YOJ 2008 - Week 5 Mardi Gras

I had a blast making this mask for the Mardi Gras theme. I used 20 gauge brass wire which I cut into 8 equal lengths. I coiled some 16 gauge brass wire in the middle of the lengths to secure the wires and to create a mid point for the mask. I added some really bright colorful seed beads (8/0 gold, 11/0 green and some 8/0 purple triangle beads I liked for their metallic shimmer) and then formed the mask. I used a brass rod to anchor one side of the mask (the handle used to hold it to the face) - I coiled some 20 gauge brass wire around the rod to soften the look and to integrate the coils from the mask piece. On the other side I tried to keep the look freeform with curves, dips and coils that frame the eye hole as well as (once "on") the wearers face.
I may not make it to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, but I'll definitely look the part, even though I'm all the way up in Maine!

YOJ 2008 Week 4 - Blustery

This is the first piece of jewelry I've actually made, with intent, for myself.

I had some gorgeous dichroic seed beads, crystal and black, and I thought those colors really went well with this theme. I cut some jump rings out of 20 gauge silver wire, added a dichroic seed bead to each ring, connected all the bladk beads in a chain, then all the clear beads in a chain, twisted them together and added a silver handformed clasp. The chains stay twisted just enough that each color shows no matter how the bracelet is turned - and it glitters like nobody's business!

(very late posting this!!!)

Something New

I tried something a little different today - I made a macrame bracelet using some magatamas (tear drop shaped seed beads) in pearl and purple. I have some black braided fishing line that I thought would work really well with macrame....it's thin and really tough - it knots nicely and most importantly the beads fit on it! I did a really simple half knot which naturally spirals, so I staggered the pearl and the purple so that once made, the bracelet is a spiral in both color and design. This bracelet, which is 7" long, took me oh so many hours to complete - one reason being my rustiness at doing macrame but also because the cord I used is so thin - it is almost micro-macrame. I added a handcrafted brass wire "S" clasp and an amethyst dangle at the clasp. It's light and comfortable to wear (I will probably make the clasp much smaller though) and I am already envisioning it in different color combinations.

YOJ 2008 week 3 - Australian Culture

This piece is my interpretation of the Rainbow Serpent - a mythological figure of the Aboriginal tribes of Australia. This being figures prominently in their stories and culture. (you can read about the Rainbow Serpent here)

Using 22 gauge copper wire, I created a Viking Knit necklace as the body of the snake. (I used a 1/2 dowel as a mandrel to create the viking knit and then drew it down to 3/16"). Using some 18 gauge copper wire I created some end caps (I used a knitting needle as a mandrel which gave me a nice cone shape) and then strung some seed beads in rainbow colors as an addition to the viking knit. The necklace clasps in front, measures 26" long and is a nice fluid piece. It feels great on, sits at a good length and has some weight to it. That being said, though, I am not entirely happy with the way the necklace looks as a whole......the clasp doesn't really looks like it belongs and I am experimenting with a different way to close it - and as so often happens, because I am not happy with one thing, the rest of the piece is not safe from deconstruction. Does this happen to anybody else?

How *I* twist wire

As promised, I am attempting to do a little show and tell on how I twist wire. First and most importantly, I use an electric drill and a fly tying vise (the fly tying vise I have is one that can be anchored to the side of a table or desk - similar ones can be found here, or at most any fishing/tackle store) - both of which make this SO easy to do! First thing to do is assemble all the things you will need to do this:

drill, cutters, pliers, 3pieces of 20 gauge wire and vise

put a bend in one end of the wire and feed into drill; tighten (use the chuck if necessay to make sure it's TIGHT) so wire doesn't pull out.

make a bend in the other end (similar to the first bend I made on the other end that is now in the drill - picture just didn't come out)

put end into the vise making sure it is tightend so wire cannot slip out


make sure drill is in forward (tried to twist in reverse once but that yielded a really ugly result) and turn on drill - slowly at first.


this is the finished twisted wire.

In this example you can see a few bumps in the finished piece - those happened because the lengths of wire I used were not exactly the same length - just make sure once you have the wire in the drill and tightened in the vise the wires you are working with are all close to the same length. I also made the bends in the wire much longer than normal for the illustration purposes.

Hope this is helpful and please let me know if you have any questions.