How to polish raw brass jewelry

A lot of the metals I use in my jewelry designs include raw brass and raw copper. And by raw, I mean that there are no finishes applied to the metal, such as any patinas, antique finishes, or anti-tarnish treatments. I LOVE my metals raw. But by nature, raw brass and raw copper are both rather reactive to air and the oils on your skin, and therefore tarnish much quicker than sterling silver (which also tarnishes, but much slower). Personally, I love the natural aged patina that happens after wearing brass jewelry, but I also love a good golden gleam! Great news is, brass is super easy to polish! 

I use Brasso. You can find it at Home Depot for around $2 and some change! It's so easy to use. It looks like this:

I just take an old pair of socks you no longer use. Make sure they are clean! I said old..not dirty. ;)  Put them on your hands like mittens. Use one sock for the Brasso and the other sock for final buffing. I'm right handed so I use my right hand sock for the Brasso and left hand for buffing. Dip the tip of your index finger into the Brasso (its texture is like lotion which makes it relatively mess free! and you don't need much.."just a dot, not a lot" you know the saying if you have little ones). And just rub it directly onto the metal in a circular motion. You'll see the tarnish start to disappear (it's transferred onto the sock). Dab more Brasso as needed. Then do a final buff with your clean sock on the left hand. Voila! Your brass should now be gleaming like new!

See the photo below. On the left, is the tarnished brass bracelet. Right side has been polished with Brasso. And to illustrate how quick and easy it is to polish, I finished this bracelet in less than a minute. It's not much trouble and a very small price to pay to go with raw brass (versus gold plated..which brasso cannot untarnish). It is affordable, tarnishes beautifully, and can be polished beautifully (and easily)! 

 

The cool thing about this stuff is that it also works on several other metals: copper, stainless, chrome, aluminum, pewter, and bronze. But do not use it on plated metals or metals that have artificial patinas or anti-tarnish finishes on them, and do not use on stones.

Next up, I'll share my homemade sterling silver polish. You won't believe how easy it is..it's seriously like magic! But really, it's just chemistry. ;)  

This post came about after fielding several questions from customers. So as always, let me know in the comments if you have any other questions about jewelry or metals or stones! I love sharing my knowledge about these things and if I don't know the answer, I will find it! 

Have a happy weekend!!

Mini Makeover :: Stenciled Headboard Feature Wall

Last year, when my husband and I became new homeowners, I had a list of about a hundred different things I needed/wanted for the house and a million different decorating visions playing out in my mind. Slowly but surely, things are piecing together as we're creating a home for our little family of 5. Being budget conscious, we've tried to find ways to make this home our own without breaking the bank. I'm no stranger to garage sales, estates sales, logging time on Craigslist, and reusing/repurposing what we already have. That said, after many unsuccessful searches for the perfect headboard, I decided to lean toward more nontraditional routes. My thought: headboards are luxury items, not a necessity. At this time, I can't justify spending hundreds on a piece of furniture that serves no function and is merely decorative. I know the hubby is happy about that. It is probably the last thing on my list. Yet at the same time, I really dislike the empty wall where the headboard should be. I wanted something different...and big..and a focal point in the room. Problem is, it's not really safe to hang anything there, especially anything substantial, that could potentially be the cause of some head injuries. Thank goodness for pinterest! At some point, I remembered seeing a huge statement wall with framed wall-paper and thought that would be the perfect solution. But after searching for the perfect wall paper (and there's some really fantastic stuff out there...with textured and fabric varieties), I realized it would end up costing just as much as an actual headboard!!! Plus, I hear it's quite the pain to install. So no brainer, the wall paper option was out. I ran through other options...decals? Nope, giant stickers should not cost a small fortune...and I wanted more creative freedom. Painted mural? Nope, I have neither the time nor the talent of a mural artist. Stencils? It does allow for some creative freedom, it's budget-friendly, time-friendly, and can achieve the look of wall paper. No brainer!

Bring on the weekend project!

I found the perfect stencil from Royal Design Studio. I'm a huge fan of herringbone, so when I saw this "herringbone shuffle", my search was over. I'm also a sucker for ombre, so all I needed was two contrasting colors of paint.

 

I just grabbed two sample containers of Valspar in white and the darkest grey they had. Every shade in between, was up to me to mix. This is more than enough paint for the entire project. I think I used maybe 1/5 of the jar. And each jar costs less than $3. I purchased stencil brushes for this, but I know any clean, flat edged brush would've been just fine for the job.

Now that you have your supplies, and your blank wall, let's get started!

Draw a horizontal line where you want the top of your frame to be. Make sure it's level. We used the window frames and the molding on the ceiling and measured from there. Then find the center of the line and draw an intersecting vertical line. Again, make sure it is level and straight and centered.

