Jewelry Making

The other day, I read with interest a tidbit on Tammy Powley’s Jewelry Making About.com site about a technique for cleaning up metal jewelry. Cleaning up metal can be a huge issue for jewelry designers, especially those that specialize in metal jewelry that involve chain or chain mail links, or those who make their own jump rings.

This method seems a bit unorthodox and I never would have thought of it myself. Basically, it involves using a Rock Tumbler of all things! Rock tumblers have traditionally been used by hobbyists and jewelry people to smooth the surface of rough cut stones. The basic idea is to use a rock tumbler along with stainless steel shot in order to really shine up jewelry. Pretty interesting, and since there’s probably quite a few jewelry designers out there who already have access to a tumbler, this might be a cost effective way to clean up metal. Apparently, the tumbler also tends to harden the metal as well as cleaning it which I guess would be an added bonus for a lot of people.

Continue reading “Cleaning Jewelry with Tumblers?” …

Flipping through a few bead magazines I noticed a couple of techniques on how to make Spirals out of wire for use with candle decorations. I thought about it some and decided to try an experiment on how hard it would be to make Spiral Earrings.

It turns out that it’s not hard at all, and more importantly it turned out looking halfway decent. The spirals take nearly less time than a simple wirewrap loop, so it’s definitely plausible as a feature in earrings, necklaces, and bracelets. To the left is a picture of what the finished earrings look like.

Tutorial on Spiral Earrings

Hm… so you’re trying to plan out your vacation for next year. You’re thinking of going on a cruise maybe one of those local excursions down south to Mexico, perhaps Cozumel. Then you might be thinking, hey wouldn’t it be cool if I could go on a cruise and pursue my favorite hobbies - beading and making jewelry, of course - at the same time?

Well, you might be in luck then because some people have already thought of this cool scenario! I was tipped off to this by Heather Powers, one of the instructors behind Bead Cruise 2006.

This is a pretty interesting idea for a “themed” cruise, and the combination is sure to please quite a few people. The trip includes all of the normal accommodations that you’d expect, including spending the day in Cozumel snorkeling, swimming, or exploring but also throws beading classes into the mix. Here’s a description of the events, from their website:

You’ll get to take one day long class and one half-day workshop with 2 of our instructors. Along with an exclusive creativity workshop, open beading sessions with mini-lessons and a bead crochet clinic with Judith. There will be prize giveaways, a bead auction, our Bead Cruise Program that will include patterns, projects, hot tips and supplier information. And finally, gift bags with products from our great sponsors. All of this is included in the price of the cruise!

The Bead Cruise is scheduled for 4 days starting April 6, 2006 and will be departing from Galveston, TX to Cozumel, Mexico on the Royal Caribbean’s Splendor of the Seas. They have limited the registration to 50 students to keep things manageable. The instructors for the classes are Dona Anderson, Judith Bertoglio-Giffin, Beverly Herman and Heather Powers. For more information, you can visit:

www.beadcruise.com

I just created a tutorial for how to make zig zag earrings. I originally saw this type of earring in a bead magazine and was initially sort of skeptical if this would look any good, especially because the items we make are mostly understated and less “jangly” or “flashy”. However, after experimenting with the technique, they actually came out pretty well and are fairly easy to make. So I changed my mind and wrote something up on them.

I think you may want to experiment different shapes on each dangle for variety if you decide to make these. I just used the same for consistency while taking pictures of the process!

I hadn’t been to the Jewelry Making About.com site (moderated by Tammy Powley) in awhile. When I visited today, she had put up an article where she talks about the technique of annealing metal and other materials. I’ve always been interested in someday trying out techniques like metalsmithing and true wire work one of these days.

Continue reading “Annealing in Jewelry” …

I put up some ideas on getting wholesale prices on jewelry making supplies. It’s pretty easy nowadays for the average person to get some great prices on jewelry supplies what with the internet and Ebay. Some of the things talked about are: buying jewelry online, buying in bulk, buying at jewelry shows and wholesale shops, and getting a resale tax ID.

I wrote up a short article on making an earring cluster. These are small and pretty earrings that feature a “cluster” of items, usually crystals (Swarovski is often used), pearls, or small faceted gemstones. Some people like them (or don’t like them) because they don’t hang down too far but are more fancy than just a single small gem earring. But you can easily extend the cluster with chain or use multiple clusters attached to each other if you’d like to. Here is a picture of the finished earring.

I just put together a short tip with some pictures on using Tic-Tac containers as bead boxes. Tic-Tac boxes have got to be one of the most useful things that you’d ordinarily throw away (along with Altoid tins, of course). The most important thing here is to cut the sticker open so that you don’t have to mess around with peeling it off… saves time!

I wrote up a short article on how to correctly open jump rings. It’s pretty simple, but if you are just starting out using jump rings it’s pretty important to know. Here’s a picture of the right and the wrong way.

I’ve created a short article on how to wirewrap a drop simply for use as a pendant or earring part. This is a picture of the completed drop.