My first wire bracelet

We went with hubby today to a christening (lunch at a restaurant), so I had some wine, had nice food and felt generally pretty nice and cozy. Coming back in the afternoon, hubby started to watch the tennis match between Bagdhadis and the French guy (well, just found out that Bagdhadis is living in France. I thought he was still living in Cyprus. Oh well, one always learns).

So then I retreated to my room and started following an Eni Oken tutorial for a pendant, which I then turned to a bracelet. Simple, full of mistakes, but it's my first of this type. And definitely not my last.

New earrings

This pair was inspired by something way more beatiful than mine, found it on a Russian beading forum. However after the first few twists, mine became something else entirely (and much simpler, lol).


On Monday we have a bank holiday (Green Monday), which means I get to stay home and rest for 3 days, yeppee!!

It's Valentine

I'm not sure how I feel about Valentine. It's something we never used to celebrate in Europe before. Now it's the rave and a lot of money is going into it. We decided with hubby last year to stop 'celebrating' it, as all those bunnies and what not we always bought each other, end up being thrown away after a while anyway. And the Valentine flowers are the most expensive all year around!

At the bookrelay forum, however, I've taken part in a surprise Valentine exchange, and today we opened all our gifts. I got 5 great books from my wishlist, all paranormals, I'm so happy with them!

Here is a pair of earrings I made tonight, it took me only a few minutes to make them. Beading with wire is definitely faster than with seedbeads!

Chatoyancy: Moonstone, Sunstone, and All Mixed Up

I am particularly fond of jewelry that glows or sparkles or glimmers or shimmers...you get the idea. That's why I love jewelry that has chatoyancy or the Schiller Effect (flash or iridescence). You expect flash from rainbow moonstone, but look at the glimmer in this peach moonstone bracelet. It's as though there's is a light sprinkling of glitter in these natural stones. I liked these moonstones so much that I decided to combines them only with one lampwork bead and sterly silver so I wouldn't overpower them. This is listed on the Moonstone Bracelets page on the Cluny Grey Jewelry website.Above you see what most people think of when moonstone springs to mind: rainbow moonstone, here in a double strand bracelet with lampwork by James Derrick Reeves and lots of sterling silver. A ton of flash glimmers in this rainbow moonstone bracelet, and even the little sterling silver bezel-set cabochon rainbow moonstone charms have flash. I love this one. You can find it on the Rainbow Moonstone Jewelry page.
Ooooooo, sunstone! And this is great sunstone with its wonderful flash and fire. I've also added fire agate nuggets to this triple strand bracelet, and Swarovski copper crystals AB including a large Cosmic Swarovski crystal. This is the bracelet that cannot be ignored! It's on our Sunstone Jewelry page.
I went crazy, picked out some of my favorite colours in gemstones and combined them all together for this Spring themed bracelet that is very colourful to say the least. It will go with about any outfit in your closet. Gemstones include: citrine, amethyst, rhodochrosite, apatite, smoky quartz, blue lace agate, and amazonite. I have a newer page on the website that I've called Unique Gemstone Jewelry because I like gemstone mixtures so much, and I am not always quite sure where to list them. You'll find this bracelet on that page.
I've been busy with commissions and haven't blogged enough, but I remember my New Year's Resolution about updating and will try to get back on track!


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I 'got' the herringbone!

I've been trying my hands at the herringbone weave from Eni Oken's free tutorial, without success and I was pulling my hair in despair. Then I remembered I bought a DVD from Nix' creations, where this particular technique is explained. Was sort of skeptical, but the lightbulb finally went on and I got it! Yayy!
I still need plenty of practice, this piece is by no means a masterpiece, but hey, it's a start!
Btw, the bead is my own earlier creation, from the time I was dabbing my fingers at lampworking!


And here is my first herringbone pair of earrings. I'm using right now cheap material (glass beads and copper wire) until I learn the techniques well enough to be able to advance to silver and *sigh* gold filled wire...















And I managed a second pair as well. The end loops are not the best, but I do like this pair better than the previous one.

Green lariat

I was browsing last night through some beading books, and saw a very nice lariat in Kate Haxell's The Seed Bead Book, and I decided to try to do it.
This morning I woke up very early and started stringing.
This is the result. For a first project with stringing on wire, I like it enough to wear it.

Wire wrapping again

My second wire wrapped jewelry is a pendant, from a free tutorial by Eni Oken. Funny how the picture shows all the mistakes that the naked eye doesn't see so easily *lol*.
I have a long way to go, but these first pieces will be something to look back at while I'm getting better with the wire and the tools. One thing is sure, I definitely have fun making these...

First thoughts on wire wrapping

My starter kit hasn't arrived yet, but hubby bought me from the local hardware store some tools. Last night I had a go! P loops and eye loops are better now, 8 connectors are 'almost there', but I'm still having problems with wrapped loops. And eye loops when they are on both sides of a bead. But it was only my first day so I'm patient!
I've done my first pair of earrings, which I will keep in my 'crafts museum', to go back to again and again when I want to check on my progress :-)

Since I am not posting my first earrings, here is my second pair. Still not very happy with them, but for a complete newbie at working with wire, they could have been worse :) Hope the next ones will become better and better...
I made the earwires as well, it was fun to do them.

TGIF!

Yayy, Friday!
While waiting for my wire wrapping supplies to arrive, I'm dilligently browsing through online forums, tutorial sites and eye candy. I can't wait to try out some of the things I've seen!
I'm totally in awe with Eni Oken's jewelry, and she has some free tutorials as well. Plus the paid one are not expensive at all. What an eye candy her site is!

In the reading department, I'm making my way through the Kate MacAlister Vampire series, and I'm reading now Sex and a Single Vampire, which is the second one after A Girl's Guide to Vampires. A good series for the cold winter evenings, light and fun.

Amethyst, Aquamarine, and Coral, Coral, Coral

First, halloo to the jewelrymakers in Estonia; thanks for looking in on my blog.
The first bracelet is made of chunky, and I do mean chunky nuggets of amethyst and aquamarine. The aquamarine nuggets are rather rough cut, but it only adds to their charm. They were sold to me as aquamarine (I bought them directly from a reputable dealer in China), but I really think that they are probably aquamarine quartz. Anyway, I am crazy about this chunky nugget bracelet, and it looks like a million bucks. It's listed on a new page of the website called Unusual Jewelry Of course, I can't take credit for the lampwork beads; they are the work of master lampworker James Derrick Reeves.I worked with coral as a diversion (I usually do coral for the summer)but got carried away with the blue coral that I had and mixing it with other items. This blue coral necklace I mixed with some great mother of pearl flat beads I have; the flat mother of pearl has a blue tint and a gorgeous nacre; I was quite pleased with the way that it turned out. All three coral necklaces are on the Coral Necklaces page, and pricing is coming soon. But check out my ebay auctions since I think I may put one up for auction, and if I do, it will start at a much lower bid price than it will be on the Cluny Grey Jewelry website.
I've been lucky lately in finding good faceted nuggets and these fire agate nuggets are just one example. Babylonian Tiger is fire agate mixed with some quite good lapis lazuli and sunstone. This is on auction on Ebay at a lower beginning bid than the website price.Finally, I like these earwires so much that I included them in the blog today. The little faceted squares at the bottom are a peach-pink moonstone. You can find those on the Moonstone Jewelry page on the Cluny Grey Jewelry website.

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