Week 41

It's Xmas eve, and I honestly considered taking a week off for xmas, but...you know...i have RULES and all ;p so I threw together a quick simple piece for the week. It's a hair comb, made of soldered nickel and silver, swarovski beads, and a feather.

As you can see, it's pink. Umm...that was unintentional...and could be fixed...if i wanted to fix it. In college, I worked with nickel a lot (which is what the comb I bought is made of) because it's silver in color and relatively cheap. Nickel really isn't recommended for jewelry, because a lot of people have sensitivities to it. Anywhoooooo, there are a few things about nickel that i forgot in our time apart (since i switched to silver). The first is that it gives off a really horrible smelling fume when you heat it for soldering- the kind that makes you think TOXIC...the second, and more important- is that every piece I have ever made containing both nickel and silver has resulted in the whole thing plating pink in the pickle pot (pickle is a citric acid used for removing the tarnish/heat patina created during soldering or heat forming). A similar thing happens with steel, but i don't work with steel...

Just for fun, here's a picture of our xmas tree:

There are only 4 indigo flourescent bulbs on the whole tree, but boy do they stand out in this picture...

Happy Holidays, everyone!