YOJ Weeks 13 And 14 - Learning To Solder

Here are two pieces in sterling silver as a result of my attempts to solder. For week 13 the theme was Talisman, so I made this piece as a small talisman - for me it looked like peace on earth, however somebody told me they can see a rose within the pendant.

For week 14 the theme was egg-citing, however I didn't do anything related to Easter eggs or the celebration itself. For once I was off topic and I made one of the pieces from Melissa's course. Argh why do the pictures always show the mistakes so clearly...

Wrapped Donut Pendant

Something new I made a few days ago is based on something I wanted to do for a few years now. I always wanted to wrap a donut without having to fiddle with making a wire wrapped bail, it's just a pain to do it right.

I got some tutorials from Eni Oken several years ago when she was still selling her tutes, and one of them is a wrapped donut. So I've decided to do something similar, but not quite the same. So I ended up with this piece which has seemingly random wraps around the donut and a silver frame - frame which I soldered. I then soldered the jump ring as the bail to the frame, and did a bit more soldering work - basically all jump rings are soldered, including at the end of the cord, right between the endings - now that was fun to do without burning any other nearby piece.

It's a simple piece, but I'm happy about how I slowly develop my soldering skills. Anyway, here are a few photos of it. The donut is quite heavy actually, it's made of hematite and measures 4.5 cm (a bit over 1.5").

Gothic Silver Chain Maille Pendant - YOJ Week 5

This silver pendant is made for the YOJ Week 5 challenge with the theme 'deja-vu', aka before and after. About 4 years ago when I dabbed a bit in chain maille, I made a Rondo a la Byzantine pendant with a goldstone bead wrapped at the bottom. I never really did anything with it afterwards, and I left it forgotten for 4 years.

Now looking at some of my older pieces to work up for the challenge, I found it tucked in a ziplock bag.

So here is the before and after. Bad picture quality for the before as I only snapped quickly a shot of it in the evening so I have something to show for the challenge.

The new piece has a smaller black onyx wrapped bead. All metal is sterling silver that I cut in jumprings.

Week 6 - Year Of Jewelry Project 2001 - Amore

I'm not quite sure of this pendant, to be honest. It started from an old pendant tutorial by Magda B. however I chose to wrap it differently in the end to match the theme of week 6, which is amore, or love. I call this piece Love Bound Heart. It features a green pillow prehnite bead (I think anyway) and a red Swarovski crystal which has a really deep red color. Finally it has a few different sizes of silver beads as adornment. I think I'll keep this piece for myself as I am not quite happy with the final result.

Week 5 - Year Of Jewelry Project 2001 - Down and Dirty

This is for week 5 at the YOJP 2011. I initially thought that the bead is a carnelian but it turns out it's a fire agate. Regardless, I quite like this stone. It's a rather big one with some gorgeous patterns on it. I chose to give it a rather simple border wrap and just a tad of eccentricity with an extra side pony tail :) I will add this piece to my shop soon.

Week 2 - Year Of Jewelry Project 2001 - Eclipse

Here is the belated upload for week two of Year of Jewelry Project 2011. A bit delayed due to some onion chopping (say finger tip chopping) accident the other day...Anyway here it is, using a beautiful handmade lampwork bead and silver wire and beads.

Joined The Year Of Jewelry Project 2011 - New Beginnings

After watching from the sidelines for the last couple of years, I've decided to actually join in the fun at the Year of Jewelry Project 2011. My goal is to improve greatly my wire wrapping skills once I've finished the year. I just hope I can keep up with a project a week until then :)

The first week's theme is called New Beginnings, and I created this pendant with 2 new beginnings in mind. For one, I've actually used for the first time balled up wire for the pendant frame. Until now I only used it for silver headpins. Click here if you want to learn how to create your headpins using a simple gas stove technique.

Also for the first time I actually designed this pendant from scratch. I did a few designs on paper, then I created something in brass wire, measured it, created it again for about 2 times, and when I was satisfied that it was a workable idea, I've created it in sterling silver. So this is definitely something new for me. It's fun to go through the creative process and come up with something other than simply following some tutorials and apply your own twist to them.

The pendant is using chrysoprase as the focal briolette gem, silver stardust and some tiny green crystals which I'm not quite sure what they are. The are translucent when hold against the light. The entire silver pendant length is about 2 inches, around 4.5 cm long including the bail.

