Moving Day!

I have a lot of trouble staying in one place, so alas it has come time that I move on from this blog. From now on, you can read all of my posts (and I promise there will be a lot more this time ’round) at Paper Wires and Colored Pencils.

Thanks for reading!

Paperwire is open!

Man, I’ve been working on this for several weeks now, but the time has finally arrived! I’ve said goodbye to my old Etsy store, Swirlycues, and dove into the deep end with Paperwire, a store for my jewelry, original art, and stationery. Here’s a taste of what I’ve got up already, and what’s to come!

Pictures and designs © Molly Schlemmer 2008. Do not use or redistribute without permission.

Hot cocoa for fun and profit

I’m sure it’s warm somewhere, but here in Michigan it’s getting rather chilly. Like a lot of other people, the boyfriend and I are trying to keep our heating bill down, which means it’s also a little chilly in our apartment. Needless to say, cold fingers make jewelry making a little difficult, and gloves are a little too bulky.

My solution? Hot cocoa!

OK, really, this is just a blatant excuse to drink hot cocoa (and to post my recipe for it), but really, is there anything wrong with a nice hot mug of cocoa? Didn’t think so. So, without further ado, here is my base recipe for a lovely single serving of cocoa, and several different (and delicious) ways to fancy it up.

Basic Hot Chocolate

2 tsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp. sugar
1 tbsp. half and half
Milk

Mix the cocoa powder and sugar in a mug. Add the half and half, and stir to combine. Fill the rest of the mug with milk. Heat in the microwave for 1 minute, stir, and then heat for an additional minute.

That on it’s own is quite nice, but here are a few ways to make it even tastier:

Mexican Hot Cocoa

Add a dash of cinnamon and a dash of cayenne pepper to the cocoa and sugar mixture. The cinnamon keeps it sweet, while the cayenne packs a punch. Adjust the two ingredients to your tastes.

Peppermint Hot Cocoa

Add 1/4 tsp. peppermint extract along with the half and half. If you have peppermint drink syrup (like for coffee), you can probably substitute 2 tsp. of the syrup for the sugar, but I have not tested this.

Almond Hot Cocoa

Add 1/4 tsp. almond extract along with the half and half. This is also delicious with hazelnut coffee syrup (again, substitute the syrup for the sugar).

I hope you enjoy this simple little recipe, and that it helps you to continue to create awesome things through the winter!

Adventures in Oxidizing

Yesterday, after making a couple of pairs of earrings with some antiqued copper and silver pieces but with bright shiny metal wire, I decided to venture into the world of metal oxidization. Turns out, the process is extremely easy, if you can deal with the waiting (which is, as the great philosopher Petty tells us, the hardest part). I went with the boiled egg method of oxidizing, since I didn’t have any Liver of Sulfur or SilverBlack on hand (and, also, I’m dead broke). Here, with pictures provided, are my results.

Note: This isn’t meant to be a tutorial. After all, I’m just starting with this process. If you’re looking for a good tutorial, here’s the one I used.

Here are my items pre-oxidization. I ended up abandoning my ingenious paperclip dividers in favor of getting more contact with the egg (and, also, they were a pain when flipping the bag during the process).

Poor things. Didn’t know what was coming… I boiled my eggs for about 15 minutes, as per the tutorial, but I’m not honestly sure it matters if you end up overboiling the eggs.

Mwahahahahaha! Smashing the eggs in the bag is entirely too much fun. Just make sure you don’t actually smash your pieces! And also, try to touch the bag as little as possible at first; those eggs are really hot…

And now, we wait…

And wait…

And, well, it took awhile. I’m pretty sure I should have used more eggs than I did given the number of pieces I had in the bag. I didn’t take most of the pieces out until that evening, which means they spent about six or seven hours in the bag. The silver ear wires are still in the bag with new eggs, as they were just refusing to oxidize (the bastards…), but things are working much better now.

Now for the results!

The bastard ear wires as still missing from the second pair of earrings, but hopefully they’ll be finished soon. I’m extremely happy with the results, and I will definitely be using this technique again. It adds just so much depth to a piece. I especially love working with copper because the patina it gets as it ages is just beautiful, and oxidizing the copper just adds a whole new layer to everything.

Next up: why I’ve come to love making my own findings.

So I appear to be rather lucky…

…as I’ve snagged another Treasury! This time, all of the featured items were made by my lovely fellow Etsy Bloggers. So be sure to check it out here.