Charm Swap 7 ~ progress report 2

Shae Freeman of CitizenObjects

Shae says, "My charms for CS7 are based on a pendant design I started making last year. They are comprised of 100% recycled parts: hand blown glass, bearing races, cotter pins and freeze floats. The hand blown glass bubbles are cut offs from larger work that my good friend and glass artist Jim Vella makes. He kindly lets me have whatever leftovers and 'seconds' that I want. The 'settings' for these charms are actually bearing races that have the bearings removed. These are former bicycle bearings that no longer function properly, but make fantastic industrial prong settings. Freeze floats (also called expansion plugs) are small, convex pieces of steel that are used to plug engine blocks. As the name suggests, they are supposed to pop out of the engine if it freezes therefore keeping the engine block from cracking. Lastly, the bails for the charms are fabricated from cotter pins, all found on the streets of New Orleans."

Ruby from Iacuca

Ruby says, "Hi!  I have started on the charm swap! I will be doing assorted cast brass coral pieces."

Shannon Conrad of RubyGirl

Shooting waxes!

Inbar Bareket

Inbar says, "I've started mine today... I call it: "With me to the moon"Materials are Sterling silver, fine silver and carved bone.

Victoria Takahashi of Experimetal

I am working on fine tuning the functioning of the wings. I think I am going to make the flying crow version on the left for my charms. I am pretty excited about this little guy! He measures 1.5" long and has a 2.5" wingspan.

Ann Jenkins from Tuizui just checked in and adds, "Mine will be a loose doughnut shape that has rustic torch fired enamel and is embellished with multi colored moving "wands" around the edge."

Thanks for reading and we will see you next week with another progress report!