Tuesday Morning Tutorial and Invitation~ May 21, 2013

Good morning!

I’m so excited that Love My Art Jewelry just posted the invitation to their 3rd Boot Camp.

 

I’ve participated in their first two and had a fantastic time of learning and fun.

This one is all about wire work!

If you have never tried this before or even if you are a veteran at working with wire,

do go check it out.

This group of artisans provide inspiration, tutorials and encouragement

to stretch your jewelry making repetoire by adding some new skills

or looking at new ways to apply ones you may have already  mastered.

 Their first post also includes a tutorial on the traditional method of rustic wire wrapped briolettes.

I have posted before my struggles with neatly wire wrapping these types of stones and beads,

so I’m going to post a little tutorial here with an alternative way to do this

that I have found suits me better.

 This is NOT my discovery…but in searching for some help, I came across someone else’s tutorial.

Sadly I don’t know whose, but will continue to search out the original and amend this post.

If you know who might have posted this first, I’d be grateful for a name.

 I am indebted to this creative soul for helping me get more comfortable with wrapping up brios,

because they are beautiful additions to jewelry when done well.

That said, this style of rustic wraps is a favorite of mine for two reasons…

First, they don’t have to be perfect!  In fact, imperfect if perfectly wonderful!

Secondly, I absolutely love the effect of oxidizing both copper and sterling wire

with all the interesting nooks and crannies in the wrapping.

This is only my second photo tutorial, so thanks for bearing with me.

For this tutorial, I used an inexpensive faceted glass briolette and 22 gauge copper wire.

Supplies and tools needed:

large briolette

dead soft wire that comfortable fits through the brio holes

nippers

    round nose pliers

   chain nose pliers

Step One:  Cut an 18 inch piece of wire and make a wrapped loop on one end with only two wire wraps.

(note:  If you are making earrings, I’d highly recommend doing them at the same time,step by step.

I’ve found that I have better luck achieving more similarity in the pair of briolettes when I do this.

Actually, this is great advise when making anything in pairs or multiples.)

Step Two: Insert the wire into the briolette and

bend the loop to sit just above the very top of the brio.

Step Three:  With your fingers or pliers bend the loop to ‘sit’ upright on the top of the brio.

Step Four:  Bend the wire end up to cross the wrapped loop.

(note: you could finish the wrap up here and have a simple wire wrapped briolette)

Step Five:  Begin wire wrapping down the brio and stop when the wire covers the side holes.

These wraps do not need to be perfect, but serve as an under layer, covering the brio.

Step Six:  Now, the fun part! Begin loosely wrapping the wire back up the brio,

criss-crossing a few is great. Finish with a tight wrapping up under the top loop.

Step Seven:  Oxidizing with Liver of Sulphur or some other agent is optional,

but I promise you that it will give an amazing finish to this style of wire wrapped bead.

These are the finished pair of earrings with a dark oxidized finish on the copper wire.

If any of you decide to give this tut a try, I’d love to have some feedback…

was it helpful or not, too much or too little info, something needs more clarity???

 Or anything else you’d like to tell me, I’d be ever so grateful!

Again, I’d love it if you all hopped on over to the Love My Art Jewelry blog

and checked out their post on this great opportunity to learn more about the art of wire work!

They will be posting some great lessons and techniques over the next month or so.

Join Me at Boot Camp! March 19, 2013

Love My Art Jewelry just opened up their latest boot camp just for us!

This time it’s all about hand texturing metals.

And they even provide weekly tutorials or videos to give you encouragement,

skills, and ideas.

The blog tour for this challenge is on April 8th,

so there’s still plenty of time to go raid your tool box, garage and junk drawers

for fun things to use to texture metals and create some jewelry.

Click here for more details. I really hope some of you will come join the fun.

Even if you decide not to take part in the blog tour,

I bet you’ll definitely learn some new techniques and skills with this one.

So I did go scavenging in the garage and found some good possibilities.

 And in the first week’s video, Barbara suggested trying bits of steel wire

bent into interesting shapes to use.

You can see that I smashed the heck out of the steel wire on this copper disc.

 I thought the results of my experiments with these tools was okay

and decided to continue with a domed pendant idea.

I also soldered on three small sterling silver balls that I made out of my scrap bits.

 Oxidized and scrubbed the piece, then into the tumbler for 3 hours.

Here’s the finished necklace. I must admit that I never, ever thought

I’d be making this type of jewelry.

But this semester’s experiences in sheet metal and soldering

have given both the skills and confidence to give it a go at home.

Also tried just using the chisel to dent the edges of these sterling hoops I made.

 And another excuse to solder on more of those sterling balls.

I was just awe-struck watching the sterling wire bits glow

and turn liquid and just ball up.     Magic!

Hugs and Kisses earrings from letter stamps

Copper Rain earrings…textured with the claw end of a hammer.

So, what do you think?  Want to come and play?

The earrings are listed in my Etsy Shop.

 

February Art Bead Scene Challenge February 25, 2013

Better late than never!

Here it is, the day before the challenge ends and I’m just getting this done.

                     Art Bead Scene offers this unique monthly challenge.

The blog tour of all the entries is this Thursday, February 28th at Art Bead Scene.

I have this inspiration on my desktop and kept eyeing its beauty,

but nothing seemed to come to me.

Not sure why…because there is so much loveliness in this wood cut.

Maybe too many great option to choose from?

 It’s titled Heijinja by Toshi Yoshida.

And the color palette by Brandi Hussey is, well, just plain gorgeous.

