Week 41: Dapper Wrapper

I've been wire wrapping again!  When in doubt or too busy to plan out a neat theme for the week, wire wrapping is always a good fall back.  It's my favorite type of jewelry crafting and I'm always behind on making designs that I've sketched out.  So here are seven that went from paper to reality!

Serpentine and Lapis abstract wire wrapped pendant.

Shaded wire wrapped earrings.  I went from Iolite, to Amethyst, to Lemon Quartz, to Crystal  Quartz.  These guys are super fun and sparkly!

Wire wrapped agate and crystal pendant.  I hammered the spirals to give them additional texture, and I'm pretty pleased with the results.

Mosaic-style wire wrapped pendant.  I'm particular fond of this style!  I have so many cute, tiny, semi-precious beads that could be used in this way.  Stone list goes: Rainbow Moonstone, Garnet, Quartz Crystal, Peridot, Labaradorite, White Moonstone, Chrysoprase, Amethyst, Smoky Quartz, Apatite, Rose Quartz, and Emerald Green Adventurine.

Wire wrapped copper tube earrings. I added bits of text tape (Tim Holtz!  Which I always say like "Steve Holt!") to the copper tubing, then wire wrapped it and added seed bead accents.  Then, I added the key charms so the bottoms didn't look so naked.  An empty loop is a sad loop.

Wire wrapped amethyst pendant.  I don't know where this design came from, but  I enjoyed making use of the negative space in the middle of the pendant.  I don't usually leave open spaces in my work, and it was nice to try and incorporate space into one of my designs.  Even if it felt really weird, like I had somehow left the piece unfinished.

Hammered brass washer earrings with copper spirals! Again, making matching spirals is REALLY HARD.  The good news is that making spirals is pretty easy, so it balances out.

Just a few more days until the end of January!  I'll be back at least entertaining the idea of doing different themes soon.  : )  Thanks for sticking with me, and I'll catch you next time!

Week 38: Bullets Galore!

This month is set to be the most challenging month so far in keeping to my 7 things a week plan.  January is by far the busiest month at work and it's going to take up a lot of time and energy.  So I'm going to try to stick to doing projects that I really, really love as an incentive to get though this month while still keeping my goals, my job, and my sanity.  Well, ok.  I lost that last one awhile ago but you can't blame a lady for trying!  : )  And do you know what I really love?  Bullet jewelry!  And excitingly, I had the though a few days ago that I could probably cut down the bullets I have with my pipe cutter (thanks Lowes!) which would give me more design options.

These tassels came off the ends of a very pretty strand of iolite that I ordered from Fire Mountain.  They were too pretty to throw away!  Once I looked at them I realized that the ends would fit into the smallest of my bullet casings, so of course that had to happen right away!  I love the way they look, but they are super tickley to wear!

Bullet Chakra necklace!  The lighting wasn't ideal for photo taking, so you can't really see the colors well.  I used red tiger eye, orange quartz, yellow tiger eye, adventurine, stabilized turquoise, lapis, and amethyst to create the "rainbow".

I saved the tips that I cut off some of the bullets, thinking I could use them and this is what I came up with!  I don't know that you can really tell it was ever a part of a bullet to begin with, but that's kind of the point.  Plus, chain fringe makes everything better.

Bullet casing and raw amethyst "cascade" style necklace.  Lots of little bullets with one big honkin' bullet at the end.  I'm super fond of this piece.  I think the gold and the purple look very nice together.

Another cut-off bullet tip repurposed to be a kind of bead cap.  The way the round beads fit into the ends made me really happy.  It's a neat little pendant, and it may have to come live in my jewelry closet.  That's right; not box, closet.  : )

Glass heart with crystal tipped bullet accent.  'Nuff said.

And here is the most time-consuming project of the week!  I  treated the bullet casing and all the brass leaves with alcohol inks to add some color, then sealed it with nail polish   (I find that alcohol ink on metal can be tacky to the touch if left unfinished).  I've always loved beetle wing jewelry, but I've been too poor to afford any so this is the next best thing!

