A swallow steampunk necklace project

Here is another project we made with Albina Manning recently, a steampunk style necklace. We used some natural stone beads, copper and antique finish finds, and a vintage copper swallow charm as a focal point.

I think it turned out   great. Use your finds and imagination and you will make a great necklace for yourself.

Here is what we use to make ours:

Tools: Wire cutters, round nose pliers, chain nose pliers (2 pairs)

Materials: beads, charm (bird), chain, clasp, jump rings, 20 ga wire.

Here is how to make this:

Lay out your beads, charms and chains to see how you want your future necklace to looks like.

Using 20 ga wire and your tools, make wrapped loops on the both sides of beads.

Using jump rings, attach beads and pieces of chain in the order you would like.

Attach the clasp with jump rings.

Happy making!

Celtic Wig Jig Earrings fo St. Patricks Day

These Celtic copper & green beads wig jig earrings are gorgeous. Albina (aroundbeads) made it during our last craft party and just posted it on her blog.

If you'd like to see how to make these, simply watch her video and follow the instructions. The earrings  are lightweight, very pretty and great to wear for St. Patricks Day or any time you want. Such a universal design.

 If you'll make these or similar please share your photos with us!

DIY: Polymer clay Valentine hearts

A nicely wrapped packaged is always so pleasant to give and to get. Here is a great idea on how to add some finishing touches to your gift.  Albina Manning (aroundbeads) made this tutorial to show how you can make red and white clay hearts for Valentines Day style tags. You can also use them for any other occasion.

There are 3 different type of tags here: solid color, striped and swirled. Make the one you like or try them all, they all look equally great!

What you need to make these:

Red and white polymer clay

Pasta machine or acrylic roller

A heart shaped cutter

Clay blade

Soda straw

♥ Solid Red Heart:

Condition polymer clay until it’s soft and pliable. Roll it until it is about 3mm thick.  Place a cutter, press and twist slightly the cutter. Using a soda straw, make a hole in the heart.

♥ Striped Heart:

Condition red and white polymer clay.Roll 1/8 block of black and white clay through the pasta machine, using the largest setting. Stack red sheet of clay on white and trim with a clay blade to make 1”x1” square.

 

Roll this sheet through the 3rd largest setting. Cut the sheet in half and stack these halves together, alternating colors.  Now, you have 4 stripes.

Cut this stack on two again, so you have 8 stripes: 4 red and 4 white. Roll 1/8 block of red clay through the 4th largest setting. Using the tissue blade, cut 1/8” (3mm) slices from the stack. Lay these slices, side –by-side, over the red clay sheet.  

Roll this sheet along the stripes. Using a cutter, cut the hearts. Make holes with a soda straw.

♥ Swirl heart:

Use all the leftovers from the striped and red hearts and twist them together.  Roll and fold over and twist again. Keep doing this until you’re happy with the design.

 

Be careful not to do it too many times or it will all just turn into one color.

Roll the clay into the 1/8” (3mm) clay sheet. Place a cutter, press and twist slightly the cutter. Using a soda straw, make a hole in the heart.

Arrange your ready to bake tags on a baking sheet and bake them according to the polymer clay packaging instruction.

Add a nice ribbon to tie your gift with and you are done!

Gothic ring tutorial

You can make this gorgeous Gothic ring in no time with Albina's easy-to-follow tutorial!

Tools and Materials:

· 2  20ga round dead soft wire – 2 ft

· 1  10 mm bead – 1

·     Ring mandrel

·     Chain nose pliers

·     Wire cutters

1. Cut a piece of 20ga round dead soft wire2 ft (61cm) long.

2. Place a 10 mm round bead in the middle of the wire. Bend the wire down as shown.

3. Place the wire with a bead around the ring mandrel mandrel at ½ size larger than needed. Wrap the wire around the ring. There is one wire on either side of a bead.

4. Wrap each wire around the bead, one side at a time and alternate sides. Your wires will end up in opposite directions.

5. Continue wrapping until you are satisfied with number of wraps or you have at least 2” of wire left on each side.

6. Take the ring from the mandrel.

7. Use the wire end to wrap around the shank. Make 2-3 wraps. Cut the wire. Tack the wire ends with chain nose pliers so they are not poking.

