some things I whipped up - Feb 7th to 13th 2011

What I accomplished this week; I fixed up a too-big-for me necklace by making it smaller and removed some of the components and whipped up a pretty pair of earrings and a bracelet... I still have a few things to make with the material I took off of it. The shortened necklace is above, along with the earrings I made and the bracelet.

Below, the earrings in the top row on the left, and the earrings first on the bottom row used to be 1 earring.... they were very heavy and too big so I cut them apart, filed the jagged edges with an old metal nail file and added chains to them. I am not finished with the pair on the bottom, I still need to add more swooping chain and some jump rings to tie them together ( make sense? no I will have a better description when I finish this pair of earrings )

This is the original necklace, I took off those silver round things, and the two chain fringes on the side so it only has 1 fringe in the very center.

another beautiful hand model pose..... I missed my calling

accomplishments - Feb 7th to Feb 13th

I am still enjoying making these simple and easy earrings out of that black nylon string stuff that I found at the dollar store in my town. I used fold-able crimp beads from Micheal's, those things are fabulous. Since they are gold, and I am trying to use up the package I have before I buy anymore, I painted them black ( Wet n Wild Black Creme)

I strung on some silver and black beads, sooooooooo easy! I haven't added the ear-wire yet, its actually easier to take a photo without it,

and another pair.... the silver beads that look like grenades were found at my favirote dollar store in town. I used some random black circular beads and the beads I re-purposed from a beaded hair accessory that I didn't use anymore.

These were components from a necklace I found at dollarrama last weekend. I dismantled it and so far have put these together.

I did not take a proper photo of this necklace..... but it is very pretty, just a little too heavy for me.

This stuff is so awesome, there was two packages of these at my favirote dollar store...... just sitting there for months. I do recall picking them up and wondering they were for and what I could do with them, I am so glad I bought them because using this material has been fun and the earrings I have made are versatile, and definitely the easiest. I would love to find this in different colours one day!

Here is a sampling of some of the earrings I have made using this black nylon string. It is possible to make lightweight but bulky earrings.  I have used regular crimp beads, as well as those fabulous folding crimp beads from Micheal's. Next time I visit Micheal's I will hunt around EVERY section to see if this material is available, it may not even be for beads or jewelery.

Here is a package of crimp beads I purchased at Micheal's this weekend, 800 crimp beads for $3.99 !!!!!!! Dang that's awesome! I think that the package at Walmart is $2.50 for 100 beads so even at full price this would still be a great deal. STRANGELY I NEVER SAW THIS IN MICHEAL'S during my regular shopping. I must allot time to browse through that store every month, because this is a great deal!

..... and a silver metallic pen from DollarRama, which is awesome, and some necklace bases also from DollarRama. OKAY>>>>> I put on one of those necklaces and I couldn't get it off!!!!! I had to CUT it off, for some reason I kept trying to unscrew the silver component, but it is the actual BLACK piece of wire that you hold onto to unscrew! I panicked and just snipped it off.

seeeeeeeee what I mean. holding and twisting the black part to unscrew.

In conclusion ~ I did not create as much as I wanted to, I started alot of things and did not finish, but I am happy with what I have accomplished this week. My bare minimum goal is to accomplish at least 5 pieces, and I did that.

♥

sequins!!!!! & a few other things

below -  what  i have accomplished in the last week or so, I love the sequin jewelery I have come up with, I must say though, that working with smaller sequins was a major pain.  The larger ones are way easier to work with. my poor fingers were cramped up for a few days after these.

My Dollar-Rama treasures - SEQUINS -

 below - these smaller earrings were fun to make, but it gets hard to work with these tiny sequins after an hour or two.

I used tin snipers to dissect these filigree earrings I found at the dollar-Rama,I had been searching for tiny filigree pieces for a loooooong time and just couldn't find what I was looking for = so I had to improvise. I actually had these Dollar-Rama earrings for 1 month before I thought of dissecting them,.


here is a quick video on how I made these

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="510" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/AYXjnP0XaCA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


ummm here is the link to the video  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYXjnP0XaCA

I gently snipped these with a pair of tin nippers,  and I used an old metal nail file to file the edges. If you are into doing something like this BE CAREFUL!!!!! Thankfully I did not cut myself, but the edges were sharp at times.

I had to whip up jump rings that would fit through the sequin hole, and still have room for the sequin to move around. Making jump rings is easy, please take time to fil the edge of your wire with a metal nail file, just in case you poke yourself. You can purchase jump rings already made but you would need alot for a project like this.

so here are my pieces laid out

I graduated the lengths of the sequin 'chain'

 

 each pair of these small filigree sequin earrings took approximately 20 minutes.

♥♥♥♥

These beads are very pretty and the finish on them catches and reflects the light beautifully. I am getting much better at working with these crimp beads and black nylon string.  The package of 60 at Micheal's goes a long way, I think it is reg $4.99 (or with 40% - $3.00) off they are awesome to have. It is the easiest type of jewelry to make in my opinion, even if I struggle with getting the nylon cord intot he clasp properly hahahha!!!

Below - These are so awesome! I made them in hot pink as well. You can find silver sequins of this size at Micheal's crafts, I found these in a baggie of different coloured sequins at the Dollar-Rama. it took me 20 minutes to pick out all the silver ones - grrrrrrr.

below - the purple and black nylon string earrings I made with a set of beads I got at the Dollar-Rama, it looks like a small quantity of beads but I am certain to whip up alot of pieces with that amount. 

below - black earrings made for hair accessory I no longer wore and the long light blue earrings were made with the smaller Dollar-Rama sequins that came in a set of 4

Above & below, 2 hair things I was not wearing anymore and had had for a long time. on the left was one of those beaded bun cover things, and on the right was a very 'stabby' scrunchy. This thing drove me crazy when I wore it in my hair, plus it ripped a tonne of my hair out.  I would love to find sequins in this shape but in different colours, hot pink and silver for sure. i already made a pair of earrings with these { picture on board above }

I washed these well, they were sitting in my drawer for a long time. I like how the silver beads on the bun-thing below are  loosing their shine and look antique. and of course I had to show off my mani

.... and a few other items I found at the Dollar-Rama in the last few weeks,

These beads above came in baby blue, pink, clear, and purple ( above) I whipped up a quick pair of earrings with that black nylon string.

Above and below; these earrings are something I have been looking for  for a long time, I always hoped I could purchase these lightweight and thin flat rings somewhere for some designs I had in mind = these will be perfect for some re-fashioning.  They might be a bit too heavy for me as is, so I'll have to do a little tweaking

The necklace below- I swear to gosh I just saw earring at Claire's with the exact same design as the larger piece. It will be alot of fun to re-fashion this necklace, its very long and needs to be  alittle shorter for my liking.

Just a few things i picked up at the thrift store and at Fabric-land. I found some sequins that are shaped like stars for .25 cents as well as a small amount of clear glass beads for .25 cents as well ( it was 1/2 price day at the thrift store) I also picked up these Christmas ornament hangers. can you believe they charge 6 bucks for these regular? shameful. Not sure how to work these into some fun jewelery, but for 50 cents, why not!

I have a tonne of stuff to post, alot more project details to share, stuff I am working on and such = however; this will have to be a brief overview I am so busy with other things that I have to force myself on this blog to add stuff. I have to mention that this time of year is the best time to hit up mall jewelery stores for their year-end clear outs.

♥