Blah. Enough about that.

I don’t make enough money to pay for hosting the blog. I’m not in it for the money else I’d have quit this years ago. But the checks are a nice little gift, and I use them to buy beads.

Behold!

Christmas vomited on my desk.

I ordered a bunch of Swarovski crystals — it’s much cheaper to do this online than in person at Michael’s — and some sterling silver snowflake charms and oval jump rings. The wire swirls were created by me using some Parawire and some red, green and gold colored seed beads. My plan is to combine all of this sparkle into some holiday earrings.

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.

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?

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.

The brown beads appear to be painted shells. There are little moonstone beads in between them. I made the clasp myself with non-tarnish silver wire.

And I think LGB – LadyGypsy Beads – has a nice ring to it, yes?

I always wanted to make a wire wrapped pendant but never could figure it out. So tonight I grabbed a center-drilled stone that I got from Michaels, some 26g copper wire and started wrapping.

It wasn’t going well – the wire wasn’t tight around the facets of the stone. Frustrated, I noticed that a lot of the pendants had little bends in the wire. So I took my pliers and bent a strand. I could feel the wire tighten against the bead.

Eureka!

Eight thousand bends later, look!

Wrapped!

The twists are a little rough and the bail is flimsy due to the thinness of the wire, but wow. It’s 1.5″ from bail (bale? I’ve seen it both ways online) to bottom. I may twist up a simple S-link copper necklace for it, or I might just string it on a brown ribbon I have.

Edited to add:
The completed piece:

Finis!

All of that work yesterday left me with a wide open Sunday, so I grabbed the bead box and had at it.
Yesterday, I discovered that I have lost a lot of Christmas earrings, leaving me with quite a few unmatched trinkets – figure 1. I detached the danglies from the earring hooks, and for the post earrings, I used pliers to twist the post into a loop – figure 2. Next, I took a length chain I had bought from Michaels, added a clasp, then used jump rings to attach the former earrings. Now I have a Christmas charm bracelet. Sure it’s been done before, but never by me, so there!

Christmas charm bracelet

I’m proud of this one. I’ve worked with wire in the past but I never liked the quality of the silver-tone wire I got from the craft stores. It wrapped very well, but lost its luster shortly thereafter. So I stuck with copper for a bit. Now back in August, Mom and I went to a bead show in King of Prussia. I found a wire vendor there (Para Wire) and discovered that they have non-tarnish silver plated wire. So I bought a spool of the 22 gauge. It’s incredibly easy to work with and stays so shiny. This took me quite a while to finish (even though I managed to screw something up, not saying what) but the silver wire and the candy-colored glass beads are so pretty together!

Wire wrapped bracelet

And I made the clasp myself!

Yes, friends, I was on a roll. So I kept going. The pendant came from a $1.00 pair of earrings at Target. The round gemstone beads were from eBay, the silvery beads are from Michaels and the wire is from my roll of Para Wire. I made this clasp too, and used my pliers to squish it and give it a hammered look. Until I buy a thicker gauge wire, I think I’ll stick with the double-wire clasp like the bracelet has. It seems stronger.

I had beads left over, so I took some more wire and made earrings! (The earring wires came from Michael’s.

Naturals

It’s been over a year since I took that first beading class and I’m still making jewelry. Imagine that!

***

Programming note: The “Welcome Martha!” note’s going to stay at the top of the homepage for the time being. This could be my ONE shot at web fame, so I’m going to reach for the brass ring.