All about jewellery making

This button necklace was very simple to make.  I found a good range of blue buttons lurking in my sewing box and decided to use their varying shades as a feature of my necklace.  Each button is connected to the next using jump rings that I made by wrapping wire around different size knitting needles (if you don’t know how to do this see my tutorial on making jump rings here).  For a bit of contrast I followed the pale blue buttons with white, finishing the necklace with a flower button.  The necklace is one long length, I wrapped it around my jewellery display bust to get a good photograph.

The focal is made from two buttons and wire.  It is really easy to do.  The central button has a shank at the back so I threaded my wire through one of the holes in the base button, up through the shank of the top button and down through the second hole of the base button again.  Then I pushed the remaining wire flush with the back of the base button so that I could make a wrapped loop at both the top and the bottom.  The top loop was used to connect the button focal to the main necklace and the loop at the bottom for a decorative bead dangle.

I found buttons lots of fun to work with and of course they are a recycled material too.  This encourages creativity as you have to work with what you have got.  I think the overall effect is quite retro and bohemian!

Many people get married in the summer so I thought I would write a tutorial for some earrings that would be suitable for brides and/or bridesmaids.  This design is very quick and simple to make.  Here’s what you need:

2x   6 inch lengths of 26 gauge wire
1x   pair of ear wires
2x   focal bead (8mm)
20x  Swarovski crystal bicone beads, 4mm (I used 8x vintage rose, 8x chrysolite and 4x clear)
26x 3mm pearl beads (I used ivory)
1x   6mm pearl bead
1x   4mm metallic bead
Round nose pliers
Flat nose pliers
Wire cutters

1.  The first step is to thread the beads that form the main loop of the earring.  Here is a diagram to show you how:

2.  Once you have the beads in the desired order draw both ends of the wire towards each other and make a neat and tight wrapped loop at the top.  You will need to trim the wire that you have used to create the wrap so that you end up with a wrapped loop bearing a single wire out of the top like so:

3.  The next thing you have to do is to cover the wrap you have just made.  To do this take the 6mm pearl bead and thread it onto the wire.  Hold the wire with your flat nose pliers and pull the bead down firmly to cover the wrap.  When you have done this then thread on the 4mm metallic bead followed by the 3mm pearl and finally create a wire wrapped loop at the top to hang the earring from the ear wire (see diagram below).  Repeat for the other earring.

Despite their strikingly complicated appearance beaded spiral ropes are in fact really quite easy to produce.  Not only do they offer the opportunity for experimenting with the most glorious colour schemes but they are very satisfying to make, especially since there is so much scope for variation by altering the sizes of the beads involved in the project.

For simplicity’s sake I am going to show you how to make the basic beaded spiral.  You can see from the examples of beaded spiral ropes that I have previously posted that alternative sizes of beads have indeed been used.

N.B.  Before you begin you need to make a brief assessment of your materials since the thread used will need to pass through the core beads more than once.  Sometimes, depending on the beads and the thickness of the thread used (I usually use Nymo), I pass the thread through each section of the spiral rope twice (meaning that the core beads contain three thicknesses of thread whilst the beads that ‘climb’ the rope only contain two) as this provides extra stability.  You need to judge what is best for your particular piece.

For the purposes of this tutorial I am going to use two colours of beads to make the process of adding beads to the spiral rope as clear as possible.  If this is your first attempt at a beaded spiral rope I suggest using size 8/0 seed beads as these are a reasonable size to handle and will comfortably take multiple strands of thread.

Step 1 - the ’stop’ bead
The purpose of the ’stop’ bead is to prevent beads sliding off the end of the thread.  Here’s how its done:

Step 2 - starting the beaded spiral rope
Add three colour A beads (beads 1, 2 & 3) to your thread.  These are your ‘core’ beads.  Please see diagram below.

Step 3 - adding the first set of ‘climbing’ beads
Now add one more colour A bead (4) and three colour B ‘climbing’ beads (5,6 & 7) like so:

Step 4 - beginning the beaded spiral
Now take your thread back up beads 1, 2, 3 and 4 (so that bead 4 now joins the rest of the core beads and 5, 6 and 7 ‘climb’ along the edge) as shown in the diagram below:

You have now completed the first row of the beaded spiral rope.

Step 5 - ‘cimbing the rope’

In order to continue ‘climbing’ the beaded rope you need to add the next set of ‘climbing’ beads.  This is done just as in step 3 and the additional beads are numbered 8, 9, 10 and 11 in my diagram.  Once you have threaded them on take your needle through bead 2 and draw the thread up core beads 3, 4 and 8 (Please see my diagram as this can get a bit confusing!  The technique is really simple when explained visually!)

So following the logic of the beaded spiral rope the next row will add beads 12, 13, 14 and 15.  The thread will be taken through core beads 3, 4, 5 and 12.  For each row you take the thread through the next three core beads numerically plus the first bead of the ‘climbing’ set you have just added.

Keep going until you have your desired length of beaded spiral rope!

Copyright 2008 http://www.allaboutjewellerymaking.info
Not to be reproduced on any other website, in printed format or on a portable media device. May be printed for personal use but must not be used for commercial purposes.

