Summer of Color3: Week 4

I can't believe we're at week 4 of this great challenge!  Summer goes by too quickly for me, even though right now we feel like we're living in the rain forest!  But, I'm having a great time with this color challenge.  This week's colors are pale pink and charcoal.  So, I decided to make a set of wire bangles. 

Even though I started making jewelry with beads I've become more and more attracted to wire and metal jewelry.  I'll always have my beads because I love working with a needle and thread.  But, I also have come to love working with wire and metal.  I often, okay mostly always, incorporate beads into my wire and metal, but it's a different discipline entirely.  And, it's so much faster to create a bangle in wire or metal than it is to bead weave one.  So, on to this week's project. 





 

 

I had seen a project for a bangle designed by Lisa Nivan Kelly that I had wanted to make.  So, I thought this would be the perfect time to make a set of bangles based on the pattern.  I like to wear multiple bangles so I decided to make three and vary the design elements.  These are the bracelets I came up with.  I used 3 shades of pink seed beads and sterling wire that I oxidized with Liver of Sulphur which made it charcoal in color.  I like to oxidize my wire and metal because you can see the patterning better. 

 

Here's a close up.

 



 

These were fun and quick to make.  They're comfortable to wear even in this aforementioned rain forest type weather we're having right now because they're lightweight.  I really love them and I'll be making more because my daughter has requested a set.  That will give me more variations to try, so I'm looking forward to making them. 

 

Thanks for stopping by today. To people new to the blog, welcome, I love having you visit.   I hope you're having a good week! 

 

 

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. 





Every girl needs new earrings!

At least I think they do!  Earrings are some of my favorite jewelry to wear.  I love wearing them and rarely go out with a pair on.  So, when one of my favorite wire jewelry designers, Dia Daniels, offered a class at Bead Soup called Sticks, I had to take it!  All the earrings started with one piece of heavy gauge wire which we then embellished with more wire or wrapped with finer gauge wire.  We added beads to some and some were left plain. 

These are what I came away from the class with.

I love all of them, but I have to say that the brass with the 4mm crystals wrapped around the loop is my favorite. 

And, these

I think I like them so much because I love wire coils.

Anyway, I had a great time in class and came away with 4 new pairs of earrings!  I'm a happy girl!

I hope you're having a wonderful day.  It's a rainy, gloomy day here, but we've had some beautiful spring weather lately, so I can't complain.  It's helping to water all the beautiful new flowers I've planted!  And, it gives me an excuse to take time out from working in my garden and using it to work on the next Beading Babes projects.  They're great ones and I'm having a great time working on them.  Stay tuned for a sneak peek!  Thanks for stopping by the blog!







New look and new earrings!

I've been wanting to improve the look of my blog for a long while and I decide this rainy Sunday  was the time to do it.   I have to tell you that I'm not very good at technology of any kind.  I know the very basics and that's about it and so I've been putting off doing anything to this blog.  But, I was dissatisfied with it and decided to take the plunge.  Well, it wasn't too bad, but it seems I've ended up with  a quick slideshow of headers fonts that I auditioned and I can't seem to get rid of it no matter what I do.  I'm hoping it'll sort itself out, or I'll stumble upon a way to clean it up, which is usually how I accomplish things on a computer!  Any suggestions for fixing it are greatly appreciated! 

But, moving on to something more fun.  I follow Kristi Bowman's blog.  Kristi makes wonderful copper clay jewelry componentswhich she sells on Etsy. Well, she was previewing some components she was getting ready to post in her store one day recently. I loved one set of earrings she had made.  So, I ordered them from her.  I already knew what I wanted to do with them.  I finally had the time to turn them into earrings this week.  Here's what they look like.

Isn't that copper fabulous?  I think it is.  And, I love combining crystals with the rustic copper.  I used some 3mm and 4mm crystals and wrapped them around the bottoms of the components.  I should mention that Kristi had already put five holes in the bottom of each component.  So, wrapping was easy.  You can see see the holes and how I finished the wire in the back in this picture.

