HOPE - Bracelet With Stamped Message

I was playing with the copper sheet more and more - I have already 2 products with similar design on Etsy. This is one of those - HOPE stamped bracelet.

I really like working with stamps a lot and was thinking to order a whole alphabet on Etsy - a few sellers have some unexpensive sets for sale. Don't laught, I have only a few letters that I had made on order in India, because before that all I could find were really pricey sets. Now after exploring Etsy closer, I have discovered more possibilies.

How do you like this bracelet?

Herringbone Weave

It's snowing like crazy here in Jackson Hole, so I'm hoping to hop on the skis one or two more times before the mountain closes for the season. And mext Monday (ohhhhh, it's only in 3 days!!!) we're off to India - I'm so excited! I hope I would be able to find some nice beads or maybe more! And the food! And the weather! And the colours! And the jewellery! And I will stop right here, cause I don't want to break the exclamation button!!! !! ! !! !!!

But that's not what I wanted to write about - this blog is about jewellery (if you want to see pictures from India, you have to go to our travel site misandeep.webgarden.cz) and I wanted to tell you about my new discovery:

Herringbone weave!
To be precise, I didn't discover herringbone weave right now, I had a tutorial for it for a while, just didn't try it out... so the discovery is that I CAN DO IT!

I tried one pair of earrings - and then I just threw myself into it. So this can essentially be called Earrings Craze no. 2!

If you like the weave, you can try it too - Eni Oken, an amazing jewellery artist and teacher, is offering the technique free on http://www.jewelrylessons.com/jewel/node/370
Warning: you might like it too much!


Just a simple combination with pink freshwater pearls - I made these also with black pearls (even nicer), but didn't take a pic, because I was wearing them at the moment... lame excuse, you'll see them some other time anyway, because they're MINE!


Pink freashwater pearls again - this time with silver beads added:



This pair is for my Mum, she likes coral and bought a necklace and a bracelet, but didn't have earrings to go with that:


You might have noticed that I really like Czech firepolished beads (well, I'm Czech after all, it's a matter of pride for sure), and they look really good with the weave too!


Lava Stone Earrings:


Black Peas in a Pod:


Silver Square Beads - trapped in the weave
(the beads are rounded squares sizes 4mm and 5mm):


The possibilities are limitless and by choosing different gauges of wire you can modify the look from very polished and smooth to chunky and bold.

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!

What a Difference a Day (Off) Made

I had a day off and wated to do some earrings - very simple and cheap earrings, just for the sake of playing with easy designs.

Steampunk-inspired Key Earrings


Lavender Briolettes Earrings

Copper and Czech Beads Earrings

Indigo Firepolished Bead Earrings

Baby-blue and Lime-green Earrings

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...

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!

Pearls

Stringing was easy and pearls are really in right now - I was combining different freshwater pearls with glass chips.

Pearls with seed beads:


Pearls on striging wire and crimp beads:


Previous necklace - two of them layered: