Second New Technique - Viking Knit

Fusion Beads have some great jewellery making classes and it took me WAAAAYYY too long to discover it. I always thought I will have to go to one of the big bead festivals to ne able to get a class, but then I realized that some of the most talented jewellery makers live right here in the Pacific Northwest. And what more - the same classes they teach at the festivals are available here in Fusion Beads for much less money and right in the neighbourhood!!!

So the first class I took was Basic Riveting, which rocked (it is documented here in the blog too) and the next class was Viking Knit with Tracy Stanley. Aaaaaawesome! I actually learned how to make a Viking Knit (you may say "That was the aim of the class", but with many classes you might be able to walk away with one finished piece, but not be able to recreate it at home).

See photos below:

Start of a new chain (I like the fact that even if the chain here looks irregular, it WILL be 'perfect' once finished):

And two finished chains - both are made with copper wire, one is oxidized, one is not oxidized yet. The oxidized one is also thicker and the shiny one is thinner - see, I can already experiment with different finishes!

I will soon post some finished products!

 



Brass and Coral Bracelet

Here is something I made for my mum before Christmas! My mum loves coral, so here is an overload.

Just an assembled bracelet with 3 sizes of coral beads and brass chain and details.

Copper Bangle with Ceramic Bead (Variation to an Old Design)

A friend of mine recently saw this older design of mine and liked it a lot, but wanted the same thing done as a bangle. So I dived into my stash of beads (do you remember how Scrooge McDuck used to dive in his money in Duck Tales? Yep, that's what it looked like:) and found another of the Ceramic beads that I used a lot with copper.








So with the exact bead (can a human fall in love with a bead? Because that's what the friend of mine said about the bead and I was worried I didn't have any left...) I had no excuse not to try a different twist on the same design:

So I posted the bangle in my Etsy shop and tadaaa - SOLD! (Well to this friend and nobody else, of course!)

Briolette Wrap Tutorial from Eni Oken

My computer is still in a coma, so I cannot post any new pictures. But I don’t want to leave my blog asleep, like I did already once! Well, isn’t this a great time to share some wonderful teachers with you?
I have mentioned this wonderful website already a few times:
http://www.jewelrylessons.com/
Go have a look, if you didn’t do it yet! I urge you! If you want to learn something new, if you want to get inspired, have a question about jewellery-making (and sometimes not only that:) and if you want to share your work with other inspired artists, you HAVE to go there, just HAVE TO!

Eni Oken is a great self-taught jewellery artist, who has a lot of knowledge to share. Together with other selling artists she is the patron of http://www.jewelrylessons.com/. You can buy tutorials for some amazing projects, but some tutorials are for free – and here is one of the free ones, from Eni Oken - Briolette Wrap:



Here is the link: http://www.jewelrylessons.com/tutorial/briolette-wrap
Although you have to be a registered member of the site, don't worry - registering is for free. You can only gain!

Are you really still reading this blog entry? Go to http://www.jewelrylessons.com/!

Earrings Craze - Another Day Off!

My Mum, being my biggest fan, asked me if I could make a few pairs of earrings for her friends - just something simple and easy.
I made a bunch, so there are mixed styles and I was trying to make each of the pairs a bit different, so everyone could find something to their taste. All pictures are taken while the earrings are hanging on a string on the wall in front of a tissue paper, and now I realizing that most of them were hanging 'downhill', so some look like one earring is longer than the other - which, of course, isn't true! *Sigh* Everything is already packed in mail, so I cannot take new pictures, but hey - you get the idea what the earrings looked like...

Here they are:

Pearl Ovals
- silver-plated wire, freashwater pearls


Amber and Copper Falls
(why does one look bent??? Next time I have to post pictures before I give the produst to the postoffice...)


Light My Fire
- Czech firepolished beads (again? one looks bent...)


Pink Glass Barrel
- Indian glass beads and Czech firepolished beads (and yes, they ARE the same length)


Mellow Yellow
- two tones of yellow briolettes


Pink Bunny
- pink(ish) briolettes and silver-plated wire
This design deserves to be worked on and perfected - something is in there and can be developed!

Cross I

- pewter crosses and Czech firepolished beads

Cross II
- pewter crosses and Indian glass beads

Marsmallow Powder

- Czech firepolished beads

Ceramic Bead and Copper

I think I have to find a better way to take my pictures. It will be inportant if I open an online store one day.... until then I'll be perfecting my designs and training with the camera!

I Just Love Making Copper Bracelets

Ahhaaa!
After making a bunch of seedy-beady bangles there was another thing awaiting - bangles with not-so-seedy beads! I admit - I like a cluster of bangles on a hand all together, maybe that's why I always make a few to compliment each other.
But hey - they're good on their own too! No bangle should be ashamed on its own!

