All about jewellery making

This micro macrame necklace was made following a pattern created by Elaine Lieberman in Katie DuMont’s book, ‘The New Macrame’. I am very pleased with how it turned out.

Here is a close up of the front of the necklace.  The thread that I used was 1mm waxed cotton jewellery making cord and it was the perfect stiffness for holding the pattern well.

I liked the design so much that I decided to add one of the special dragonfly toggles that I sell in my bead shop.  I don’t usually use up shop stock on my own pieces but I wanted something befitting to finish the necklace with.

Elaine Lieberman has a website showcasing her own micro macrame work and she has also written some very good tutorials on how to get started with macrame.  Do pop over for a visit.  The website is here:  http://www.elainecraft.com/

If you would like to find out some more about micro macrame I have listed some other websites in a previous post here.

Just a quick ’show and tell’ and a teensy tutorial.  I am loving wearing these earrings at the moment.  They are very simple to make using a basic hoop finding.  Here’s how I made them:

Materials:
2x hoop earring findings (or make your own from wire)
1 pair ear hooks
0.2 mm wire
Small handful size 9/0 seed beads
Small handful size 11/0 seed beads
3 large drop beads
4 small drop beads

1.  Un-hook the wire hoop at the back of the pre-made hoop finding and thread on your chosen drop beads in the following order - 1 small, 1 large, 1 small, 1 large, 1 small, 1 large, 1 small.  For the moment forget about these beads, just let them hang on the hoop out of the way.

2.  Take some fine wire, approx. 0.2mm in diameter, and wind it a few times around the hoop at the top.  Once the wire is firmly attached thread on your first seed bead (I have used blue size 9/0).  Position this bead up against the hoop on the outer edge and wind the wire around the hoop a couple of times to secure it.  Now you are ready to thread on your first group of 3 smaller seed beads which will sit on the inner edge of the hoop (I have used pale grey size 11/0).  Here is a close up picture to give you the idea:

As you can see from the photograph I have repeated this process 3 times plus one blue size 9/0 seed bead before incorporating the drop beads into the design (the drop beads essentially replace the 3 seed bead unit that you have been adding).  Each drop bead is separated by a size 9/0 seed bead and the wire should be wound around the hoop a couple of times between each bead so that they are all secured in place.

3.  Very nearly there!  Continue until you have incorporated all 7 drop beads into the design and then resume wiring on seed beads just as you did at the beginning so that they match the first side.

4.  Attach ear hooks and you’re done!

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I have been interested and fascinated by some of the micro macrame techniques that I have seen on the web.  A while ago I experiemented with this technique and yesterday I came across Knotgypsy’s blog where patterns for micro macrame jewellery are available.  I thought it would be fun to give it another go and so ordered a couple of patterns.  The micro macrame beaded bracelet that I am showing here is based on the micro macrame spiral bracelet/anklet pattern.  I chose a colour palette that reminded me of the sea.

Full view showing the lovely blue glass beads I found in my ‘oddments’ bead pot and the grey shiny button incorporated as the clasp.

A portion of the main part of the macrame work.

A close up of the button clasp with beaded tassel.

The days of hairy plant pot holders have truly gone!  (Although there is nothing wrong with them if that is what you like, lol!).

I thought I would add here some good macrame sites for your interest:

http://www.micromacrame.com/ - online micro macrame beading classes, member’s gallery and discussion board.

http://www.elainecraft.com/ - good resource for learning macrame.

http://www.knotgypsy.blogspot.com/ - Knotgypsy sells patterns for micromacrame jewellery in her Etsy shop. 

These right angle weave beaded earrings were made using a pattern by Marcia DeCoster available from the Beading Daily site.  They are called ‘Tesserae earrings’.  My pair is not exactly the same as those illustrated as I had to improvise a bit with the beads.  I did not have any size 15/0s so the centre of the shapes are without a border.  I tried with size 11/0s but they just bunched up unattractively. 

I used a pale pink seed bead for the back of my earring but they were a slightly different size to the pink-lined blue Tohos on the front.  This meant that joining the two right angle weave sections was not as easy as it might have been.  If possible I would definitely use the same make of beads to alleviate this problem.  The main right angle weave sections were woven using 0.10″ monofilament which gave a nice stiff fabric.  When it came to putting the two halves together I changed to nymo as it was no longer possible to push the monofilament through without a needle. 

Despite all the alterations and uneven bead sizes I am still fairly pleased with the result and wore them yesterday.

Lately I have uploaded lots of new stock to my bead shop and thought I would showcase some of it here.  I am gradually building up my range - each time I have a sale I try to put the money back into increasing stock and variety.  It is a slow process but I am getting there!  Many of the items I have for sale can be bought on a ‘per bead’ basis.  I felt that there was a need for this type of selling for those who do not want to buy in bulk and who are perhaps making an item for a special occasion or as a gift.  This method of selling means that I can keep the stock changing and introduce new items quite frequently so that it is worth checking back.  Well, I promised a peek at the new items so here they are:

::  Bali style pewter  ::  Crackle glass  ::  Murano style foil lined beads::  Millefiori beads & pendants ::  Murano style glass pendants  ::

 I hope you like them!