Saturday, September 3, 2011

Little Copper Treasure Tubes

I decided to tackle the Treasure Boxes to Wear tutorial in the June 2011 Belle Armoire Magazine.   I must say that it's my favorite magazine and I love their photography but...  sometimes they truly need to focus a bit more on the how to and a bit less on the beautiful photography if the really think folks are going to make these things.  The authors of these tutorials most likely write a whole lot more than actually gets into the magazine and I think they cut to much out of this particular tut.  The tutorial was wrote by the very talented  Denise Petersen of the Reinvented Objects blog, if you get a chance go over and check out the rest of her amazing work.

There is a huge learning curve when trying to apply an even layer of solder to an curved object and to be honest I never did get it down and I gave up after about 8 tries.  I did get 5 of this style to turn out but to be honest I wasn't that thrilled with the look for all the work it took.  Although I loved Denise's mine were much less refined, I'll call them rustic.  Here is what I ended up with from the tutorial.
Treasure Boxes 2" tall and very "rustic"
Treasure Tube
After trying to make a bunch of these I had an idea to just leave off the soldered outer coating.  Although I love the look of it the fact was it just wasn't turning out like I wished it had, I would heat one spot to attach something and another piece would slide off.  Once I did my own thing they turned out quite nice and yes, there are two boxes that say BITE ME for my friend Melissa of the blog One-Earedpig Beads  :)  Now to turn them into some funky necklaces, photos to come.
My version of the Treasure Boxes that I'm going to call Treasure Tubes, 2" tall tip to tip

6 comments:

  1. Well, I haven't seen what you were working towards, but I think yours look absolutely marvelous! I like both styles. They remind me a bit of bullet casings. I'll be glad to take your not so goods! :)

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  2. Fantastic! I love them... both the rustic and the shiny ones. When I first saw them I really thought they were shell casings. Very, very neat! I'd be more than happy to take a few of your not so goods too! ;-)

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  3. Sweeet! And I like the look without the solder just fine.

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  4. Thanks everyone.

    These aren't casings but just plain old cheap copper pipe from the hardware store and some brass tube from the hobby store.

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  5. Oh, I love the look of these little tubes so much!! I remember the soldering learning curve I had to deal with in the Homesteaders' class. Sometimes that pesky solder just doesn't want to go where it's suppose to, but i still think that your soldered tube look fine! Love them both!

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