The great wire mystery....solved!

Well, I have been making jewellery for around four years now and it's only taken me this long to work out where I've been going wrong with wire wrapping! Haha! I love...I repeat...LOVE wire work. I know a lot of people on the forums and sites I go on do beady stitching and that is fine but I really don't have the time or the focus to do this! I also think a little metal, be it silver, gold or bronze gives your work a really professional look, like someone has just walked out of a jewellers with it! Ok, I may be deluding myself a little here but hey ho...back to the original point. I adore Eni Oken's stuff - www.enioken.com and she is a pure genius and goddess and I have many of Linda Jones books. I have been dabbling in wire work for a while but wire wrapping has always deluded me! I have always found it really difficult to keep it neat and get it to go where I want! That is until a stroke of genius (note the sarcasm which I can't do on a computer!) hit me. I have been using 20 gauge wire to try and wrap with....and I should have been using 24 or 26 or even 28....People who know me will realise why this has taken so long for me to realise....I am not the kinda gal who sits down to read and follow instructuions to the letter...I am more of a hit and hope....have a go and muddle through...type!!

Anyway, at Christmas I invested in a 'Wire coiling gizmo'......droooollll! (I wish I got there first!!!) Its so simple but such a genius idea! Its 2 mandrels in different sizes and a three sided stand (see http://www.coilinggizmo.com/faq.htm ) which is used to create coils and make wire coiling and wrapping easier and quicker. I have been trying to think of what to use it on and how to adapt some of the more 'unwearable' designs into my style of simple and wearable jewellery and it is the UK Beaders challenge this month that inspired me. The challenge is called 'Spring has sprung'. You have to submit a piece for this challenge that involves the use of a spring or coil or spiral. A perfect opportunity for me to break open the wire and gizmo!

So....last night I sat down to make a necklace and earring set I had been cooking up for a while! I consists of a wire ball (not make by me...possibly sourced from Jem Junction I think!?!) focal bead with 5 hand wire wrapped (with 26 gauge!! wire) tassels with purple Swarovski bicones on the end. Oooh this hurt my fingers....I had been cleaning the flat before this and my fingers were dry..even to the point of one bleeding half way through (plasters ahoy!). The wire wrapping was very neat...even though I do say so myself and MUCH easier with thinner wire!! The 'chain'...when finished...will be 4 2 inch coils of 26 gauge wire with 2 purple swarovski bicones at either end mounted onto 20 gauge wire and finished with a turned loop at either end. These are fixed together with jump rings and a set of these are added at each side of the focal to create an 18 inch chain. The earrings are simply gonig to be 3 wire wrapped dangles on a jump ring and attached to an earring post.

I am around 3/4 of the way through the necklace with 5 of the chain bits to go but I am hopeful of finishing it today so piccies will follow and hopefully it will be entered into the UK beaders challenge.

Before signing off for this post I must just point out an ironic thing that has just occured to me! Last night I settled to read the beginning chapter of Derren Brown's book. I love Derren Brown! Growing up with a fabby magician in the house I have always been surrounded by magic and always watched magic programmes etc. and I think Derren Brown's magic is so fresh and really something to make you think. Anyway, I don't read much but the first chapter hits upon another of my loves, philosophy of religon. I am not religous but was brought up in a religous household and still hold a lay interest in philosophy and religion and how religion has become so big and all consuming in our society and why/how people believe so passionately. I got to the end of the first chapter...23 pages and sat musing over the points Derren had made and the way that he had managed to expand his points so elequently into 23 pages....thinking about how novelists and writers manage to write 1000s of words in their novels and how this was done and how I don't think I could do this.....

The irony.....

Ok, I've just written a rather long post on the fact you should use thin wire instead of thicker wire to wire wrap!!! Haha! Prehaps I should change jobs.....!!! :) :)

Laryngitis jewellery!!

Well, I am off school at the moment with laryngitis! I wouldn't even mind but I had a really nice start back after the hols, no major behaviour problems so not a lot of shouting went on on Monday and Tuesday. But, by the end of Tuesday I sounded like Mariella Frostdrop's northern sister and by Wednesday evening after 4 lessons I had NO VOICE! Nightmare for me. Anyway, after a quick drop in at the docs, he signed me off for a week with accute laryngitis.

Well...what can a girl do when she's off for two days....make jewellery!

So, I have been busy and made a blue charm bracelet.

I have made charm bracelets forever but have never caught onto how you get the 'fuller' look of a charm bracelet. This little ounce of knowledge was passed onto me in this months 'Bead and Beyond' and seems simple when you know how!! Anyway, there are around 70 beads on this bracelet - all mounted on headpins. Some were simply mounted with a turned loop and then the excess cut off. With the excess I curled the end to form a coil and mounted the other beads onto these and finished with a simple loop. These were then mounted onto jump rings and then onto either side of the chain and voila!!

