Copper Pendant After An Absence of 6 Months

I've been away for about 6 months because for one, I kind of lost my mojo, and it didn't help that I had contact dermatitis on the right arm, which didn't really allow me to do any wire work (thank god it was summer as I wouldn't have been able to wear anything with long sleeves).

So here is my first pendant with a purple jasper wrapped in copper wire. It is based on a design by Julie Lockhart, with my own take on it. Not perfect, but I like it and this one is mine.

Simple Soldered Silver Chain

I love chain maille jewelry, but I wanted to have a simple, thin and light chain that I could wear all the time, day and night, without having to take it off when I go to sleep, for example. I remembered my soldering lessons from before, so this weekend I made this silver chain with some jump rings that I already had at hand. Not perfect, but I see my soldering is better than it was a few months ago when I gave it a previous try.

This one is mine :)

Copper Pendant From A Free Tutorial

Here is a quick copper pendant I made based on a tutorial from Fradany - she has a lot of useful and quite easy tutorials for wire wrapping.

The bead used with the copper wire is yellow agate with a speck of green in it, I love it.

Anyway, without further ado, here is the result.

Back To Work Bronze Bracelet - Sort Of

About a week ago I ordered from Beadsisters in the UK a kit for a bracelet weave called Clockwork. The rings were bronze and bright aluminum. The kit arrived and I made the bracelet within the day. It was very easy to do and fun as well. Here is what it looks like on my wrist:

Once I made it, I figured I would re-create it in sterling silver and bronze (personally I don't like aluminum except for learning a weave, plus I had a request from someone to make it using sterling silver). I cut my rings based on the specifications in the kit and got to work.

To my major surprise nothing matched, the bracelet was a bust. It turns out that since the weave creator didn't mention the type of wire gauge (AWG or SWG), I automatically assumed one of the two and of course, it was not that. Even worse, sterling silver has a different thickness compared to say bronze, so the same gauge (e.g. 18 gauge) is not the same in the two wire materials.

Sadly also mixing sterling with bronze won't work either, because the sizes simply don't match (AWG 18 gauge is not the same with SWG 16 gauge(. So here I am with a bunch of cut jumprings (some sterling silver too, which are not cheap, mind you) and can't make the bracelet again - not unless I use same color rings - which would really detract from the beauty of the wave, since it's really gorgeous in two colors, right?

Having all these jumprings in my stash, I did what some people in the chain maille group called 'lemonade from sour lemons'. I made a new bracelet, which apparently is called Back to Work (I did it from the image of an existing bracelet, not from a tutorial, before I found out what its name is).

So here is my today's lemonade...Back To Work bracelet in bronze. It's really light and fun to wear. I'll make it again, next time in sterling silver.

YOJ 2014 - Week 2 and 3

Since I jumped in again in the Year of Jewelry project, I've started making a new jewelry piece every week. Here are my entries for week 2 and 3.

Week 2: It's golden

This is a pendant I made loosely based on a free tutorial by Angelina Krell, it's quite tiny. I like how the copper shimmers against the blue background.

Week 3: Circular logic

Well, my latest piece certainly matches the theme of the week, it's all circular up and down and middle too. It's made from the latest wire wrapping book that I bought at Amazon (was published in 2013) by Kaska Fior called Weaving Freeform Wire Jewelry. Love it so far, it really has some cool modern designs that I just have to make!

And since I mentioned the wire wrapping book that I bought which I used to make this second piece , here is the cover. I can't wait to make the bracelet shown there, it's amazing!

Camelot Chain Maille Necklace

Here is my first work in 2014 (actually started the last few days of 2013, but finished it just now), a copper and bronze necklace in Camelot chain maille weave, which is basically starting from the helm chain, going through Celtic Vision and with a few extra rings, turning into Camelot, a weave originally created by PrairieGal.

It's quite a heavy necklace, but it sits wonderfully on the neck. The larger rings are bronze, and the smaller ones copper. All rings handcut with a jewelry saw (that partially why it took so long to made this necklace).

Here are a few photos of it.