Life’s a Beach

This summer, I spent some time on some local beaches looking for beach glass.

After bleaching it (to kill germs), rinsing it, sorting it, and drilling some pieces, I got bored and set it aside.

Recently, I spent some time working with some of the pieces and here’s a few things I came up with.

The chain is a sterling silver chain I had.  I used some aluminum jump rings and a bead I had lying around to “finish” my pendant.

Drilling, by the way, is tedious.  I got a diamond bit for mothers’ day for this purpose.  Also, even with the proper tools, some pieces are just going to crack.  My favorite pieces are cobalt blue.  They are very hard to find, and generally very small.  I desperately wanted to use a few pieces as accents to some of my chainmaille.  Naturally, they cracked.

To drill, I place the glass on a sponge in a glass dish with water at the bottom.  You have to go slowly. You have to back the bit out even more slowly.

This piece was so interesting, I didn’t want to add any embellishments that might detract from the glass.  It’s lovely and chunky.  I made my own copper jump ring to use in place of a bail and strung it on lovely brown leather.

I used silver craft wire to wrap this piece of beach glass.  I made another pendant like this and turned it into a keychain.  The wire wrapping took quite a while, I’m going to have to practice wrapping more.

While I was working on these things, I also decided to make a ribbon necklace for a pendant I’d purchased. I”m not sure if I’ll keep it.

I cut two equal lengths of 1″ hot pink ribbon and 1/4″ link pink ribbon, which was twice as long as the hot pink ribbon.  Then I wrapped the hot pink ribbon with the light pink ribbon.  I purposely tried to keep the wrapping irregular but then I’m not sure I like the results.  Hmmm.  Maybe it’ll grow on me.  If not, well that’s ok too, I’ll just make something else.  I have some lovely silver cord.

Right now I’m working on this:

It’s a piece of beach glass I drilled.  Again, I’m using an aluminum jump ring in place of a bail.  I attached two pearlized beads to the bail with fine copper craft wire.  I’m stringing on beading wire.  I used a round nose/flat nose pair of pliers to make the coils (for bead spacers) out of the copper craft wire. I may continue the coil/bead pattern for the whole necklace or just have a few small segments.  I haven’t decided yet.  I’m afraid that if I bead the whole thing, it’ll overpower the pendant.

It’s been so nice to spend some time making jewelry.  I haven’t made anything in months.  I have so many projects half started.  I’m hoping to get several more done before my vacation time is over.  If I’m really lucky, I’ll get to some of the sewing I’ve been meaning to do.

 

Brass in Pocket

Or on my daughter’s ankle.

I made this anklet using Blue Buddha Boutique rings in brass, aluminum, and bronze, size H18.   The beads are seed beads attached using Blue Buddha Boutique aluminum rings, size F20.  I made the clasp out of brass wire.

You can click the picture to see the detail better.  The weave is barrel chain.

 

Look What I Can Do

This is the first chainmaille project I have finished in a while.

I used 18 g 3.5 mm sterling silver rings from Urbanmaille.  The beads are some cheap glass seed beads that I picked up 30 grams for $0.25! Not all of the beads will fit on the rings but I had plenty to make this. I haven’t done  a lot of chainmaille with beads or crystals but it looks so elegant I want to experiment some more.

 

Turkish Delight

I’m making a bracelet (I might get ambitious and continue until I have a necklace, I’m not sure yet) that was supposed to be Turkish Round.

Except that I misinterpreted the directions and ended up with this instead:

I rather like it, plus I’ve already spent a few hours on it, so I’m going to keep it.

I’ve made it out of 18 gauge 3/16″ round stainless steel rings.  It’s really heavy and not very flexible, but it looks really impressive.

 

British Steel

So, it’s not British but it is made of (stainless) steel and I like using song titles (or, in this case, album titles).  Plus, my old band used to do Breaking the Law (as did every other band) so there’s a little soft spot in my heart for British Steel.

I just finished making this hardcore looking cuff using 18 gauge 3/16″ square stainless steel rings with 20 gauge 1/8″ round stainless steel rings for the connections.

I have two cuffs like this; this pattern, which reminds me of a Japanese weave, and European 4-in-1.   I like really wide bracelets in stainless steel.  It’s fun to wear them with rather girly clothes; I enjoy the contrast.

