Wednesday, June 15, 2011

I've been busy

After suffering from 'writers block' for several months (!) I have now started creating necklaces with a vengeance. First of all I stopped in at Ben Franklin and they had some gorgeous necklace kits I fell in love with and had to buy one. I wasn't impressed with the instructions or all of the materials but with what I already had I managed to create this pink necklace. The flowers are made out of a translucent petal that I 'built' and attached to the lacy medallion.
I couldn't believe the compliments I got when I wore it to church on Sunday. The earrings are simple some of the necklace chain that I didn't use, dangling off of hypoallergenic ear wires. I immediately went back to Ben Franklin the next day and bought the green set.


It has a double chain with a toggle closure at the edge of the bronzed medallion. The whole necklace is 17 1/2 inches in length with a 2 1/2 inch drop with the pendant and dangling lilies. . I bought additional bronze 'chandeliers' in which I placed a lovely green swarovski crystal dangling making some really pretty earrings. There is one more kit with a orange flower that I need to get so as to have all three available for my clients. This set is listed on Etsy.com for $25.00

Saturday I took Makae birthday shopping and we bought her a cute turquoise shirt and a cute pink shirt. Rather than settle for the plain earrings at the jewelry shop I told her that I would make her a couple of pair.
This is the pink set - she should have received them in the mail today so I hope she liked them. Her blouse is pink with black and silver design and so I added the black beads with the hot pink and pale pink dangles all hanging off of a silver toned chain. She loves stars so I added the star charm.

She saw a pair of turquoise earrings at the mall with dream catchers. We looked at the bead store and only found one dream catcher...I guess I could have made a mismatched pair of earrings but we decided we liked the metal feathers just as well. You can see I am using chunk turquoise rock and lots of little silver toned beads. What do you think Makae??


I needed a simple fuschia necklace to go with a blouse I bought. Of course I really love the simple illusion necklaces and so I made this one for myself. I did make some fun dangling earrings to go with it...I could replicate this set for $18 for the set ($15 for friends on my blog!)
Kecia showed me a pair of hot pink shoes that she has that she needed a necklace for. I made this one for her (I only re-did it three times until I was happy with it!!) Now she has decided she wants another necklace so this one is available for $18/$15 also.


I made this set for a friend that is looking for a gift for another friend. She wanted BIG beads and that is what I have used. It would sell on Etsy for $22.00 a set. The earrings will probably drag the shoulders but that is the style her friend likes - bright and fun!

I had so much fun making the hot pink chunky necklace I decided to use the big turquoise beads I had. This necklace is 33 1/2 inches long, Although it could be shortened very easily. The matching earrings are made with mini chain and three dangles. This set would sell on Etsy for $25.00

Now for the most fun. When Makae and I stopped at the bead store on Saturday afternoon Jeanne showed me some wire wrapping that she had started to do. She invited me to come any morning to learn how to do it. I fell in love with the look....so Tuesday morning I went over and started to learn how. This necklace took me THREE hours just to do the pendant. I am sure I can get faster but it will still take a couple hours at least to complete the necklace and earrings.

I started with a rose quartz flat rock about 1 x 1/2 inches and learned how to take the square wires and tape them together and then wire wrapped them. It is wrapped with sterling silver wire. I wrapped the stone with the four strands of wire and then held the rock in place while I worked the wire around it. We created a bail to hang it with and then started making the pretties. I bought the square wire, half round wire and round wire that each project needs. I purchased it in silver, gold, copper and antique bronze so I can sit up on the mountain this summer and made lots and lots of pretties. I even bought a pair of nylon clad pliers so I could bend the silver and gold wires without damaging the wire. You will be seeing a lot more of this style in the future. Besides wrapping the rock I also wrapped four little rose quarts beads. I placed two of them along with some rose pink quartz and some Swarovski crystals on the beaded necklace chain. I connected the pendant directly into the chain. The necklace is about 18 inches in length. The earrings (with a couple more wrapped beads) are hanging from sterling silver ear wires making it top quality.

If you scroll back up to the hot pink necklace I made for Kecia you will see that I wrapped some of the beads on her earrings.

If you have seen something you like then send me an email and I will work you a deal. I am looking forward to making lots of pretties!!