Its very summery and fresh, I love it! I have used - 8mm cats eye beads, turquoise semi presious nuggets, blue freshwater pearls, 6mm blue and clear swarovski's, 4mm white cats eye beads, 5mm Millifiori beads and tibetian silver charms.

Bracelets and earrings I promised to add...

I finally got round to re charging my battery on my camera. So, as promised in my last blog, my tibetian silver/Glass/Swarovski bracelets from my 5 hour sesh!






'Purple haze'

'Rosy Apples'

'Vintage Rainbow'

I especially love 'Vintage rainbow' as it includes 10mm faceted czech glass vintage beads I found in a charity shop. They were just double strung - around 90 for £3.50! They are sooooooo totally gorgeous and I've been wanting to do something special with them....and whats better is that I still have around 80 left!!! :)

My newest pieces...

On Thursday last week I had a marathon beading session....beading for about 5 hours in total! I had my mojo on full steam ahead!! :)

I made...in one afternoon:

'Leafy Greens' - A green Czech glass necklace using glass leaf focal beads, 6mm rounds and miyuki seed beads.

'Cherry Reds' - Cherry earrings, inspired by a Jean Power design in bead a few months ago...

'Puffy heart earrings' and 'Green czech glass earrings with swarovski bicones'

These were made with beads I'd got as a Christmas preset from my SIL.

And...three sets bracelet and earring sets made with glass focal beads, swarovski crystal and tibetian silver. I really love these and am very proud, even though they only use simple strining. The pictures of these will be posted tomorrow as my camera battery has just given out!

CBC bead swap

So....my mojo was back in late March/April 2008 and off I went! A few months ago we had a bead swap on Crafts by carolyn - http://www.craftsbycarolyn.co.uk/ and I recieved some beautiful beads. My favourite was a green and red lampwork bead which I used to create a dangle necklace, using seed beads and czech glass. Now, I know the old saying...red and green should never be seen....but I think it works well together...




This is definately one of my new favourites!!

Weaving beady magic and finding my mojo!

Well, as you know, I am usually a wire worker! I love working with silver beads, wire and chain and think it really makes a piece look professional and that the silver really compliments beads. Well, after my mamouth beady make for the crafts fairs/jewellery fair I have had a few months of a slump...I lost my beading mojo! I was assured by the ladies on UK-beaders that this was normal and that with a little time and inspiration it would come back. So....I waited....January came and went...February....March...and still I'd only beaded a few earrings, then I decided to find my mojo I would turn to a new side of beading I'd never tried - weaving. I'm definately NOT a seed beader, I'm far too clumsy, impaitient and have very little dexterity (anyone feel I do the wrong hobby!?!) but I stumbled on a book by Hooghe and Hooghe 'Necklaces, Bracelets, Brooches and Rings Using Crystal Beads' - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Necklaces-Bracelets-Brooches-Rings-Crystal/dp/184448193X/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208117553&sr=1-4 and started to make some necklaces and earrings using their techniques.....

I find weaving quite frustrating and I lack the patience to make it a regular feature to my work but I do like the results! And it did re awaken my mojo so can't be that bad!

Update....mad year! Publishing and selling!

Its been a mad mad couple of months in my life! Changes galore...in September I started my new job at a VERY busy performing arts college and in November I moved house so its all been go. As a result of this I have not been beading as much and certainly have not had the time to blog. There has been some beading activity though, so let me bring you up to date...

In January I was published for the first time in 'Bead' magazine - http://www.beadmagazine.co.uk/ published by Ashdown. I'd written three articles a while ago to be part of their 'A closer look at...' series, in which each addition a different bead type or technique is discussed. In January I had published my 'Closer look at Czech glass' and in March my article 'A closer look at Pearls' was published. I also had published in January's addition one of my projects - A braclet using glass tiles and wire work spacers....piccy below...

In the next issue I finish off my series of articles I wrote for them with 'A Closer look at Natural beads'. Its such a long time since I wrote these articles but its always great to see my name in print and get the cheques through for them!!! :)

In December 2007 I was also asked to do two more bead events! The first one was a jewellery party and the second my usual craft fair at my sister-in-laws college. Woohoo, you may think...however...they happened to be 1 day apart and the jewellery party was for my NEW BOSS and my colleagues of 2 months!!! Not nerve wracking at all then! The jewellery party went really well, with my colleagues complimenting me on my stock and buying quite a lot! The craft fair was not so great, with only two piece being sold (one to my MIL!) and only making £23.

I made most of my usual stuff...

Swarovski pendants...

The large pear drops were a really good seller at the jewellery party with me selling 2 x clear, a black, green and red one! Its lovely, if not slightly bizarre, to walk around school and see everyone wearing my jewellery!! I walk into the staffroom and think 'I recognise that....oooh yeah that's why!'

My curvy silver spacer necklaces:

Which also sold well...whith requests given to make them in different colours for special orders.

Selections of earrings...

And a selection of other things....

All in all... a good (if not slightly busy) end to 2007 and start to 2008 with regards to life, jewellery and publishing!