Unfortunately, because stainless steel is so heavy, and stainless steel findings selection is so limited, I have to work a lot harder and make the cuff big enough to fit over my hand.  If I had more tools, I’m sure I could make my own stainless steel findings of whatever width I desire.  But, alas, until I make some money with my little hobby, I can’t really justify buying more toys, I mean tools.  If anyone knows a good source of stainless steel findings, please send that info my way.

I really do like this weave, it’s very industrial.  It just may be able to stop a bullet, but I’m not going to test that.

 

Give Me Silver, Blue, and Gold

My rainbow is overdue.

It’s been such a long time since I’ve been able to sit and make anything.  Now I’m feeling so inspired that I can’t wait to finish one project before I start another.  Here’s a peek at my work board right now:

I have a beautiful European 4-in-1 stainless steel mesh cuff, that I love.  I just love the way the European weaves move, just like fabric.  It’s addictive to play with my stainless steel cuff. I decided to try a European 6-in-1 bracelet.

I’m using 18 gauge 5.0 mm sterling silver rings from Urban Maille.  They are so amazing to use, I wish I could afford to make everything in these rings.  I’m about halfway done with this bracelet.  The European 4-in-1 and 6-in-1 are really easy weaves.  These are great beginner weaves.  Here’s a shot of my European 6-in-1 bracelet (in progress):

Although, as I said, I haven’t done any jewelry-making in a long time, so before I finished this, I started a necklace in anodized aluminum.  Over a year ago, I bought 6 colors of 16 gauge 4.8 mm rings from the Ring Lord.  I’ve learned something VERY important about anodized aluminum rings.  The sizes are not the same as stainless, sterling, or copper rings.  I bought this size because it’s a good size for many popular weaves, I should be able to use these rings in a byzantine weave, but I cannot.

So I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with all these rings, and, European 4-in-1 it is! I’m making a necklace, however, I put a center point V in the weave.  Here:

While being unclear about how the dye changes the aspect ratio is my bad, I’m still disappointed in the anodized rings from Ring Lord.  The color varies a lot more than the anodized aluminum rings that I purchased somewhere else.  And the cuts are just not smooth.  I’m still going to make some cool stuff with them though, cuz I got mad skillz.

And the third little project I started is a caged bead project.  I love the look of caged beads.  The only problem with making them is measuring.  I hate having to measure (which insures that I won’t ever become a great wire artist).  When I have to measure and be exact, somehow I feel as though my creativity is being stifled.  Although I’m totally anal retentive about things, I do not enjoy having to be exact when I’m creating jewelry (or drawing).

Oh well, it’s so pretty, that I will break down and measure so that I can have a bracelet of interlocking caged beads.

I’m just using some pink glass beads and some 18 gauge craft wire.  The only tools I’m using are 1 pair of round nose pliers, 1 pair of chain nose pliers, and 1 pair of wire cutters.

 

Ooh, Shiny

(originally posted 5/23/2009)

It’s been a while since I’ve completed any new jewelry projects.  I’ve got 3 things sitting on my beading/chainmaille board that I’ve been working on for the past few months, but I just seem to either not have the time or not have the creative motivation to finish these things.

I took a jewelry class today though.  It’s been a few months since I’d taken one.  Each class I take demonstrates a project which you finish in class.

I made this today.

I love it.  Taking a class is great because, although I could have learned this with a kit by myself, you have the time set aside and you’re with other people which keeps you motivated.

I didn’t stay to see everyone finish their bracelets, but it was neat to see that each one was different.  Two ladies made their bracelets in copper.  I love copper, but I was afraid that the large rings would be too soft to hold.  Unless the gauge of the wire is really heavy, maybe 14 gauge or lower, or you’re soldering I don’t trust rings much larger than 5 mm (inner ring diameter).  And everyone seemed to pick a different bead type.  One lady said that she wasn’t going to use any stone or crystal.  One lady picked all different pastel color Swarovskis in the sterling silver bracelet.  Another woman picked all different Swarovskis in bright jewel tones to set in her copper bracelet.  The woman sitting next to me brought in beach glass that she had drilled.  That was really unique.  She had dark blue and aqua colored tiny pieces of beach glass.  It gave the bracelet a vary different feel.

