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!

Week 24: Rainbow Chainmaille Week

I'm addicted to chainmaille, it's no lie.  In fact, a good half of the folks I follow on Pinterest are chainmail artisans or collectors of cool chainmaille designs.  I haven't worked with maille in awhile, but when I went to Michael's they had a bunch of really cool (and TINY) multicolored jump rings on clearance that were just begging to be made into some colorful chainmaille designs.  Normally my chainmaille is pretty sedate; I work mostly in silver and copper, sometimes black and gunmetal.  This was a nice change of pace, even if I did have to spend a bunch of time sorting tiny jump rings by color.  : )

Fun chainmaille pendant using a Japanese style weave.

This bit of Chainmaille looks like bubbles to me!  I know it's not rainbow colors, but the rings I picked up had a lot of gold rings interspersed with the multi-colored rings, so I thought it best to make use of them.

Rainbow Chainmaille Wave Necklace.

Beaded Chainmaille Earrings.  I finally figured out how to jazz up plain silver rings.  Yay!

Rainbow chainmaille drop earrings.  These were supposed to be based on the byzantine weave and turned out to be some unholy combo of Euro (the knots) and Japanese (the 2 in 2 connectors) but I like them anyway.

Celtic Flowers Chainmaille Bracelet

Crazy Rainbow Chainmaille Bracelet.  This one took the most time, but was also the most worth it.; it is definitely my favorite for this week.

The good news about this week is that I managed to use up almost all of my rainbow colored rings.  The bad news about this week is that I managed to use up almost all of my rainbow colored rings.  Now I won't be tempted to make more, but if I do think of a really cool design I'll have to *gasp* buy more rings.  OH NO! : )  Until next time!

Week 21: Hardware Week

In preparation for my move, I've been spending an awful lot of time at Lowes.  While I was there, I got a little lost in the hardware isle and decided to pick up some components for crafting!  When I was a much younger "grunge grrl" I had a necklace that I made out of old, rusty hex nuts that I found in my garage.  I've been in love with the industrial look ever since.  I know a lot of the stuff I make is girly, but I mainly craft for other people or to challenge myself; I don't wear most of what I make.  I usually like my accessories with an edge.  So this week I went all out and made stuff that I'd be more than happy to wear!

Chainmaille made from locking washers!  I added different metallic coatings to the washers, then added some patina before putting them together in the Japanese 4 in 1 weave style.

Wire-Wrapped Locking Washer Hardware Earrings.

More Locking Washer Hardware Earrings

Hex Nut Chainmaille Necklace.  This bad boy is really heavy!  It is put together with hex nuts in the Japanese 4 in 1 weave style.

Hex Nut and Locking Washer Earrings.  These were a "bonus" design for this week because they're pretty much the same as the trio of locking washer earrings, but without a hoop.  : )

Hex Nut and Washer Earrings with Chain

Bracelet Made From Brass Hinges

Tiny Lightbulb Earrings!  I found these in the hardware isle in one of the drawers marked "Science Fair Materials".  There is a lot of fun stuff in that drawer!

I am really happy with the results of this week's crafting.  It is really fun to use non-traditional materials, such as hardware and other "found-item" components, when making jewelry.  Thanks for looking and I'll catch you next time!

Week 15: Bracelets Abound!

I don't know what kind of can of worms I opened up by flirting with bracelet design, but I'm hooked!  This week is now the first back to back theme week of the year; mostly because I just wanted to make some more bracelets.  And here they are:

This was a fun bracelet I made by raiding my overabundant hook-and-eye stash.  Add jump rings and a clasp and voila!  Instant bracelet.

Leather with beads and a wire spiral

Leather with a small (and functioning!) hinge.

Multi-strand bronze metallic leather bracelet.  There are eight strands of the leather, but you can't quite see them all in the picture.  This one may be my favorite to wear of the new batch.

Leather cuff with eyelet studs and chain for a hand wrap.  Whoo, fancy!

Wire circle with wrapping and  various semiprecious stones.  I lied.  This one is my favorite to wear of the batch!

And here is the final (and most time consuming) bracelet of the week!  Two leather straps connect a strip of Euro 4 in 1 chainmail.

I got the design for the Euro 4 in 1 bracelet from an excellent book by Laura Poplin called "Unconventional Chain Mail Jewelry".  I highly recommend checking out this book if you are in the intermediate stage of chainmail construction and are looking for new directions to take your designs.  Expect to see more projects inspired by the book in the future!

Week 7: Back on the Chain Gang

I have a love for chainmail that far outstrips my ability to create chainmail.  I tried a variety of different weaves when I was first learning, and pretty much had settled on Japanese weaves as what I could comfortably do.  I have a couple of chainmail books sitting on my shelves that detail more European weaves, so I decided to pull them out and see what I could do.

Tiered "Infinity" Links

"Shaggy Loops" earrings

Helm chain bracelet

"Romanov" Byzantine links with rose and crackle quartz

European 4 in 1 thin bracelet

Queens chain necklace in copper and silver

Byzantine rectangle links in copper

So yay!  thanks to my new project I can do some very basic European Chainmail weaves.  I made all these with jump rings purchased from Michael's; I really suck at Aspect Ratio calculation (because I'm lazy) and their consistent ring size really helps me avoid having to re-measure new batches.  I always wander back to chainmail so I'm sure I'll have mroe weaves to post in the future.  Right now I have my eye on Persian weaves and Dragonscale, so we'll see.  : )  Till next week!