Coiled Coils

This was one of the projects, that were not properly planned in advance, where I didn't know what I was looking for and just experimented and went with the flow...

It's one of my older works that I never saw worthy putting on the blog (that was until somebody bought it:) - please note that all the coiling was done before I discovered the "Coiling Gizmo".

Old Design/ New Design - Reworking a Finished Design

More copper washers! Don't say you didn't see it coming (especially after I blogged yesterday how addicting working with washers is).

So there are two different designs on the following pictures. If you think that they look very much alike, you are completely right, because it is one and the same pair of earrings. First photo shows a combination of three different sizes of washers bound together by a copper wire - that was the original idea. I have added some silver coloured wire as an interesting detail, but then I noticed, that the washers are slightly turning while being worn, which caused irregularity in the detail (you can see the silver wire at a different position on the second photo).
I gave it a thougt and as much as I hate reworking a finished project, I wanted it to be 'perfect'. In order to stop the washers from turning, I drilled holes into them and secured with a piece of the same wire used for the contrasting detail.

I hope you like the "upgrade"!

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!

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...

Silver Tearshaped Earrings

Just a play with wires on a busy day.
These are little sisters of the copper earrings I happen to love so much, only the beads are on the outside rather than the inside. And next I will try to put the beads on the inside - the silver beads are hammered cubes and would look different.

Wire Ohm

This is crazy!!! I have put a big stone on my shoulders to carry! I thought an OHM design would be very cool and 'in vogue', but the execution was.... well like an execution! Uh, oh, I did it!
And next time it will be better - I played with this a lot and learned a lot.

The dot in Ohm is a square turquoise bead. If I'm able to make a few of these (I know there is a trick to it, and I WILL find it!), I can customize the dot - choose your favourite gemstone or your birthstone in the place of the dot!
The dot-bead is gently swinging as you move, so it will look nice on a long and short chain both.
Think zen, think OHMMMMMMMMM!

Bye for now, I have to catch up on some yoga...

Coiled Chain with Red Bead Pendant

My new coiled chain got its first use - a horseshoe shaped pendant with a few wired details: coiled beads in the links, glass bead, hammered wire paddles and wrapped citrine bead.

Coiled Handmade Chain

I have created a few pendants with the photo transfers, but I really didn't know what to "hang" them on... I didn't want to jusy hang them on a silver chain - that would be too easy, maybe good looking, but not as HANDMADE as I would have imagined.
So I had to come up with a chain I could make. I have tried the figure-8 chain previously (http://designbymisa.blogspot.com/2009/01/handmade-chain.html) and I was still looking for something more ornate...
That was the day I was coiling like crazy:
I just thought 'there must be a way to connect the coils'.... and this is what came out of it:

Simple Wire Earrings

As I'm playing with wires and becoming familiar with them, I'm trying to play up some different ideas. Here are quick earrings with hammered wire - you will see this element in a few other projects that I've created in past few days (I just didn't find the time to post them).

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!

"Hangin' In There" Copper Heart

A copper heart pendant - more wire wrapping! I made a mistake in this one though, but I like this desing, so I'll just work on it and make a few more. My mom has already ordered one, so I better get started!

Black Wire Earrings With Golden Pearls

Bangles weren't the end of coiling. These are earrings I made using a black steel wire and golden coin pearls. I have actually made them before all the bangles, but forgot to share them.

Bangles, Bang, Bang!!!

I have discovered the pleasures of coiling and because I looove bangles and bracelets, I decided to make a few and think of possible designs.
This was the first one:

It's made of steel wire (the same one that didn't work for me when making the big chandelier earrings - http://designbymisa.blogspot.com/2009/01/wire-earrings-finished.html), antiqued silver spacer beads and some Czech firepolished beads and seed beads.


I can't explain why I still like to work with this wire when I had so much trouble with it, but I guess I just got used to the hardness and learned to work with it. Which is great, as I personally see a development here - a material that didn't seem ideal at first became my friend and I enjoyed working with it the second (and third and fourth...... :-) time around.
I should probably try to make those earrings now again and see the difference!

Here is a set of bangles made of steel wire (THAT one, what else) and seed beads of different colours. I want to make a set of 4 or 5 with different colours of seed beads to stack them together, but they take a while to make (but I'm getting faster with each new one!!!) and I couldn't wait to put them here. So these will get sisters soon.

And this was the last idea with bangles - something little less usual. Square bangles! I want to make more of these as well and stack them together.

More Wire Earrings - Same Steel, Better Finish

These are earrings I have started working on after the first not-so-great-looking pair. These are made of the same wire (steel wire from a local hardware shop), but they turned out quite nice.
I have helped myself with wire jig to make sure the shape will be the same on both earrings (handy little thing for beginners!) and hammered the wire to give it more interesting finish.

I'm planning to put some beads at the bottom of the loop and they'll be even nicer!

Wire Earrings - Finished!

Do you still remember my first try on wire-wrapping?
http://designbymisa.blogspot.com/2009/01/getting-wired-whats-going-to-become-of.html
Earrings that weren't finished... well, they are now!!!

It's not the best, because of the hardness of the steel wire I have mentioned in the original post. I have learned some technique on this though. This is the unfinished earring:



And this is the final look:

I can't wait to try more wireworking - I promise it will be better next time. Firsts are always hard... but memorable! I have already worn these and got some attention, so wait for the next pair, they'll be nicer, more regular, super-duper!