In the end, I decided to go with the vivid red and keep with the Asian style.

Not really convinced that the result is Japanese, but more Chinese.

I am happy with the mostly monochromatic look, with just a touch of black.

The focal was made with red polymer clay, then stamped.

After baking, a mix of antique stain and black acrylic was applied and wiped off.

Love the antique cinnabar look of these.

I did make a few different beads, and in the end chose the larger flat one.

I will definitely be using these two scroll beads in another piece of jewelry.

The bracelet also has some chunky dyed coral,

a few sparkly crystals, and a tassel for some fun.

New Work August 29, 2012

Today was a very good day. Home alone and very productive jewelry -wise. I made a bunch of sterling ear wires so they are ready to use, hammered and textured sterling and copper pendant components for earrings. Finished six pair of earrings, and two necklaces. Oh, and worked on a gorgeous sage green freshwater pearl and crystal lariat style necklace for a friend, who is a mother-of-the-groom.  No wonder my hands and neck are sore.

The copper piece in this first necklace started out as a focal for a bracelet. I posted about it awhile ago when I wrote about experimenting with alcohol inks.

But I just wasn’t happy with anything I tried, design wise. So I ended up folding it in half and using it as a bail of sorts for this polymer clay heart.

Kept it simple with the braided leather cord and polymer bead clasp.

                                             

The second necklace is another effort to work on simple asymmetry in designing.

I pulled out dozens of bead boxes and containers and just started playing around with groupings of them.

(Sidebar comment: Really, really must not buy anymore beads until I use up more of what I already have!)

Must say it was quite fun and this is what I finally settled on.

Carved bone, rock crystal, fresh water pearls, and amethyst peanut seed beads

Bold Brass July 14, 2012

This is the latest Krobo Boho style necklace. Mixed with a little dark tangerine juice. Love the pop of red-orange with the cobalt glass accents in this necklace. The gray and cream beads lighten up the color scheme a bit. And the bold brass pendant with tassel ties it all together in a pretty neat package. My favorite one so far.

Button Crazy July 9, 2012

Did your mom or grandmother have a button box or tin that you just loved to play in?  My mom did. I spent hours sorting and stringing all the little lovelies throughout my childhood.

One of my daughters inherited my mom’s tin of buttons. This morning I made her this necklace with some of the pearly ones.  It’s strung on a caramel colored waxy genya cord. I added a few neutral colored seed beads here and there for color and interest. It has a nice weight to it and hangs nicely when worn.  A great tutorial that explains how to make this necklace is at Craftwerk.

My daughter loves it.

Tassels July 6, 2012

This Bohemian inspired necklace uses the same knotting technique as in the last post. However, I used a finer waxed linen cord in a turquoise color. And used a large variety of beads to complete this look, starting with another lamp work bead as a focal, working off its beautiful color palette. I gathered some flat oval jade, crystals, ceramic, glass, and stone ,with a few brass beads thrown into the mix. I have to say that the waxed linen cord is a great material to work with. It comes in a  variety of colors and plies, very cheap, and makes a strong durable knot. The thin line of turquoise works to unify all the colors and textures of the beads in this piece.

It’s a bit longer than most necklaces I’ve made, other than the leather charms…

A good 26 inches from the tip of the tassel to the clasp.

Boho… Krobo Style June 30, 2012

Last weekend, there was a fantastic blog party featuring the design inspirations from this new book:  Bohemian-Inspired Jewelry. A brain child of Lorelei Eurto and Erin Siegel, with many other jewelry artists contributing amazing projects. I ordered the book from Interweave and just received it this week. Yeah!  I highly recommend it if you’d like to learn more about how to incorporate and  combine a variety of fibers,ribbons, textiles, metals, chains, components, and beads into your work.

It’s jam-packed with great directions for fun, funky, fabulous earring, necklace, and bracelet projects to make or be inspired by.  Hard to choose my first one.  I really like this knotted cord design as a basis to show off more of the colorful Krobo recycled glass beads from Ghana with a red polymer clay pendant.  I really liked the way the pendant is attached with the little accent fringe of beads. The knotting technique was easy to pick up and choosing a light tan waxed cotton cord gives these beads a chance to shine.  A great summertime necklace.

Impatient April 13, 2012

So it’s a gray rainy day in Southern California and I cannot wait for the sun to return to take proper photos outside.  So these two were taken on the dining room table, not ideal shots, but you get the idea of these two pieces. Which brings me to another lament…My dear friend Picnik is closing soon and the messages are getting more and more dire when I enter the site. I now have to click on two pop-ups acknowledging that I understand  this will indeed be happening soon. Very soon. I will really have to make friends with another photo editing site. I understand there are some other good options, but never the less, I will miss my good buddy.

The necklace is with a lime green magnesite pendant, a touch of turquoise at the top wrap. Then more turquoise magnesite with a few ceramic beads here and there, as well as lime seed beads. Finished off with a pewter button closure.

              UPDATED POST:

This photo was taken on the porch in natural light, so you can see why I prefer that setting.

The bracelet is simply knotted leather with garnet colored glass beads and a pale aqua ceramic focal.  Easy, peasy.

On Second Thought… April 2, 2012

Infinitely better…

The addition of the black sari silk and handmade clasp gives this piece more of an eery vintage feel I was going for.

Someone also commented that the ribbon reminded her of the hair ribbon Alice wore.

Curiouser and curiouser…

Also finished up some earrings and a pendant necklace with the other steel/paper components: