*best hillbilly voice* Ma daddy's reaaaal awesome. 'E got mea anvil!
That's right-- I now have an anvil for hammering wire jewelry. You'll never guess what the anvil actually is!
Honestly, I'm not even sure what this thing is. All I know is that it is a car part. Dad used to work in the automotive industry, and this is a casting of a thingamabobbers he worked on.
This random car part works wonderfully as that anvil I had on my wish list. I scrubbed it clean (even though it doesn't look it!) and have driven my family crazy with the bang, bang, bang of the hammer.
My brother is now officially jealous of me. His dream is to become a blacksmith someday, and he's been asking for a real anvil for ages. This is the first time he's actually bothered to help me make some jewelry!
I've been having too much fun with this whole idea of hammering wire. Below you can see all of the trinkets I have made so far:
I'm really impressed with how well this works! The hammering really strengthens the aluminum wire and is so pretty and sturdy!
And... I can do CELTIC KNOTWORK in jewelry!!!
I've listed some beautiful new hammered-wire jewelry on my artfire Shoppe! And on quite the sale, I tell you. :)
Since this is a new technique, I've got all the new designs on a first-batch sale for under five dollars-- some as low as one or two bucks! Seriously, that's like the price of the chain the designs come on. I would love it if some of you Faerie People could try out some of these designs and tell me what you think!
I've already made myself a pretty knotwork bracelet, which I shall wear on St. Patrick's day.
Now all I need is a wire jig... I'm having fun free-forming all of this, but whenever I try a repeating pattern (such as my bracelet, which you can see in the middle of the picture), I can't get it even.
That and sterling silver. Because if I were using silver wire, not aluminum, I'd be able to tell these same designs for $30! Seriously-- I was browsing Etsy and Artfire for inspiration. Apparently no one makes these desings in aluminum... but they do plenty in silver. You can have the same designs for 1/6 the cost. Although, I wish I could afford to work in sterling silver wire. (I'll do it if I have a custom order! Hint, hint!)
By the way, I was inspired to ask about an anvil after looking at my friend Leia's post on her hammered wire earrings. I fell in love with those... You can see that I used the same design on a necklace-- except I hammered much more.