Week 31: Ruby's Week!

I am completely lucky in that I know some of the coolest people in the world.  One of them, Ruby Funk, was awesome enough to send me a package of jewelry supplies that she no longer used.  Who doesn't love presents?  There were some truly cool things in that package, and I decided that I'd use her materials as the main components in this week's jewelry bonanza.

"Vine" wire wrapped earrings; The earring base and amber beads were Ruby's contribution to this project.  I had so much fun wrapping and weaving the amber beads.  I <3 amber="amber" and="and" beads="beads" colors="colors" great="great" shapes="shapes" such="such" td="td" these="these" were="were">

Funky charm earrings.  These cool spiral, leaf, and starburst charms were in the package; I provided the ear hooks and charm chain.  : )  They're all jingly when you wear them.

Crescent moon dangle earrings.  These moon charms came off a cool bracelet that was in Ruby's wonderful gift box.  I took them apart, clipped off the eye on the bottom of each, and used a chain that Ruby provided to make these earrings. Only the ear hooks are from my stash.  : )

Extra Long Copper and Sky Jasper necklace.  The only component from Ruby's stash are the actual jasper pieces, but as soon as I saw them I got this design stuck in my head and couldn't help but make it.

This necklace is the oddity of this week for sure.  Everything else is kind of earthy and organic, and this is quite dressy and formal.    The large gold filigree and crystal components came from a bracelet in the wonderful treasure box.  I saw the bracelet and immediately went "Ooh!  This needs pearls!".

This is my favorite piece of the week.  The stone component that Ruby sent me is so cool!  I don't know what kind of stone it is, I'm guessing it's a jasper of some sort.  I think the multiple holes were meant for making it the base of a multi-strand necklace, but I really wanted to wire wrap them.  I'm pretty happy with the results; now I just have to figure out how to find more of these multi-drilled stones!

And last but not least, the extremely close runner up to my favorite project of the week.  Ruby sent met these very cool lava stone beads, and I really wanted to use them.  But I also wanted a pop of color.  So I went through my paint supplies, and found my liquid gilding pens.  I tried out one stone, and it turned out perfectly!  The paint pen coated the surface in a cool metallic color, but left the nooks and crannys of the stones untouched.  

I absolutely must give a huge thank you to my dear Ruby, who provided me with some amazing materials that really let me stretch my creative muscles.  I always enjoy the challenge of working with items I didn't pick myself, and these really gave me a creative jump-start.  I was kind of in a slump, repeating a lot of the same ideas and themes, and this got me back on a better path.  Thank you Ruby!  I <3 ee="ee" i="i" nbsp="nbsp" nd="nd" next="next" of="of" p="p" rest="rest" the="the" too.="too." week="week" you="you">

We now have a Black Friday / Cyber Monday promotion going on at our Etsy Shop. Currently we are offering 25% off all our merchandise via a discount code at checkout.  Visit our store for more details.  Our sale will run through 12:00 AM EST on 11/23 to 12:00 AM on 11/27. Happy Holiday Shopping!

Week 30: Keys to the Kingdom

I found a bunch of oversized skeleton keys in the dollar bin at my local Michael's store, and I instantly knew that they were going to be the theme of this week.  They're all pretty large and similar in design, and I thought it would be fun to see how many designs I could come up with to use was was essentially the same item in different ways.  Overall I'm pretty happy with how things turned out; there are a couple of designs that aren't as strong as the others but overall I feel pretty happy for making seven different things out of the same key item (pun totally intended).

For this key I filled the top with resin that I added some metallic blue powder to, then added some star cut outs and rhinestones to give it a sort of "space" feel.  I'm not 100% pleased with the results, but the concept is good and if I can find some more of those keys I'll try again!

I decoupaged some origami paper to this key, and added some cut ribbon to give it a bit of "fringe" up at the top.  Again, I'm not 100% pleased with the results, but it was totally worth a try!

This key I painted with nailpolish to give it a Tim Burton sort of feel.  The detail work at the top took forever with my hands, but the bottom spiral was pretty easy thanks to some masking tape.  : )

For this key, I added a butterfly that I got off a Goodwill bracelet.  I think this might be my favorite of the group this time, even if it is the hardest to photograph  .

I turned this key into a charm necklace by adding a bunch of odds and ends I had  from various charm packages I got at craft stores.  A bit of wire wrapping on the end evened the key up so it hangs nicely as a necklace.

I wire wrapped the length of this key, and added a whole bunch of different accents like gears, freshwater pearls, tiny heart charms, and an itty bitty cameo.

