Pile of Copper

I have looked at the pile of copper bits and bobs in my scrap box, and they represent my first 3 months of working with metal at 'school'. (I had done some metal clay and wire work before).

I have experimented quite a bit, and have sorted the pile into various 'themes' I have been working on.

Here is the pile:

After sorting:

All these pieces above  have used twisting wire techniques, some of them twisted then put through a rolling mill (the rings with the red stones for instance). The theme for our work this term had been 'twists in nature'.

These are the rings, some finished and some just technique practising (the 'gear' at the bottom for instance).

Then the flowers:

I started making flowers to practice my metal sawing (piercing) skills. Then I got carried away with other embellishments...

Copper Etching: I learnt this technique from one of my jewellery books, and it's really good fun, although I'm not entirely in control of it yet. The fox head on the right is the piece I'm most happy with... And his friend the duck and fish.

Trying to make copper look like something else using patina:

Also from a book - making the copper red by dropping it still red hot into a pan of boiling water. You get different results every time, which is nice I suppose, but I quite like to control the end result so I'm not sure how much I would use this in the future. It's quite 'rustic'. (The skull on the left is copper clay).

Chasing (or punching):

Our teacher showed us how to grind a steel nail into a chasing tool, so I made one for dots and one for lines, used on these pieces.

 The seaweed earrings:

These were made to both cover the 'twists in nature' project and also to practice piercing intricate shapes. I like the smaller ones, and have even worn them.

There are still millions of things to try, so I'll get busy...