Sunday, August 31, 2014

AJE Component of the Month for August - Leather Feathers!

This month, our component comes from the talented Rebekah Payne of Treewings Studio.  She created these fun, organic leather feathers...she talks a bit about the process here!  We had our choice of an earring pair, or a larger focal feather.



I opted for an earring pair and received a gorgeous set with purple, blue and metallic designs!  I knew that I wanted to create a copper backing to somehow attach the feather to, but it took going to BeadFest this past weekend to solidify my idea in my brain!

Gorgeous lampwork headpins by Jen Cameron and Sue Kennedy!

See the ones circled in yellow? Yep, the orange swirls with purple stripes!  As soon as I saw them, I knew what I was going to do.  I set about making my copper back plates, adding texture, measuring, punching holes and creating balled headpins and earwires.  The plan was to rivet the feathers to the copper piece using the lampwork headpins at the bottom and copper balled headpins at the top.  The tips of the leather would be folded over so the copper headpins would go through twice, making a loop for the copper jumpring.

A not great photo of everything all laid out after I patina'ed and tumbled the wire and metal...except for 1 stupid jumpring that flew out of my hands never to be seen again!
Ta-Da!

The design itself, I really like...I wish my construction had been a bit neater.  I had a mishap with one of Jen's headpins...I started swirling the back and couldn't get it straight for some reason, so I gently straightened it back out, hoping I hadn't work hardened the wire too much.  When I went to try a second time, the wire snapped.  Luckily, there was enough left to work with to get it riveted fairly tight, but I may go back and add a drop of E6000 to make sure it holds.




Thanks, Rebekah for the challenge of working with a new medium for me!  I can't wait to see what everyone else created.  Here is the list...

Guest Artists

The AJE Team
Diana Ptaszynski -  http://www.suburbangirlstudio.com
Jenny Davies-Reazor - http://www.jdaviesreazor.com/blog
Francesca Watson - http://francescawatson.com/




15 comments:

  1. Wow I really love what you did, what a great way to use your feathers and the copper backplate and lampwork pins just look amazing!

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  2. Anonymous4:28 AM

    OMG, those are amazing and inspiring!!! Just beautiful, Melissa!!!!

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  3. Wow, this is amazing, co creative and beautiful!

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  4. Gorgeous. The copper backplate and headpins really make it! What an awesome job.

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  5. They're beautiful Melissa, you have such an amazing way with metal!

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  6. These are so striking! I love them. The headpins just pop with the purple of the feather. I'm loving the idea of backing the feather with something. It encourages me to keep working on techniques so someday I can put some of my fancier ideas into action. Truly beautiful earrings!

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  7. Hi Melissa,
    Your earrings are gorgeous I love them! Mounting them to the copper and using the lamp worked head pins give the leather feathers some needed weight.
    Therese

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  8. What a super-cool way to use the feather! I would have never thought of backing it with metal, but you always surprise me with the metal voodoo that you do so well. I hate that you had the mishap, but at least it was on the back and something that you can secure. Way to go!

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  9. Super cool design! I love the combination of elements and whoo hoo colors! Beautiful!

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  10. Wow those are awesome!! I love everything about them!!

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  11. Holy smokes these are amazing! I'm honored to have a very teeny tiny part to play in this amazing design.

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  12. Oh man - these are so cool! I just love the copper backing you made, and your creative use of those headpins!! Beautiful!

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  13. I can vouch for these - even prettier in person. Light weight, but not overly large. An unconventional but stunning combination. All the better!

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  14. Beautiful earrings Melissa and as Jenny said - even better in the flesh!

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  15. I think these are made up of soft leather. Very creative and awesome.

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I love reading your comments!!!

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