Etsy Metal Charm Swap 10

This is my fourth charm swap since being a member of Etsy Metal. Etsy Metal is a juried group of metal artists from all around the world and every 6 months there is a sign up list for the charm swap. The way it works is the swap is limited to 20 members (there are approx 100-150 members of the team). We each make 22 charms. 20 to swap with the other 20 swappers, 1 to sell in the team shop as a individual charm, and the other is put on a bracelet  for a total of 20 charms each made by a different member to sell in the team shop. The money from the sale of the bracelet is donated to a children's art organization chosen by the member who is running the swap at the time. (Each swap is run by a different member, I ran charm swap 8 and when that bracelet sells the money will go to Fleicher's Art Memorial in Philadelphia). Below is the progress of my charms for the current charm swap. They aren't due until the end of this month so although mine have shipped out it will be a while before I get all my new charms all back and I can't wait to see them!

My charms this time around were inspired by my patchwork necklace. They started with a piece of 1x1" copper.

 

Kind of like a puzzle,  I had to cut and fit together 9 little pieces of copper, brass and sterling onto each piece of copper. The little pieces were roll printed with various textures and patterns and each charm had 9 different patterns.

 

Once they were all cut and laid out they are ready to solder.

 

 Here are a few after soldering them all together.

 Then comes some filing, drilling, oxidizing, polishing....and then....the finished charm!

 

 Here is a group shot of all 22 charms. Each one is different from the next.

To see the progress of other members who are involved in this swap you can check out the Etsy Metal blog. Eventually the charms  will be for sale in the Etsy Metal team shop along with a individual charm from each of the swappers. Keep an eye out for all the new charms to be listed soon! In the meantime check out the team shop to see charms and bracelets from past swaps that are currently for sale!

Magazine Cover Contest Results

If you have been reading my blog you know I entered into a magazine cover contest back in July. There were 249 entries and although I did not make it to the cover of the magazine I did make the final 4 which got me a half page write up inside the magazine which is out now (October issue). For those of you who do not have a subscription to "The Crafts Report Magazine" here's what the spread looks like:

Magazine Cover Contest

Back in June I entered a facebook photo competition to try to get my "patchwork necklace" onto the cover of The Crafts Report Magazine. There were 249 entries in the competition which were narrowed down to 64 by the magazine. The 64 finalists were grouped into groups of 4 and everyday for 24 hours on facebook people were able to vote for their favorite  photo from each group. My image was up for voting on July 1 and out of my group of 4 I won! Now I am in the final 4 which is pretty amazing in itself because There were some really beautiful pieces in the running! The final 4 have been grouped into 2 groups of 2 and will be up for voting again on July 9th and 10th. I am up again on the 10th. I would love to win, but even if I don't it has been an honor just to be in the final 4. Below is an image of what I have submitted to the contest. It is made from sterling silver, brass and copper that has been roll printed or hammered cut into small pieces and soldered togehter to form each "quilted" piece. I would love it if you would help me get to the final 2 by going onto The Crafts Report Magazine's facebook page and "liking" the photo of my necklace on July 10th.