Sorry, I'm in a silly mood today...

Copper Bracelet with Blue Ceramic Bead:

Another simplified version of Copper Bracelet with Blue Ceramic Bead:

Copper Bracelet with Red Glass Beads:

Copper Bracelet with Lampworked Beads:

Yellow Briolette Pendant (With Copper)

Honestly? When I'm trying to experiment with some design that's sleeping in my head, I find it easier making pendants than earrings - like this pendant.
If I wanted to make earrings, they would have to be exactly the same size, shape, same everything. So I play with pendant and then decide if it would turn into an earring and get a sister, or if it will stay a pendant...
I have already mentioned that I adore very big earrings, so turning a pendant into an earring is certainly not an issue for me :-)))

Ringa-Ding-Ding, It's a Ring!

My first ring! I haven't tried a ring before, but I was eyeing up some tutorials and really, really wanted to give it a go - but I didn't have a ring mandrel.
The ring madrel is actually a big thing - trying to form a wire ring on your own hand requires lots of craftmanship, because you essentially lose one hand to work with! Plus you might lose you finger if your wire gets too tight :-)

I was trying to form the wires in my hands as I was going... not the best idea either - the rign ended up being a tad bigger than I needed.
Nevertheless - here's the ring.

But the next ones will come once I actually buy the mandrel. Yep, the tools are important. Point made. Full stop.
Materials:
copper wire (16g, 20g, 24g)
4 Czech firepolished beads

Copper Earrings With Lilac Glass Flowers

This is just a little play with copper wire and some beautiful Czech glass flowers.

Simply Red (Very Looong Earrings)

Coiling two twisted wires resulted in pretty loooong earrings, that I have adorned with some Indian and Czech beads.

BTW, I like long earrings - that's why...

Garnet Teardrop Earrings

I'm getting so much inspiration on http://www.jewelrylessons.com ! This page features jewellery artists and teachers and puts together people that would probably not have a chance to meet this close other than on jewellery shows. This site gives you lessons at home!
I personally have never attended a bead or jewellery show yet, and as I live in Jackson Hole (yes, the 'hole' in the name is there for a reason!), it is hard to get anywhere out of here... so this is a great way for me to explore some possibilities and ideas without traveling far from home!

Well, these earrings were a way to practise wrapping with beads. First, they were just teardrop shaped wires with silver beads, but when we were talking about them with my husband Sandeep, he thought I should add some colour to make them more interesting. And I found a string of garnets that I was saving for the time I can make a proper piece and not waste the gems. Well, I guess the time has come!

PS. I was just reading a blog of a friend (Kathleen, it's about you) mentioning her husband's input for her newly finished piece - and I have to say: guys, you rock! Second opinion can make a difference!

Kathleen's blog: http://kathleenkrucoff.blogspot.com/

Copper Sprinkles

The earrings for the previously posted pendant are almost done (I cannot find copper headpins or a wire I can use for earwires - ugh, it's not easy being creative when all of a sudden you're missing a thingie... I will take a pic and post it soon regardless) - but I found a bracelet I made earlier but never took a picture of. It's a very easy simple bracelet made of black woven cord, copper wire and copper beads - the beads are free and move as you move with your hand.

Columns of Green

I was off-line for a while now, but it doesn't mean I was not creating. I have a few things to show you, hopefully over next few days...
For the starters, here is another try of the wrapped bangle with seedies and bugle beads, this time the bugle beads are much longer - I really wanted to see the outcome and I'm quite happy with that.
Now I only have to buy lots of different colours!

There's No End To Bangles - Evidently...

I really got into the bangle making, as you can see, and everytime I started working on a bangle, I got an idea for another one. This was a design I didn't think I could pull off, I was trying to use the stem seed beads and thought of something else originally - but that didn't work out. It was a moment before I figured out, how to attach the beads to the bangle base (which is two un-attached wire bangles) and then I really liked the way it was going on.
This bangle took me quite a while to finish, but it's just the first in a long line now. And with every new bangle I'm getting better and faster.

For The Love of Coils

This is my first try at coiled coils. I like the look of the coils (handmade, by the way - I yet have to get the coiling gizmo!) and I will definitely try more designs with them.
Here I have combined steel wire, antiqued silver spacers, seed beads and a firepolished bead to add more red to make the seed beads pop.

Detail of closure:

Seed Beed Bangles Got Sisters!

This is how I imagined the set of bangles adorned with seed beads. Yay, I like it!