Trying something new - Making Woolywire beads

I think I have mentioned before about the greatest jewelry group on Facebook called Creative Bead Chat (CBC). We share tons of creative ideas, tips and tricks. It's a great place for jewelry designers to be.

One day, CBC member Sandra McGriff posted a giveaway - she had been gifted beads and Woolywire from another CBC member and hadn't gotten around to using it, so she decided to give it away to someone in the group. And guess what, I won!

Woolywire is a product available from yet another CBC member Karen Totten (Etsy shop Starry Road Studio). According to the product description on Etsy, Woolywire is "fiber that has been hand dyed and hand spun onto 24ga solid copper wire can be shaped, twisted, coiled, wrapped, woven through chain, for your jewelry creations. It has been permanently felted to keep fiber fixed to the wire."

I received 3 feet of Woolywire in a mix of blacks and pinks plus 3 ceramic beads - two wavy tube pink beads and one black leaf bead. The curl of the wire in the package made me instantly think of making a Memory Wire bracelet.

I like to make chunky bracelets with Memory Wire, so I went to the stash and started pulling out all the pinks medium sized and a little larger. I did purchase one strand of purple, pink and pale yellow crinkle glass nuggets to tie it together, but the rest came from my stash (hooray). I ended up with 4 rounds of beads.

My original thought was to weave the Woolywire through the entire bracelet - a twist here, loop around a few beads, twist again, etc. etc. But I had made the bracelet too long for that plan! Plan B: cut the wire in fourths and make Woolywire beads.

Woolywire bead!

The Woolywire comes with detailed instructions on how to cut finish the ends, right on the packaging materials. I followed them to materials. I followed them to a T and it worked perfectly.

Instructions included

So here is the finished bracelet. I am very happy with how the beads and the bracelet turned out. I still want to try out the original plan of weaving the Woolywire throughout a bracelet, so I see another purchase in my future....

I am including a link so you can check out the bracelet in my Etsy shop.

The Brave Necklace

I promised myself that I would start filling my Etsy shop with all the designs I already have made but haven't listed because of all the holiday shows (and the fact that I *hate* listings - but that's another story).  So this week, I kept that promise to myself and listed 3 items over 3 days - not bad!

One of them was this inspirational necklace with a decorative "Brave" charm hanging from the end.

"Brave" necklace

I had this decorative charm in my stash for a long time before this design came to me. I wanted something special for it! For a certain time in the near past, bravery was a pretty important part of my day. Let's just say that teenage children can be beyond stressful!

One day, I pulled out the charm and the keyhole connector and started designing. Out came this little necklace. I love the Brave charm and keyhole together, the little pearl, the little wing, the shades of brown, grays and blues in the beads - heck, I love everything about this design.

Late in the evening, I get a notification on my phone, and it's an Etsy notification - I've sold the Brave necklace! It was my first sale after getting my iPhone, it's a "cha-ching" sound, LOL! Took me a while to figure that out.

As it turns out, a FB friend from one of my groups purchased it, and had the nicest things to say, "You never know when your jewelry will be an answer to a prayer! You have no idea how this will brighten up someone's day."

Gosh. I never thought about how my jewelry might affect people in that way. I only thought about how it made me feel. It's really validating for someone *else* to feel that way.

What a great end to my week!

Holly Berry Eyepin - a Quick Tutorial

I thought I would share with you how to make a Holly Berry headpin to top a pair of earrings. Sorry for the quality of some of the photos, it is really hard to photograph your own tutorial, especially with your left hand! I used the headpin to make a quick pair of Holly leaf and berry earrings.

For each headpin, you need 3 4mm red pearls and one 2" headpin. I used silvertone, but copper or brass would work just as well.

String the 3 pearls on the headpin so that the leftmost pearl ends at about the halfway point on the headpin.

Bend the right side of the headpin over to the left, as shown in the photo. You will need a slight bit of space between the pearls to bend the headpin all the way up.

Bend the left side of the headpin over to the right, making sure to go BEHIND the previously bent end. The right side will end up at the bottom, so you want it on the back side of the cluster.

Continue to bend both sides until the head side of the pin is flat and the right side is bent straight down. A triangle will form with the pearl berries. The right photo shows the headpin from the back - and of course that's the photo that is actually in focus!


Front side

Reverse side

Cut off the top of the headpin. Trim and make a loop at the top. Straighten out the loop and the back wire if necessary.



That's it, you're finished! Your Holly Berry headpin is ready to use however you'd like. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial - please let me know if you find it useful!

Finished headpin

 

NO Berries and Leaves - a personal challenge

Earlier this week I blogged about the Winterberry Pendant I made as an entry in the Artisan Whimsy Berries and Leaves November Challenge.  Today, I want to share with you my "No Berries and Leaves" pendant, which I also made from a photograph that I took at the same time as the photo used in the Winterberry pendant.

