A (mostly) wearable bracelet!

I took a class for making a wavy bracelet cuff at Beadazzled, my local bead store.  The bracelet was surprisingly easy to make though it relies too much on beading techniques for my tastes.  Also, the keishi pearls that I used poke into my wrist (DUH).  Still, I like the flattened, texturized bracelet frame.  If I can figure out how to incorporate wire work and beads within that frame while maintaining control of the width of the bracelet, I'll be a happy camper.

Finally, something new and not earrings.

I haven't touched my wire working stuff for three months (and I was even silly enough to buy more beads in the meantime)... then last night, I was examining my stash just before I intended to go to bed and was seized by the urge to make a necklace. I wrapped three strands of 22 gauge wire around a 15" long 20 gauge backbone wire, and then I wove 4 mm peacock pearls on 26 gauge wire throughout the necklace. I still have to make a clasp, and overall the necklace looks a wee bit too much like wire simply looped around the backbone, but it was satisfying to make and I did figure out a few techniques.

The necklace was intended as a companion to a custom bracelet made by Kythryne of Wearable Sculpture, who is obviously much more talented and skilled than I am:












The inspiration for both pieces was the Queen of Air and Darkness from The Element of Fire by Martha Wells (NOT the character of the same name from Lauren K. Hamilton's books). I wanted lots of black and peacock pearls because I am in the mood for darker pieces, although I really don't know why I chose pearls to represent air and darkness.

The little pearls go flying everywhere.

Some more earrings that I made last week:










I made the simple amber drop earrings to practice attaching beads with wrapped loops. The silver coin pearl earrings are accented with clear round faceted crystals (AB crystals looked weird); I'm still not happy with the accent beads but I can't think of anything else that would look better and could still be threaded on 22 gauge wire. The chunky amethyst earrings are accented with wee bits of fluorite - they are deliberately slightly mismatched because I think that it adds character. And also because I couldn't find any other streaky lavender fluorite bits on my strand.


I've been also trying to create earrings that contain garnets with pearls in orbit:








The problem is that I prefer to have pearls (or any bead, for that matter) threaded separately rather than strung together in a row, so this leads to too many wire loops and spacing problems. I'll take these apart and try again next week.

My first wire injury.

I was trying to get a piece of 22 gauge wire through an improperly drilled coin pearl and managed to jab it rather deeply into my thumb instead. (Note to self: use the chain nose pliers next time; they work much better for this sort of thing and don't cause nearly as much pain.)

Speaking of tools, I had to replace the tool set that I started out with because... well, they sucked ass big time. It was inordinately challenging to make small tiny loops, to fold down wire ends neatly and to cut wire cleanly. The tools were too small for my hands (and I have small hands to begin with) and started to hurt my hands after about 30 mins of use. And finally, the round nose pliers had a deep dent near the tip of one of the arms that was impossible to file out, so it was marking the wire everywhere.

Injuries and crappy tools aside, I have managed to make some earrings. These are organized in order of creation (left, earliest; right, most recent) so that you can see that I'm getting marginally better at wire bending. While watching TV one evening, I was playing around with wire and made the wire tangle and the pearl cluster (in between the amethysts and the silver coin pearls). I need to find something else for the silver coin pearl earrings, because they're too bland as they are. Anyways, all of these will be taken apart and re-made except for the pink ocean jasper earring on the far right (which was the first time that I was able to make a proper scrolly thingy):







In case you're wondering, I have made two pairs of earrings that I consider "finished" and won't be taking apart. I recently bought a strand of really striking fire agate ovals:














These are 14 mm ovals, so they're too small to make into pendants unless I combine two or three of them into one piece. But they're perfect for earrings:











I've put these on sterling silver ear wires and will be giving them to friends later today. Family and friends, take note: if you want something specific for your earrings, speak up now or I'll choose what you get. And yes, pretty much everyone is getting a pair of earrings because I can't possibly wear all the earrings that I intend to make.