I think to keep the momentum going I'll do bullets again next week, which I think will officially make bullets the most used theme of the year.  Congrats bullets, for being an awesome jewelry component.

Week 20: Gemstone Appreciation Week!

I do so love me some semi-precious gemstones.  One thing about my jewelry-making hobby that I truly enjoy is the ability to get to play with and create jewelry from stones that I'd likely not be able to afford from a high end shop.  One thing I've realized about jewelry making throughout this project is that there can be very little gap between what you can buy and what you can make, price wise.  That is if you aren't careful.  A lot of "cheap" jewelry ingredients aren't that cheap if you buy them from brick-and-mortar retail shops.  That said, I'm an avid clearance cruiser at my local Joanns and Michaels.  However, online shopping is where I get the bulk of my beads, findings, and especially my gemstones.  If you haven't checked out Fire Mountain Beads and Gems yet, I highly recommend that you do.  They have their fair share of expensive elements, but you can usually find something I like to refer to as "hobby grade" (in the B-C range of gemstone grades) on longer strands,  for less money than you could most retail stores.  HOWEVER.  That said, see if you have a local bead shop first.  There's nothing like having a good relationship with a local craft store; they can special order items for you, let you know when new shipments come in, there's no shipping fee and the advice and friendship is priceless.  However, if you are stuck in a place with no local bead store, i recommend going the Fire Mountain route.

Oy.  Now that I've ranted, I'm happy to share what I made this week!  I've been trying to de-stash as I think I'm going to be moving into a new place soon, so I've been hoarding some of these beads for years!  It's nice to finally put them to use; I know that I'll enjoy them far more as earrings than I will just sitting in my bead boxes.  On to the show!

Labradorite Stick Earrings (they're so tiny!)

Tourmalated Quartz Earrings on Kidney Wires

Citrine, Peridot, Iolite, and Garnet Earrings. These are likely my favorite of the whole batch!

Wire Wrapped Amethyst Earrings.  The large medallions are chevron amethyst, and have cool striations when held up to the light.  The smaller ones are very light colored regular amethyst. 

Rainbow Fluorite Earrings

Gorgeous Amethyst Nugget Earrings with Citrine Accents.  I really love the clarity of the stones in this pair.

Faceted Carnelian Earrings

You can tell where I've tried to expand my color palate, but I keep coming back to purple.  No surprise there!  But it's nice to know that I can add several new pairs of handmade semi-precious stone earrings to my wardrobe and not be set back $ wise too badly.  Until next week!

Week 4: Bead Buddies

Hurray!  I have managed to keep with the "theme" theme of my posts.  This week I decided to decrease my bead stash some and work on beaded necklaces.  Beads, especially semiprecious stone beads, are an addiction for me.  Occasionally I'll have to use some up, but that's really only ever to make room for new ones.  I've had a few of these necklace ideas floating around for awhile and it feels really good to have finally made them.  I did end up doing a little more than my seven items for this week, but I repeated some styles so I counted the similar ones as one item:

I have quite the collection of agate beads, because they're my little sister's favorite.

A LOT of agate.  This one is for me, though.  : )

I don't usually use freshwater pearls in my work as I'm too ocd to deal with their inconsistent shapes.  Still, i like the way this turned out; the combo of pearls and amethyst worked out well.

Fun with "turquoise" (aka dyed howlite) and coral.

More agate...

...and the matching bracelet, which strangely has NO agate.

This one was time consuming.  the large beads are strung on one wire, spaced out with smaller beads in between.  Then I wove a second wire in and around the large beads to add the "wave" of stone chips and tiny beads to flesh out the necklace.

And because I'm insane I decided to duplicate the most time consuming project of the week, but in amethyst and fluorite.

It was a fairly simple week as far as technique and design goes, but I'm pretty happy overall with the results.  I needed something pretty simple, as the last few weeks have been ambitious for me when it comes to using new techniques and materials.  I hope to be back to craft exploration next week.