BRASS, COPPER, AND SILVER AUTOMATICALLY DISINFECT THEMSELVES

I’m excited to learn this information.  On the one hand, I have been leaning toward working  with brass and copper, and this is one more reason.  Then, again, sometimes I just wonder , because I have very sensitive skin, what’s going on with the materials I use.

Brass, copper, and silver have been found to be self-disinfecting, and have the ability to inactivate such bacteria as E. Coli and staphylococcus.

Take brass, for example. Because brass has been found to automatically disinfect itself within 8 hours, and destroys 99% of fungi it comes into contact with within 6 hours, brass door handles/openers or doorknobs are popular options for healthcare facilities.

Copper will destroy mold completely within 6 hours of contact. Its disinfecting properties take effect within 15 minutes after contact

Silver is a common material for water storage tanks, and such, because it disinfects bacteria cells in water within as little as 12 hours.

.On the other hand, bacteria can survive on stainless steel, the most commonly-used material for hospital equipment, as well as equipment used in food processing, will survive for up to 30 days.

Adapted from http://www.wisegeek.com article

New Ideas… Excitement

Several things have happened all at the same time. I received a copy of the Winter issue of Step by Step Wire Jewelry, and I received three strings of beads I had won on ebay. One strand is little black tourmaline “rice” beads, and the other two are amazonite with black tourmaline and pyrite (I have heard it called “black stripe amazonite”). I have some big rectangles of this stone, which I am waiting to figure out what to do with, but these are little flat ovals and coins, and my mind is already turning over ideas. (right now I am plotting a ring, which I have never seen the likes of, and I am thinking of using a similar size cuprite/chrysocolla, or something else that will go well with brass, and making the ring with brass first before I go for the silver/amazonite/black tourmaline one. This will be the first time ever that I make a test piece before just plunging in and making what I want. Am I nervous? or just prudent?

Whatever… I have two days off to figure out how to do this thing, and I am broke, so it’s just me, the tv, the wire, and the dream now.

This issue of Step by Step Wire Jewelry is not all that breathtaking, if truth be told. I was really excited about this magazine when it came out, and the first couple of issues were jam packed with really cool things, but it seems that lethargy has taken hold or something…. this one was on the lackluster side. I can get inspiration from the boring, however, so I am still poring over it — I love the ads in this magazine, and I have gotten lots of ideas about what I want to buy and where I can get it. If nothing else, the ad list is useful — I have just spent four hours going through the sites whose ads I had marked and deciding which of those belong in my blog links for their ideas and tutorials… I have added more links to the links page. Since I have subscribed to the magazine, I sure do hope it will be more exciting in coming issues.

I have found some interesting sites with tutorials and design ideas, and I have I have added them to my Links page. I have also added some to drool for links to the Jewelry-Making Supplies page. (some sites have wound up on both pages). The best ones, by me, are the clasp suppliers.  (I have not included the supplier who carries $200 clasps. If you think that is a do-able  price, you will have to find her by yourself)

BAD JU-JU, BUT GOOD ENDING

I had a case of bad ju-ju recently…… I bought a tutorial from beadingdaily.com, but I could not access it because it used a higher level of Adobe Reader than the one I have, and I cannot download the latest one because I have an older version of Windows (and DO NOT WANT TO CHANGE)  I wrote to beadingdaily.com about the problem but they have not seen fit to address my issue (or even write back to apologize for the fact that I am such a Luddite), so, I guess I am out the cash, and won’t be going back to beadingdaily.com or recommending it.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I took what I had read from the tutorial description, and some photos I had seen on Etsy, and started to fiddle around (foolishly, with silver), to see if I could come up with a way to make a “ladder-ish” bezel for a cabuchon or an undrilled stone.    Right now, I have two “starts”.  I  started with two wires that I tried to hold together with my ring clamp (but they would not stay straight, so I put another ring clamp on the other end — surely there is an easier way)  I wove the silver back and forth between the wires, and then pulled out the whole arrangement and bent it around the stones. Not too shabby, but I will want to go back in and embellish, both because that is my way and also because I want those stones to be totally secure and not even have a dream of falling out.

I’m going to break down and try to make a photo of the pendant beginnings, so that I can later show what I have done to them.  Yeah, right.  When, Margaret?  maybe tomorrow?  which tomorrow?