Your Story Blog Hop

YOUR STORY BLOG HOP

Well, this is my story and Im stickin to it!

I started out years ago using the Business name of Miles of Country Smiles.  I still use this name since I still have my business legally under this name. I started out in 1996 when the internet became readily available using dial up..remember those days??... I thought I would expose the world with my creations.  I was making dolls and lots of little artsy crafty stuff.  My very good friend, who I miss very much since she moved to NY, used to get together with me and make all kinds of crafty stuff together.  She moved and my creativity changed over time.  She was the one who came up with the ideas an I would put them together.  She too made things, but with the 2 of us, we couldn't go wrong.  So, time went on after she moved, we created over the phone and had some fun that way. 

 Then one summer, I had 2 of my nephews staying at my house for a week..they were bored, I was bored, and they had just finished watching the Little Mermaid.  So when I went into the living room, I asked them what should I do, what should I create?  They all suggested I make a mermaid.  So my mermaid dolls came along!  I created lots of mermaids, and tossed in a fairy here and there.  One day, my friend and I were chatting about what could we do to change my business name, because I evolved from country styled creations into more fantasy creations.  So we went back and forth and back and forth...wrote a bunch of different words down which represented fairies and mermaids. 

 Hence, WINGS N SCALES. 

 I love the thesaurus and this is how my new name came about!  It better fits my style of creations now even though I have not made as many dolls lately.  I have changed again over the past 3 years and got into making Jewelry and Art Dolls.  So cloth dolls have been set aside for now. 

Thanks for stopping by and reading about my story, I hope you enjoyed it and stop by again to see what the next craziness pops into my head!  Enjoy reading all the other stories below...

Chris

ps...please feel free to leave me a little comment...I just love them..!!!

Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHELLEY!!!

Audrey Bélanger of Dreams of an Absolution

Jenna Tomalka of Twin Birch Studio

Marla Gibson of Spice Box Designs

Toltec Jewels of Jewel School Friends

Shawn Mills of Bent Wire Boutique

Marlene Cupo of Amazing Designs

Joyce Blair of Bent Wire Boutique

Keri Lee Sereika of Pink Lemonade

Jayne aka “Boot~C”  Capps of Cool Beads by Boot~C

Tammie Everly of TTE Designs

YOU ARE HERE!!! -> Christina Miles of Wings N Scales

Kelly Patterson of PyxeeStyx ~ TravelingSideShow

Heather Otto of Mama’s Craft Room

 Jenny Vidberg  of Shyme Designs

Shannon Hicks of Falling Into The Sky     

Dyanne Everett-Cantrell of Dee-liteful Jewelry Creations

Candida Castleberry of Spun Sugar Beadworks

and

 Blog Host/Birthday Girl! - Shelley Graham Turner of Tori Sophia

My newest creations

WingsNScales' photostream on Flickr.

Hey, look what I did...I am so excited that I actually made these from clay. I found these beautiful glass beads on Etsy and loved them. Then I decided I would make my own that had a similar flare! I like them..what do you think???

My Bead Mix from Claire

Well, I absolutely love my mix.  When I got home from running my errands today, I went to my mailbox and took a peek inside and found this little box....I quickly looked at who it was from and practically ran in the house, tossed my stuff down and ripped the paper off the box.  Then proceeded to cut the tape and opened up the box...saw a beautiful card and a sweet note from Claire.  I opened up each little bag and spread the beads out over a piece of paper...and I shined a bright light on all of the beads so I could get a better look...they are just amazing.  So much texture!  This picture doesnt do them justice.  So, now my brain is workin and thinkin of what I can do with all those yummy beads...

CLAIRE...THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!  And by the way, if you have not yet checked our her site, you are missing out!  You will be totally in love with her jewelry.

Doll Street Dreamers Post Card Swap

Doll Street Dreamers Post Card Swap, a set on Flickr.

Ok, here are the 8 cards out of 10! I created this design specifically for this card swap and I hope you like it..

Ok, here is my Bead Soup Mix I am sending out to my partner Claire... Bet you cant guess what is in this fun bag of beads...hehehe

Vinegar VS Liver of Sulfur

Ok, so it has been a long time since I did a write up on Copper VS Steel and I was asked, sort of...lol to do a follow up on it.  Well, instead of doing a follow up, I decided to do another comparison.  But instead of showing you all the steps using Liver of Sulfur, I am going to show you the steps I used using Vinegar and explain the differences I have found.  So, lets get started...

 banner by Tangie

First of all, I am still learning all of these techniques myself and by far am not a pro at this.  These are things I just like to learn to do on a whim...I cant seem to get enough of this stuff out of my head, I just like to play a lot.  In fact, I tell my friends that when I am ready to retire ( unfortunately I have some time before that happens), I will never be bored.  I have so much STUFF...Im glad my husband loves me...hehehe

Liver of Sulfur - I like to use the liquid type.  Its not terribly expensive, but is messy and smelly and I found you have to order it and you cant just buy it in the stores. You get instant results. You get a black finish.

Vinegar - cheap and smelly and in every grocery store. You have to wait over night or longer to get nice results. You get a nice deeper warm copper color.

Below are images of the steps I took to create these beautiful earrings...well..without the ear wires..I need to make those still.

I dont remember exactly where I learned how to use the Vinegar technique, either I read it somewhere of I was told by somebody to give it a try.  What I did was put a glass bowl inside of a rubber maid bowl.  You do not want to submerge the copper in the vinegar.  The fumes are what patinas the copper. Once I had the bowl set up, I added the vinegar, just enough to fill it up some, you dont need a ton of vinegar.  I put the copper pieces in the glass bowl, sealed it with the lid, or you can probably use saran wrap.

 I waited over night, roughly 12 hrs from the time I put it in the bowl to the time I took them out.

As you can see here, they really aged nicely.  I was not so smart and didnt take any pictures before I put them in, so unfortunately I cant show you what they looked like before, but they were just plain hammered copper rings all nice and shiny!

 Next, I took a hard sanding block, using the fine side and started to sand the rings.

Dont look at my poorly manicured thumb..I am way overdue for a manicure, like maybe 15 years...LOL

 This is a nice shot of a comparison of the rings before and after.  The one on the left is before I sanded it, and the one on the right is nicely sanded and you can see the texture of the hammering.

This is the final piece.  I am going to put a nice pretty glossy spray sealer on them and they will be ready to wear!  Well..once I get the ear wires made...Hehehe...

I hope you enjoyed this little blurp of mine and dont forget to leave any comments, good bad or other...

Thank you for stopping by and I hope to get a few more little blurps out before the end of the year...

Enjoy your summer..

Chris

UPDATE:  I just did the same treatment to some other pieces of copper and found that if you leave it in long enough, the vinegar starts to sweat leaving a small amount of liquid onto the pieces.  After checking them out a few hours later, they started turning green...I love it!  I will show you a picture soon to how the pieces turned out!