Thursday, February 20, 2014

Lampwork Flower Headpin Zentangle Brooch Tutorial


Yesterday I spied some early Blooms in my yard, so swooped them into my studio to immortalize them in glass...Headpins, to be exact, on annealed steel, just because I love the dark patina. Don't they remind you of antiques from France? Did my traveling Aunt Gretchen show me some like these half a century ago to make me want to make them?




I'll show you how I made a couple Brooches with them today.

First I twisted some forms of maybe 16 g round copper wire and hammered them for strength. (I'll show you both since I made them like so, as "sisters".)









Next step was to wire the Headpins onto their appointed Forms, adding a few crystal beads, with finer copper wire...this is the fun part.




























Here's a back view showing how the pin back was wired onto each brooch, adding the front crystals into spaces needing them.




























Next I added patina front and back, Novacan Black, painting it on with a cotton swab. Sorry, I forgot to pix this step, but it's easy. Then I polished off some with fine steel wool, and washed with dish soap and dried each, polishing just with paper towels.




I added a little Goldfinch to the Violets as shown, just because it's fun using color compliments to sparkle work. He was my first upside down Bird on a wire to make, not the last, God willing..

Hope you enjoyed this little tutorial, and if I can keep my hands from bending the wires on my Headpins into jewelry, I hope to offer some for sale again soon. ;)