8. Repeat step 7 with another wire end.

© 2011 Albina Manning

For more great tutorials please visit Albina's shop, AroundBeads

Halloween ideas from the jewelry girl

Albina (AroundBeads) is very passionate about making jewelry. I thought of her immediately when I was thinking of nice accessories to wear for a party. 

So I asked the following 3 questions:

Would you share with some easy tips for Halloween jewelry?

I believe Halloween jewelry can be simple and it does not have to be expensive. You just need to match your costume with some spooky or fun jewelry. 

 

Get a combination of skull bracelets, spider rings and earrings, and bat necklaces. You can also wear pumpkins, candy corn, skeletons, coffins, spider webs… Black and orange are the traditional colors – so use these colors too!

 

What would be fun Halloween jewelry for a child to wear?

It depends on child’s costume of course. Princess would wear a tiara, fancy pendant and earrings; pirate could wear a hoop earring (one on a clip-on will work perfect). My daughter wants to be a witch this year. I am thinking to make her a spider ring.
 

Name 3 things that you cannot imagine Halloween without?

Jack-o-lantern, trick-or-treating kids, and candies.

But wait, there is more! 

 Albina is also going to share an easy to follow tutorial for this beautiful Gothic ring! 

See my next post for the tutorial.

A Perfect Day

Etsy is one of the great places to find new friends. It's fun to communicate on the forums but it is even better to meet the people in person.

So we got this great chance to meet with Alla and her husband (Alla owns the stained glass FleetingStillness shop on Etsy). She and her husband were on their way to San Francisco but they stopped here in Phoenix for a day.

What a wonderful day we had! Albina (AroundBeads) also joined us and we had so much fun! We were lucky to have some time to see downtown before we went to our house for dinner and nice quiet evening chatting. The next day we went exploring part of northern and central Arizona.

There was not enough time since our guests were living at 5 PM so we were making plans right while on the road. Since we woke up early enough we were even able to see Sedona!

We were very happy with the nice weather and spectacular views of the red rock mountains.

We started with a relaxing breakfast at the local restaurant.

After that we went to collection of art galleries that are located in a maze of wonderful buildings, arches, and vine covered tunnels.

There were so many unique hand crafted items gathered in one place, it is just amazing.

On a way back we got chance to stop by Montezuma's Castle and get an idea of how the ancient Indians lived in Arizona's past.

It is a very beautiful place with lots of sycamore trees and a bubbling brook.

From there we stopped at Bloody Basin and shot a few guns at a target. Then we went to Lake Pleasant so our friends could see what a pretty desert lake this is.

We hardly were able to get to the airport in time because of the rush hour traffic but we did! So Alla and Mark were on their way to CA to continue the next leg of their vacation and also meet with some of the other girls from our group

How strange and wonderful the modern world is. You are meeting people you met over the Internet and it feels like you have known them for years. We had a very, very good time!

Jewelry making day

We had some health concerns lately in our family and I was not able to pay attention to my blog as much as I would like to but I was missing you guys! I have started several posts and did not finish them... I hate to be in a such blank mood!

Well, turned out everything is not as bad as we thought, so we relaxed a little and now I am desperate for a creative spree! Last Saturday we grabbed all of our jewelry supplies and went to see Albina (aroundbeads) to get her wise advise on what to do with all this stuff.


That was fun! Albina knows everything, I am telling you! She is a perfect teacher and if you get a chance to take one of her classes, take it. If you are serious about jewelry making it will be money well invested.

We made 4 necklaces and 3 pairs of earrings together.

We used some handmade lampwork beads my husband made some years ago, some pearls, sterling silver charms and sterling wire.

I love everything we made.
I especially like the picture stone we wrapped in silver wire in a shape of tree... so cute!

It was a very nice day and we felt great about ourselves. Thank you, Albina, for teaching us and also for making us feel this way!

Another lovely exchange

I love Holidays Exchanges :)

I found another brown package in my mail box, I ripped it open to the pieces right there and found the cutest little box inside... but this box had a note on top.

It says: Wait! Can you wait until December 25th?HA! Who can?

Sorry, Albina, I opened it right there :) I just HAD TO KNOW!Inside was the prettiest earrings and bracelet and earrings set for me and my mother. It is gorgeous!
Such a wonderful job! The set looks very good on me and long earrings are perfect for my Mom.Thank you so much, Albina, we both just love our presents!

I am so happy we have met and become friends. Have a happy holidays, our best wishes to you and your family!