In my last post I talked about the beaded snowflakes design in Dorothy Wood’s book ‘Simply Sparkling Christmas Beading’.  My challenge was to find a way to create the wire frame for making beaded snowflakes using cold connections.  Here is a tutorial for my beaded snowflake wirework frame which I have tested out with the following result:

To create the basic beaded snowflake wirework frame you need to cut three identical pieces of wire (I used 0.8 mm).  The length is up to you as it will determine the final size of your beaded snowflake.  Line up the wires next to each other and using a finer length of of wire (i used 0.6 mm) create a wirewrap around the wires at the midway point - see fig. 1.

fig. 1

You are almost done already!  Once the wirewrap is secure you can then fold the arms out like so:

fig. 2

You are now ready to apply your chosen beads to each of the snowflake arms.  Secure the beads by using your round nose pliers to create a small loop at the end of each wire - see fig. 3.

fig. 3

photo of my beaded snowflake at this stage

Don’t worry if your beaded snowflake is a little wobbly. You are about to add the embellishments with fine wire and this will hold it all together.  For my beaded snowflake I created bead picks as explained in Dorothy’s book (pp. 14 - 17) but you could use more crystals, beads, seed beads, ribbons, buttons to suit your own tastes.  I can’t explain here how to create the bead picks because I wish to respect Dorothy’s copyright.  If you want to replicate these delicate beaded fronds please see her book.  However all other forms of decoration can be attached using fine wire (0.2 or 0.3 mm) by twisting and weaving around the centre of the beaded snowflake.  I found it useful to incorporate some beaded loops at the centre as these hide the wire you have used to bind the decoration.  Add a hanging loop by attaching a thread on any one of the loops at the end of the beaded snowflake’s arms. 

fig. 4

If you have a go at creating a beaded snowflake using my wirework frame tutorial do feel free to send me a picture and I will add it to this post.  It would be nice to have a whole page of Christmassy beaded snowflakes!

Copyright 2007 http://www.allaboutjewellerymaking.info
Not to be reproduced on any other website, in printed format or on a portable media device. May be printed for personal use but must not be used for commercial purposes.

Inspired by a forthcoming Christmas concert I set about designing myself some really sparkly, super-dangly earrings.  To me, dangly earrings are the jewellery equivalent of the high heeled show providing an instant confidence boost and a bit of glamour.  Wishing to spread a little pre-Christmas cheer I will explain here how I made these glittery shoulder dusters.  It really isn’t as hard as it looks and this design is hugely versatile in terms of length, colour and the potential for added detail. 

I knew that I wanted to make my ‘Christmas party’ earrings in a Christmassy colour and had absolutely fallen inlove with some deep emerald faceted crystal rondelles that I had actually purchased as Bead Tree shop stock.  Nevertheless I couldn’t resist and gathered a handful of these scrumptious beads to set aside for my own use.  Also in my shop inverntory were some silver-lined apple green seed beads that not only complemented the rich emerald colour very well but offered a good dose of sparkle - fundmental to my vision of these showstopping, glimmering and twinkling, swishing and swaying earrings that I had in mind.

What follows here is a guide to their construction rather than a precise tutorial.  This is to allow you to be creative with your own version.  If you use my ‘Christmas party’ earrings tutorial and would like to send me a picture of your finished earrings I will be pleased to add it to this post.

Materials

0.6 mm wire (I have used silver-plated)
24 beads about 6mm in size (I have used my luscious green rondelles)
Small handful of size 8/0 seed beads (I used silver-lined transparent)
Small handful of size 11/0 seed beads (I used silver-lined apple green)
One pair of ear hooks
Round nosed pliers
Flat nosed pliers
Wire cutters

The first element of these earrings that I made were the individual dangles.  I made my own headpins by cutting from my wire and making a small loop with the round nosed pliers at the end to stop the beads from falling off.  (You could use ready-made headpins just as well if you can find some long enough).

Here is my schemata for the sparkly dangles but you can create any combination you like:

Make 2 of:  (11/0 - 8/0 - 6mm - 8/0 - 11/0) rep twice then add 6x 11/0

Make 2 of:  (11/0 - 8/0 - 6mm - 8/0 - 11/0) rep twice then add 12x 11/0

Make 1 of: (11/0 - 8/0 - 6mm - 8/0 - 11/0) rep twice then add 18x 11/0

Finish each dangle with a loop at the top.

To illustrate the construction of the top part of the earring I will draw some diagrams as I think it is easier to communicate the technique pictorially.

With a piece of 0.6 mm wire approx. 7 ins long use your round nose pliers to create a large loop as shown in diagram 1.  Then using your flat nose pliers bend both ends of the wire so that they are at 90 degrees as indicated above.  You should now have something that looks like this:

Before proceeding add your beaded dangles to the loop in order of your choice followed by a 6 mm bead that threads onto both ends of the wire.  You now need to make a wrap with the wires just above the bead (holding the loop you made in stage 1 with the flat nose pliers will make it easier):

Next trim the wire that you have used to wrap with before threading on the second 6 mm bead.  Finally make a wire-wrapped loop with the remaining piece of wire like so:

Make another earring in the same way, attach both to your ear hooks and you’re done!

Copyright 2007 http://www.allaboutjewellerymaking.info
Not to be reproduced on any other website, in printed format or on a portable media device. May be printed for personal use but must not be used for commercial purposes.