My Tree of Life challenge to myself

Today, I decided to make my drawing come to life.  I drew this picture earlier this week.  It took me a few times of going back to the drawing to finalize the way I wanted to put this together.  I actually took a bazillion pictures of each step, perhaps making a tutorial in the future.  I still need to figure out what I am going to make to use as the bail.  I do think it turned out really close to my drawing and what I actually had in my head...

Please feel free to leave a comment on this piece, I would love to get some feedback.

Steel wire V.S. oxidized Copper

I love black wire, and have been interested in how to make my wire change colors with oxidizing.  For a long time I could only find nasty steel wire, and great copper wire.  But copper wire of coarse is not black.  The bead stores here only carry the real shiny black wire and its not quite the look I have been looking for.

Recently I went to OSH and found this really nice black steel wire in 2 different sizes.  It worked great to do some wire wrapping but it left my hand black...nasty smelling too!  So I used Allergy Jewelry Shield to seal the wire.  I am sure there are other types of sealers I could use but it was handy and it worked.  I like the look of the wire, its not too shiny and the black does not rub off now.

Now, I finally got my Liver of Sulfur and played with it a little today to see what it does.  I have done lots of hunting on line to learn about this product.  I do agree that it stinks but it works...  I tried eggs and I wasnt impressed. I took a picture of both items to show you the difference.  I have not put on any of the Jewelry Sheild yet on the oxidized copper so it is dull.  I like both wires.  Copper is easy to find, and now for me steel is too.  Both are fairly easy to work with, and you really should seal both wires once you get the affect you want.

I still need...notice I used the word NEED...LOL...to explore more with oxidizing copper.

As you can see here, they look quite similar.  I think the oxidized copper is a better look myself, and copper is more user friendly.  You can solder it, where as steel you can not.  So it all depends on what your goal is.  For just doing wire wrapping, it may be cheaper and easier to use the steel wire.  But to be more creative, go with the copper and deal with the stink of the Liver of Sulfur.  I dont think it was all that bad.  Less smelly than resin...hehehehe...I hope you like this comparison and let me know if it helps you any at all....