Whimsical

I haven't posted in forever! I just haven't been doing much lately.

I'll try to get to work on some new stuff, but in the meantime I'll post this necklace. It was made from the leftover beads from at least two necklaces, maybe three. All of the beads are glass - in different shapes - and are amber, gold, purple, blue, and turquoise in color. This necklace reminds me of magical fairies and unicorns for some reason... I could just be a freak.

Charming Charm Bracelets

I found some really cute charms at the craft store and decided to make a few charm bracelets. They're super-simple and I think they end up super-cute.

I chose some fun charms for my own (below): a four-leaf clover, a heart, a key (I just like old keys), and one that says "laugh."

I added some color by putting some red crystals on. I topped the crystals with silver accent beads. 

Close(r) up.

I made this one for my sister. It also has a "laugh" charm, but also an "S" for her first initial, a cat playing with yarn, and a cross. She has light pink and clear/AB crystals accenting hers.

This one is for my mom (obviously, due to the "mom" charm).

In addition to the "mom" charm there is a horse, one that says "love" and a sea horse accented with purple and clear/AB crystals.

Ooooh! Sparkly!!

I made this necklace today because I like sparkly and shiny things. I used some AB (aurora borealis) crystal bicones in 4mm and 6mm as well as two strange-shaped crystal AB beads and one multi-faceted tear-drop that is on the end of the longest strand. I put them at the center of a herringbone fashion chain with some beads along the length of the chain.

There are also matching earrings made with just the 4 and 6mm AB bicones.

Oooh! They are very sparkly! Yay!

The Eye of the Tiger

A while back I was searching for a present for my grandmother on her 90th birthday (congrats Grandma!). I was walking around a shopping center and saw some beautiful jewelry displayed on a cart. The jewelry was made from large stones and crystals... After checking the pricetag on a beautiful necklace that I thought was perfect for my grandma, (and seeing that it was over $100!) I went across the street to a mall that had one of those new-agey stores that sells incense and tribal decorations. I found stone beads! I paid $17 for the materials and made TWO necklaces... one for my grandma and one for me!

This necklace is made from large tiger's eye stones, amber crystals, and black glass beads.

Halloween Necklace

This is the necklace I made to go with my costume. I bought the pendant and put it on a wire with some beads...

While I'm at it... my Halloween costume... dress and cloak. My first attempt at outfit making and it was done without a pattern! Yay!

My husband did the photography this time. :o) 

New Look

Wow. It's been a while since I've posted! I've been so busy making my Halloween costume that I haven't had time for jewelry... except my costume jewelry. This last weekend I did make about five necklaces though...

They're all using my new favorite beads (round stone beads) and my old favorites (crystals) with glass E beads as spacers.

Saucy

This necklace is super-simple, but it adds a big wow factor to an outfit.

It's made from large red porcelain beads with black flecks, red Swarovski crystals, and black glass beads strung on two different lengths of wire.

Twilight Bracelet

Since New Moon is coming out next month, I figured I'd post this...

As you may know, I'm a pretty big fan of the Twilight books. Well, in book 3 (Eclipse) there's a bracelet that I just had to have, so I decided to make it myself.

The bracelet in the book consists of a tiny wood-carved wolf charm from the Jacob character and a crystal/diamond heart from the Edward character on a silver charm bracelet.

Well, I'm not talented enough to carve a little wolf out of wood, and although I could make a wolf out of clay, there's no way I could make it small enough to fit on a bracelet. And even if I could make a wolf that small, it's little legs would break off before the bracelet could even be worn. So, I drew a wolf into a small clay disk. Pewter wolf charms are sold on jewelry Web sites though, if you're interested.

The heart charms are just crystal hearts hooked on using a large jump ring. I make them in both clear crystal and AB (aurora borealis) crystal.

