Freya Earrings - YOJ 2011 - Week 8

Ok catching up. Just 2 weeks behind...

Following  Week 7, here is the new entry for week 8. This time the theme was about the Goddess Freya. Having looked online at some pictures of her, I've noticed that in many cases she is depicted with flaming red hair. Red earrings go well with read heads, hence the new pair of earrings. I've bought a while ago two gorgeous ruby red jade briolettes which just begged to be used somehow.

I based this pair on one of my previous earrings that I have listed in my shop, except I borrowed from KSJewellery's tutorial the idea of curling up the wire ends as they look neater this way, and added a cross-cross wire wrapping to fill up the inner side.

Measurements are 5.5 cm length including the earwires. I love this pair of brios, they're truly beautiful with their flaming red color.

Honey Candy Earrings - YOJ 2011 - Week 7

I'm a bit behind with this project due to lack of time, so I'm trying to play catch-up with this
This week's project is 'something to talk about'. Not quite sure how this pair of silver earrings fit the theme, but I definitely like to talk about the tutorial by Kristin Smith based on which I made this pair. It's a great tutorial and it's easy too. What I like about it is that it lends itself to many different possibilities. I think I'm going to use this more often in my pieces.

The earrings are made of sterling silver and honey colored glass briolettes. Hence the name, honey candy earrings. They are rather tiny at only 4.5 cm long including the earwires, so perfect for the most petites among us. Quite delicate, even though my picture taking skills don't show it fully.

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 4 - Year Of Jewelry Project 2001 - Wild And Wicked

For week 4 I made an experiment with a new tutorial that I bought recently made by Telia Formosa . However I'm not too happy about the border wrap as it's not very secure, so finally I've dismantled this wrap entirely and will try it again with something that keeps this heavy stone stronger.

The stone was cabbed by me with my Ameritool cabbing machine about 2 years ago. The stone is quite heavy and it comes from a slab that I got a while back from a friend. It's really a great stone but quite tough to cab nicely. Will present later on something else once I figure one how to keep it sturdy with a secure wrap.

Week 3 - Year Of Jewelry Project 2011 - Mixed Media

Here is my week 3 entry for this jewelry project. Silver wire wrapped frame surrounded by bone beads purchased a while ago from Australia and with a nice yellow jade briolette. 

Not quite sure now I feel about it, it's a bit too funky for my taste.I was thinking of sunshine and of the spring that will come real soon.  I do miss spring a lot :)

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.