what I've been up to Dec 31st.....

SEQUINS!!!!! I finally found black sequins, and not just black sequins, but FLAT black sequins and HOLOGRAPHIC black sequins..... as well as plain shiny sequins. Most of these earrings I made by adding a sequin to a jump ring, then creating a chain of jump rings with sequins attached... some I added 2 sequins to    the jump ring, then added the next jump ring in-between ( with 2 sequins)

I feel like I am really bad at explaining this, so I will need to do a better picture step by step post on that. I love how much light reflects from the shiny silver sequins.... I really have to find a better way to photograph my jewelery....

Its super-duper fun to whip these up, making these is kinda mindless - I just throw a movie on and make stuff.

Since it is Dec31- and tomorrow is a start of the new year I dont want to be a negative Nelly but I did want to make more things in 2010 - but tomorrow is a new beginning, and I have tonnes of idea and tonnes of beads and wire from the dollar store...... Only my sore hands and wrists can prevent me from reaching my goals♥♥♥

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December 2010.... so far - so good

 Above - The first pair on the left are huge! I am very happy with these, they are bulky but light♥ They are made with the gems and jump rings, I bent a wire and put loops on each end then gently bent in the center.

 I did not make as many pieces as I had hoped too lately, I am always up to some craft, or messing around on the internet - I find that my hands get sore alot faster lately, so I only managed to make a few pieces.

For anyone who visits this blog; 
1. Do you make/re-fashion jewelery?
2. How do you decide what to make? 
3. Where do you get your inspiration from.
4. When you see a nice pair of earrings or a bracelet, do you think you could make it? 
5. Where do you get your supplies from?

I aspire to post on this blog - deez-jewelz - at least every 2 weeks ( or more), the next time I check in I will answer those Q's above.

I made most of the black jump rings with wire by wrapping it around a b-b-q skewer, I wish I could find a thicker wire than 26 gauge in black in my town - becuase this is a little too thin for me. I also will be adding a small amount of black polish to all the raw edges of my wire,  I can really see the center of the wire material on alot of these earrings.....

Below; these 3 at the top are made using chain, wire and the gems. simple and easy. The two on the bottom I made by adding a plastic bi-cone bead to a jump ring and added it to a chain....those are very easy to do a swell.

L- jump ring & graduated chain, I think I need to add more chain graduations to this, they look a little skimpy. I also have to close the jump rings a little tighter and add a small amount of Black nail polish to side the copper . The earrings on the right need a little something else; not sure what, I may just add another gun-metal crystal hanging from a small piece of chain from the ear wire to fill up that empty pace.

these are the gem things I found at Fabric land... I bought ALOT. they were 50 cents each, regularly $1.98 to $4.98. I personally wouldn't pay more than 50 cents for these, because they are totally trashed and scuffed up just from being in the package. I purchased some non- shiny ones and they will be okay to sew onto my clothes ( eventually ). But these shiny ones will go through the laundry once or twice and be scuffed up and damaged in no time. The holes were also closed up so I had to forcefully stick a tack in each hole, so I could put jump rings through them.

so far this week ( I hope to whip up a few more earrings this weekend, and possibly some bracelets, too♥)The trick is for me to have all my beads and stuff out in the open at home, and not in a container under my bed ( lol) otherwise, I do not finish as much stuff as I like to. This goes for all my crafty endeavors =  I need to have it in my face or I casually forget all about it.

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.........

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stuff i have made in the last 2 weeks

 Stuff I made the week of 22nd to Oct 26th

wow - those spun wire earrings with the crystals and crimp beads were soooo easy to make! I plan to hit up Micheal's and pick up some crimp beads. I don't have a crimping tool = I just used flat pliers to squish the crimp bead. There is an abundance of spun wire at the dollar stores in my town.... all I need is the crimp beads and I could churn out some fabulous creations!

I had 2 dozen or so of crimp beads from a sampler package I purchased a few years ago...... I don't think I ever paid attention to them before, but I have so many ideas now that I see what they can do. Those are the easiest fastest jewelery I have ever made.

 Some of these earrings above need tweaking, so they are not totally finished yet.

 Below are some rings I made with buttons I found in the bargain basket at Fabric-Land. The black star is a broach that I no longer wear, so I glued it to a ring base.

The ring bases I used are not that great. They are of low quality and the silver finish is eroding already. Cocktail rings are easy to find and are inexpensive so I  don't think I will make anymore for myself. I found these ring bases on sale and wanted to try making my own.

 ....before

These next 4 pairs of earrings I made with a pair of earrings I did not like anymore. The large filigree silver peices were joined together to make a 4 pane earring which sorta flopped around ~ it did not look good to me. So I took them apart and made 4 individual pairs of earrings.

The first 2 on the left took a long time. I added 3 seed beads to each jump ring and connected them together..... very time consuming but pretty. These are the first ones I made with this method. I think that is a simple way to create alot of impact... especially if your seed beads have some opalescence to them.

The two pairs on the right are kinda boring to me and I may add something to them.

 close up!

 and here is what I accomplished this week ( Oct. 29 - Nov 4th)

 I used some earring bases from Micheal's for these. So far I am not impressed with the quality of some of the Micheal's earring bases/findings. I got most of these on sale but at full price, even with 40% off - they would still be over-priced for the quality.

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making jump rings

Making jump rings is easy to do. You can make them in any size you wish - with any type of wire you choose. The size of the jump ring depends on the size of what you are winding it around. Jump rings are in-expensive and somewhat easy to find. In my town there is not alot of options so I started making my own.

Here I have used BBQ skewers for my jump rings. I am trying to find something smaller than these items to make super-tiny jump rings.

I wind the wire around the BBQ skewer.

Then remove the coiled wire and snip ( wear goggles or close your eyes real tight LOL )

genlty bend the wire to form a proper ring.

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hi!

♥ First post ♥

I plan on adding photo's & tuts of all the little things I make. I thoroughly enjoy making jewelry for myself - and am impressed with some of the things I have made. I hope to share my ideas with others, and hopefully learn form other people, too.

I hope to add a bunch of links to other people blogs who make jewelery, as well as companies who sell beads and findings...... as well as some videos of jewelery making and techniques...etc...