After I made my bracelet, I found a couple Web sites that you can purchase them from online. While mine costs less than $5 to make, check out the prices on these:

$79.00 @ twilighttees.com

$59.95 @ twilightstyle.com

The inspiration:

Fastened to one of the links of the silver bracelet was a tiny wooden carving. I held it between my fingers to look at it closer. It was amazing the amount of detail involved in the little figurine - the miniature wolf was utterly realistic. It was even carved out of some red-brown wood that matched the color of his skin.

"It's beautiful," I whispered. "You made this? How?"

I examined it cautiously. On the opposite side of the chain from the wolf, there now hung a brilliant heart-shaped crystal. It was cut into a million facets, so that even in the subdued light shining from the lamp, it sparkled. I inhaled a low gasp.

"But I thought it was a good representation," he continued. "It's hard and cold." He laughed. "And it throws rainbows in the sunlight."

"You forgot the most important similarity," I murmured. "It's beautiful."

"My heart is just as silent," he mused. "And it, too, is yours."

#1 Making Loops on "Eye Posts" (with video!)

I've been working on this necklace for the past couple days, and now that it's finished I figured I'd post it and teach you how to make the loops to make one of these for yourself.

This necklace is just regular silver chain that is covered with beads that hang off of it. In order to make a bead hang, you'll need some "eye posts" (little metal rod/post things) that have a flat-bottom (to keep the bead from sliding off the end) and on the other end you'll need to make a loop.

There are two ways to make a loop on the wire, and both are represented in the two videos below (mind the volume, while I do not narrate, the microphone picks up the music from my husband's video game in the background very strongly).

For what I'll call "Loop #1" you put the bead on the post. Bend the top of the post above the bead to create a 90 degree angle. Grip the top portion of the post right above the bead with the rounding shears and bend the remaining wire around the shears. Clip the excess post and finish bending the wire with the rounding shears to get the best looking loop possible.

 Loop #1

For "Loop #2" you follow the first couple steps of the first loop: Put the bead on the post. Bend the top of the post above the bead to create a 90 degree angle. But then, you clip the excess portion of the top of the post. Grip the shears to the very end of the remaining post and loop the shears while pulling the wire to bend it into a circle (instead of bending the wire around the shears like loop 1).

 Loop #2

Loop #1 is probably the safest for a beginner because you don't have to worry about trimming the wire too close and not having enough wire to make a loop. Loop #2 actually produces a rounder, prettier loop though; if you're bold enough to do it.

Well, if you repeat that step only another 150 times (haha, my fingers hurt) with various beads (I used a lot of crystals) and fix each bead on the chain, you'll end up with this (with an added pendant of course).

The funny thing is, what I said about my fall necklaces being Christmas presents applies to this necklace as well. The person I made it for (and my family) will know who it's for as soon as they see it. And if she sees it, then she sees it, but don't tell her it's here just in case!

I also made a pair of matching earrings (sorry about the photo, it's flash bloated). I used three segments of the chain and fixed it to a pre-made earring hook (you can buy a pack of earring hooks at any craft store) and added some beads and a large jump ring loop with a silver bead on it (there are a few of those on the necklace as well).

I think I shall call this necklace... Bejeweled. Haha.

Beading Basics 101

I thought about it today, and I think that explaining the jewelry making tools might be useful. The tools in the picture below are the only four I use (except on occasion, regular old wire cutters from my husband's tool box).

The dark pink ones are teeny needle-nosed pliers for beads. They're great for opening/closing jump rings (the little round metal loops, there's a couple in the pictures below).

The green ones are the wire cutters. I use them to cut wire and even metal chain for charm bracelets (though I probably shouldn't use them to cut the chain). I once used them to cut memory wire. My advice to you, don't ever use regular wire cutters to cut memory wire... they make special wire cutters for that for a reason.

The light pink ones are crimping shears. They're flat-faced to smash a little metal bead called a crimping bead (I use those in today's necklace) which is used to keep regular beads from sliding off the end of the wire.

The purple ones are rounding shears. They're used to make metal rods/stems rounded by bending the stem around the shears. I'll show you how those work some other time.