Start the stencil from the center and go outward. *This is important: The edge of the pattern should be lined up on that center vertical line, not the edge of the stencil sheet.* Either side is fine as long as you're going out from the center. Use painters tape to adhere the stencil to the wall.

I stenciled by section, starting from 1. Working outward from the center made more sense to me. That way, I knew the entire wall would be centered and I didn't have to measure exactly where the outer edges would be. I alternated between right and left sides to allow the freshly painted sections to dry before adding to it. 

I chose to go with an ombre effect so I started the top with just pure grey, gradually mixing in the lighter shades of grey as I went down. And at the very bottom, I went with the pure white. In several places, I put highly contrasting shades next to one another. This was pretty random because that's how I like it, but if you preferred the pattern to be more uniform, that would be easy to do as well. Also, I ended up using the stencil 4x across, spanning just a bit longer than our king sized bed. It's nice it worked out that way, but if you needed a smaller width, you can just stencil in a portion  and leave off the rest. That's why it made more sense to me to go from the center out.

The frame is optional, but I feel it adds the perfect finishing touch. We went with unfinished wooden molding. They come in 8ft segments and were measured and cut at a 45-degree angle on the ends to frame together nicely. We purchased 4 and they were $4.96 each. You don't need to do the math to know that this is far cheaper than buying a custom wooden picture frame, especially one of this massive size. We just cut, sanded, and used a "driftwood grey" wood stain to finish these before adding them to the wall. The adhesive he used was liquid nails.

My handy husband was the one responsible for the trim. He first nailed each piece of trim at the very center--not all the way in, but just enough to temporarily hold the trim in place. This is for two purposes: 1) he could then pivot the trim around that center to make sure it is leveled, and 2) it helps to hold the trim in place while the liquid nails adhesive sets. Once the adhesive is applied and trim is in place, he also temporarily nailed in the ends so that the trim is firmly flush against the wall while it dries.  We waited a day or two before removing those temporary nails.

The wall makes a great photo backdrop!

And guess what, we're done! Blank wall to focal wall for less than $90 total! You can do this anywhere in your house, really. Behind a desk, next to the breakfast nook, kid's room, creative corner, craft area, etc.

 If we should ever rearrange and move the bed to another spot, this wall would still make a great feature wall behind a desk or seating arrangement. And if we get bored of the wall altogether, it would be easy to remove the trim and paint over the whole thing. Fresh canvas!

But for now, I absolutely love it! To complete the mini makeover, don't forget the finishing touches! I really, really love green. For me, it brings an instant breath of fresh air to any space. It also happens to be mine and my husband's favorite color.

 

 

Can you tell I'm ready for spring???

Now half of our bedroom is complete! My goal for the master bedroom is for it to become a relaxing retreat for us. I want to walk into it feeling like I just stepped into a freshly fluffed hotel suite...but even better, more comfortable, and more inviting than a hotel because it's familiar...because it's home. With three small children running around, peace and quiet is pretty scarce around here. I need a relaxing space that is clear of clutter and toys. There are designated spaces for kid stuff, like the bottom shelf where we have a few of their books, and small baskets in each night stand to catch any and all kid clutter. This room is getting there and it makes me so happy. I hope my husband appreciates it too. ;) We'll tackle the other half of the bedroom in another episode of Mini Makeover. 'Til next time, friends!

Which part of the house is your special retreat spot? 

Weekend Project :: Memorabilia Necklace

I was digging through my jewelry box Saturday and came across a bunch of my old letter jacket pins from high school.  Immediately, I thought of the idea to upcycle them into a charm necklace so I ran into my studio to whip it together.  After some bending and a few jump rings, voila!

I also added a few trinkets from the pieces of jewelry I wore back in high school, along with a couple new beads to balance it all out.  I stuck with the blue scheme because those were my high school colors (although they were slightly different shades of blue).  I was searching for some old necklaces that I handmade back then so that I could weave them into this piece, but couldn't find them anywhere.  I'll keep digging...

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, but I may revise it a little more... like clustering the charms more toward the bottom of the necklace so they're not so spread out.  That would make it more wearable for me.

This was super simple and quick, and makes for a meaningful one of a kind piece of jewelry!  I bet you could pull together some trinkets and breathe new life into them too!

What kind of upcycling projects have you done?  Please share!

Why I've Been Missing...

eNVe Design's first local boutique appearance!

My apologies for being invisible lately.  I've been extra busy the past couple months with an assortment of things on my plate, some of which was making lots of new jewelry for three shows, and brainstorming/building my display for Runways, a brand new collaborative boutique in Leawood, KS.  If you're in the Kansas City area, you can now shop eNVe in person!  And speaking of shopping, the Runways Grand Opening Event is tomorrow night!  10% of sales all day tomorrow and 100% of ticket sales to the Grand Opening Party tomorrow night will be donated to the Young Survivors Coalition of Kansas City.  If you're in the neighborhood, stop by.  I guarantee you'll have a blast!