Holidays work - 2 silver pendants

During the last few days I've worked on two new pendants, as I wanted to learn a few new techniques. Lots of places for improvement, I can see that, but as a first attempt, I could have done worse. The first pendant is using goldstone as focal bead and the second one has dyed purple freshwater pearls. Both pieces have been oxidized.

From tomorrow is regular work again, however I do intend to work more on wire wrapping this year. I'll try to do one new jewelry piece every weekend if I can get the time. I see that every time I leave jewelry making for a while, I always have to start from the basics as I get rusty.

Healing Pendant

I mentioned in my previous post about the Yellow Amphora that I worked on two similar pendants both in the shape of an amphora. Here is the second one. The picture is not high quality, unfortunately just as I didn't have time these days to be busy with jewelry, I also didn't have time to learn photography and editing (one of the things I will include in my New Year's resolution), but the pendant is really great.

I used a quartz crystal in the middle - also called a healing point, or a crystal point. I love these crystal points as they promote healing and channel the positive energy to the wearer. I have actually a large crystal on my work desk in my office.

The Yellow Amphora

I'm back after a few months of absense from wire wrapping. Sadly this is how is going to be for the next year or so. First of December I've celebrated one year since I stopped working for a boss, and started a venture on my own. Here is a blog where I'm keeping track of what I am up to since I fired my boss if you care to read :)
Until I have my earnings on auto-pilot, I need to focus most of my time on building up my business, so I don't really have much time just yet for making jewelry. But as time passes and my income increases, I will be devoting again more and more time to wrapping wire.

I've spent this weekend creating two pendant, both similar in structure however a bit different in execution. In this post I present the first one. It takes its inspiration from the Greek amphora.

The materials used are yellow jade and sterling silver. As usual the pictures are not so great...

Purple Tulip, aka started wire wrapping again - SOLD

After a few months of abstinence from wire wrapping, here my next piece. My fingers were itching to do something, so I came up with this pendant. It's really beautiful, I couldn't capture it with the camera properly. I guess it's time to get myself a new camera as well...

Gorgeous amethyst briolette hanging from a sterling silver pendant. Size is ~ 3.5x3.5cm (~1.5 inch). Comes with the silver chain in the picture, and of course, free shipping all around.

Bracelets, pendants

I've been busy over the last few days and the weekend making all sorts of jewelry. I took a few of Eni Oken's older tutorials to brushen up some of my techniques, also purchased the wrapping tutorial by Earringsbyerin (available on Etsy) and finally on Saturday I made two bracelets in Sharlyn Miller style with a heavily oxidized look.

Tooth of the Wild

When I purchased this tooth style carnelian bead, I had no idea what I will do with it. However once I went  over some older Eni Oken tutorials, I found my inspiration, and this is the result.

Length is about 6 cm, and it comes on a sterling silver chain, with free shipping, as usual, for all my pieces.

28 Euros

Pink Jade Pendant

This is a gorgeous pink jade briolette focal bead that I purchased on Etsy a while ago. I again used one of Eni's tutorials to wrap it around, embellishing it with a round of sterling silver beads. Pendant is 3x4 cm long.

28 Euros

Carnelian Fish pendant

I love this gorgeous carnelian bead and I think I found a nice way to wrap it, in a net surrounded by sterling silver beads. I call it The Fish :)Dimensions are 6.5x3.5 cm and it's of an average weight.

28 Euros

Autumn Agate wrapped bracelet

My  inspiration for this and the next bracelets is the work of Stacie Florer at Nomadic Creations. She is working in the style of Sharlyn Miller and Connie Fox, and she inspired me to dab in this work a bit as well. I especially enjoyed oxidizing the pieces :D

Wrapped in various techniques, the center is made in herringbone wrapping using heavier gauge silver wire. 29.5 cm long, it can be slightly extended upon request to up to 1 cm.

29 Euros

Blue wrapped bracelet

Yeah, very creative name, what can I say :p

It has a gorgeous lampwork bead by an Etsy artist, some pink quartz beads and I'm not sure about the turquoise color beads. Could be Czech Glass beads, not sure. Clasp handmade, coiled and hammered. Also 29.5 cm long, and it can be extended about up to a cm or so. Plenty of wrapping techniques embedded, among others the famous herringbone wrapping technique.

29 Euros