoop using the same method of twisting the wire. When all six chains were added, I added two chains at the top (using the existing holes) to hang the chime from.

{A Smith of All Trades} Crystals

Aren’t the crystals beautiful?!

And I just love the different keys that I added to the chime. They are all so unique.

The chime is so pretty, I almost don’t want to send it off to my aunt. But it will match so nicely.

What do you think? Will you be grabbing your space embroidery hoops and old chain to make a chime? You could make on using beads instead of crystals! Anything would go 🙂

Craft Projects, Jewelry, Quick and Easy Crafts

DIY Button Ring

February 5, 2013 Jessica Smith

Today has not been my day. After getting all decked out in Ravens gear and heading to Baltimore for the parade, we instead sat in terrible traffic. Then, when we got into the city, they promptly redirected us right back out onto the highway. No Super Bowl celebration for us. So sooo bummed.

Instead I worked like most everyone else, which is good because I had stuff I needed to do. So, instead of Super Bowl celebration photos, here is a post I had scheduled for Wednesday for your enjoyment 🙂

I showed you how to make a few different types of button earrings in my last few posts, so today I’ll share how to make a button ring. It’s a little trickier than the earrings. All you need is a button, some hard wire, some pliers, and something to bend your wire around so it stays round — I have a ring sizer I use specifically for making rings.

Thread your wire into your button holes.

On the under side of the button, bend the wire in opposite directions. Then, send one of the wires back up and down through the holes again. Twist the wires around one another so the button will not fall off the wire if you let go.

Then, wrap your wire around something that will hold the round shape. I chose to have a thicker band, so I wrapped the wire around my ring sizer four times.

Next, starting with one side and at the base of the button, start wrapping the leftover wire tightly around the ring band.

Do the same to the other side. Stop when you get all of the way around, or when both sides are even. If you wrap the wire around the entire band, your ring will be a lot smaller than you originally sized it to be, so keep that in mind.

Cut the excess wire off and fold the edges down against the band. With that, your ring is finished!

Pretty darn cute, right?

Craft Projects, Jewelry

Silverware jewelry

January 5, 2013January 3, 2013 Jessica Smith

Back in November I showed you how to make spoon earrings. For Christmas I made a smaller set of fork earrings for my best friend. I also made her a spoon necklace to go with them — fitting because of her love of all things culinary.

This necklace is fairly easy to make. You need a pliable spoon (preferably one with a pretty handle), E6000 glue, chain, a clasp and a set of clamps.

Step 1: Trim the chain down to desired length and add clasp. Set aside.

Step 2: Carefully bend spoon handle backward until the tip of the handle reaches the middle of the back of the spoon.

Step 3: Place a moderate amount of E6000 between the back of the spoon and the handle.

Step 4: Clamp the handle to the spoon and let dry overnight. When you remove the clamps, the handle should be securely connected to the back of the spoon.

Step 5: Clean up any excess glue and add the necklace chain through the hole in the handle.

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