Week 52-Woven and Braided Silver Necklace

I can finally post this. This was made as part of a Christmas exchange between two of my Creative Wire Jewlery forum friends and myself so I had to sit on it until after the 25th. It's two 18 gauge wires woven together and then woven again into a braided centerpiece. Whew! I can't believe I made it through a whole year and, although not usually on time, I managed to post something every week. I've really enjoyed participating in the Year of Jewelry and seeing everyone's creations, and I'm looking forward to 2010.

Week 51-Malachite Pendant

This is something I was playing around with while trying to come up with ideas for class projects. It was inspired somewhat by the work of Huan Pham, an amazing artist who uses a lot of loopy elements in his designs. There are still a lot of details to be worked out before I'm ready to teach this but I think it has possibilities.

Merry Christmas Videos

This is the home of a gentleman who lives few miles from me. He starts his Christmas decorations right after he takes down his Halloween display and I look forward to driving by his house every year. One video shows the view from the road and the other is taken a little closer to the house. But there's really no way to take it all in without being there.

Week 50-Woven Silver and Labradorite Necklace

I'm still playing around with forming woven wires into shapes. This started with a gorgeous 18mm x 13mm AAA labradorite cabochon that was netted onto a soldered frame. When I wove the 18 gauge wires together I attached the cab frame to the weaving in several places as I went along and then carefully worked the woven wires into shape with mostly my fingers. I applied a liver of sulfur patina to the whole piece to enhance the details.

Week 49-Poppy CZ Pendant

This is the only thing new I that I managed to make this week. At a recent show a lady really liked the red CZ pendant that I posted in a previous week but when she came back to buy it, it had already sold. So this is a special order for her because she's in love with this color. This particular CZ measuers 22mm X 30mm. I hope you enjoy it, Lynn.

Week 48-Winter Vine

I'm the vice president of the Genesee Area Bead Society (noone else wanted the job.) :D At our meeting tomorrow we have the show and tell for an inspiration challenge. We passed out envelopes containing paint chips. We could either use the colors for inspiration or the name of a color. My paint chip was a palette of greens and one of the colors was called Winter Vine. I used copper and sterling silver along with rondelles of rock quartz, moonstone and a green mystic quartz. The tiny green briolettes are tourmaline and the dangles are moonstone.

Week 47-Gemstone Owl Pendant

Something just for fun this week. He's supposed to be an owl but he reminds me a little of a kitty too. I actually alternated rows of garnets and madeira citrines but they turned out to look so close in color you can't really tell. The eyes are green onyx so the color combo isn't something found in nature but that's okay - he was meant to be fanciful. The owl himself is 1 3/8" tall. Should I LOS him or not?

Week 46-Vine Earrings

These are some soldered shapes that I pulled out of my spare parts box. I embellished them with fine silver vines and added a small amethyst briolette and a larger mystic quartz briolette as a dangle. The mystic quartz has a purple reflection in the right light.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Week 45-Bold Woven Copper Bangle

I was playing around with some copper the other day and this was the result. I wanted to see if this was something I could reasonably do in silver. It's just shy of 1 1/2" tall so it's pretty bold. The large lentil bead is one I purchased on Ebay from Beads by Lampwork.

Week 44-"Anything" Cocktail Ring

This is my version of Dale Cougar Armstrong's "Anything" ring. These are great fun to make as they're bold and blingy and all turn out differently. This one has an 8mm lab created aquamarine in the center with various pearls and silver beads added in.

Week 43-Red CZ Pendant

I've been busy getting ready for the holiday shows coming up and got behind in YOJ. This a little cubic zirconia pendant that's a beautiful shade of red for the holidays.

Week 42-Lampwork and CZ pendants

I took a few days off from jewelry-making this week and it actually felt good to let my self relax and just read a book for a change. But I do have Christmas shows starting in a couple of weeks so yesterday I was back to work. These are made with lampwork beads by Brenda Hynes of Dancing Hedgehog Studio, lots of 26 gauge wire, and a cubic zirconia dangle. Thanks for visiting.

