Saturday, December 4, 2010

experimets and happy accomplishments November 2010



 I have made much more jewelry than what is posted here in the last month. I seem to create a pair of earrings or a bracelet, and then I don't like it or it just doesn't work out so I either take it apart and start over or dissemble and quit it entirely.

Oh well- Sometimes a necklace just doesn't sit right, or a pair or earrings do not dangle the way I want them to..... I did whip up some pieces I am very proud of and loooooove that I am posting today; a few from a necklace I purchased that I did not get alot of wear out of as it was just too much metal ( lol) so I re-vamped the actual necklace and made some earrings from the remnants.  I am very happy about a few wire and bead pieces, and alot of unfinished pieces which are not pictured here -  yet.


Next time I get started on my jewelery I will be timing myself from start to finish and share that, somethings I have made took -ALOT- of time and it makes me wonder how it is possible for the costume jewelery stores to sell their products so cheaply?


Up first - I whipped up some pieces from wire - these were so simple I am embarrassed I haven't thought of this yet. I snipped pieces of wire in graduated lengths ( no measurements - sorry!) and made eye loops at each end. I layered one end and attached it to a jump rings, and added beads to jump rings and attached those to the opposite eye-loops ( make sense? ).

also; I knocked this jewelery display over and so these are not sitting right and look wonky but I assure you that each pair of earrings is symmetrical...lol, I snapped pics without straitening them out




BELOW: Here I have cut wire into different lengths, I gently BENT THEM over a hairspray bottle to get that uniform curve before I made an eye-hoop at each end . I made sure that they were flat before putting the earring together or else they will bed all over the place....and wont lay flat.

REMEMBER = cut - bend - loop- straighten before assembling

 you can use any round object to make that slight bend, and you can make your bend much rounder or as straight as you like.... these 4 pairs were experiments, and I am soooo happy I tried this out.



I made these spirals by wrapping wire around a wooden spoon ( lol ) and then made eye-hooks on each end.... I need to tweak this technique as they are not exactly the same. I still need to add some beads, one dangling in the middle of the spiral and a few hanging off the bottom, too. I think that the spiral 'technique with wire is a very easy way to make a pair of earrings with impact by adding plastic/glass beads and other embellishments. This design will be top priority when I sit down and start making stuff.

The other pair of earrings in the above photo are made with chain, and wire and gems that I found at the fabric land for .50 Cents CAD for 18 of them in a package..... I still need to mess around with this design, and these plastic gems.


These are a bunch of earrings I whipped up using a package of multi sized seed beads  that I found at a dollar store in my town called a buck or two. That big bag of beads was only $1.50 CAD, they are multi-sized seed beads and some long cylindrical beads in there too! I also picked up those earring ear wire things at this same store.

I love the look of adding a few beads to jump rings and stringing them together looks.... its so simple and looks so pretty. I am trying to figure out how to create *nice* hoops and other base's for my earrings, the last pair on the right is an experiment, I am not so sure how they will hold up as I haven't worn them for the day yet.


The clusters of blue beads on some of these earrings kinda reminds me of fish eggs in the ocean... I am not sure if that is good or bad... hmmmm...




The necklace that is hanging second from the end in these next few photos is where I got the chain to make many of the earrings in these next photos. I will try to find a photo of the origional necklace. It was just to much going on so I scaled it down and used the remnants to make some earrings. I still have alot of material to work with so I will definitely be making alot more earrings from that 1 necklace. Sometimes it is more economical to buy fugly jewelery and re-vamp it; than it is to go to the craft store and buy jewelery components.....


I purchased those eye shaped black crystals at Fabric Land.. they were .50 cents CAD for a package of 10 in a clearance bin. I initially bought those to sew into some tank-tops in summer-time, but they are working out great from my jewelery ( I totally stockpiled a million packages of these things..... maybe I will post a photo of that in the future....)



The graduated chain earrings are sooooo fabulous and are super easy to make. It is a large jump ring with graduated chain... easy-peasy and they look *and feel* soooo good when I wear them!♥



These are some earrings I made in summer, they are alot smaller than what I usually make, and like to wear, but I am planning on making some smaller pretty chandelier style earrings over X-mas break. I made most of these with black wire from Joanne's Fabric  (USA), some black chain and plastic and glass beads.

My office right now.........





5 comments:

Unknown said...

I loooove your earings, this is something that i really want to start can you shed some light where do I begin

Unknown said...

hello, just wondering if you know what gauge of wire this is. it's been hard for me to find the right gauge that will easily bend and take a shape, but hold that shape once worn. thanks!

Unknown said...

wow, you are so talented! I'm making (very, very basic) Christmas tree earrings right now but it had made me want to do more. Yours are stunning.

deez-jewelz said...

Bold & beautiful - Thank you - I have a post lined up on where I get material and beads and such......

Sonya - all the silver wire I have used for these earrings and bracelets is from the dollar store in the hard-ware section. The black wire is from Jo-Annes fabrics in the USA.

so far the silver wire looks perfect, its not tarnished or weird or anything.

Brooke - Thanks! I just experiment with stuff and sometimes it turns out and sometimes I have to start from scratch.

Kim said...

I love it! Your office looks like mine... there is crafty stuff everywhere!

I really like what you did with the blue and amber colored pair of earrings... I never would have thought to put the seed beads on jump rings and dangle them like that. Kudos!