Learning something from an utter class fail.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first bracelet-making class that I took at Beadazzled.

The second one, not so much.

The instructor failed on multiple levels. She only listed the wire for the bracelet frame in the class supply list, specified too heavy a gauge for the frame, and claimed that 10 feet of wire would be enough for weaving.  She also didn't provide an pic of an example woven bracelet; if I had seen one, I might not have signed up because I visualizing something else.  During class, the instructor had us hammer out the pieces of wire for the bracelet frame and then try to wrap two of the hammered pieces onto the third piece.  It's nearly impossible to bend 16 gauge wire into a tight loop and when you try to, it BREAKS, especially when it's been hammered.  I broke one of the pieces for the bracelet frame and ended up having to improvise.  It was a waste of real silver wire.

When I got home, I decided to make a woven bracelet so that I would have an example bracelet to refer to.  Once again, I hammered out three pieces of silver-plated copper wire, this time 20 gauge, and once again, one of the pieces broke.  I re-made a frame without hammering out the frame pieces and it was infinitely easier to attach two pieces of round wire to a third piece.  I then wove 22 gauge wire between the two outer frames.  I tried to add beads at one point, but the addition of beads made it difficult to maintain a tight weave, so I decided to weave from both ends and stop somewhere in the middle of the bracelet, where I wired in a crudely faceted labradorite bead.  I think that if I were to make this bracelet again, I would design it the same way - put either a large bead or a string of smaller beads in the middle of the bracelet, surrounded by tightly woven wire, which could look like a metal sheet from a distance.

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.

I has the jewelry making bug again.

Back in 2007, I bought these rough emeralds:


I probably just bought them because they looked so interesting in the photo. I hardly ever wear green and peridot is much cheaper than emerald. Anyways, I mentioned on twitter that I didn't know what to do with these, so I would probably make earrings with them and give them away.

Well, I had two offers to take earrings off my hands nearly instantaneously.

So, I got out my wire, tools, and supplies, and was pleasantly surprised to discover that after a bit of practice, my hands remembered how to make spirals, loops, and wraps.


I have been losing my earrings at an alarming rate and simultaneously getting tired of wearing the same earrings day after day, so I will be ordering some argentium wire (my skin very quickly tarnishes the plated wire that I'm currently using). Who knows, I might even try making bracelets and pendants and necklaces, too. HA.

Simple earrings with fabulous beads.

Someone was generous enough to send me a very rare Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab perfume oil decant, so I sent her some earrings to thank her.

Both of these tiny labradorite coins were very flashy, but I had trouble positioning the earring on the left to maximize the flash.


















I wasn't able to capture the delicate banding patterns on these blue lace agate beads with the camera. They're much cooler in person.

My first bracelet.

This didn't turn out the way I planned at all, but I'm surprised that I managed to make a halfway decent looking bracelet on my first attempt. At this point, my major stylistic weakness is my tendency to create too many loops in the same direction, which becomes a little boring visually.

Note to self: peridot is much greener than fluorite.

After I made the kyanite earrings, I decided that I should make peridot earrings for one of my sisters. The left one was made first, and then I attempted to duplicate the design in reverse for the right one which is why it's a little less organic looking.
















The difference between the left and right earrings started irritating me, so I went back to my work bench... where it suddenly dawned on me that I had used fluorite instead of peridot. I tried replicating this design with the peridot beads in my stash, but the design doesn't suit the beads. And since it's getting late, I'll have to try making peridot earrings another night. Hopefully with actual peridot.

An original (and completely random) earring design.

I made the right kyanite earring first and managed after a few attempts to duplicate it in mirror image, more or less. I may re-do the left one at some point but I'm quite pleased with how these turned out.

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.

All I made were a pair of earrings.

I brought all my tools, a ton of wire and a good selection of crystals and stones with me to Australia, and all I made were a pair of garnet and Swarovski clear AB faceted oval earrings, which are modelled after these Wearable Sculpture earrings:

















Oh well. In Tasmania (Cradle Mountain, to be exact), a little girl came up to me while I was wearing these earrings and asked me where I got them. She looked a bit stunned when I said that I made them (but she may have simply misunderstood what I was saying because I did have a completely different accent than what she's used to).

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.