Updating Jewellery

As I've stated before I love to revamp people's old pieces. A friend asked me to put on some new clasps to a heap of her necklaces a couple of months ago. In with the package was a simple gold tone piece. My friend says, 'Oh that's just a Vinnie find'. So I asked if I could play and make it into something more wearable. With permission granted I made this:

into this:

Personally I love the result. I've wanted to try the geometric peyote shapes for a while so used this as my opportunity. Following the simple instructions from Diane Fitzgerald's "Shaped Beadwork" I made them using 2 colours of delica beads. I took off the discoloured bits of chain, removed the hand made hook clasp and chucked the plain joiners between the filigree sections.

I'll do some more of these geometric shapes. I loved doing them and they work up really quick.

For Friends

I was having dinner with some friends of mine a few weeks ago. One of them asked about my jewellery and how it was going and I ended up with a couple of requests. One friend, Meryl, asked me to string some pearls. "Of course", I said, so I've taught myself to string pearls. I had fun. I bought all the proper silks with the needles attached and made use of my embroidery knotting skills. I started three times and it's not a professional job to my inquisitive eyes, but I'm quite pleased with myself.

The request from my other friend, Aline, was even more fun. She had a necklace of her mother's that was too heavy to wear but that was Venetian Glass Beads from her trip to Venice. Was their anything I could do? Here is what the necklace was originally.


So we decided to make a series of necklaces for her daughters and granddaughters. Eight in total. It took me a while to get going which isn't unusual, but I love what the results were. I made each necklace a different colour and mostly different styles. Because there were nineteen beads and I had to divide them into eight, some necklace have three of the original beads while others have only two.

Lavender
On gold tone fine chain with Swarovski crystals.

Burgandy

Red tigertail with fresh water pearls and Swarovski Crystals.

Blue
Silver tigertail with Swarovski Crystals. Pendant is a chinese cube from a pattern by Valerie Hector. Smaller beaded beads are made using Right Angle Weave.

Teal

Fresh water pearls with Swarovski Crystals and silver tone chain. Pendant is a chinese cube from a pattern by Valerie Hector.

Purple Velvet

Silver tone chain with Swarovski Crystals.

In the next three designs I even incorporated some of my Kumihimo braids. I am so pleased that I can find different ways to incorporate them.

Mint

Kumihimo braid with delica beads and Swarovski Crystals. Beaded beads are made using Right Angle Weave. Can be worn assymetrically or symmetrically.

Amethyst

Kumihimo braid using tigertail, hand made gold tone clasp and Swarovski Crystals. Beaded beads are made using Right Angle Weave.

Light Amethyst

Kumihimo braid using tigertail, hand made gold tone clasp, fresh water pearls and Swarovski Crystals. Beaded beads made using Right Angle Weave.

So there they all are. Aline loves them although I might have to rework the Blue one so it fits the personality of who it's going to better. If I do change it I'll show you what I do. I really enjoyed the challenge of using the same beads in so many different ways.

making Jewellery. My Process Part 3

I still am really happy each time I look at how the turquoise set finally turned out. Here is what I did with the red beads.
This piece took hardly any time at all compared to the turquoise one. Because the original beads were from another necklace/bracelet set, some of the beads had single holes, some double. I wanted to use this in the design. I was able to do this by making the focus of the necklace two pieces of wire and creating a frame.


The frame was given strength by the beads that slipped over both wires and had interest because of the different shapes and placements of the beads. I used the basket wire weave to fill in the gaps.

The earrings have their shape because of the same reason. The bottom two beads have a single hole while the top red bead is a double hole. I love how they hang. I love the cross effect created. I love the colour combination. This pinky red looks so much better without the turquoise.

Again I plaited the strand so that the necklace can be worn long. My friend loves it. I showed her this one in much the same way as before. This time, immediately she saw it she lunged for to grab with and cried out as she moved, 'Oh I love it'.

I tell you, it feels great to have a reaction like that.

Making Jewellery. My Process Part 2

As the beads sat in their bags I mulled over the dilemma. What to do? At the time I was finding out more about wire work and was experimenting with basket weave. I thought I'd give it a go. In the end it worked. It took a lot of fiddling though. At first it sat wrong, the stone kept moving even when taped down. I didn't wrap evenly on the top and bottom. I added the beads at the bottom in a way that didn't work. I found that the frame wires sat a little better once I'd hit them with a hammer. It gradually took shape. It took, I think, 5 goes to get it right. It still wasn't quite centred but with some loops to finish of the wire it looked as though it had all been planned.

Once the pendant was done I had to work out what to do with the other beads. I hung it on tiger tail but it looked funny. The wire is so thin and the pendant so big. I ended up taking 4 wires and plaiting them together. My friend wanted it long so I took it into work and measured it on her.

Then I started on the earrings. At least now I had a design to match. Hopefully these would go easily. It took 4 tries to get the proper design of the frame wires. It is all one wire and it had to allow the bead to be seen while still holding it firmly in place. Finally, success. Cheers all round. Now just one more earring. Well, making it turn out the same size as the first was a challenge in itself. Three tries later and it was close enough.

Thank goodness I was using craft wire not gold!!

I'm so pleased with the way it turned out. It was so different to what my friend was expecting it took a bit of convincing but the lovely ladies at work oohed and aahed so much over it she was eventually convinced.


Here is the finished set. Oh yeah, I had some beads left over so I used them in the bangle. I love how it turned out.

Making Jewellery. My Process Part 1

About a month ago I finally finished a couple of sets for a friend of mine. She talked to me at the beginning of the year, could I help her. Her sister had given her a necklace and bracelet set. She loved some of the beads but the necklace was plain and the bracelet cut off her circulation.

I asked her if she had anything particular. She said that she didn't really but, 'could I emphasise the green more than the pink and could she have a necklace, bracelet and earrings please'. So with those instructions I set to work.

Well, setting to work for me means mulling. I set all the beads out. If I was to make a three piece set pretty much only the green beads, that meant I'd need to add things. Luckily, I'd just purchased some cheap turquoise cabs that were just the colour.

To keep costs down, I decided I'd use brass wire. I wrapped the large turquoise cab and started to string... and got completely stuck.

After some months of mulling, I took the beads with me to a bead day with friends and asked for help. This is the idea that they came up with.




Armed with these new ideas, knowing I could use the read and yellow beads for a completely different set, I happily went home.

I wrapped the small cabs and went about putting them with the beads for earrings. I put one together... and hated it. Perhaps I could work the necklace itself. That didn't go well either.

In the end I cut all the wires, put the turquoise set in one bag and the red beads in another and set them aside.