seed beads and jump rings bracelet

I got a bracelet from a wool shop in Ireland that I just love.  I did a search and found out Lesley from The Gossiping Goddess came up with this one (it's at the bottom of her tutorial page).

I love how it feels, so I thought I'd try to make another like it... but I ended up making quite a few!

I used 6/0 seed beads and 4mm jump rings, which were the closest to the suggested sizes I could find.  because the jump rings were so small the cording needed to be thin.  I tried embroidery floss and hemp cord - I like the feel of the embroidery floss, but the hemp cord might hold up better.

I also did a few with stretch cord, but they were a little trickier - I like the seamless look and how easy they are to put on, though.

hugs and kisses

I really enjoy watching Beadifulnights' tutorials on youtube.  they're clear and easy to follow and when I bead along while watching I feel like I all of a sudden have something cool I couldn't have figured out on my own when I'm finished.  I loved the Hugs and Kisses bracelet when I saw it and wanted to try it, not really expecting it to turn out, but it did!

  

I used these earrings as color inspiration and made the bracelet to match as best as I could get it to.

  

when I was finished I decided it needed a necklace set to go with it so I searched for a pendant and found one with a couple of smaller ones that could be used as earrings that worked great with the colors of the bracelet.

it still looked like it was lacking so I added another necklace with some simple strands of beads and that did the trick! 

flat marble necklaces

I watched some videos on making fried marbles (or baked marbles, since that's a common way to do it now) and did some image searching for project ideas.  there's some pretty cool stuff out there that people have done that looks super simple.  I love this one - on the lookout for small round marbles now!

 

I have really been wanting to make some for a while so I finally picked up some flat marbles at the Dollar Tree and E6000 from Michael's to try this little number out.

I made some wire bails while I baked my marbles and whipped up a few quick pendants during nap time.

 

it might be that I'm more sensitive right now, but it took about a week or so for the adhesive stink to go away - something to keep in mind next time I need to use that glue!

I noticed that the darker ones didn't shatter as much on the inside.  I don't know if they should be heated longer or what.  I did mine at 500°F for 30 minutes.  they sizzled and popped when they went into the ice water like it said they should in the tutorial, and I could see the light colored ones had small fractures throughout immediately.  I left them in the water for 15 minutes waiting for the darker ones to finish up, but they pretty much had just a few larger cracks through them and that was it.  I tried re-baking some, and that didn't really do anything except make some of them break apart.

I might try alcohol inks someday if I revisit this type of project so I can just use the clear ones that crack really nice and make them whatever color I want.

simple necklace

I found some bezels with sticky epoxy domes at Michael's - pack of two for $4 - and thought it'd work great for putting Jack's sonogram profile picture in :)

it came to me that I could use sticker paper and not have to mess with glue and worrying about it soaking through the back of the paper and mucking up the ink when I tried to put it into the bezel, so I pulled out my folder of crap that I save to see if I had any sticker paper.

I had a couple of packing slips from old diaper deliveries that had a mostly blank adhesive label on them, so I measured out where that spot was on the paper and how big it was, and sized two of my pictures of Jack in to that area and printed them out.

 

I pressed the epoxy sticker onto the sticker paper and cut around it.

 then all I had to do was peel the back off the sticker paper, press it into the bezel, and put it on a chain.

 

I love how it came out and I can't wait to see his little button nose in person :)

earring hook & hoop how-to

I make jewelry for my mom and Matt's mom a few times a year (birthday, Mother's Day, Christmas) and my mother-in-law likes a smaller wire hoop instead of a traditional fish hook earring, so I started making the smaller open hoops, and here's how to do it.

you'll need:

• wire cutters
• flat nose pliers
• round nose pliers
• size 13 knitting needle
• ear wire or pre-made wire hoops
• file (optional)

I use a pre-made wire hoop from the craft store, but you can use regular ear wire.  wrap the wire around a size 13 knitting needle so that it overlaps past the point that it makes a full loop.

trim the wire a 1/4" beyond the overlap. make a loop on the end you just cut with the round nose pliers, turning away from the opening of the hoop.  shape it so it lays flat and is open enough for your earlobe.

another earring I like to make it is an angled ear hook - it's pretty easy.

I take the pre-made hoop and stretch it out so that it still has a little curve to it.  if you're using plain ear wire cut a length that's twice as long as you want your hook to be and make a loop on the end with round nose pliers.

 

hold the wire between your finger and thumb and pinch so that the ends are even as they come together until they cross.

open the hook up slightly, take the flat nose pliers and turn the loop so that it's flat, then use the round nose pliers to curve the loop inward.

since I use pre-made ear hoops I don't need to finish the end that goes through the ear because it's already rounded, but if you're using ear wire by itself you'll need to file the ends so they aren't sharp.

 

it's a very simple way to give earrings you make (or already have) a more unique look :)

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mother's day jewelry

this copper and blue crystal bracelet and earrings are for my mom. I used a byzantine weave and sorta just made up the pattern as I went along. I went with making my own rings for this one, which wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I've made jump rings before, but not 100's of them at a time! I used two different sized knitting needles and just wrapped the wire around until I got what looks like a tight spring, then just clipped them apart. nothin' to it! ;)

I did silver and multi-color stones for my mother-in-law's bracelet. I did a search online for pictures to go from for her bracelet and found one I liked on Dawanda. then I found the earrings I wanted to do - so much harder than they look!

I found a cool site that's a great place to start if you want to get into chainmail, but they didn't have the byzantine weave I was looking for. this particular weave was hard for me to understand with just pictures, but I happen to find a video! I dunno what I'd do without the internet :)