Originally uploaded by CleverGirlBek
There is still time to ship FedEx 2 day and FedEx Overnight for delivery on 12/24 (weather permitting, of course)…
Just checkout on Etsy and head to PayPal to pay and choose the shipping service that fits your needs…
Details are in each listing in my shop and in the shop announcment: CleverGirl.Etsy.com
Hope this helps!
Hope everyone is well!
xo
Bek
Originally uploaded by CleverGirlBek
These were my first vintage plastic purchase.
These little vintage catalin/Bakelite cabs are why I stopped beading and started hammering and melting.
I bought these, early last year, from a seller on eBay… The purchase was the ultimate decadence to me then. And I had plans . I was going to set the little cabs in silver bezels that I had found when experimenting with PMC3/Metal Clay…Easy enough.
When they arrived I found that vintage catalin/Bakelite is not a precisely calibrated material. Each piece was just different enough that the die formed bezels, that came with my little PMC starter kit, were of absolutely no use.
So I put them aside.
I melted my first PMC piece. Purely by accident. I was captivated by the mirror shimmy that the liquid silver danced under the flame of my little butane kitchen torch.
I had some wire, so I melted that too. I must have melted a hundred little balls on my soldering block. My husband sat with me and watched while I teased the metal into perfect little orbs and tiny kisses on the ends of wire.
A brief search of the online card catalog for our county revealed a few books on the topics of silversmithing and metalsmithing. Some of them were fairly new, most of them were long out of print and some even rare. I had my husband borrow one for me and I read. I didn’t understand a word of McCreight’s Complete Metalsmith so I found a book by Jinks McGrath that offered a nice cross-section of information- it assumed little-to-no knowledge of metalwork and tools and provided many photographs.
And then I got to work making bezels, and I haven’t stopped since….
Originally uploaded by CleverGirlBek
Ahhh sunny Florida and vintage souvenirs….
Sometimes, though, there is a little too much detail on pieces… This particular intaglio pictures some palms, the beach, a flamingo, and what I’m guessing is a lady sunning her legs while the rest of her is under the cover of an umbrella…
But, due to the monochromatic and general tiny-ness of the piece is looks like a giant clam eating a person.
Now that would have been a classic drive-in bit…
With Love,
From Sunny Florida
Originally uploaded by Outlined.
Voila! The ad!
Be sure to visit KnottyByNature -lots of cool paper goods and other treats! Knottybynature, aka Outlined. (on flickr) is totally awesome and scanned this baby in…
Can you spot my piece? Hint: It’s red and cordiform (word o’the day)
Congrats to everyone who got a space and fingers and everything else crossed that even with this economy this ad gives all of the fine Etsy folks a little nudge in the sales department!
And for the time being…Tell me how you found my Etsy shop in the “notes to seller” area during checkout and I’ll refund your shipping via Paypal. (Even if you have shopped with me before…Just tell me how you originally found me.)…
Hugs all around!
B
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CleverGirl on Etsy
The Happy Aspie
