Walking on Sunshine

And don't it feel good :)

Yes, I couldn't help it. I've had this song stuck in my head since I decided to buy the Walking on Sunshine crystal jam. And here's more of what I've made with it. They were more of a 'garnish' if you will on the leaf necklace, for these pieces the crystals are a more integral part of the designs. The earrings came first then I made a necklace to match.

For the earrings I strung the crystals on yellow Soft Flex to bring out the fun warm tones of the crystals.

And here is the necklace. In addition to the crystals I added some Czech glass beads and some little peanut shaped clear beads. I had hoped that the yellow Soft Flex would show through the peanut beads, but that didn't go quite as planned. I still like how this turned out though.

The whole necklace. I used some of my curb chain to make an extender, putting a glass round bead on the end for the clasp to catch if it misses a link. I like making my own extenders with the handy spools of chain from Rings and Things. This curb chain has soldered links, which adds strength. I have some extenders I picked up locally which have broken because they don't have soldered links.

Gemstone Necklace

I got the idea for this necklace from my Bead Journey book (ISBN 978-0-87116-267-0) which I modified slightly. I had been wanting to do more work with stones, and this was a nice opportunity to do so.

(Both images are scaled down for this post). My camera was running low on batteries so I ended up taking quick shots, and luckily a few came out alright. It didn't help that it was snowing last week so I didn't have to much natural light to work with.

Supplies:
All the stones are Sodalite:
Pendant is - 20x39mm Puffed Marquise
Rest of stones necklace earrings - 6mm Rondelles 
Spacer 1 - 4mm Glass Disk -Aquamarine
Spacer 2 - 4mm Filigree - Antiqued Copper Plated
Eye pin and earring findings are from a kit my mom gave me last year as a gift.
Strung on Bone Soft Flex 49 strand (Via a Trio Pack)

When I was planning this necklace I had decided to use the glass spacers in place of the gold ones from the design in the book. As I was sorting through my order I realized how nice the filigree beads looked with the stones. I debated using the filigree instead of the glass and spent a bit of time looking at strung samples. I decided that I liked the way the glass picked up the light while nestled between the stones and decided to alternate the spacers.

If anyone else wants to try this design it's best to put the marquise stone on a head/eye pin. My first attempt I strung it with the beads and it kept shifting sideways due to it's shape interacting with the beads. Though a top drilled marquise would be alright to string directly with the beads.

Earrings with Beading Wire

 

 (Click image for larger version)

Earrings are something fun to make, especially when I have random extra beads leftover. This weekend I made a bunch of earrings, using bead stringing (beading) wire instead of headpins or regular wire. These are all made with Soft Flex brand, using their Trios packs (3 colors sold together). Most of these I used the Tranquility pack, and a little bit of the Serenity pack.

Bead wise I used a variety of beads. The large dark blue ones are resin, which I picked up awhile back at my local JoAnne's. The other blue beads, both light and dark are glass fiber optic "cat's eye" beads, which I purchased at Rings and Things. I also used some Swarovski crystals which I've purchased from both Artbeads and Rings and Things.

Finding wise the lever backs I purchased from Artbeads, and the colorful French hooks I bought from Rings and Things. The French hooks are niobium, a metal which people with nickel allergies can wear. Though buying the niobium findings is also nice because of the variety of colors available.

These were really easy to make, and would be a great project for someone learning to bead, or anyone really. It's also a good opportunity to practice using crimps. For most of the pairs I simply looped a length of stringing wire through the earring finding, folding it in half. I then slid a larger  bead on both strands and up to near the earring. To keep this bead from sliding down I used a crimp underneath. Then I put various beads on the bottom of each strand.

Chainmaille Set

Well, long time no post. Now that the holidays are over and I'm getting back into my usual routine here is something I've recently made. I started working on this set back in December, between Christmas gifts for friends and family. The choker is 14 inches long, with a bit of an extender chain built in, and the earrings are about an inch or so long.

The weave on these is European 4 in 1, which is a standard maille weave. The double colored diamond pattern I found in a beading magazine I picked up two summers ago. I'm not sure of the ring sizes they had recommended, I ended up picking out sizes and colors at my local bead store that I figured would work well. I've done this pattern before with these size rings, and I've had good luck. These rings work especially well with the earrings. When making a bracelet with larger rings, a single diamond unit felt a bit to heavy to be an earring, but these ones are light weight enough.


Here are the earrings, the same rings as I used with the choker. The earring findings I've had awhile now, and they happened to go well with the rings.

For the rings, I used D20 EC. The AR is 4, D is 1/8 of an inch, and they are made out of 20 gauge wire. They aren't labeled as to what metal they are made out of, but they look like aluminum (I cut one in half, it's not copper, and to soft to be steel).

As I unpack from moving and find the magazine I'll post the details for that issue so others can find the pattern. (Not that it's that complicated). The trick to the diamonds is to have the last row of rings facing the same way as the first row in the next diamond. That way they are less likely to twist around. I'm not counting the single connector ring as a row here.