I just really loved this brilliant blue color.  I feel it really stands out against the silver.  I was the only person who used a single color (maybe someone else did a single color after I left).

After taking my class today, I’m all psyched up to start working on my jewelry again.

 

Chainmaille, It’s Not Just For Armor Anymore

(originally posted 3/1/2009)

I love making chainmaille jewelry.  I started by taking some classes at a local bead/art shop.  A different chainmaille project that takes about 2 or 3 hours is done every month in a workshop.  I’ve made a mobiused bracelet, a japanese flower pattern bracelet, byzantine earrings, a chainmaille-surrounded swarovski rivoli, and a double spiral bracelet.  I’ve always purchased that sterling silver kits for these workshops.

I’ve been making lots of chainmaille jewelry: earrings, bracelets, necklaces, on my own.  I find it really therapeutic.

I started by purchasing sterling silver rings.  I love the sterling silver and copper rings from Urban Maille.  They are perfect.  No rough edges, no mars. Definitely worth the price.  And they come in fantastic clear topped containers with gauge and size labels affixed.  The containers are wrapped in tissue paper.  Opening a package from Urban Maille is like opening a present.  One of the really nice things about Urban Maille’s website is that it has recommended ring sizes for specific weaves in the weave gallery.  The weave gallery was just recently updated, and unfortunately, the number of weaves included are smaller than before the update! Boo!

I wanted to play with some colored rings before Christmas so I ordered a variety pack of  anodized aluminum rings from Blue Buddha Boutique.  The site is really nice to order from.  But working with the anodized rings required a change in my technique and some modifications to my tools.  The first thing I needed to do was order some Tool Magic and coat two good pairs of chain nose pliers.  I use chain nose pliers for the copper and sterling silver rings and it requires some skill to avoid marring the rings.  It’s even more difficult to avoid marring the anodized rings, that is the reason for using the Tool Magic.  Other than that, the colored rings were really fun to work with.  I made some bracelets and necklaces using the the Shaggy Loops weave and some chains with no real name.  I still haven’t made anything for myself using colored rings, but I will.

My next adventure was to try stainless steel rings.  I ordered my rings from The Ring Lord.  This is a Canadian company and shipping takes forever.  I’ve never ordered stainless steel rings from anyone else, so I’m not sure what type of quality I should expect.  However, many of the rings have tool marks and a coating of lube (?) and the cuts aren’t clean.  Unlike the rings from Urban Maille, these rings often have notches and spurs at the opening.  I’ve made many really nice pieces with these rings, but I can’t get the closures that I’d like.  I know that stainless steel is rough to work with.  I’ve really chewed up a few sets of pliers using these rings.  Oh, and chain nose pliers are NOT the way to go when using stainless.  Pliers with teeth are almost a necessity.  You don’t have to have pliers with teeth, but you’ll work much, much, much harder if you use pliers without teeth.

I recently bought anodized aluminum rings from the Ring Lord.  I was a bit disappointed with the amount of discolored/uncolored rings in the package.  I haven’t used these rings yet.  The cuts on the rings appear to be the same as the cuts on The Ring Lord’s stainless steel rings.  I don’t have tons of experience, but I can compare the anodized aluminum rings from the Ring Lord and Blue Buddha Boutique.  The rings from Blue Buddha had no discolored/uncolored rings and the cuts are much cleaner than those from the Ring Lord.  Also, Blue Buddha has a larger selection of gauges and sizes than the Ring Lord.

I think that next time I’m going to order from Metal Designz.  I had not ordered from them before because 1) they had no online ordering – you had to e-mail or phone in your order, and 2) they have a much smaller selection of gauges, sizes, and shapes of  stainless steel rings than the Ring Lord.  This is another Canadian company, so I can’t help but wonder if  shipping takes forever like it does with the Ring Lord.  I experienced a two-week lag between ordering and receiving my shipment for my two orders from the Ring Lord.  On the plus side, 1) Metal Designz has a fantastic list of recommended ring sizes (I have to say that Blue Buddha has wonderful info on this as well), 2) Metal Designz sells precious metals, bass metals, anodized aluminum and niobium, and rubber rings, 3) it now has online ordering.

