some earring si made in the summer of 2009

a few things i made in summer 2009...... many of these are re-vamps and re-fashions.

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matte metal earrings....

Here is a few more pairs of earrings I have made using this light matte metal. I used chair, eye pins and various beads. I still have about 10 pairs of this matte metal ear-wires, so I want to make a few more pairs of earrings.

beloe left, 2 different types of chain, i snipped off the head pin part and made the base then strung on beads in a pretty pattern. On the right I used 3 different types of chain, beads and an eye pin, stringing the beads on and making an eye at the other end

below left, I used 2 different types of chain, and attached seed beads on jump rings to the main chain, then cut another type of chain different lengths. Used 2 different types of oval jump rings to attach to the ear-wire.

Belos right, I used an eye pin, to string on.......errr....ummmmm...... instructions will be complicated to type out- but this was not complicated to make, just time consuming. I used seed beads and plastic gem beads for this one, as well as various styles of  matte metal chain.

.... collection pic

and here is the beginning of 3 bracelets. will I finish before 2012?

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stuff I made August 15th to august 20th

 above seed beads, wire and plastic pink/purple round beads.

 A few pairs of earrings I made the week of August 8th to the 22-ish. I found some fabulous earring bases for $1.50 for 8 - 10 pairs at walmart and Micheals stores..... they were actually cheaper at Micheals craft stores. so far I have made these 3 pairs....... the rest of the earrings on this post are made with wire and seed beads or other beads...... very eary but time consuming. I think the above pairs took 1 hour for each pair.

earring bases from Micheals Craft stores and Walmart

Earring base on left from Micheals Craft Stores, pair on right is wire with seed beads

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a fun seed bead earring

The two pairs of earrings above are made with two different sizes of seed beads, and chain. I used a 22 gauge wire for the seed beads and no jump rings to attach them together, I made sure that each loop at the end of the wires was in opposite directions so it would sit the way it does.




These two pairs of earrings are of the same pattern. However, using different sized seed beads as well as the amount on each wire can be configured in many different ways. The possibilties are endless and I have several ideas in mind for some future projects.

my project for the next week

Here is an exploded view of design of these earrings

I cut a bunch of different sized pieces of wire to add my seed beads to.......

I stopped to take photos, so I estimate these to take 1 hour for each pair of earrings

i used the beads from the pink and blue set of seed beads

ta-da finished

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using nail polish on beads & 2 fun bracelets

hey ----- wait a minute, this was supposed to be auto-posted 26 days ago.... it was set up and it did not post?grrrrrrr, this has happened a few times and at first  I thought it was just me.


 I have been successful with using nail polish on beads.... it's really sticking on there! Hopefully I'll find the correct photos of the process of this before I publish this post. If you wash and dry most plastic beads, then using a good nail polish - Sally Hansen or wet n wild - the polish should last on the beads.

left plain black plastic bead - right after sponging on silver chrome nail polish

On the left, I used small black plastic beads along with silver embellished plastic beads. I painted the black beads silver, using the brush from the nail polish after I wired them. The polish dried very fast.

On the right, I used a craft sponge brush from Micheal's to apply the silver polish, I wanted some of the original black bead to show through. I also added 4 large clear faceted beads to this bracelet.

I haven't seen fancy plastic beads like this available in stores for a few years...... I would love to find more drum shaped and other squat round shaped plastic beads in the future. It seems like Micheal's is really into glass beads at the moment. I like plastic stuff! They are just as pretty to me.

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New seed bead sample sets and some wire from and auto supply store

 I found these bead sets at my favirote dollar store in town, Loonie Twoons dollar store. they were $1.29 each, which is a good price for a sampling of beads. I have already whipped up a few pairs of earrings that I will photograpgh and blog tomorrow.

I have already transferred these beads into tiny zip lock bags.

browns / pinks / teals

white/black / purple / greens

 ...... and a few other things I picked up at Princess auto supply store - the small containers are very small

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new walmart goodies and some stuff i made

here are a few pairs of earrings and a bracelet I have made recently, as well as some walmart bargains. I used copper earring bases from Micheal's, with seed beads and other plastic beads. and two pairs of copper chains and seed beads. These were all super easy to make; however I find coming up with a design I like to be the hardest part.