I'm really happy with the way they turned out.  They are very comfortable to wear and the copper is so well done and light weight.  They're a fun addition to my ever-growing collection of earrings.  But, hey, a girl can never have too many earrings, right?!!! 

I hope you have a good day.  If you're in the East it's a very rainy day.  But, we really need the rain so we can't complain.  Take the indoor time to work on something fun!  Thanks for stopping by.





The Spring Fling Blog Hop is here!

Amy, over at Amybeads, decided to sponsor a blog hop for spring.  She offered kits in two different colors, blues and oranges, to anyone who wanted to participate.  Well, I love the kits and since I had just done the Colors of Spring blog hop, using orange, I decided to go for the blue kit.  Of course, I didn't think to take a picture of the kit when it arrived, or even when I started working on it!  If you go over to Amy's blog you'll see what the kits contained.  I loved the selection of beads.  Everything from the cutest focal bead with an adorable bird on it, to pearls, to firepolished, to Delicas, and the loveliest peanut beads ever. I'm not a fan of the peanut beads, but these are gorgeous!  It was great!  And, since I've been in a wireworking mode, I decided I would do a wirework necklace.  Here is what I came up with.

I knew from the beginning I wanted to make a pendant with the round bird bead with fringe.  I made sure I used some of all the beads that were in the kit, except for the Delicas. I wanted to use some of them in the chain but it didn't end up that way.  As I worked on the pendant I decided to make a wire bail for it.  I've just gotten a great new wireworking book by Janice Berkebile and Tracy Stanley and  I had seen a similar bail in the book.  I had a hard time deciding what to do for a necklace.  I thought of doing Viking knit, but that didn't seem right. I was thinking of using the remaining beads from the kit to string a necklace, but the ideas for stringing weren't coming.  I thought of using a leather cord, but I really didn't want to do that because I wanted to make something.  So, after letting the pendant sit on my bead table  for a few days I decided to make wire wrapped links using all three colors of wire I had used in the pendant.  I have one fringe with lime green wire and one with royal blue.  I decided to use the silver wire for one of the link colors also.  I really like the way the links turned out. 

And, here's a close up of the fringe.



I got to try caging beads with wire as you can see in the center fringe.  I'm learning more all the time and my wireworking skills are improving!  Not so many tool marks anymore!!!  I'm really pleased with this necklace.  I've worn it and gotten several compliments on it already.  It's a fun necklace to wear and it was really fun to work on. 

I want to thank Amy for putting this together!  It was a great idea!  Be sure to check out the other bloggers who participated in the Hop.

Kristin, of My Bead Journey

Maryanne, of Zingala's Workshop (you're here!)

Karyn, of Releases by Rufydoof

Therese, of Therese's Treasures

Vimala, of The Bead Diaries

Thanks for stopping by to see my entry.  I hope you have a wonderful day and I hope you get to do something fun today.  It's Friday and the weekend is here!







New Wirework

Even though I still love my beads and fiber, I've fallen in love with wire and metal jewelry.  I've been learning on my own, and I've been taking classes with Dia Daniels at Bead Soup.  Dia is a great teacher and we have the same taste in design.  Every time I see Dia I fall in love with the jewelry she's wearing that day!  In the fall I took her "Brangles" class.  It's her version of a Conni Fox design.  It's called a "Brangle" because it's a bracelet that has elements of a bangle.  I completed the first one and then decided I wanted to make two more to coordinate with the first and then wear them together.  So, since the holidays were looming I put it aside until January.  Then I got to work!  And, here is a picture of the results.

I just love these braceles and they were great practice in making wrapped loops and clasps.  They are actually a series of links with several beads on each link.  The clasp is created in the last link so it's integral to that link.  The most difficult part of making the bracelets is sizing.  I had to do a lot of playing around to get the correct size.  But I'm so pleased with the way they've turned out!  Here's a close up of one of the links.