Week 41-Edwardian Period

I'm a little behind. I've been so busy lately with preparations for classes and restocking for Christmas shows that I haven't made many new things. The theme for this week was the Edwardian period. These have a vintage feel so I think they fit the theme. They're created in sterling silver with cubic zirconia drops for some bling.

Week 40-Druzy Pendants

I have a strand of these fun little druzy beads but they're 1/4" thick so traditional wire wrapping wouldn't work with them. I would end up with a gazillion wires at the top to deal with. So the idea for the woven bezel came from Dianne Karg Baron's celtic band ring. People are loving druzy right now and I get comments every time I wear this so I wanted to make something that would be saleable in a reasonable price range. So the new ones are set in slerling silver stamped and soldered bezels. I have them available in my Artfire and Etsy shops.

Week 39-Bowline Knot Pendant

This is something that I was playing around with this weekend while I was at a show. I have seen this knot tied with a single wire before but I wanted to try it with two wires woven together. I'm always impressed at how Corra can manipulate wire into knots and I wanted to see if this was doable. My problem was I had a picture of a bowline knot but didn't really know how to tie it. Fortunately the wire forgave me and I'm pretty happy with the way this turned out. The wire is 20 gauge and 26 gauge and I used a 6mm snapset on the end. The total length is 1 5/8".

Week 38-Bead Crochet Bangle

I have to start by saying that I am not a beader. I truly am in awe of what some folks are able to create with seed beads but I never thought I had the patience. But I bought a tutorial from Studio Dax thinking I might be able to do it, and I sat down the other night to tackle it. The jig is genius. I had no trouble starting it or following the directions. I admit I did rip out more than a few rows when I ended up with a wonky bead or two sticking out. That was in no way the fault of Randi's instructions. That was me not insuring that the new bead was on top of the previous row. Once I figured that out, it went smoothly. I chose to make a bracelet with a clasp which is one of the variations that Randi gives in the tutorial and I love the result.

Week 37-Wigjig Earrings

The earrings weren't exactly made on a wigjig but I did make the loopy trim around these on a Wigjig Delphi. Bigger holes so much easier to attach than chain. The frames are 16 gauge wire that was soldered, then shaped and hammered. The earwires on the labradorite pair were inspired by Sheridan of Joslin Jewels. The posts on the apatite and amethyst pair were connectors. I cut off one of the rings and soldered a post on the back. I liked the way they echoed the loopy pattern of earrings.

Week 36-A Tale of Two Pendants

When I started to wrap this 20x30mm black CZ, I messed up on the first attempt and got the prongs too far apart. That afternoon this neat 32x15mm pyrite included quartz came in the mail from Greatcabochons.com. I pulled the first piece out of my scrap and used it to do sort of a combo wrap on the quartz. I think it turned out kind of cool. I love it when I can salvage pieces out of my scrap box.

Ruby, my spring loaded dog

This is Ruby, one of my five Boston Terriers, and she is a jumping fool. Check out how she alternates between front paws with every jump. She was doing the same thing three hours after having had a Caesarian section. You can see why I had to special order a new storm door that doesn't have the screen on the bottom.

Week 35-Copper Viking Knit with Kazuri Pendant

When I'm at shows I often work on a piece of Viking knit to keep my hands busy. I ended up with this long piece of copper so I pulled it and pulled it until it bacame a neck chain. I made the end cones with 18 gauge wire wrapped around my round nose pliers. I added a slide made with a Kazuri bead and a large smoky quartz drop. Then I lightly oxidized everything. If you're not familiar with Kazuri beads, they are fair trade beads from Kenya. The company was started in 1975 by Lady Susan Wood, the daughter of two British missionaries. Today they have a factory that offers employment opportunities to single mothers, widows, and people with special needs. They offer good wages, favorable working conditions, child care and health care. Some women are supporting extended families of up to 20 people on what they are able to earn there.

I am now officially caught up!

