In one of my more recent designs I was able to reuse some scraps of Soft Flex I had leftover from other projects. I started this necklace with the loops, using a dark blue for the single ones, and antique brass for the double. The beads on the loops are miracle beads and are all made from my saved pieces of Soft Flex. The main part of the necklace I also used the antique brass color and alternated the miracle beads with glass Czech beads (both are 6mm rounds - I purchased assorted color packs/strands from Rings and Things awhile back).This one wasn't all that hard to put together once I came up with a design. I started with the loops first, stringing two beads then crimping the loop closed. Once I had the loops finished I doubled up a long piece of Soft Flex so I had the two strands to work with. For the loops the necklace went through one of the beads while I let the other slide to the bottom of the loop. The miracle beads have nice large holes, they even slide over the crimp tubes I used.
So for anyone wanting to share, how have you reused materials leftover? Be they few extra beads, a bit of wire, or other findings.
4 comments:
Good topic for discussion, Claire! I'll be really interested to know what people have to say about things and ways they've re-used in jewelrymaking.
I was reminded of this April Fools' article...
:) Dave
at Rings & Things
I save all my "leftovers" for resin work. Be it firepolished, swarovski, silver scraps, seed beads, spacers, or charms. I've been making and teaching resin with Magic Glos at my local bead store using Tierra Cast picture frames. It is incredibly easy to use small (2-4mm) beads that you have only a few left to make earrings, pendents, and other things using resin. It all turns out great and it fun to make fast things instead of the usually long beadweaving projects we like to do.
Yay! I love when people use every last bit of our wire. So much of it gets tossed but could be used to make really neat designs just like this. Great job!
Dave - Thanks :). I was already posting the necklace and figured the discussion topic went well with the design. And it's always neat to hear how others use their leftover supplies.
njak - Resin sounds like a great way to use leftovers. I've been thinking of trying resin myself sometime, and will have to see what random leftovers I have that will work well with it.
Sara - Thanks. There will always be extra pieces of beading wire leftover, and it's nice to be able to use them. I've started saving my scraps more recently. With my recent bead organization my findings container has a nice place for bits of wire.
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