Not long after I finished the brangles Dia taught a brooch class that she calls "Chaos Theory".  As she explained it, she was cleaning up her workspace and had all these sample charms and links and decided to make them into something.  And, so Chaos Theory was born!  Naturally, I loved it but I don't wear brooches very often.  So, I made mine into a pendant.  Oh, my, how I love it!!! 

The entire piece, except for the bead caps, is made of wire.  There are some beads and two copper charms, but the remaider is hammered wire.  I learned so much from this class.  Once I finished the pendant I decided, rather than hang it from a chain, I would make a Viking Knit chain for it and have the hook in the front, using one of the loops as part of the closure.  I just love the results and I get so many compliments when I wear it.  But, it was the learning that resulted from making this project that is the most rewarding.  It opened up new avenues for using wire.  And, my skills are improving greatly.  I have several other wire projects that I want to work on, and now I have more confidence to tackle them.  It's been a great adventure for me. 

I'll end this post with a few closeups of the pendant the the chain.

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you have a great day!













Bartering

I mentioned a few posts ago that a friend of mine makes beautiful baskets and she and I decided to barter jewelry for a Scottish yarn basket.  Well, she delivered my basket last week.  And, it's gorgeous!!! 

The color looks a little lighter than it actually is, but isn't it gorgeous?!  Judy is meticulous in her workmanship and it shows in the finished basket.  She dyes her own reed and treats the finished basket with linseed oil to prevent it from drying out.  I'm so  thrilled with my basket.  I will have it filled with lovely yarn soon.  After all it is a Scottish yarn basket!!  The funny thing is that Judy has recently become an avid knitter, but she made these baskets before she started knitting.  Now, she'll have some yarn to put in her basket! 


Here's a close up of the God's Eye with which she starts these baskets.  Amazingly beautiful, isn't it?

I'll let you decide who got the best deal out this barter.  I made her a wire and pearl ring and pendant which you can check out in a previous post, which for some reason I can't link to right now!  But, look for Wire Working for a Friend if you want to see what my end of the deal was. 

Enjoy your day.  We're having lovely early spring weather today, so I'll be in the garden.

Thanks for stopping by.













































































Wire working class

I'm really a bead weaver.  But, I love wireworked jewelry and when I found out that Kristin Robinson was teaching her Ethereal Bangles online, I had to sign up for the class.  Luckily for me, I discovered the class on the day it started, which was the last day to sign up.  I loved these bangles when I saw them over the summer in Belle Armoire Jewelry.  So,  I was delighted that I could learn the ins and outs of creating them from the artist.  It's a great class, with Kristen posting from 1 to 3 videos every other day.  I've learned so much already. 

Here's a picture of the bangles with no embellishment.  They have been shaped and hammered.

Not real exciting from this less than ideal photo, but they really are wonderful looking when they're finished.

Hope you're enjoying fall wherever you happen to be.  Have a wonderfully creative day and thank you to all our Veterans who are serving, or have served our great country.  

Two Fall Necklaces...

and a pair of earrings!

As you all know by now, I love Fall.  I've made things to decorate the house for years.  I've also made jewelry over the years using the motifs and colors I love so much.  Two of my favorites are these necklaces. 

  I'm really a seed bead person.  But, I'm beginning to try my hand at wirework.  I like a lot of wire jewelry that's out there, and I've taken a few classes, which I've really enjoyed.  Both of these necklaces were a lot of fun to make.  The one on the left used some pieces from the My Elements line and a few recycled pieces from old jewelry.  I decided to try some wire working to make a clasp to match the black chain.  And, that was really fun!  I used 22 gauge black wire to make a loop and hook.  The second necklace made use of some of my collection of lucite leaves.  I love lucite beads, flowers and leaves.  I think Beadin' Path http://www.beadinpath.com/ has the best selection of lucite, and that's where these leaves came from.  I used copper chain, along with Swarovski column beads to add sparkle.  When I finished the necklace, I decided to use the remaining chain and crystal columns to make a pair of earrings. 

I'll leave you with some close ups.  Enjoy  your day and make art!