Week 34-Netted Pendant

I had some requests to teach a class on this pendant but I had to modify it because the original was soldered. I did a fancier version of it with garnets but decided that it couldn't be done in a three hour class. So I went back to the original and this is the sample that I made with mystic quartz beads-not a really good choice because they don't show up. I also had to make it again because I totally forgot how I did it. :D This measures just a tad over an inch in diameter.

Week 33-Labradorite Earrings

Just some simple earrings that I made from some outstanding labradorite drops from Sapphire Garden. I had a show last weekend and wanted to make up some earrings that feature beautiful stones but still keep them in a reasonable price range.

Week 32?

I've lost track. I've let myself get so behind and I don't even look at the themes anymore. LOL This one borrows an idea from our own Deborah Gray-Wurz. I learned how to make these beaded beads from Mary Dugas from our local bead guild. It's the only thing I know how to bead and, for someone who resisted learning for as long as I did, I had great fun making them. So I combined this one with a section of leftover Viking Knit, some caps, and some large silver beads to make this bangle.

Week 31-Rutilated Quartz

I had these pretty golden rutilated quartz drops that I got from Sapphire Garden sitting in storage waiting for an idea. This isn't a brilliant idea but I wanted to keep it uncomplicated to show off the stones. That's my story anyway. :D

Week 30-Cherry Blossoms

A bad case of bronchitis kicked my butt last week but I finally got off the couch and made something Saturday. I had to cut my cherry tree down last year and I miss it so I made these from a wonderful tutorial by Emily Judkins.

Week 29-Coin Pearl Bracelet

A simple girly-girl bracelet this week as I've been too busy decluttering the house and garage to do much else. This is made using sections of purchased chain in between the coin pearls with blue chalcedony and pink amethyst rondelles added.

Week 27-Copper Viking Knit Bangle

Oops, I'm out of order. I thought I had posted this. When I'm at shows I take along some Viking knit to work on as it's something I can do to pass the time without having to think about it, and it starts conversations with customers. After ending up with about five feet of silver, I switched to copper for obvious reasons. I finally got around to making something with it. This is just a chunky bangle using Greek Mykonos ceramic beads and some Bali style spacers. The pretty rose bronze end caps are from Heather Ferman.

Week 28- Druzy and Amethyst Pendant

Ava's recent postings motivated me to dig out this little piece of druzy that I've had for years. The stone is 15mm X 20mm and it changes color from purple to peacock depending on the viewing angle. I usually wrap with dead soft wire but since I knew I couldn't tumble this I used 22 gauge square half hard instead. I find it frustrating to shape half hard wire around small pieces so I used one of Rick's Bezelforms which helped a lot in getting the the top and bottom joins even. The dangles are amethyst.

Week 26-PITA Pendant

I have no talent for thinking up clever names for my pieces. :) In case you don't know what PITA stands for it's Pain in the A__. But this does remind me a little of a stained glass window. I actually didn't make it this week but I did put the jump ring on so you could say I finished it this week, right? I had thought about making a beaded chain for it, but after making this fiddly pendant, I ran out of motivation. The sides of the soldered square frame measure just under 1 1/4" and I used bunches of little bitty pearls, some iolite beads, and mystic quartz beads in the center.

Week 25-Copper Prolong Knot Cuff

Last week I had the pleasure of taking a two day workshop from Loren Damewood. We finished our silver bracelet by noon so after lunch he gave us some copper wire and let us make another one. I just decided to bling this one up a bit by wiring on some 4mm silver Czech beads. The workshop was a lot of fun and I recommend it if you ever get the chance to take it.

Deb's Victorian Key

My friend, Deborah Gray-Wurz, created this gorgeous necklace from my Victorian Key Pendant tutorial. She accidently grabbed the 20 gauge wire instead of the 18 gauge and you can't even tell. She finished the necklace with garnets, a handmade chain, and a beautiful lock cut from sheet sterling silver. You can see more of Deborah's work at her Etsy shop or at her website. Thanks, Deb, for trying this out.