Great resources for making chainmaille are CG Maille and M.A.I.L..  Both offer free online tutorials for many, many chainmaille patterns.  Blue Buddha Boutique offers a few free weave tutorials, shaggy loops being one of them.  The Ring Lord offers some Blue Buddha Boutique tutorials for sale.  Metal Designz offers Dylon Whytes tutorials.  They are about $10 each though.  Ouch! Urban Maille does not sell tutorials by themselves.  You have to buy a weave kit which has the rings and the instructions.  These start at about $70 each.  Ouch, ouch!

Half Persian 4-in-1 in 12 gauge copper rings

On my own, I made some of the following weaves: Half Persian 4-in-1 (snake), Full Persian (foxtail), Byzantine and various variations on Byzantine, Helm Chain, European 4-in-1, double spiral, mobiused earrings, 3-in-3 chain, 4-in-4 chain, box chain,  Maru, and Jen’s Pind.  The Half Persian is an excellent weave for men.  If you use a heavy gauge, it just looks amazingly masculine.  My husband has a bracelet made with 12 gauge copper rings.  It looks fabulous on him.  I’m the model for this picture though.  You can tell it’s way to0 big on me.

European 4-in-1 cuff made with 2.0 mm 22 gauge stainless steel rings

I want to try some new patterns.  I have a thing for making weaves in really tiny rings.  I like the contrast between the hardness of metal and the delicateness of the small rings.  I made a cuff in European 4-in-1 with 2.0 mm stainless steel rings. I couldn’t find a wide enough finding to end it, so I just made it large enough to slip over my wrist.  It took more hours than I’d like to remember.  And I ruined two expensive pairs of chain nose pliers.  Ideally, I would’ve used pliers with teeth for stainless steel, but the rings were far too tiny and pliers with teeth were far too clunky to accomplish this task.  Having to use smooth jawed pliers on stainless steel required an insane amount of hand strength.

It is such an amazing piece.  It either looks very rock-n-roll or very sophisticated depending on my outfit.  It’s always unique.  I made a matching ring.  I don’t wear them together, it’s too much metal.  But they are both excellent, versatile pieces.

 

Chainmaille Gifts

(originally posted 12/9/2008)

I am now officially addicted to making chainmaille and working with wire (wire wrapped jewelry).

No, I couldn’t have a cheap addiction.  I have to like playing with sterling silver (well, that’s way better than an addiction to working with gold or platinum, but it’s still far from cheap).

I’ve found that not only is it fun, but I seem to be pretty good at these things.  I like finding new talents.

copper bracelet in double spiral pattern

I made my husband a really nice copper chainmaille bracelet (double spiral pattern).  It’s just beautiful.  He’s seen it.  I used 18 gauge 5mm copper rings.

He asked me to make it.  I’m not bragging by saying it’s beautiful.  It really is.  I’m making a comment more on the pattern and the metal than any skill that I might possess.  I wasn’t really sure about using copper, but it’s gorgeous and takes on a really cool patina as it oxidizes.

I had to use a thicker ring for the clasp.  When I used the 18 gauge to secure the clasp, it came apart.  I used a 12 gauge ring and haven’t had a problem.  If I had tumbler, it might have helped work harden the copper and I might’ve been able to use the 18 gauge to attach the clasp.  However, I don’t have a tumbler, yet.  So I can’t say if tumbling would have been enough to strengthen the rings.

guitar pick earrings

I also made a bunch of earrings for my nieces using guitar picks, wire, charms, Swarovski bicone crystals (of course Swarovskis, no other crystal will suffice), and some earring wire.  The cost of the beads, crystals, picks, earring wires, charms, and craft wire was about $4/pair.  I’ve seen these for sale without the crystals and other embellishments for $12 or more per pair.  They were fun to make.  The only tools I needed were a hole punch, round nose pliers, flat nose pliers, and wire cutters.  I didn’t have to, but I purposely bought picks without any printing.

wire wrapped dichroic glass

I made a couple of pendants for my daughters.  One is a rather avant garde pendant using a piece of etched dichroic glass that I made in a dichroic glass workshop.  Now that I’m a bit more skilled with wire wrapping, I might do this differently.  Certainly some of the style was dictated by skill.