If you remember, I ended up with 6 usable photographs from the photo session in our neighborhood park. Columbia, Missouri has approximately 30 small, neighborhood parks and our neighborhood is lucky enough to have one. The park includes a children's play structure, a concrete basketball court, a small shelter with picnic tables and grill, and a 1/3 mile gravel track. It also has two giant oak trees

Photos from Louisville Park, Columbia, MO

After finishing the Winterberry Pendant, I wanted to use the tree photo next. This idea about a black-and-white photo pendant using a bare tree has been stewing around in my brain for a long time and the time of year was finally right to capture the tree and its limbs.

Using Picasa (my favorite graphics editing program), I added a black-and-white filter, a vignette border and cropped away the sidewalk in the forefront of the photo. I found a rectangular wooden blank in my stash and painted it black with silver accents, then resized the photo and sealed it with Matte finish Mod Podge. Voila! The result was exactly what I had in mind. I added a Tim Holtz eye hooks - just the perfect size for the wooden blank.

Tree Pendant

Now all I have to do is turn the pendant into a necklace. Hopefully I will have time to do that soon, but I have Christmas shows for the next 2 weekends. I am feeling some stress and trying to get everything that I have started finished, but I guess that means I should stop starting things!

Berries & Leaves - Artisan Whimsy's November Challenge

Artisan Whimsy is a great website for creative folks to connect. It was created by 3 ladies from our Facebook group Creative Bead Chat. If you aren't a member yet, you should head over to both and join us!  Every month, they host a challenge. This month, it's Berries and Leaves. Perfect for the Holidays!

 

 



I have been on a nature kick with Fall in full swing. Mo, my 2 year old Bassett/Cockapoo mix, and I walk around our neighborhood park every day! I pick up acorns, dandelions, bark just to mention a few - and I take photos. Tons of photos (thank goodness for digital photos). I use my phone when I forget my camera...those don't always turn out the best, but sometimes you get lucky. Mo is wonderful when I stop and start shooting the same flower from 12 different angles - she just stops and sits down, patiently waiting for me to finish. That's pretty hard for a high-energy dog to do!

Here are my favorites from my last "Photo Shoot."

My photos from Louisville Park in Columbia, MO

I decided to use one or more of these as the basis for a piece of jewelry for the Berries and Leaves challenge, so I started playing in Picasa. Picasa is a free photo editing software. It works for almost every photo editing function I need. Plus, did I mention it's FREE?!

I love the milkweed pod and seed photos, I think I really managed to capture how they were blowing in the wind that day. But when I sized them down to create a pendant - down to a mere 1 to 1 1/2 inches tall - all of the detail was lost! So those photos are going to have to be used in a different way.

Next I decided to work with the Winterberry photo. It is a species of holly that grows wild in Missouri, all over our park.. It was the perfect green and red for a holiday pendant. I spiked up the color in Picasa and shrunk it down to fit in a round bezel I had in my stash.

My new color printer makes great color copies, but it's an Injet - which runs like crazy if I were to put resin or paper glaze over it. I did an internet search on how to set inkjet color, and the answer is - Krylon fixative spray (gotta love Google)! I got some today, and sprayed the photos I printed out. After they dried, I coated the paper with Alene's Paper Glaze. Last, I put the coated photo into the bezel and topped it with another coat of Paper Glaze.

Ta Da! Winterberry Pendant

I decided to keep the necklace simple and topped it with a cluster of olive green and red Swarovski crystals and an 18" brass chain.

Finished necklace with Swarovski crystal cluster

 

And so I have entered and completed my first Artisan Whimsy challenge. Tune in tomorrow for my "No Berries and Leaves" challenge piece, using the Tree photo above.

Reveal: My Bead Table Blog Hop

Today is the reveal for Lisa Lodge's My Bead Table Blog Hop. Lisa sent us a (large) package of random coordinating beads, and along with things in our stash (stash only! no purchasing! that was the rules), we were to use as much as we could and Create.

Finally, the package arrived and inside I found a large bag of glass, seed beads, gemstone chips, some findings and large acrylic petals. The color scheme? Hot Pink. Bright Yellow. Black. White. The acrylic petals were big, over an inch tall. She also included 2 chicken beads - that's right, CHICKENS. What am I supposed to do with chickens? 

Bawk, bawk!

I have never worked with acrylic beads, and bright pink and yellow aren't colors that I usually work with. Ever. Fortunately, they came about 4 weeks earlier so I had time. I put them aside, and every time I passed by them, I thought about what to do.

When October rolled around, I knew it was time to get started actually using the beads. Still confused about what to do with these bright beads, finally something hit me. It's October, and I have a mix of pink beads. I decided to make jewelry to commemorate Breast Cancer Awareness.

The first thing I made was a Memory Wire bracelet. Whew, already the pressure was lighter - I used a lot of beads on this one! P.S.: this is the photo I pixellated for my preview post earlier this week. I actually like this bracelet and the color combo! It turns out all I needed to do was just begin.

