Jewelry & Beading

July 1st, 2008

Vintage treasures from elastic bracelets

Technique Tuesday!

Materials & Tools:
White towel, small bead dishes, etc
Tape measure
Alligator clips
Wire cutters
Chain nose pliers
Crimping pliers, if desired
Small metal fileElastic expansion bracelet with large two-holed beads (or any odd number of such beads)
Variety of 4-6mm beads in chosen palette, enough to make double strand necklace of desired length
2mm and 3mm round metal beads, silver or gold-filled
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By Cyndi -- 5 comments

June 30th, 2008

Vintage Hearts

Make Art Monday!
I love love love this necklace!  I wear it a lot, usually under a jacket, so that it’s sort of subtly twinkling under there…

And to think it started out life as one of the ugliest expansion bracelets you ever saw!  I’ll be sharing a tutorial on how to make the transformation tomorrow for […]

By Cyndi -- 2 comments

June 25th, 2008

The Basics: Venetian and Murano glass beads suppliers

Beautiful beads from Via Murano

De Roma Venetian Glass
Imported Venetian glass beads
Venetian Bead Shop
Imported Venetian and Murano glass beads
Gems 2 Behold
Wholesalers of Venetian and Murano glass beads
Via Murano
Imported Venetian glass beads
Tags: Beading, beads, handmade beaded jewelry, jewelry, lampwork-glass-beads, venetian-beads, Wearable ArtShare This

By Cyndi -- 2 comments

June 24th, 2008

My co-winner at Fire Mountain Gems, Tamara Allison!

Tamara Allison contacted me recently and revealed that she and I were co-Bronze Prize winners in the Freeform/Home Decor category of Fire Mountain Gems last beading contest! Tamara has a beautiful Etsy shop called Vanishing Pearl…don’t you just love that name? She sells beautiful bead-woven jewelry and other pieces there. Here’s a […]

By Cyndi -- 3 comments

June 10th, 2008

Making a resin finger-woven necklace

Technique Tuesday!

There are several different methods that are popular for creating woven bead necklaces: a figure-8 style of finger weaving, spiralling half-hitch macrame, and flat square-knot macrame. My preferred technique for this necklace uses all three stitches!

Each half of the necklace is woven separately, starting at the ends and working towards the middle. For the […]

By Cyndi -- 2 comments

June 9th, 2008

Flamingo Waterfall

Make Art Monday!
So what do you call it when the colors remind you of Florida and the shape is reminiscent of a cascading waterfall? Flamingo Waterfall, of course!
Flamingo Waterfall now lives at a friend’s house. I can’t think of a better home…

I used a combination of finger-weaving and macrame stitches to make this […]

By Cyndi -- 3 comments

June 4th, 2008

New monthly challenge at The Art Bead Scene

June is pearls month at The Art Bead Scene!  “Pearls of Wisdom”, that is!  Interpret that any way you want, and enter to win a fabulous book by author Lisa Kan!
Tags: Beading, beads, handmade beaded jewelry, jewelry, Mixed Media, Wearable ArtShare This

By Cyndi -- 1 comment

June 3rd, 2008

Designing with metal filigree

Dara Spiotto
Dara Spiotto writes that everyone but her seemed to know the trick to using filigree pieces as components in their work. Well no, Dara, that’s not quite true. I didn’t really know much about it either! I’ve seen some wonderful pieces that bend the filigree around to make a frame for […]

By Cyndi -- 0 comments

June 3rd, 2008

Making a pearl dangle pendant

Technique Tuesday!
The “pendant with dangles” look is still going strong this spring. It’s a jewelry look that I like, and so even though I don’t usually consider myself any kind of slave to fashion, I was pretty quick to figure out how to make one of these to my liking!
Any full-service catalogs will have the […]

By Cyndi -- 2 comments

June 2nd, 2008

Pearl dangle pendant

Make Art Monday!

Here’s a lovely way to use up odd beads and crystals and pearls when you have a few left over from some other projects!  For tomorrow’s Technique Tuesday tutorial, I’ll be showing you how to make one of these pendants to add to a chain that you hopefully already have.  It won’t cost […]

By Cyndi -- 1 comment