Jewelry Making

Another jewelry site that I came across recently through indieshopping is Stones on String. Melissa specializes in making handcrafted one-of-a-kind jewelry such as necklaces, bracelets, earrings, anklets and even men’s jewelry.

I like her focus on “natural” looking pieces. While she does make good use of crystals such as Swarovskis as accents, the focus of many of her pieces are earth-toned gemstones and silver single-word “message” beads. A lot of her jewelry is also complemented by leather cord which extends the rustic yet beautiful nature of the designs.

Here’s a little bit about Melissa’s design philosophy from her website:

My style has evolved and I create the type of jewelry that I myself am drawn to. Earthy, natural pieces designed with gemstones and crystals, sterling and gold. Jewelry that is stylish to wear, yet also feeds the soul with beauty as well.

Continue reading “Stones on String” …

Just a quick note that Master Wire Sculptor, Inc. (Preston Reuther’s famous rags-to-riches wire sculpting company) is holding a Bead and Wire Bracelet Contest. The entry deadline is the end of the year, which is coming up rather quickly. They also are going to announce the winners on January 14, 2007 which is rather quick too!

They’ve been holding various contests like these since about 2000. Up for grabs for this one is over $1000 in wire jewelry supplies along with various certificates and awards. The best thing about it, in my opinion, is that there is no fee to enter. That’s right, it’s free - something you can’t say about a lot of the jewelry making competitions.

More info can be found on their contest page at:

wire-sculpture.com/braceletcontest06/

Here’s another jewelry making competition that I had forgotten to post about this past spring. But I guess that means that now you have a good amount of time to prepare for entering next year’s event, which is due April 1, 2007. Time to get crackin’!

Actually, this contest is called the Jewelry Arts Awards and is presented by the Lapidary Journal. Although it’s open to any jewelry designers, to me it seems like the majority of the featured winners are pretty serious about the craft. I dunno if you’d be interested in this if you’re just beading at home!

Regardless, the winners were pretty amazing. There are 6 different categories you can enter under: Bracelets, Earrings, Pendants/Necklaces, Pins/Brooches, Rings and Miscellaneous Jewelry. The entry fee is $25 and you need to submit a slide or photographic image of your piece of jewelry. They judge it based on overall design, visual appeal, originality and execution.

There are some really beautiful and amazing pieces that have been featured as winners in past contests, so even if you don’t enter it’s cool to see what the pros are submitting.

Visit this page of the Lapidary Journal site for more info.

I came across some elegant jewelry through Style Bakery the other day. Carrie Schafer of Original Hardware creates beautiful necklaces, earrings and bracelets characterized by earthy colors and textures. Taking much of her inspiration from nature and travels abroad, the Colorado-based artist uses rustic handmade silver paired with warm-colored precious stones like carnelian, smokey quartz and jade in her pieces.

I especially like her use of hand-dyed chocolate colored silk and leather to compliment the natural colors of the stones and oxidized silver pieces. Another common design touch in her work includes the use of loops and ovals of silver with gemstones hanging within. Carrie is all about the “road less traveled” and that’s clearly reflected in her design… here’s a blurb from her website:

My design philosophy is simple: make pieces that reflect the strength, beauty and individuality of its wearer… I like to make pieces that are off-the-beaten path and incorporate the cultures and colors of the exotic places I’ve travelled.

Continue reading “Original Hardware” …

More mail for today. This one is actually something that I’ve been interested in figuring out as well:

From the Bloglander Jewelry Making Mailbag:

Don P. writes: “Hi, I’m trying to find ‘blank’ adjustable finger rings. I’d like to glue unmatched old earrings to these bands to make unusual finger rings. I’m having trouble finding these plain adjustable bands. Could you direct me? Thanks.”

Bloglander Jewelry Making says: We haven’t really used these adjustable ring blanks in making rings as of yet, though we’ve always been interested in giving a shot one of these days. Up until this point we’ve only tried making ring blanks out of wrapped silver or basemetal wire (this might be an upcoming tutorial). But we’d always wondered if there were options for times when you just want to glue some pieces on the top of a ring.

I believe that there are 2 types of ring blanks commonly sold, adjustable ring blanks with a pad and adjustable ring blanks with loops (often known as Charm Rings?) I did a quick lookup on Rings n Things and found the two items pictured at left that might fit the bill for you. You may want to take a look at other jewelry resellers and compare prices and styles.

The first (pictured on the left) are called Adjustable Glue-On Finger Rings and feature a round textured 1cm flat pad on which you can glue stuff. The ring itself adjusts size as well. The only thing is that there are only base metal or silver/gold plated ring blanks.

The other ones are called Adjustable Finger Rings with Loops and these come with 1 or 3 loops connected to the band. They are adjustable as well, except for the sterling silver one which is not. These are also called Charm Rings because you can just attach charms directly to the loops.

I’m not sure if the above links will work since they’re CGI based… if not, try go to the Rings n Things website and navigate into “Our Products” -> “Specialty Findings” -> “Finger Rings”.

Billed as “Jewelry With Soul”, Pieces of a Girl is run by Lizzy Carter who lives in the New England area. Although she does make a seasonal line of jewelry that you can order straight from her website, a big focus of her site involves custom designs on commission. You basically contact her to set a price range and other parameters such as the desired look and style, and the design progresses from there.

The custom pieces also get the full star treatment as far as packaging goes. Items over $100 come in an elaborate box along with a full set of story cards - these include custom greetings and sentiments that are behind the actual jewelry which are sure to tickle the fancy of the lucky recipient of the item.

Her seasonal line for Fall 2006 includes a beautiful assortment of necklaces, pendants, earrings and bracelets. I feel like her pieces have a lighter, airy touch to them.