This key I turned into a lariat necklace.  I didn't want to run the chain directly through the keyhole, so I added a large jump ring to the hole at the bottom and ran the chain through that.  It seemed to balance the necklace better and didn't cover up the keyhole plate with chain.  I also added three freshwater coin pearls as an accent to keep it from being too plain.

I know I don't get too many points for creativity this week as they're all necklaces, but honestly the keys were just too darn big to do anything else with!  Other than the lack of variation in the end product, I'm happy with the variety of the necklaces themselves.  Coming up with seven different styles was pretty challenging, and I'm happy that it encouraged me to try some things that I wouldn't ordinarily have done.  That said, I might take it easy next week.  : )  Thanks for stopping by!

Week 29: Bottle Week 3, Revenge of Bottle Week!

Ok, I know using the movie title theme that 2 should have been "Revenge of Bottle Week" and 3 should be "bottle Week Three: 3D".  : )  No matter the title, I'm back at making necklaces and earrings out of glass bottle charms.  By now my obsessive love needs no introduction, so we'll get right on to the pictures:

Glass bottle charm necklace.  The bottle has a couple of feathers in it.  The charms are a glass leaf, a metal bird, a vintage style key, and a metal wing.

Mica filled glass bottle earrings.  Pretty self explanatory.

Tall peacock feather filled glass bottle earrings.

Beaded necklace with ornate glass bottle filled with mica.  

Glass bottle necklace with pressed ferns and lavender.

Necklace with double terminated quartz crystal points in a glass bottle.

Necklace with vintage style scroll and rhinestone links, with fancy glass bottle filled with peacock feathers.

I know I made some repeats with materials in the bottles, but I think that the necklace styles are different enough to make them distinctly unique projects.  I have a few more ideas, so I'm sure "Bottle Week 4: Bottle Week in Space" will happen sometime before the 52 weeks are up.  : )  See you next time!

Facebook Giveaway

Who has two thumbs and wants some free jewelry from Mazikeen Studios? If it's you, here's what to do!

1. Be one of the first five people to post a link to our FB site or Etsy shop to your wall.

2. Encourage people to like us, to really like us! (We're needy like that.)

3. Visit our giveaway photo album and leave a comment along the lines of "MINE SUCKERS" or "Taken" on the item you want. (Obviously, if someone already got to it, you can't have it.)

4. Message me your shipping details and I'll get that bad boy in the mail for you early next week!

Oh, and if you were a little late to the game and didn't win, you can still pimp our Etsy store and FB page on your wall. In fact, if you do we'll give you a code for 20% off anything in our Etsy store. Sound good?

Contest will stay open until all five winners are declared.  : )  Offer of the bonus code for link trade is good through 12/31/2012.  : )

Week 28: Random Week!

It was really hard to come up with a theme that I wanted to stick to this week.  I had a bunch of different, unrelated ideas floating around in my head that were just begging to be made.  So I went ahead and did a them-free week.  Here are the results:

Sodalite and tiger skin jasper necklace.  I mostly made the necklace itself around an idea I had to make a bail out of leather for a gemstone donut.  It's pretty rustic, but I think that suits the necklace structure well.

Peacock feather earrings with "vintage" style rhinestone dangles.  These bad boys are going to be my new default holiday party earrings. 

Labradorite and Iolite necklace with silver swirl beads.  This necklace is actually a refashion of one I had picked up years ago from Goodwill.  Originally it was just the beads on knotted cord, but the cord eventually broke and this is what I did with the stones.  I'm very happy about being able to return the necklace to weekly wear.  : )

Wire wrapped bird's nest earrings. I've made a few necklaces like these before, but I wanted to see how tiny I could make the nest.  As it turns out, with 26 ga wire you can make them pretty tiny.

Fish scale dangle earrings.  My dear work wife picked out these super cute scale-like components at Michael's.  They jingle when you wear them!  : )

Fancy jasper necklace.  I found a bunch of fancy jasper components in the clearance isle,, and decided to try my hand a just a basic one strand necklace.  I'm happy with how the colors and shapes worked together.

The REAL reason for random week; the beaded chainmaille necklace.  A variation on the Japanese 6 in 1 weave, I used beaded eye pins to make the bulk of the weave.  I'm super pleased with how the necklace turned out,. but it took about a good five hours for me to put the whole thing together.  When I realized that "beaded chanimaille week" would take way more than a week, I moved on to other designs I'd been meaning to try out.

I'm happy to have just gotten around to some random designs.  I kept the theme-thing going for half a year, and I imagine I'll do more themes but it felt really good to just get back to "random" creation.  : )  Thanks for stopping by!