Trying new things

Yesterday I went to Barnes and Noble and looked at graphic novels and jewelry making books.
I got a ton of ideas.

One idea that I have been thinking about was making my own jewelry shapes out of some scrap aluminum that has been sitting in the back yard for years.

I dug around in my dad's tool shed and came up with tin snips.

The aluminum is in sheets that is thicker than a soda can, but not as thick as a tin can.
It is relatively easy to cut, but the tin snips were huge and heavy.
I wanted to make a flower shape, but that ended up being too tricky, so I cut out a heart.

Also the aluminum has a wood grain painted on it.
I saw that I would have to sand it.

Sanding it was not fun. I had to do it outside.
After sanding, and using the giant shears, I pulled a muscle in my back!
And I got a rash from something in the sandpaper.

I went back in the tool shed and got a hammer, files, and a something to hammer on.

My dad says these metal blocks were for hammering out dents in cars.

I hammered with a nail to put a pattern on this heart I cut out of the sheet metal:

I can't wait to buy a set of metal stamps.
They have alphabet stamps at Michaels, like for making artistic dog tags.

Another thing I wanted to try is hammering on some jewelry wire to make it flat.
It looks more professional that way.
After hammering and before:

Now I can make earrings like the lady at the Sawdust Festival!

I'm going to have to get a real jewelers block, though, because these blocks are lumpy and leave bumps on the finish.

After that, I tried something more ambitious.
(I copied this design from a picture I saw online)

Unfortunately, I learned that you are not supposed to hammer on a wire where it crosses over another.
So it fell apart, and I'll have to do it over.

I'm going to have to change the title of the blog, because I'm not doing enough drawing in my journal!