For a very simple beads-on-wire necklace start with a crimp bead and a jump loop on a wire of your desired length (cut the wire a little longer to give room for trimming).

Loop the wire back through the crimp bead and use the crimping shears to smash the bead until it's flat.

Slide your beads onto the wire and add another crimping bead and another jump ring at the end. Put the wire back through the crimping bead (I like to slide the wire through some additional beads as well to hide the wire and prevent it from poking me in the back of the neck).

Smash the crimping bead (be careful not to smash the bead next to it too, it could break!). Trim the excess wire with the wire cutters.

Add a clasp (I like to use lobster clasps) and you've got a super-simple beaded necklace!

Braided

I actually wore this necklace today. I like this one because it's simple and it goes well with my work uniform, which is a light-blue button-up.

If you look at the image close up, you can see that the seed beads I used are blue, but also kind of give off a purple and sometimes teal coloring. 

I say this necklace is "braided" because there are three wires to this necklace. I strung them all separately but combined two of them together at intervals of 10 seed beads with a Swarovski crystal bead (light blue, dark blue, purple, and teal). The wire that wasn't used would get 22 seed beads (instead of 20 and a crystal like the other two), and would be used in the next segment of the "braid."

It's kind of difficult to explain  how to "braid" with beads, so I'll give you an illustration! The stars are where the wires connect with a crystal bead.

I'm not sure if my illustration helps, but that's how it's done!

That's all I've got for today!

Oh, and eventually I'll get to some simple "how to's" on jewelry making. I think I'll even do some short videos (30 second) for some of the harder things to explain.

Multi-Layered

I really don't have a name for this one. The best thing about this necklace is that it's recycled! Yay! Granted, a recycled necklace to me, means that it's made from the remaining beads of other necklaces (I buy too many beads, but never throw the excess away).

This necklace looks really nice with dresses, slacks, or jeans. It's very versatile. It's made from different shaped glass beads in clear and black, strung on two 60" wires and spaced with black seed beads (on one wire) and greyish silver seed beads (on the other). Both wires go through the large glass beads, keeping the wires together.

The necklace was made to wear as a double layer: 

But also looks great if you triple-layer it:

And I may shamelessly plug my brother's Web site, but I want to point out that he did not take the pictures of the necklaces. That was actually my oh-so-great photography in my "studio."* I think I'll have to get some models (probably just myself) for future necklaces. Fall is a big necklace-making time for me because as of last year, it started to be a Christmas present tradition of mine.

*(My studio is actually a wall sconce covered in a black spandex skirt on my bathroom counter.)

How to start...

Well, here it goes. My first post. I think I'll start with one of my favorites, a necklace I like to call "Twilight." 

About a year ago I saw a necklace in a jewelry catalog that was made from crystallized rhinestones that were spaced apart on a series of ball "dog tag" style chains. It was a cute necklace, with the spaced sparkles, and I just loved the name that the jewelry company gave it, "Twilight" (I'm actually a huge fan of the Twilight books by the way). Well, I figured I could make a necklace with the same kind of basic design (spaced crystals on multiple lengths of chain), but make it a little more my own; plus I needed a necklace to match my rehearsal dinner dress for my wedding (which was royal blue). 

The necklace I ended up with turned out great (in my opinion). I used small Swarovski crystal beads (in three different shades of blue) surrounded by silver spacer beads and then clear and AB (aurora borealis) Swarovski crystals on a beading wire strung with silver seed beads. The beads were strung on wires of different lengths and with different numbers of seed beads to space the crystals out.

It sparkles beautifully and it had the perfect amount of blue to accent my beautiful blue dress for my rehearsal dinner. I couldn't have pictured a better necklace to wear on that special day, maybe because if I could have pictured a better one, I would have made it instead!

Thank my brother for the awesome (and sometimes comedic) photography. He did all the photos for my wedding and rehearsal dinner, and he's actually a great photographer. Go see his Web site: www.selfridgephotography.com