Add A Customized Search Box To Your Blog

Photo courtesy of Francesco S on Flickr

I thought recently how useful it would be to be able to search a blog to find posts that interest me and apart from the blog archive in the sidebar I didn't know how I could do this. Then I noticed the search box gadget on Blogger. Is this new? I've only just noticed it but knowing my powers of observation it's probably been there for quite a while!

So I added it. And was a bit underwhelmed to be honest. It's a search box that works but.........it's grey and just a bit boring. It didn't fit in with my blog either. I like tweaking my blog and enjoy customizing things to make it look a bit more interesting and colourful. So the grey search box didn't stay for long.

No, I added a customized version.

You can see it up there.

 It's quite nice isn't it? I think so anyway and it fits in with the rest of my blog.

Here's the code for it courtesy of Tweak Peak. It's fairly simple to do - just copy the code and add it to the HTML "Add a gadget" in Blogger. 

Tweak Peak has added some changes you can make to the code to alter the search bar in various ways too, such as text size, border thickness and colours. 

One thing I could not do though was to change the colour of the search box text no matter how many times I tried. The default colour is grey which I didn't like so I deleted the text altogether and made my own text graphic in Paint Shop Pro which I then uploaded to Photobucket. I then added the html code for the graphic to the beginning of the search box code and now I have my own tweaked search box {that works!} Anyone wanting to read more posts about a particular thing I've posted about previously just need to add their search words to the box and press Go! and up comes a page with the relevant posts.

I did find a really nice search box on another site but soon realized that while it looked great it didn't actually work......

Wrap Rings, Twisted Bangles and Fotor

I've had another busy week making rings and bangles for orders {which is great} so sometimes it's nice to just play without having to worry about getting things done for a certain time. I was inspired to make something quick and easy so thought I'd make a couple of no-solder rings seen in One Hour Rings by Helen Driggs. I loved the look of them and the fact they are adjustable {to a point}. They consist of a long triangle shaped piece of metal that is formed around a ring mandrel. I wasn't sure how sturdy they would be but after trying them with 20g/0.8mm sheet I would be quite happy to sell them knowing they will keep their shape well.

They become work-hardened pretty quickly as you shape them on the mandrel and I did need to anneal them in order to finish shaping them properly. I used a leaf vein texture for the first one which has to be one of my favourite textures. The second ring was textured using masking tape. It was a bit of an experiment and involved cutting small rectangles out of the tape with a scalpel before carefully sticking it on to the silver sheet and running it through the rolling mill. I tried a practice piece on copper where I cut the tape on top of the metal but I didn't like the cut marks that showed in the metal so did it the harder way!

The holes in the masking tape form the raised areas and the masking tape itself creates the texture on the rest of the metal. I'll be doing more experimenting with tape very soon as it's an easy way to texture with a rolling mill.

I also had a play with 2mm copper wire which I twisted into a barley twist then soldered to form bangles. The soldering was a bit tricky and it helps when forming the join to make sure you cut each end at the same point in the twist. I'll remember that next time!

•• Fotor ••

Have you seen those photos on Etsy where just one point is in focus and the rest of the image blurred? Or the main item is in colour and the rest of the image in black and white. Yes, so have I and I wanted to know how to do it so I Googled it and up popped lots of links including one for Fotor. It's a nice looking, free to use site that lets you edit, tweak, create photo collages and just play with images to your heart's content. You can then upload them to all the usual social network sites or save them to your computer. It has some of the editing features you find on Instagram but is much better in my opinion.

I had a little play with some of the photos I used above and with a photo of one of my cats.......

This is the Color Splash feature that allows you to choose which part of the image is coloured. You can also change the "background" colour too.

The Scratchy Pencil effect.

This effect is called Tile-Shift which lets you select an area to stay in focus and blurs the rest of the image.

With a frame added and a Moonbeam Lens-Flare on the ring image.

And finally a photo collage! 

What a very cool site. Check it out and play.................

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New Jewellery, Custom Orders & A Cat In A Basket

Meet Tuppence my constant companion who would suction herself to my lap if it was possible. I took this photo in my work shed where, despite deciding the cats were not going to be allowed, she likes to keep me company and it is a bit hard to keep her out when the door is open on a nice day anyway. The baskets were put there until I decide what to do with them {they'll probably be there a while then} but being a cat Tupps had to sit in them. Then she squished herself into a lying position and went to sleep even though it is much too small.......funny girl :D

I didn't post last week as I felt a bit off with really bad back ache that I was convinced was sciatica as the pain ran down my left leg too but after admitting defeat and going to the doctors on Friday he thought it was more of a bad posture thing. He showed me some exercises to do and gave me some Tramadol. I've done the exercises several times and they hurt a lot at the moment. It is much better this week but still painful and a bit twinge-y so I'm trying to remember sit properly with shoulders back and try really hard not to groan too much when I walk down the road to the post box!

