Stupid Beading Tricks: Earrings & Wirewrapping

Boy do I have the jewelry bug again. Armed with my spools of non-tarnish wire and the drawers-full of beads (seriously, this is bad and out of control) I went on a bit of an earring binge…

You can tell I like these because I photographed them all pretty-like, bamboo plant and all.

Brownish glass bead, bead caps, swarovski crystals

If you’re interested, there are more pictures after the jump…

Faceted glass beads, earring circle findings from Michaels

Red beads & spiral charms from Michaels. I'm going to be a wanker and tell you the wee jade beads are vintage.

Then I decided to do a “quick and simple” pair and wrap wire down about 1/3 of the length of some top-drilled briolettes* I bought from someone trying to dump their bead stash. It took about an hour for me to get them wrapped evenly and without gaps. My poor fingers!

Non tarnish gold colored copper wire, red glass faceted briolettes

Perfect to wear while watching True Blood!

Lest you think I only post pictures of the pretty things, I’ll share with you my recent foray into wrapping irregular stones with wire and making pendants out of them. I am NOT good at this (yet, I’ll get there) so these are horrible.

In the spirit of craftiness and to make them seem more desirable, I’m going to give these pieces whimsical descriptions. Ready to be horrified?

This one’s not SO bad, but the bail’s a hot mess. I didn’t know how to finish it so I kept wrapping and wrapping and wrapping. And wrapping:

Crystallized unicorn snot, non tarnish gold colored wire.

My error with this blue one was using the wrong pliers to tighten my wire. They were not smooth, so where the wires are bent, the wire is scratched:

Frozen fairy tear and non tarnish silver colored copper wire

This one’s actually purple, but the flash makes it look more blue.

Pegasus poop and non-tarnish silver colored copper wire

Even though it turned out like crap, I wrapped the “poop” with two wires wrapped together. It’s a neat effect, when done by a pro. Next time I’ll only do the wraps at the bottom and not wrap the ends of the wire near the bail:

I'll admit, that's pretty neat looking.

Wanna know where I got the neat stones? At the “fill this bag for $5.99″ treasure chest in Adventureland…Walt Disney World.

Just another action-filled weekend in Southern NJ!

* Briolettes are tear drop shaped. And instead of having the hole drilled top-to-bottom like most beads, they’re drilled across the skinny part at the top so that they can dangle freely from the stringing material.