View jewelry-making media, such as polymer clay, beading, wire wrapping, and a combination of fun techniques!
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Freebie Lightbox
After reviewing the steps on Shealynn's website for making a lightbox to take better pictures of my jewelry, I grabbed a box out of the garage, an exacto knife, and some tracing paper. It was actually a lot easier than I expected and it's a great way to get some light on a project. I anticipate that this lightbox will work very well for photographing crystal, too!
I didn't have the paper for the inside, but I did have some leftover white material and it worked just as well! I have three lights that I can adjust through the tracing paper "windows" to make it as bright as I need it. Very cool If you need something similar, check out her blog tutorial: http://shealynns-faerie-shoppe.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-to-make-lightbox.html
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Finally, inexpensive displays!!!
I have to give credit to a talented young lady, Shaelynn, for her amazing contributions to the craft world, especially at such a young age! I am amazed by her creations using the resources surrounding her to make stunning items. I ran into this tutorial for necklace displays at her site: www.shealynns-faerie-shoppe.blogspot.com. Also, I must credit Bea Graansma for making the tute originally.
The top display is a bit funky as I decoupaged strips and cutouts of magazines on it. I will take a big, bright-colored necklace to stand out in that crazy conglamoration of color. The other is more practical. Pink isn't my favorite color, but since my daughter had scrapbook pages left over from a class, it was what I had on hand! What's nice is the ability to alter it to make it bigger, taller, wider, smaller, or however you'd like it. Also, you can cover it with nicer paper or material to raise the bar on sophistication.
The Reveal!
I've made a small number of polymer clay beads over the last two years and have had fun learning all sorts of techniques. One of the most amazing artists in polyclay is Eugena Topina, whose tutorial I used for the square beads in this necklace. Luckily, I found a mix of bugle and seed beads and incorporated the shiniest ones into this design. I'm proud of this necklace because it's the first one using my own beads as focals.
I really need to improve with the photography of jewelry. Obviously, the holes aren't as even as I'd like, which made it challenging to string. Next time I think I'll be more cautious with making the holes more parallel and large enough to string easily. But for a first run, I'm pretty pleased!
Designing a Future Project
Okay, so I have sketched out the design I envisioned. I have placed beads where I imagine them hanging on an asymmetrical design (a style I find very tricky to properly balance). Now what?
Perhaps with enough research on stringing beads into flower patterns, I can do each individually and then try to incorporate them into a necklace design. I envision wire (wire work or crocheted) between the pearls.
We'll see how long it takes to actually bring this design into life! Months? Years? Decades? Who knows!
Oops!
There's nothing more disheartening than coming to the end of a project and realizing a mistake. Today I was changing the clasp on a necklace given as a gift when I crimped the last crimp bead only to discover that the necklace was too loose. Too much wire was left over. How do you fix this when you don't want to restring? Crimp covers! I simply added two to the back of the design and fixed the problem in a fraction of the time restringing would have taken! Phew!
Front of the quartz necklace.
Back with added crimp covers to serve as space fillers.
Triple-Strand Crochet Necklace
Crocheting with metallic thread is a soothing and enjoyable activity. Here's a triple-stranded necklace I made using rows of 63 beads of various shapes, randomly placed on the thread and then crocheted. If you haven't tried this art yet, give it a go!
Here is just one strand of the three. The crochet on this antique gold metallic thread makes it look as though the beads are incorporated into wire. Very fun technique with a size 7 (1.5 mm) crochet needle!
After a very hectic year, I am finally taking time to post again! My recent crafting passion is crocheted jewelry, with necklaces a particular focus. I'm finding it's just as easy to crochet with metallic thread as wire with practice. It's very easy to crank out a chain-stitch necklace, and with a little practice, it is equally enjoyable working on larger pieces, like the green-bead wire and the abalone wire necklaces toward the bottom.
Double stranded crocheted crystal on metallic thread
Close up: two chain stitched strands twisted together on metallic thread
After creating several single-stranded crocheted necklaces, I was planning to make a two- or three-stranded necklace. But then I started to twist them up and discovered--voila!--I like it even better!
Sometimes I spend a lot more time gazing at the creations of others on the internet than I do creating my own. Luckily, it not only leads to inspiration, but it also leads to finding cool tutorials. I made the two necklaces below with wire based on the tutorial by Johanne Brunet for the Shiny Tide necklace. The green version is the width the tutorial gives. The abalone is the wideth minus one row. Both are fabulous and I was impressed by the fact that even though I can't really crochet, I could still manipulate the wire and beads well enough to make them passable. In fact, before starting, I could only chain stitch. I looked up on You Tube, learned basic crocheting, practiced on a piece of scrap yarn, and I was ready and raring to go!
Original pattern with cheap green beads and wire
Abalone and wire crocheted necklace
These are fun to make and exciting to add to my jewelry collection. Once you've made one, you'll want to make many more. Consider it as addictive as any other fun jewelry making process!
Check out http://www.bijoudecameleon.com/ if you are interested in this or other crochet tutorials! As a beginner, I love this one!
Some great Youtube vidoes: Check out Mikey's crochet tutorials on Youtube for Curtzy Crochet Hooks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCTaJavtoVQ&feature=relmfu. He has a series of 24 lessons, including working with wire and beads for jewelry making.
I wouldn't necessarily select these beads, but I do like the concept, and the product.
