Monday, August 6, 2012

Summer Work, a continuation

I've taken a lot of classes this summer and I've made a lot of jewelry and paper art projects, with more of each to come!  That's a good thing because I've learned a lot and I've gained confidence in my metal and wireworking skills, as well as grown in paper art skills.  I've talked in previous posts about my Create adventure in New Jersey last month, but there have been classes here at home and a lot of experimenting with wire and metal in my studio.  Before I made my first metal cuff one afternoon when I really wanted to try making a metal cuff, I made a wire and bead necklace that I just love!



I had seen these wire wrapped links in Janice Berkebile and Tracy Stanley's wonderful book, Making Wire and Bead Jewelry. Both of these designers are two of my favorite wireworkers.  My goal is to someday take a class with one or the other, preferably both, of them!  I had also seen similar links in Kerry Bogert's book  Totally Twisted.  I really liked them and decided to make a necklace with some green quartz beads I had.  I know they look yellow, and they are yellow, but they're considered green quartz!  The wrapped wire on top of the beads is another new-to-me technique I learned from the book. Anyway, you can see the results in the picture.  I was running out of wire so I finished the necklace with interconnected jump rings and a clasp I made following directions from Janice and Tracy's book.  It's become one of my favorite necklaces and I wear it a lot.  I love the boldness of it and the fact that it's very comfortable to wear, even in the warm summer weather. 

Here's a close up.



I have other things to show you, so I'll continue my run down of summer projects in future posts. 

Thanks for visiting today. 



7 comments:

  1. Loving your summer work Maryanne! I am rarely brave enough to use yellow (haha - funny that it's called green quartz!), and you have used it beautifully!

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  2. Sounds like the ideal summer to me! I love what you've made so far, and the new wire-wrapped necklace is awesome.

    Janice is teaching a workshop in Chicago.

    http://www.citybeadschicago.com/janice-berkebile-workshops.html

    I don't know if that's too far away, but Chicago is a fun place with lots of fun things to do besides take classes.

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  3. Cool necklace Maryanne, I love it! My fingers would be sore after wrapping all that wire.
    Therese

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  4. Very nice, I love the wire wrapping.

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  5. I always find that this style of hook clasp comes undone for me. Just bought a new bracelet from one of the college students atbwork; well made, I thought.

    Later I caught it coming unclasped after wearing it a few hours. I am hard on my jewelry and have lost fabulous bracelets this way.
    Any practical advice?

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  6. This is a STUNNING piece of work! I love Kerry's book, Totally Twisted - I made one of every project in the book when it first came out! I'm not saying they were good (!), but it was fun to do! I can see why you would wear this often - it is beautiful!

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