First design, Memory Wire bracelet

Then I started on a necklace. I wanted a long necklace with a dangling pendant. There was a large white Howlite bead that was perfect as the foundation for the pendant. I used a variety of beads to make the dangles of various lengths. To continue with the Breast Cancer Awareness theme, I made a beaded pink ribbon out of seed beads and 28 ga. wire. I have some interesting crinkle stringing wire from Beadalon that I used for the lower beaded part. To show off the wire, I used crimp beads to space the beads. The remainder of the necklace is silver tone chain, and I finished it off with an "S" clasp that was part of the bead mix. It is very long, hanging well past the bust line. Perhaps that's why I had a really hard time getting a photo of this necklace. I am still not happy with the final photos, and I may try again this weekend depending on the lighting.

 

Time to make some earrings. I used the leftover chain from the necklace to make a quick pair of pink and yellow drop earrings with the small rhinestone beads.

Drop earrings in pink and yellow

I used 2 of the peach acrylic petals for a second pair of earrings. At first, I tried to use an eyepin through the top hole with another loop lower on the pin. I bent the middle to match the curve of the bead. It didn't hang well AT ALL! It looked terrible. After about 3 times, I tried a jumpring through the top, and I attached the eyepin to that. That worked exactly like I wanted. I love the look of these earrings especially with the heart charm, but they clack a little when you wear them.

Peach acrylic petal and crystal drop earrings

 

This second necklace is my favorite. The pink and brown button above the acrylic petal and the black and white leaf button are part of a closeout set of wooden buttons that I got on Etsy. Along with a caramel colored crystal rondelle and various leaf beads in my stash, it works for me. I wish I could get the petal to quit spinning around. I am going to play with the jump rings some more this weekend.

I had one more project planned, but I just ran out of time. It is the last hot pink acrylic petal filled with resin and a Pink Ribbon oval with a few pink glitter hearts sprinkled in. I intend to finish it with a simple chain and a pink ribbon accent above the petal pendant.

These was one casualty - a broken glass heart...I broke it trying to tighten up the loop I made at the top. It split right in half! I wasn't happy either, I really wanted to use it. I guess I don't know my own strength.

My broken heart

All in all, I am happy with how everything turned out for this Blog Hop. I like the designs I came up with, I made 4 1/2 pieces of jewelry and I used a lot more beads than I ever thought I would when the package arrived that's for sure.

But I still don't know what I'm going to do with the chicken beads. If you know a chicken lover, let me know - I'll send you some beads.

Please be sure and visit all the Blog Hop participants to read their story and see their designs!

Host: Lisa Lodge, Pine Ridge Treasures

Molly Alexander, Beautifully Broken Me

Audrey Belanger, Dreams of an Absolution
Ginger Bishop, lilmummy likes...
Tanya Boden, Fusion Muse
Lisa Boucher, Lisa’s Clay Happenings
Michelle Buettner, Mishel Designs
Eleanor Burian-Mohr, The Charmed Life
Mikala Coates, Maybe Just Perhaps
Marlene Cupo, Amazing Designs
Kathleen Douglas, Washoe Kat's
Mary Anne Klinglesmith Flesch, Handcrafted Serenity  *you are here
Therese Frank, Therese's Treasures
Mary Govaars, MLH Jewelry Designs
Tanya Goodwin, A Work in Progress
Mary Hicks, Falling Into the Sky
Tina Holden, Polymer Clay Bytes!
Shelly Joyce, Au jour le jour
Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations
Kathy Lindemer, Bay Moon Design
Susan Lloyd, Designs by Susan
Cynthia Machata, Antiquity Travelers
Kashmira Patel, Sadafule .. always in bloom!
Inge von Roos, Inge's Blog
Kristen Stevens, My Bead Journey
Sonya Stille, Dreamin' of Beads
Christine Stonefield, Sweet Girl Design
Toltec Jewels, Jewel School Friends
Norma Turvey, Moonlit Fantaseas
Sandra Wollberg, City of Brass Stories

Preview: My Bead Table Blog Hop

 

I have been reading through the results of other people's blog hops for a while now, waiting to participate - for what, I'm not sure. This time I jumped in when Lisa Lodge of Pine Ridge Treasures announced her "My Bead Table Blog Hop."

 

When I received the package, I was in for a surprise. Hot pink? Neon yellow? Not in my wheelhouse AT ALL. Did I make a mistake doing this? I decided to embrace the colors and use the opportunity to work and think out of the box. WAY out of the box.

  

Color Palette of Bead Table Blog Hop beads

 Being new at this, I did not take a photo of the beads when they arrived (I know, definitely a beginner's mistake). To give you an idea of the colors, I created a color palette of the beads I received from Lisa, and I pixelated a photo of one of the finished pieces.

Pixelated photo of one of the jewelry designs I created for the reveal

So that's it. A hint of what's to come on Saturday. I hope you are intrigued enough to see what I have done with the bright palette of beads that I received. Set aside some time on Saturday - there are lots of participants!