Hold up the pin and it is easy to see where to cut! Gravity is our friend.
I hate counting. But when it comes to cutting chain for your jewelry designs, sometimes you have to count links. After I’ve exhausted my attention span by counting out a section (look, sparkly crystal hearts!!!), I string it onto a head pin and snip a bunch more. This is the easiest way I’ve found to speed up the task. Do you have a better way? I’d love to hear it! ~ Cindy
Artistic Wire + bracelet forms = many many options!
I call this easy jewelry-making technique “wire lashing” to distinguish it from “wire wrapping” – but really, it is just wrapping thin wire around and around a component in order to cover it with beads (or chain!).
A plain hook end bracelet is the perfect candidate for a good lashing!
The keys to wire lashing are simple, but oh so vital:
I’ve used this technique before on small items (kidney ear wires, links, ear hoops and hair combs) so decided to step up to bracelets today. The only difference is working with longer wire (about 4-5 feet for a typical bangle). You have the option of working with smaller sections of wire and adding new pieces as you go, but I really wanted to use one continuous piece. I did of course kink the wire. Repeatedly.
Looks scary, but this nightmare actually only took a few seconds to correct.
But the nice thing about using one piece of wire is that as you go along, the lashing goes faster and faster until suddenly you realize you are having fun! At the end, you feel so victorious you immediately want to make another. So you do … and realize the wire is too darn long again … but wait, now it is fun again … victory is within reach … This is how addictions start.
I like to use 24 or 26-gauge wire when lashing because it is very easy to manipulate with your fingers. Today I used several colors of Artistic Wire. The beaded bracelet has 6mm purple Miracle beads, 4mm turquoise magnesite and opalite barrel beads held in place by chartreuse Artistic Wire. It was quick and easy to make. However, I started with waaaay too much wire, so it took a little longer to add each bead than was really necessary. Impatient as always, I decided to do away with stringing beads. My next attempt uses rhinestone chain.
Sparkle mania has never been easier to achieve!
It turns out the 14pp size Swarovski Elements crystal rhinestone chain is almost exactly the same width as the bracelet form, so it stays in place nicely. I think this would be a great girl’s night jewelry project – simple, sparkly and easy to customize by adding some charms or changing up the wire color.
For those of you who prefer thread, check out Toni’s rhinestone hair comb – same technique, different materials.
Cover a comb with ribbon and rhinestones for easy elegance.
What else can we cover in rhinestone chain? Perhaps an easier question would be what can’t we cover! ~ Cindy
The slogan for the 2011 Great Spokane Art Party “Eat, Drink and Be Artsy” was very fitting! Saturday, May 7 was a fun-filled evening of delicious food, tasty wine and hands-on art. This inspiring fundraiser benefits Blueprints for Learning, a non-profit organization working to increase the quality of early child care and education in our community and the Community Building Children’s Center.
At the event, several talented local artists mentor participants in creating collage magnets, handmade clay tiles, watercolor paintings, printed silk scarves, mono-prints, handmade paper, stick puppets, felt beads, jewelry and more. Rings & Things has participated in the event since its inception.
Russ and Dee donated the findings for the project, and various Rings & Things staffers and their friends worked the event. If you are interested in participating in this event next year, or in other community projects in the Spokane area, let us know!
Next on the calendar is the ‘Make It Art’ booth for kids at ArtFest. Also, please contact Russ if you’d like to help with recycling at ArtFest (June 3-5, 2011). Every year he coordinates the recycling efforts at this and many other community events!
Local art perched on mountains of recycling!
Thanks for sharing a tip (comment below),
and thanks for sharing this blog with a friend!
Crimping pliers (crimpers) are special pliers designed for a very specific purpose: to crimp (fold) crimp beads onto beading cable such as Beadalon or SoftFlex. (Our beading cable technique sheet illustrates this very well.)
No more chippies!
But here is another use for them: use your crimpers to tuck wire tails. The concave shape helps pull the wire in close to the wrap without chipping the bead underneath – especially handy when you are working with glass beads or crystal!
Snags are a drag. Do you have any similar tips for keeping wire tails tucked where they belong? ~ Cindy
Thanks for sharing this
5-day sale discount
with a friend!!
(Buttons at bottom)
Sale discount code: 20% off, 800 TierraCast items, thru Sunday!
What will you pick out?
Create a full rainbow of colored patinas on silver with new Luster Gel.
Iridescent Luster Gel for Silver is a brand-new product that makes it easy to change the color of silver jewelry. Unlike patina solutions that mostly* darken or oxidize the metal, Luster Gel creates a whole rainbow of different colors. The best part is, the colors appear in a reliable order! (*I say mostly because it is possible to get cool rainbows when using liver of sulfur… however, the process is less predictable and may require additional chemicals or heat.)
** 2020 Update: We loved Luster Gel at first, but the last couple years our customers had a lot of problems with it. It seems much less stable now, and at least half the people who used it in 2018 through early 2020, reported that it didn’t work at all and/or was discolored or dry when they received it. The others who gave us feedback said they had to use heat to get it to work, and they can achieve a similar effect with other forms of sulfur. So we no longer carry this product. **
Two options instead of Luster Gel are:
Sterling silver Buddha / bodhisattva beads before and after being treated with Luster Gel. The blue color takes 20-30 minutes to achieve.
