New Copper Pieces

Pulled out the copper wire (16 gauge round and 18 gauge square for the flower and 14 gauge for the free-form bracelet)the other day and decided to try a couple of ideas that had been floating around in my brain for a while. I made the free form bracelet first - I used a length of the 14 gauge and made some squiggles which I then beat flat with the hammer. (I highly recommend this for taking out some frustration!!!) I had some (17mm?) cobalt/copper swirl beads in my stash so I used those to join the squiggles, made a simple hook and ring clasp and...........Voila - a bracelet is born. It's a solid, big bracelet and not for the faint of heart, but I really like how it turned out.

The flower was born from 16 gauge round wire that I handformed into a flower shape - and I wanted the hint of a stem so I coiled one end of the wire over the other end for the join. (also, I have not yet had the soldering lesson!!!!) I beat this piece with the hammer, too (oh my poor dogs!) and then created an infinity chain link for the necklace. Once it was together I thought it looked too plain so I wrapped some beautiful faceted blue briolettes into a flower shape and wrapped it onto the flower as center petals. I added two briolettes from the "stem" and now it doesn't look too plain at all!!!

Inspiration

Inspiration from nature - my brother was here for a really overdue visit - and we found these beauties hanging out down by the lake - it was a nice surprise for me since last year we only had one bloom! Isn't nature amazing?

Alternative start for Viking Knit Weave

When weaving a viking knit piece I used to use the "petal over the dowel" method to start my weave until I ran across this method (and I wish I could remember where I saw this so I could give credit where it's due)which is SO much easier, IMHO. I still use the wooden dowel to weave around but now I use staples as the starting loop. I included a picture of the "set-up" to make it easier to understand. (except the photo does not show the heavy duty staples I actually use). I divide it into five parts, put the staples equi-distance apart, and then just start weaving. Once done weaving, I use the long starter piece of wire to weave through the end loops then remove the staples and tighten the weave, then draw the whole length through the drawplate. SO much easier!

More Fun with Murano!

Another set of gorgeous Murano beads from my LBS - I couldn't resist - the colors are amazing! I used some of my (dwindling) stash of vintage crystals, a few topaz colored Swarovski crystals, some 2xab jet Swarovski crystals, twisted up some gold artistic wire to use as links and added a really fun hammered goldtone toggle clasp. I did a lousy job capturing the sparkle in the crystals - and I took a million pictures of this before I was even close to being satisfied with the picture. *Sigh*. Sometimes, it seems to take more time to photograph a piece than it does to make it!!

Heralding Spring

Where does the time go? I haven't had a lot of time lately to make jewelry (2 10 month old puppies, maybe?) but I found these beautiful soft green Murano foil beads at my LBS and went crazy with the wire! I used 18 gauge (non-tarnish) gold artistic wire and made some "squiggles" and a couple of spirals; wrapped some Czech beads, some Swarovski crystals and a couple of faceted teardrops and added a couple of each in between each Murano bead. The bracelet has nice movement and, more importantly to me, looks like SPRING! (yes, we do still have snow on the ground!)