So back to the display.  I didn't anticipate it, but putting together this display was time intensive!!!  There were many late nights, many moments of trial and error, many hours searching for the right tables (at yard sales, estate sales, furniture stores, etc.), and many hours at home depot.  Thank the high heavens for my amazing husband for taking my crazy idea and actually making it happen!

It all began with the idea that I wanted a wall of floating frames where I'd be able to display the necklaces and earrings.  I wanted the look of it to be consistent with my art show booth, with  mismatched but cohesive frames.  But I only had a 4x5 space to work with so we needed to build up to utilize the vertical space.  I didn't know the logistics of how this floating frame wall would happen so I enlisted my engineer husband for that part of the job.

Here's a peek at part of the process, from start to finish.  I originally intended to do a tutorial, but then things got so hectic and I didn't get a chance to take more pictures during the construction.  We just had to crank it out.  So if you really want to know all the materials and supplies we used, and what we did exactly, just email me and I can share that with you.  :) 

This was our first garage sale find.  It was perfect.. solid wood, good for refinishing, small enough to fit in the allotted display space, and it had these cool brass connector pieces (a tiny detail, but I am a big fan of detail).

With limited time, we couldn't sand the whole thing down for repainting, so instead, we went with "liquid sander", which cleans and deglosses the surface all at once, making it ready for paint as soon as it was dry.

 I went with the color palette used in the boutique so the display would have a cohesive look that complements the boutique decor.  I also wanted an "industrial chic" look and knew I wanted my tables to look a little distressed.  The three colors I used were a light grey, avocado green, and dark grey.  I painted the entire table the light grey, then once dried, painted a few sections green (the areas I would be distressing later).

Once all that was dry, I went over the entire table with the dark grey.  I wasn't sure what to do about the brass pieces, but ended up painting over them as well.  Then once the paint dried, I took some sand paper and went to town.  I sanded down most of the surface lightly, then used a little more elbow grease on select spots so that the green and light grey could show through.  I've actually never painted any kind of furniture before so this was a first for me.  I'm not even sure how it's supposed to be done, but I am really really pleased with how it turned out!

This first table was originally the one that was supposed to hold up the frame wall, but the more we thought about the structure of the floating frames, we decided it wouldn't be sturdy enough for it.  So after searching endlessly for the right table and not finding anything that I felt would work, my husband ended up building one for me!  All I wanted was a 3x4 table top and some sturdy legs.  It's crazy that I couldn't find anything like that anywhere, especially anything made of solid wood rather than particle board!  My husband definitely came to the rescue.   :)

Here's the table top (upside down) with a coat of primer on it.  Next are the legs and the frames, primed and ready for paint.

Rather than doing the 3 layers of paint (light grey/green/dark grey), I just painted the backs of the frames dark grey because I wasn't going to distress it at all.  I also skipped the light grey on the table (because the primer was white and pretty close to the light grey color) and painted the whole thing green, then dark grey.  Same thing for the legs.  Those got spots of green, then covered with dark grey.

Here are the frames (front side) in the arrangement that I wanted.  Hubs built a vertical wooden support structure in the shape of this arrangement (which I didn't get a pic of) and attached each frame to the structure (much easier said than done).  Prior to attaching each frame to the support structure, hooks or wire mesh were added to the frames for hanging jewelry.  I also had a custom mirror cut to put inside the large green frame.  Can't sell jewelry without a mirror.  :)

And here's a close up shot of the finished table.  The legs were bolted on with large bolts, to enhance the "industrial" look of it.  I distressed it the same way I did the smaller table and was pleasantly surprised by how the natural wood grains showed through!  I really want to repeat this project with some furniture for our home because I had so much fun with painting and sanding it down.  I just have to find the perfect furniture... and some time!

And here I am, placing my jewelry onto the finished display in the boutique.  Done, Voila!

Here's the back view of the display.  The small table was the perfect size for the all the accent display pieces I found.  I need to figure out what to do about that black area (the backside of the mirror).  I could either do a large product photo, or adhere some sort of decorative paper/fabric to it and add more hooks to the top of the frame to hang more necklaces... or???  If you have any ideas or suggestions, please please please share!  I hate that it's just a blank black space.

Here are some more views of the display.  Some earrings.....

The centerpiece -- my Signature Wrap and Thread Necklaces..........

And some delicate sterling and gemstone necklaces.

I'm really thrilled at how the whole project turned out!  I'm also happy that it's complete because while it was fun to brainstorm and build this display, it was definitely not conducive to adequate sleep.  

What fun projects have you been working on lately?