Skip to main content

Copper Poppy Cuff Bracelet


I've been making bangles for a few years now but have never thought about making cuffs until recently. Cuffs are very popular especially in copper as some people believe the copper helps with arthritis pain {although there's no scientific proof of this}.

I decided to start making a couple of narrow copper cuffs to see how it goes and whether they sell.

handmade copper cuff © cinnamon jewellery 2017

Copper cuff with hammered bark texture


 Copper cuff with leaf vein texture

I spent a stupid amount of time trying to work out the sizing of cuffs which isn't as simple as it might seem! I make them to fit the buyer's wrist size not a general 6 inch length piece of metal fits all approach {it doesn't}. After making a couple for myself I finally worked out how to get the sizing right. I haven't had any returns yet so the sizing must be ok....:D

Soon after I started listing the cuffs I got a request from a buyer in France who had bought one of my copper poppy bangles ....


She asked to return it as it was too big and asked if I could make a cuff bracelet/poppy bangle mashup
instead. Of course I said yes and set to work.


I started by marking the centre point on a length of flattened copper wire that I'd embossed with a leaf skeleton.


I used a centre punch to make a divot on the mark.


After cutting the cuff to length, finishing the ends and shaping it I used the divot I'd made to drill a hole.


I made a copper poppy, filed a flat spot on the underside of it, balled up the end of a length of copper wire and filed a flat spot on the cuff where the copper poppy would sit.


I attached the copper poppy and wrapped the wire around the cuff on both sides.

handmade copper cuff bracelet with copper poppy © cinnamon jewellery 2017

The cuff ready to go in the pickle pot before soldering.


After soldering.


The copper cuff cleaned up and ready for oxidizing. At this point I was convinced the size would be wrong. The buyer had a 6 inch wrist so I made the cuff to fit but it looked so small to me!

copper poppy cuff with leaf vein texture © cinnamon jewellery 2017

The finished cuff bracelet. I've since heard from the buyer in France who was very happy with it and said it fitted her wrist fine which is great!

I am planning on expanding my range of cuff bracelets to include the poppy version and also a version with added silver pieces and maybe semi-precious cabochons. 
I think getting these up and running in time for Christmas might be a good idea!


Labels:

Comments

  1. DeborahRead.comTuesday, November 07, 2017

    Love them !

    ReplyDelete
  2. Miss Val's CreationsWednesday, December 27, 2017

    Beautiful piece Tracy! It is so gratifying when a customer lets you know they love their jewelry. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownWednesday, October 09, 2019

    Really Awesome collection Jewellery.. Making these kinds of jewellery is never easy you are so artistic. My grandmother always used to say that wearing copper is very healthy…Thanks for Sharing!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Your comments and questions are very welcome!
If you would prefer to contact me directly please use the contact form on my "get in touch" page.
Any comments containing links will be deleted so please don't waste your time.....

Popular posts from this blog

Combining Soldering And Enamel

The need to make cute, brightly coloured enamel studs propelled me into the world of combining soldering with enamel a couple of years ago. I knew from reading up on it that it was possible to enamel and solder on the same piece but wasn't too confident I was able to do it back then. It was a slightly embarrassing occurance that made me just get on with - I'd made some enamel studs with glued on stud posts. I'd used 2 part epoxy resin which was a job in itself as it set hard after 5 minutes so I had to keep mixing more up. The finished studs looked ok but that little voice in my head kept asking "are you sure you want to use glue?" I wasn't but didn't think I had any other way to do it so I used glue. I sold my first pair and merrily sent them on their way to Canada. A couple of week later the buyer got in touch to say the stud post had come off one of the earrings and the other was hanging off. I was mortified, apologized profusely and refunded her m...
32 comments
Read more

Amazing Enamel Effects

Buying a kiln recently has given me the chance to experiment with enamelling on larger pieces of copper and to produce some really cool effects. These effects happen when you combine different types of enamel. I usually use smaller flat pieces of copper for making enamelled earrings and have had some of these effects happen when firing with a torch but they are much more obvious when you use larger pieces. I made a few practice pieces which you can see in the photos below. This was flux {a transparent enamel not to be confused with soldering flux!} applied straight onto copper and fired until the copper was a bright golden colour. Then I added a layer of liquid enamel in green and red over the flux and fired again.  The lines and spots form when the enamel becomes hot enough to start moving and in this case the transparent pushes through the liquid enamel layer forming these cool lines and spots. The effect is better in the green liquid enamel than the red.  N...
31 comments
Read more

Embossing Metal With My Sizzix Bigshot

I must admit up until a few weeks ago I was vaguely familiar with the name Sizzix but as to what you actually did with a "Sizzix" I was completely in the dark! That was until I stumbled across a video from Vintaj showing how you could use their embossing folders with a Bigshot to create designs on metal ("metal" - my favourite word after chocolate!) I was really impressed and itching to have a go, I just needed a Bigshot........ I waited a few weeks then when the urge to possess one overcame me I went out debit card at the ready..............and the shop had sold out! So I trundled off to The Range on the off chance and came home clutching my own surprisingly heavy pink and black wonder machine. It sat on the dining room table for a couple of days while I waited for the embossing folders I'd ordered online to arrive then the time came to start playing! I started with some pre-cut 24g copper hearts and the Wildflower Vines and the Butterfly Swirls Deco ...
26 comments
Read more