Here’s a little bit about Lizzy, from the Pieces Of A Girl website:

lizzy carter is an artist, entrepreneur and texture junky. she launched pieces of a girl in 2002 after eight months of strategic planning and a lifetime of daydreaming about a career made from her own creativity. she has more than 1,000 pieces of signature custom jewelry to her credit, and her collections are available in exclusive boutiques nationwide…

Continue reading “Pieces Of A Girl” …

Ok, I have to admit that I was a little slow posting about this contest. It was on my calendar but I forgot to write about it until today, which is only a few days before the deadline. Well, consider it a heads up for next year’s competition.

This is the annual Saul Bell Design Award design contest which was created in honor of the Rio Grande founder in 2000. From the website:

This competition honors the spirit of Saul Bell and his life’s work. It is our hope that his influence will continue to inspire and enlighten jewelers everywhere… Designers are encouraged to unleash their imagination within any of several categories and push the boundaries of jewelry design.

I have to warn you that the jewelry designs that are entered in this competition tend to be rather elaborate; I have a feeling it’s geared more toward the seasoned designer rather than most of us who are either just starting out or making jewelry for fun.

However, that’s not to say that you can’t win with simpler strung necklaces. The necklace shown at right by Mary Smith of Beaded Jewelry by Design is called “Fall Leaf Necklace” and won First Place for the Beads category in 2006.

In addition, the $45 entry fee per item isn’t that prohibitive. But like I said, you’ve only got a few days left to enter. The entry form is due September 22. But maybe you can start on a masterpiece now to enter next year…

Also, the prizes are certainly nothing to sneeze about. The overall Grand prize nets a $10,000 gift cert at Rio Grande. There are four first places for each of the 4 other categories where you can win $2500, and five 2nd places that are worth $1000. All of the winners get their designs featured in Rio Grande’s publicity campaigns.

Visit the website for the Saul Bell Award Competition for more info.

I came across some rather nice jewelry the other day at Ornamental Things (I’ve since forgotten how I found the site, but I think it was from Indieshopping).

Designer Natalie Tischler has only been selling her jewelry since 2004, but has already made a big splash with her extremely playful bracelets, necklaces and earrings. She also offers a number of interesting cameo rings.

A little bit about Natalie, from the Ornamental Things website:

… The thing I like most about jewelry is its sentimental nature. If you think about it, every woman has some piece of jewelry which has special meaning to her - a necklace from a sweetheart, a bracelet that was a gift from a best friend, an heirloom from her grandmother. I strive to create pieces that are stylish but also classic enough to be worn forever - jewelry with soul and meaning. I love to think that something I create will hold a special meaning for someone in the future.

One of her signature products are her rather eclectic bracelets, many of which are one-of-a-kind creations. They are characterized by the use of dangles and trinkets of many different shapes and colors. I picked this unique Red and Yellow Explosion bracelet to show here, which includes vibrantly colored vintage beads and metal stars and hearts. Very nice complementary color choices here, and the overall design actually works surprisingly well without seeming overly “muddied” by too many trinkets.

Continue reading “Ornamental Things” …

I hadn’t visited Stylebakery in awhile so when I went there yesterday there were a lot of new jewelry designers in their Designers on the Rise series. Here’s one that I picked to show today: Jessica Hicks Jewelry.

From her studio in Nantucket, Jessica creates bold yet highly delicate precious metal-centric pieces infused with a playful sense of wonder. Having attended Worcester Center for Crafts and later at University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth under jewelry and metals, she later decided to put her metalworking skills to the test and started up her own fashion jewelry line. Her focus is earrings and pendant necklaces though she does have a few bracelets.

Here’s a little bit about her design philosophy from her website:

“My jewelry is contemporary and bold. I design pieces that demand attention with their geometric shapes, hidden elements, movement and texture. My creations encourage further investigation; where the observer expects to see stones set, I place free-flowing crystals that give the illusion of color contained within pierced metal.”

Continue reading “Jessica Hicks Jewelry” …

Because several readers have asked about this, we are actually going to make an effort to review specific jewelry supply products here on Bloglander Jewelry Making. To kick this off, Peter from The Contenti Company was nice enough to send us a few jewelry making related items for consideration. We’ll be attempting to review products from other companies as well. (If you manufacture or sell jewelry making products and you’re interested in this, please let us know!)

First up are these great compact Chain Nose Parallel Pliers which are made by Valor exclusively for Contenti. These particular pliers are around 5 inches in length which are about the same length as the ordinary chain nose pliers that we use for making jewelry.

The pliers come in either flat nose style or chain nose style and with smooth or serrated jaws. The one we got was the smooth chain nose variety. I believe there is also a longer model that features springs between the handles for easy return.

The overall construction is pretty solid, unlike a lot of the pliers that we have gotten at larger craft stores and swap meets. The heft and fit, at least for my hand, was perfect. It actually reminded me a bit of my swiss army type Leatherman tool. It was a bit heavier than most of the cheaper plastic chain nose pliers that we have lying around. The handles are nickel plated and have an indentation pattern for easier gripping. For folks who aren’t used to rubber coated or plastic handles, this may take some getting used to. (Though, I assume it’d be easy enough to “dip” them in the usual rubber solutions.

One of the only issues that I have with this plier are that the tips of the pliers don’t taper down small enough at the end for certain smaller items. This makes it a bit difficult to grasp extremely small findings and wire. However, I don’t believe this tool should be looked upon as a “works for everything” plier anyhow. For me, it has turned out to be more of a specialty plier for larger items when I need better grip on things.

Continue reading “Chain Nose Parallel Pliers” …