Whenever I try to copy a piece of jewelery I have seen in a store or online I don't have any problem - but when I have to whip something up with beads and findings I have on hand I often take a long time to find a satisfactory finished product.

 black, brown & copper bracelet, copper earrings and copper chain earrings.

 pretty silver bugle beads, smaller toggle clasps, earring set ( times2) not shown, copper head pins

the new toggle clasps i bought on the left and the regular sized ones I usually use

even at full price, this is a good deal; except Walmart has changed their packaging and jacked up all their prices - i hate it when companies do that - but it is cool to find the discounted bargains........

 i snagged 3 of these for $1.85 each..... i never noticed this smaller size before

the larger size and the smaller size

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pretty teal bead bracelets & a few other bracelets

 Two teal coloured bracelets I have made in the last month or so. using some of the beads from a starter set of glass and seed beads from Micheal's..... a few plastic beads and some pretty teal plastic pearls ( also from Micheal's). The teal froggy beads ( on the left ) are taken from a necklace i bought 6 years ago and removed- but hung onto......

The bracelet on the right has a few real crystals, I also used the large jump rings with seed beads to 'beef' these up, i still think they are a little sparse but i have to try to not overdo stuff.

a few more button bracelets that I have made.... I am still into these and try to wear a button bracelet at least once a week..... they are just buttons.... so simple....

These are on large black jump rings on black chain

i found these bags of buttons at my favirote dollar store in town, Loony Twoons dollar store for $1.29 each.

 And a few other bracelets. Starting from the left, clear round faceted plastic beads that I made a cage with thin black wire - I would still like to add something to this one - no sure what.

The teal acid wash looking beads were found at a thrift store in my town for like, 25 cents.  I used black wire & small black jump rings to string them together

Third is a simple style. Large black wire jump rings with 3 to 5 copper beads.... so simple

And finally, black and copper seed beads on jump rings, some pretty copper design drum-shaped beads on a black chain.

 .... another angle

 that's it for today..... just a few more posts and I will get caught up

o

a few new things & blue glass bead jewelery

 small glass beads from the dollar store

boooooo-  one of the dollar stores in my town went out of business, so everything was 1/2 price. I grabbed these few things below. I appreciate the beauty of glass beads but I am a fan of uniformity, so I very rarely use these in jewelery making or even purchase jewelery with glass beads = unless it is just 1 special glass bead.

anyhoo- here are few bargains I had picked up last month. On top is stuff from the dollar store.....and below is a small bag of plastic pearl beads as well as a large chain that I will utilize for other re-fashion projects.

 I have successfully painted these types of plastic pearls with nail polish - notably the discontinued sally Hansen chrome polish, and using a normal kitchen sponge to add some colour as well = they end up looking somewhat antique - but i like that. eventually i would like to use the nail polish water marbling technique on these in the future ( which is messy but soooooo pretty )....

on the right is a bracelet that I made with odd shaped glass beads from a beginners set of beads from Micheal's craft stores ( the pail of beads ) on the left is a bracelet I made with the smaller blue glass beads. I fished out the lighter coloured BI-CONE beads from the dollar store package and made the earrings, which i used jump rings to attach to a chain.

I know i don't have to jam pack these charm/bead bracelets with stuff, but they seem sparse on my wrists...... so I might make some small colour coordinated jump rings to add to the below bracelets

 For the above and below bracelets I used some large blue plastic beads that I found at the thrift store (a year ago!!!!!) real crystal, smaller faceted pale blue plastic beads and long cylindrical plastic beads from the .99 cent store.... those I also purchased quite a while ago. I used jump rings to attach them to a piece of chain and toggle clasps ( or course ) for the closures.

i thought that adding real crystals would really showcase the fake plastic blue beads = but = it actually isn't that bad. I especially love the silver wire cage i made for the beads on the left....

..... that's it for now, hopefully i will get the rest of my photos on here b weeks end to make up for the MONTH AND A HALF that i did not post stuff.