Thrifting Thursday 10-3-13 Refrigeration Tubing

 Hello Fellow Thrifters~

Today's post shows you what you can do with some old copper refrigeration tubing.  When we visited my folks in Alabama in August my fantastic Dad [from whom I get my hoarding gene] had a crusty piece of copper tubing set aside for me - much like this one.  I regret I didn't think to snap a pic of the original, but this is pretty close, only cleaner....

Using my trusty metal shears , I cut 7.5 in. sections and filed and sanded the edges smooth.  I used some sturdy pliers [NOT my good jewelry tools] to fold over the ends and then with various ball pein and other hammers I shaped and textured these cuff style bracelets.  My temporary mandrel is a aluminum baseball bat.

To some, I riveted copper discs I cut and with my Swanstrom cutter and embossed my Cuttlebug.  

This one below was patinated with Liver of Sulpher [LOS], it gives a nice aged look after stamping the word 'joy' and some stylized stars around the sides.

This final example was hammered, stamped and some black Ranger patina ink was rubbed into the stampings. I then buffed it, leaving the surface bright and accentuating the rustic design. I sealed all these with Swellegant matte sealer.

That's all I have for you this week.

THANK YOU 

Your visits and comments are greatly appreciated.

Have a great weekend,

Warm Regards,

Tammie

P.S. If you don't have a fantastic Dad who saves stuff for you..., you can get tubing like this at a big box store like >>>Home Depot