Sterling silver, fine silver and silver-plated jewelry pieces can all be colorized with Luster Gel. Since patinas are created via chemical reactions, anti-tarnish treatments and coatings could interfere with the gel’s performance. Also, follow the basic chemical safety rules when working with this product: avoid skin contact, wear eye protection and work in a well-ventilated area. Don’t eat it either!
Iridescent Luster Gel for Silver
Luster Gel is sold in a 4 oz. jar and needs to be mixed with water and the included activator powder prior to use.
Luster Gel gets its green color from cupric (copper) acetate.
For each batch of Luster Solution, mix, in order:
Once mixed with the activator, the Luster Solution turns dark orange.
Dip your piece into the solution (use a string or a plastic hook, or wear gloves, to avoid touching the solution). Over the next 30 minutes, the silver will change from yellow to gold, then orange – red – brown – purple – and finally blue. If you leave it in longer, it will go through the same color-change process again, only this time the colors will be deeper and more iridescent.
All of the colors pictured here occur within 30 minutes, starting with gold (top left) after about 5 minutes in the solution and ending with deep blue after a full 30 minutes. On the far right are plain sterling pieces to show the transformation.
Once you are happy with the color, pull your piece out of the solution, rinse with clean water and allow it to air dry. Once it is completely dry, seal it with Renaissance Wax or a clear spray sealer to protect the finish. That’s it. Super easy!
When you are done, mix baking soda into the Luster Solution to neutralize it. At that point you may safely dispose of it by washing it down the drain. Happy rainbows to you! ~ Cindy
{Thanks for clicking the Share buttons, to tell a friend!}
We’re very fortunate to have Toni, a mixed-media artist and art teacher, as one of our jewelry designers here at Rings & Things. From pottery to doll making, Toni has dabbled in it all. So when we started seeing fabulous fabric tag pendant necklaces in magazines like Belle Armoire and Cloth Paper Scissors, we asked Toni to make a few for our design team to play with. She has a huge fabric stash and was more than happy to put her scraps to good use! Toni’s “Patchy Blue Skies” in our design gallery also has a wee little birdie.
Whether you’re a jewelry artist or a fiber artist, it can be a lot fun to cross over into a similar craft. It challenges your creativity. Toni never does anything half way, so we had a ton of fabric swatches and squares of all sizes and patterns to play with. Here are some of the results, as well as some design tips and tricks we learned along the way.
First off, Toni sandwiched a piece of felt between two layers of fabric to give each tag a nice sturdy feel. If you’re using thick fabric, this step can be omitted. Most of the designers used
3/16″ eyelets to create a sturdy hole from which to hang their tags, but as you’ll see, you have other options.
I used choker clamps to grip the ends of the tag and added short sections of chain to turn it into a cuff bracelet. The choker clamps could also work in place of a bail to make a pendant.
She punched holes into a copper tube bail to stitch it onto the fabric tag.
It is so much fun to see what unique designs people come up with, even when starting with almost the same inspiration. Look for one of Toni’s fabric tag designs in an upcoming Rings & Things magazine ad! ~ Cindy
Shopping list:
Buy some of the items used in these projects…
Vintaj “rustic” altered base-metal canvases
impression stone beads & lime keishi pearls from our BeadTour bead shows
PS: here are some handy links to some other how-to‘s in the Rings & Things blog!
Thanks to a couple hundred 🙂 of you guys for jumping in on our latest Design Challenge: brushed copper beads! *And welcome to you visitors from the Rings & Things News Flash email!*
From the dozen or so
brushed copper bead recipients, Rings & Things received dozens of awesome photos showing what they designed.
The grand prize winner is Kym Hunter! Kym built this simple but wonderful ring.
Front view (showing the flower bead)
We loved the simplicity, cleverness and cuteness of Kym’s ring! Besides two brushed copper beads (puffed flower and striped disk), Kym used just a couple of pieces of felt and some copper wire–to great effect.
See Kym’s other brushed-copper bead creations at the original Design Challenge blog post. They’re in a photo gallery there with everyone else’s entries.
Don’t miss out! You’ll find jewelry there like Melissa Meman’s drape earrings, inventively using the small brushed disk beads (which she oxidized) as vertical design elements .
I promise you’ll have a great time browsing the photos 🙂 Thanks for sending a friend the link, to share & enjoy!
Lucerna, a definite staff pick!
These new Lucerna crystals by Swarovski, stock #05-030-08-, are stunning!
I am sure no picture can capture their lantern-like brilliance. (I’m trying, though.) 🙂 Here’s a line sketch, to illuminate how neat their shape is:
When first thumbing through all the great beads & things in our new supplement, I totally overlooked these beauties.
The other day a customer brought the Lucernas to my attention, and ever since, I can’t get them off my mind.
When you get these “Swarovski 5030” crystals* in your hand and see all the rectangular facets sparkling back at you, they are hard to resist.
My mind is already racing with numerous ideas of how these treasures can be incorporated into fabulous pieces of jewelry.
Thank you Swarovski, this Lucerna crystal shape is a keeper!
–Amy in the Rings & Things showroom
* As we insiders call them 😉
