LadyGypsy.net – the blog of Kimberly Dowd of New Jersey

After a long, LONG drought I started playing with my wire and beads again this weekend. Being under the weather helped, as now that my inners are feeling better I think I’m coming down with a cold. Bah.

Anyway, back to jewelry….

Spirals and loops!

What prompted this two-day jewelry-making binge was a spin through YouTube. I came across a video that explained how to use a wire jig that I never managed to be able to deal with properly. Summary: Hold the wire steady and move the jig!! I was trying to hold the jig down and twist the wire.

Oho!

So I created a bunch of four-leaf “clover” connectors. The wire that I trimmed off became spiral charms for future use.

I couldn’t dare pawn off my sub-optimal connectors on someone else, so I *had* to make something for myself. I grabbed these beads from my stash and created a bracelet I lovingly named “Mountain Dew.”

All the green, none of the toxicity.

I also created some copper findings that will eventually be part of some beaded ID lanyards. And more spirals.

Wirework is hard.

Then I was hit by a surge of bona fide creativity and made some cherry earrings:

Two pair in copper, two in sterling silver.

I was so stinking proud, I actually wrote the specs down so I could recreate them once I come across more red beads.

She got the way to move me earrings

And I’ve been singing this since last night so you should too:

Although I made these earrings a few weeks ago, they were cool enough to photograph. I created them in honor of the lovely Atlantic City Gaming site I launched and currently oversee for the C-P.

Winner winner chicken dinner!

So what’s next? The coworkers have been pestering me to sell my wares, so I may test the entrepreneurial waters with cherry earrings, autumn lanyards, and some holiday items I haven’t thought of yet. I can’t live off of my $25/year BlogHer ads forever, after all. I have ideas for creating stamped jewelry but those supplies cost money and I am cheap.

I haven’t stuck with a hobby this long since I bowled in school.

This was my first foray into an asymmetrical necklace. In order to keep my symmetrical brain from freaking out, I decided to be symmetrical in my asymmetry – see how the 3 beads on the right sort of balance out the 18 lb jade-esque bead on the left?

In order to not have the beads overwhelm, I made the necklace longer than usual — 25″ — to hang lower on the chest.

I had enough left for a pair of matching earrings. Because I’m tired and couldn’t find something nice to put them on to show you, I found a coffee cup that Vampire Bill left behind on one of his visits.

These earrings are not affiliated with Starbucks coffee.

The brown wire is from Parawire, the wee brown beads were left over from my Smiley Virus necklace two years ago, the green round beads, green oval beads, jade rectangular bead, and copper findings are all from Michael’s. The tiny diamond shape beads came from a necklace I bought at a yard sale and chopped up.

More and more people are telling me I should start selling my stuff. I’m worried that:

1) My stuff isn’t the best quality. I use craft store supplies instead of real silver and real gold.

2) If I start selling, I’ll lose my passion for making the jewelry in the first place.

3) I have no idea how to price things because I never kept track of how much I spent in the first place on my materials

4) I’ll start taking myself WAY too seriously and end up on Regretsy.

Upcoming beading projects include summery lanyards for my work ID tag and a necklace/earring set to wear to John & Kristen’s wedding. I already bought Swarovski crystals in the wedding colors. I even have a rudimentary sketch! Now I need the technique!

How was your weekend?

Last week I was wearing one of my various sundry pieces of jewelry when a coworker called me over.

She was looking for a pair of short dangling blue-green earrings to match a top she had at home.

I could do that!

So I gave her my usual disclaimers:

1. I don’t work with precious metal
2. If they break I’ll fix it.

…and got to work. Finding the beads was easy – I have an embarrassingly large stash at this point and I knew I had the perfect color of Swarovski crystal.

They look bent here. I swear they're not.

I wanted to do something a little more that put a few beads on a headpin and call it a day. Earrings are easy when you string beads. Earrings get VERY difficult when you work with wire because then you have the whole “matching” factor to deal with.

So I started to play with the wire and eventually stumbled up on swirling the wire back up to the top of the earring and making a chunky wrap. It took 5 tries. Now I realize I should have pre-curled the wire (maybe around a pencil) before I strung the beads onto it. I’ll have to experiment.

Long story short, coworker was pleased. She asked how much she owed me. (!!) I didn’t take money…I had all the materials (believe you me) and it was a lot of fun getting back into the “string” of things. Bwah!

*****

Dreams:
1) I worked for Dilbert’s Pointy-haired boss. No comment.

2) I lived in California, a bit north of San Diego. I was very excited because I was only a short day trip away from California beaches

3) Funeral homes began “rating” viewings and funerals depending on the amount of dramatic outbursts that they predicted.