Christmas Tree Ornament - Secret Santa!
I’m a member of an online group of artisans, mainly from
Canada and the USA but with a sprinkling of ex-pats like myself for good
measure who all hooked up for a Secret Santa exchange of handmade ornaments.
For my ornament, I thought I’d have a go at replicating
something I’d seen in the Bradley Museum at Christmas a few years back. The
Bradley Museum house is decorated each year in the style of the first wave of
19th century settlers in Ontario. I took my inspiration from the lanterns I saw where the light shines through holes punched in decorative patterns.
I started by drawing the shape of a tree with a sharpie directly on to copper sheet.
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| Piercing it out was easy as copper is soft and quick to cut through. |
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I filed the edges with a half round large file, and then worked my way through the grades of sanding paper so the edges were nice and smooth.
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| Next – lots of drilling! I drilled a few extra dimples, as I’m going to be soldering on some silver baubles. These baubles will balance in the dimples rather than get’ blown away’ as I solder. |
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| I textured the surface of the copper with a wire brush. |
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| To make the baubles, I cut silver wire in to 14 little lengths and melt each piece using a lot of flux to form silver spheres. It’s the same technique I use when making the starfish pendant |
The flux helps the silver flow. It’s hypnotizing to watch the wire melt and cling together forming a sphere shape. I have melted some things I didn’t mean to in my time, so melting silver on purpose is really satisfying!
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| Next I solder the baubles on to the tree. I love the way copper turns so many different shades of red and orange as it heats and cools. A right good ‘pickling’ in mild acid removes the firestain! The acid solution I use is very gentle. Properly diluted it can be disposed of down the sink with no harm to the environment. |
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| Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, my hand held torch does not generate the required heat to raise the temperature of the large sheet of copper. I can only get 4 of the baubles to solder. An upgrade to my kit is duly noted for Father Christmas to ponder over. For now, I change the design! |
After a rethink, I drill through the remaining dimples, and using silver headpins I fasten down festive shades of red and green 4 mm crystal beads and secure with jewelers cement on the back! A big cheat – but hey this is now one jazzy tree!
On the star I have stamped a ‘T’ as this is the initial of the recipient. Again, it’s cemented rather than soldered. I hope she likes the idea of being the star on the tree!
Finally – I add six fresh water pearls for a bit of movement. The pearls are ‘wire wrapped’ on to the tree, so they are there to stay and won’t pull off easily!
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| The 'Bradley Effect' as the light shines through the holes. |
Ta-Da! The finished tree safely received!
And here is Ted who I was very excited to receive in the mail - isn’t he soooo cute? Ted is a beautiful handmade old fashioned sort of bear with
moveable arms and legs, made by a very talented woman who is going to be
opening a store and selling these soon. When she does I’ll post a link.