I still had orders to make last week despite not feeling that great and I've been busy with more this week. Here's some of them at various stages of finishing...

The enamel studs are finished, the silver and copper rose rings need cleaning up and oxidizing, the copper and pearl earrings need oxidizing and setting and the thing on the left covered in solder will be another copper rose ring to replace the copper ring at the back after the buyer decided to change the size the day after I made it! Luckily the first ring fits my middle finger so guess where that will be going when it's finished. 

I also managed to get some items photographed earlier today...

Another tab set copper pendant with frilly edge and stabilized turquoise cab

Etched silver triangle and square studs - very simple but I think they are quite cool and feel the need to make myself a pair.....

And finally an etched copper hexagon shaped ring made from copper tubing and a hexagon shaped bezel mandrel.

My jewellery class ended last night. I won't be going again next year but I am thinking of trying the ceramics class! I think that would be fun. I enjoyed the jewellery classes and they did help me to become more confident with soldering even though I didn't actually get on with soldering very well when I was there! I learned to bezel and tube set, use a jig saw, make a non-conforming die and cast using cuttlefish bone. Plus other stuff and meet some lovely people. I wonder what the ceramics course will be like.........?

Using Tabs To Set Stones In Jewellery

I received the May 2014 issue of Art Jewelry last week and was immediately drawn to a piece by Michael David Sturlin in the Metalsmith 101 section called Cold Captures: Push-up Prongs. It covers a method of setting stones or buttons or enamel pieces {or anything with a flat base really} using tabs or prongs rather than using a soldered bezel or other setting that needs to be soldered in place.

I fancied a change and do love a bit of messing about with metal without doing any soldering so I took the magazine to my jewellery night class and had a go. This is my attempt at the above.....

 The millefiore cab was the largest size I possess at the mo as I haven't bought any large cabochons yet {give it time!}. It's about 15mm I think so I used it as a practice piece. I had to draw the shape by hand or rather my scribe as I didn't have anything to use for the curves so it's a bit wonky but I do like the design. I'm not planning on doing anything with this so I left it unfinished and that lovely ginger hue that copper has!

I used 0.9mm gauge copper and I did find it a bit hard to push the tabs over the cab and had to use my mallet to finish it. Michael David Sturlin recommended using a setting punch and chasing hammer to push over the tabs if they were a bit stiff but you would need to secure the piece to something in order to do that and it is likely to leave marks on your tabs too.
 I think it would look lovely using some etched or patterned copper with a nice stone cab and definitely needs to be oxidized :D

I then decided to set an enamelled oval shape in a tab setting but cut the tabs from beneath the enamel piece this time...

This is the first time I've done a "frilly" edge and must say I really enjoyed sawing it! It is surprisingly easy if you use a finer saw blade than the 1/0 I usually use to plow through the metal quicker when I'm cutting things out.

 Enamel isn't the best medium to set using tabs I've discovered. I had to refire this piece as there was a tiny crack next to the top tab that happened as I pushed the tab over that wasn't obvious but because I knew it was there I had to fix. So it was fired again and set again but is now ok and crack-free. The only bit of torch work I did with this pendant was to ball the fine silver pin I used to attach the bail.

I liked doing the frilly thing so much I started another one at jewellery class on Tuesday night using an oval turquoise {stabilised} cab this time. When I was ready to set the stone I annealed the copper as I suspected the small tabs would be a bit hard to push over then pickled it and set the stone....

Annealing the copper made the tabs quite easy to push over and they do hold the stone firmly. I did wonder at first if they were high enough but some stone wiggling and pushing from the back convinced me the turquoise is firmly in place. Thinking about it they are about the height I would make a bezel for this shape stone.

 I need to oxidize this piece and will probably take a risk with the turquoise and tumble it for about 20 mins to work harden the copper a bit. I have {say it quietly} tumbled pieces with enamel before now because I needed to work harden the metal without anything going wrong despite knowing you shouldn't tumble enamelled pieces!

In all I have enjoyed trying this soldering free method of setting but have to admit I think a piece looks more finished with a stone/enamel piece set in a bezel. And now that I seem to be able to wield a saw better than before I will most likely do some more of the frilly thing on the edges of my future creations and the negative space design in the example from Art Jewelry has given me ideas for making a bezel set piece a bit more interesting too......

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