I am happy with the final product though.

wire wrapped Unicorne bead

The second pendant I made was with a Unicorne bead. I love these beads.  There’s no way that I make something bad with these beads.  They are gorgeous.  There are bits of dichroic glass in the beads.

That is probably the nicest wire wrapping I’ve ever done.  I can only hope that I can replicate this.  Maybe my hands were guided by love.

mobius ball earrings

Then I made several mobius ball chainmail earrings for my kids’ teachers for Christmas.  They are so easy and pretty that I think I’m going to make more.  They are so elegant and light.  I need to make myself a pair.

The funniest thing is that I never was that interested in jewelry.  Now that I’m making some, I am very into wearing it.

I love making this stuff.  It’s so relaxing.  The cost of consumables is rough though.  I’m going to need another job just to pay for my new hobby.  But then I won’t have time for my new hobby.  It’s a vicious circle.

byzantine pattern in 2.25 mm sterling silver

But figuring out the best (high quality, reasonable price) places to purchase the supplies is a whole other job.  I’m not ready to commit to buying the tools needed to make my own jumprings.  Eventually, this will probably be the way I will go, but right now, I just started this hobby and the cost from all the tools for making the quantities of jumprings that I would need be quite high.  I can make jumprings using a jeweler’s saw, mandrels and some good files, however, this would be a real pain for come of the things that I’ve made (the necklace i just finished for myself used about 500 jumprings), especially considering the consistency I would need.

So,  I’ve found that for Swarovski beads, spacer beads, and some basic tools, I’ve gotten the best prices at Art Beads and Fire Mountain Gems.  I’ve placed a few orders with each company and I’ve been very satisfied with the whole process.  Standard shipping is free from Art Beads and $5 from Fire Mountain Gems.

I’ve also ordered from Urban Maille.  The sterling silver and copper jumprings I purchased there were really good, perfectly smooth at the cut, very nice to work with.  Now I just need to improve my skill to the level that is worthy of working with such fine rings.  I did develop enough skill that I can work with rings as large as 16 gauge without marring the rings (most of the time).

I finally placed my first order with Blue Buddha Boutique today.  Ordering from this site is a bit more complicated for 2 reasons.  1) the diameter size is replaced with a number (for “ease” of those using the weave tutorials by Blue Buddha I assume), and 2) the site uses English measurements instead of metric.  The other places I order from (Urban Maille and the local bead store) use metric, so I can’t really use rings from the different sources together (because the metric equivalent of the English sizes are wonky metric sizes).  Also, the prices for sterling silver and copper jumprings are better at Urban Maille.  But I bought several sampler packs of anodized aluminum rings from Blue Buddha Boutique because I wanted to play with some colored rings.  I like that they had packs with random sizes, colors, and gauges.  I can’t wait to play with them.  I have no idea how the aluminum holds up, how to clean it, etc.  This will be my first time playing with anything other than copper or silver.

Blue Buddha does offer reasonably priced tutorials for many different weaves.  There are a couple of free tutorials here and they seem to be easy to follow.  I would assume that the tutorials that must be purchased are similarly well written.

Urban Maille doesn’t sell instructions separately from ring kits.  The kits are very costly (but they are sterling silver), most are $70 or more.  I like the idea of buying the kits from Urban Maille, but I’ve been doing an ok job of figuring things out on my own.

pagaoda earrings

I was playing with some rings last night at made some really strange earrings that somewhat evoke the idea of a pagoda.  I made them by using 16 gauge 5 mm rings in the box weave.  This size really can’t make a proper box weave because there isn’t enough room.  So the rings are smooshed pretty severely.  And after a few segments, it’s impossible to continue the pattern.  But I liked what I came up with.  Since the rings are such a heavy gauge, the earrings are quite heavy, but they are very unique, very me.  I dig them.

I tried casting a ring.  Way too many expensive and dangerous tools and supplies.  It was really fun though.  Now that I’ve tried it once, I would like to experiment some more, but I will definitely try to sign up for some more workshops doing this.

