I have twisted silver, copper and brass wire into bracelets for years, but it has always been towards incorporating them into the heavy silver and sometimes gold bracelets that I make. With the recent rapid increase in the cost of silver, I hope to expand my brass and copper offerings. This may backfire since people who might otherwise buy a silver bracelet will make due with a copper or brass one. In the end, copper, and especially, brass are very nice metals to work in. When done, they are beautiful (don’t mention tarnish), and the cost allows me to do things that I might not do with silver and never with gold unless someone has already agreed to pay the bill. My twists have always been, well, two wire twists after which they may be forged or rolled or just left round. I have started experiementing with different weaving combinations that may then be twisted, rolled or forged to make interesting looking repeat patterns. I am looking for websites, podcasts, books or articles that might offer new patterns. If anyone has suggestions, please post them. Thanks…Rob
Hi Rob,
here are 2 interesting bracelets…wire art tutorials on instagram.
The concept of putting straight and twisted wires together, and then weaving the sets is interesting…
julie
another idea might be to wrap wire around your cuffs creating unconventional overlay effects…ie: think a wave pattern…or…X’s…or arcs…
another idea would be to shadowbox your wire cuffs…essentially nesting them within a shadowbox cuff…ie: like native american shadow box styles
or…adding pierced strips to one or both edges…ie: think flames…abstract mountain silhouettes…as an example…not neccessarily enclosed piercing…
or…two tone mixed metals
or! experimenting with end cap concepts……ie: david yurman…
actually celtic brooches might be an inspirations…not literally…but patterns…
or…i just had a thought…knot tying patterns…
julie
Hi,
perhaps historical inspiration…
julie
https://inf.news/en/fashion/ea9147354fe4a364fc304a5bb1e451e8.html
Hi,
and while searching around i discovered “TIG wire bracelets”…in steel(?)…with some interesting woven patterns…never heard of them before…i know you gave a PUK welder…perhaps a pattern will intrigue you…
i also stumbled across “Viking bracelets” with interesting twisted patterns…tapered might be interesting…twisted square wire is pretty too
julie
search the jewelry work from Hedeby Denmark, now in Germany. In the 900’s it was a thriving port on the east coast of Jutland (then) Denmark. I was at the museum a few decades ago. Part of what I did for the Utah Shakespeare Festival was showing crowds pre-performance all about the early Renaissance metalsmithing from that area of Denmark. It was twisted copper, brass, silver and any other metals they had at hand. For the jewelry it was used mostly to make brooches to hold women’s clothing together. It was one of the major precursors of quilling that Elizabethan England started when metals became to expensive. The piece you showed, has the portions of that twisted art work.
Hi Aggie,
I was googling Hedeby…norse…viking…and it got me thinking…Don working in shipbuilding…!
julie
Hi Rob this is an interesting little book - Craft Jewellery by Claude Geoffrey-Dechaume.
It’s printed by Faber and Faber London and Boston.
Has a section on twisting and combining twists with photographs.
Cheers Willie
Hedeby was in the 900’s was one of the largest ports in Scandinavia. It had thus all the everyday professions. One they were well known for was metal working. Being Vikings they traveled, and in particular to the British Isles. The Celts loved the twisted metal work, and once learning it, made it their own. The English, practiced it and further helped it travel through out the known world. BUT metals became very expensive not long after. The ladies of Elizabethan England turned to long thin strips of paper. The twisting worked well, but was not a good permanent substitute. Those original pieces are far and few between in museums today. I tracked down a couple examples and waited months for pictures of them from a Museum in St. Petersburg Russia. My sister-in-law escaped from there back in the early 80’s. It was in the 1990’s I did all the searching. Long story short the pictures and other data are in a large storage unit in Utah. We were supposed to be in Florida for 6 months, but it has been 16 years. I was just diagnosed with PCV, Polycythemia Vera. I feel these days I’m living in the middle ages with the practices of blood letting as the medical cure for everything. I won’t be traveling to Utah for a while. When I do, I will get the box with all the info.
Hi Aggie,
you are such a wealth of knowledge!
i sent mu sister a quilling kit for Christmas!
jukie
Following should be a picture of the type of heavy twisted and forged copper bracelet that I am thinking of. I made it from 4 - 12” pieces of 12g copper wire. I like the way that the pattern repeats. That was not the plan, but I like it…Rob
Hi,
oh! idea! consider adding straight wires…to weave around…!
julie
Julie…That may happen. Thanks..Rob
I dabble in blacksmithing as well as jewelry.
There are some interesting twist patterns around the web. As well, you can create complex patterns by varying the twist rate and direction. Any of these could be adapted to jewelry scale and materials; or trigger an aha moment.
Hi,
now that you mention blacksmithing…i was thinking of suggesting Dover ironwork design books…french…which segued to Meixner…German…historical influences…
here is the ironwork book i almost posted…i have quite a few ironwork reference books…long with wood carving and chip carving (for engraving…material removal concepts…) and ornament reference books for pattern inspiration…
Following is from a recent FB post. New work at Rob Meixner - Jewelry. With the price of silver going up 60% since the first of the year, I am experiementing with copper and brass. This is a picture of 12 gauge copper wire twisted and woven bracelets to which I have applied a dark LOS patina and then removed it from the higher polished areas. Copper tarnish, so I am experimenting with ways to slow it down. In the case of these bracelets, car polish. Lots of fun…Rob
Hi,
Have you also tried burnishing with a brass brush and soapy water…?…i love the soft worn look…
julie
Brass brush yes, soapy water no. I will give it a try. Thanks…Rob
The price of silver has forced me to look at alternates when it comes to metals. A return to copper and brass for jewelry nudges me in directions I don’t normally go any more. I work a bit in steel for looks that I cannot get from other metal.
When I started building jewelry I built in copper because Dad has me do it that way. Except for the metal I was making bracelets that looked like Dad’s. Somewhere in the house is a box of maybe thirty copper and brass bracelets that chronical Don Meixner’s learning.
I learned that copper and brass didn’t always play well together when it came to soldering. But I discovered if I used Batterns and tinned the copper with a thin solder covering and then did the same with the brass but I used boric/alcohol flux and the same solder in the tinning process the two metals joined easier.
When scrubbing copper and brass combos ammonia can give the brass a different color. Remember to use Renaissance Wax.
Dad told me that if you are selling jewelry remember the piece doesn’t know what metal it is made from. It takes the same amount of labor to build a copper and brass bracelet as it does a Sterling bracelet. Price your stock accordingly.
Don
The gleaning of ideas from different places I have an old unabridged encyclopedia with lots of pictures that were printed from plates engraved by hand by old time Craftman. You can see how they portrayed and executed design of subject matter and glean lots of knowledge and ideas, these days that beautiful work is not in publications. Lineatype machines used to cast lead as you typed then you set what you typed in preparation of printing, that craft to is changing…~~*Stv