I tried dichroic glass.  Again, many expensive tools.  And there is a great potential to harm oneself here:  the heat from the kiln, cuts from the glass, HF acid (if one is etching). Expensive tools.  Kilns are expensive.

pendant made by sawing metal

Metal sawing.  I made an excellent charm.  But I managed to cut myself on the jeweler’s saw.  And between the saws and files, to keep myself busy.   I’d need a bunch of increasingly expensive tools.  Why do all these techniques require such expensive tools?

PMC.  Oh, PMC.  How I loved working with this.  The potential here is amazing.  Again, supplies could get pricey.  Most of the tools are the same kind that one would use while shaping Sculpy, however, a kiln is needed for the final firing and kilns are expensive.  I made these earrings in a workshop.  The instructor was showing us rings she made entirely out of PMC.  She said that to achieve the band, she made the parts in 3 separate pieces and then attached them (I don’t know how she attached them, the band was quite thick and appeared to be seamless.  It looked like a cast ring.).  The biggest thing about working with the PMC was keeping the clay from drying out.  We were constantly applying olive oil to the tools and our hands.  At least my hands were well moisturized afterwards.

PMC earrings

 

Dichroic Glass

(originally posted 11/23/2008)

I took a workshop in dichroic glass etching this afternoon.  It was so cool and quite easy.

We started out by learning a little bit about dichroic glass and the process of fusing the glass.

Dichroic simply means 2 colors.  The glass is just beautiful.  It is metallic and, depending on what colors are around the glass, it appears to change color.  It’s very popular right now to have dichroic glass jewelry.  I bought a pair of earrings that have some dichroic glass at the Akron Museum of Art.  They are gorgeous.  There’s a piece of the earrings that are clear glass, a piece that is black, and a tiny sliver of this intense, metallic turquoise.  They are delicate and stunning.  I get more compliments on those earrings.

So, after learning a little about the process, we were told to pick a piece of glass and decide which stencil to use on it.  Since we were etching the glass, we had to use a flat piece of dichroic glass, but there are glasses with all kinds of fantastic textures (I am like a little kid, I have to feel all the different textures.  I’m always touching everything!).  We then scored and cracked the glass in our desired shape.  Then, we rubbed the stencil onto the glass.  This stencil was used to etch a pattern into the dichroic glass.

After the stencil was transferred, we used an etching paste to etch in the stencil design.

The last step was to cut a piece of clear glass just slightly larger than the dichroic glass.  This piece will be fused on top of the dichroic glass in the kiln.

The workshop doesn’t include a demonstration of the use of the kiln.  But the instructor was kind enough to explain the process.  She uses a top load kiln because it is easier to properly place the pieces with a top loader.  The pieces can slide out of place when transferring them into a front loader and it would be difficult to see that they were out of place.  Also, it’s easier to check when the pieces are properly “done” in a top loader.

The stuff I did today was very basic, but the possibilities are enormous when you get into tack fusing (which is how my earrings were made).  Tack fusing is a method of fusing where you melt the glass just enough to get them to stay together but each piece you’ve used maintains it’s general shape.  It ends up looking as though you’ve just glued the pieces of glass together.

I’ve been learning all kinds of jewelry making techniques lately.  I’ve been learning about chainmail patterns, how to use pmc (precious metal clay.  It’s fantastic.  Because the metal is “dissolved” in the clay, you can shape your piece like clay, then you fire the clay and you end up with just the metal jewelry.  I made earrings that are .999 silver using PMC.  I rolled it out like playdoh, imprinted it with my design, cut it out, drilled holes for the earring wire, then fired it in a kiln.), some basic wire wrapping techniques, setting rhinestones (hey, there’s actually some technique to it, and it requires just tons of patience), silversmithing, metal working, and some more beading techniques.  It’s so much fun.  Even if I never make anything on my own using these techniques, I am incredibly happy to try them.

I love to try new things.  I’m not even that into jewelry.  For as much jewelry as I’ve been making lately, I hardly own any.  But I love making things.  And when I make jewelry, especially when it’s my own design (I have had instructors say “I never thought of that before” more than once in these classes), it’s art not just jewelry.

Maybe some day I can quit my soulless daytime job and create art for a living.  I don’t expect to get rich from it or be famous.  I just like to create, to express my self.  It’s very freeing.  It makes me happy and peaceful (and my family is very grateful for this peace).

Sláinte!