Week - 31

In my spare time this week bwahaahaahaahaa!! phrrrt!,. eh hemm.. I needed to try my hand at doing another knitted chain. This is actually a 21″ neck chain, tied up to fit in my milk carton lightbox, lol. I have not finished the ends yet because I would like to finish them so that the ends are part of the front design that will hold one of the Woven Sculpture Pendants.  I am still thinking this through and need to wait for the idea to come to the front of my brain,lol.

Week - 30

Lately I have been thinking, how much I really enjoyed making these type of bracelets years ago.  They are so relaxing to do and I get the instant gratification thing from them which is also nice.

I love these beads, love the colour and the dots. Yummy.

Week - 29

 

Just messing about this week with a simpler design.  I’m sooh busy right now, and the kids are on holidays for the next two weeks  so my aim is quick and easy pieces, and the FSOJ challenge right now for me is to just complete a piece on time per week.

Week - 28

Time for a border wrap prong setting.  There is something in being able to whip up a pendant and wear the same day,lol.  I love this cabochon,. interesting colour and pattern. It  has a greenish tinge with yellow flecks but what it is,. we’ll never know for sure,lol.  Fun pendant to do.

Week - 27

 

I’m needing to work up some quick pieces  over the next few months I think, so I thought,. earrings.  I’m not a big fan of earrings personally but I know my mother often buys necklaces and has difficulty finding earrings to match, so I asked her to get out any necklaces she still has not found earrings for and she brought out three.  This the first pair done and will  match her amber coloured necklace.  Hope she likes them. They are made using GF wire and faceted glass I think.

Week - 26

 

 
Something a little different this week, just messing around and really just trying to keep up with the FSOJ at this point, so something quick was needed. This is a beautiful Chrysoprase cabochon, reminds me of a cool blue shallow lagoon,..phrrt  like when have I ever seen one of those in real life,lol. Nothing wrong with my imagination.

Week - 25

  I’m having some weird allergy problem with my eyes at the moment and for the past two weeks, seeing clearly has been rare. I tried to take the easy way out because of my eyes, and decided it would be best to just whip up a quick pendant this phrrrrt!,.. Well,..if I wasn’t convinced before, that I’ve finally found my confortable place with wireworking and the new style I’ve been making lately,.. I’m convinced now.
I hated doing this piece, I got so irritated with it almost immediately,. it brought back memories of why I hated these before.  Not so much the making of them, they’re quick and easy, but it’s the actual harness construction that annoys me for some reason.  I’m weird, I know.  Some folk make gorgeous pendants with this style however.  So my annoyance continued so much so,.. that when I put the pendant aside,. I just didn’t want the ugly thing to live,lol and so I popped the cab out and threw the wire into the scrap box. But you’d think that would relieve my annoyance,….. nope,.. I tried to stop the nagging thoughts that one of my children will some day walk into the studio and see that harness and ask me to put a cab in it for them,…. *gasp*,.. it had to be destroyed beyond anything that looks like it could hold a cab.  So I snipped it to shreds,..   and lo and behold,… there was instant relief right there. I felt satisfied at last,lol aaaaaaaand I can honestly say,… that will be the last time I will ever make one like that again hee hee.Sooooh not content to just post that pic for the fsoj, I decided I had better get to and make something I really want to make and hence my lateness, but what an absolute blast I had despite these eyes of mine giving my curry,.. I lost myself in this pendant for many hours,..erm I think about 11-12hrs in fact(over several days) and I think it is my new best piece ever. :]

Big thanks to Robbie and erm,.. Robbie,. :}  you both might recognise something in this piece.
  

Week - 24

I’m pleased with how this one turned out. It is a bit larger than the others and measures 2.5″ x 1.5″. This one took me 14+ hrs to complete and boy was it tricky at times. I think it took so long because a few things along the way didn’t work including making 2 different settings to house a second opal where the nest of pearls are, only to have the second setting complete and perfect then the unspeakable happened when I applied a little more preasure on the prongs and the opal shattered *snif*. A lesson learned and back to square one, 2hrs or more later. The opal in this pendant is to die for,.. it is absolutely delicious and it looks like a deep pool of cool blue green sparkly water. Also in this pendant there are a number of swarovski and ss beads. I think this pendant is my new favourite, and I’m not sure how I’m going to feel letting this opal go.

Week - 23

Another piece that took two days to complete,. not sure how many hours this time but my guess would be an hour or more quicker than the last ones. I think I’m beginning to get into the swing of things with these. Now I just need to wait for some more pretties to arrive for the next ones,.. oh and more wire OMeGaaawd does this style eat wire or what?!!!. A bit more wild and wooly this piece,. a little different to the others but I kinda like it,.. it’s growing on me and as you can see I just let go,lol. I hope it grows on someone else when I eventually put it(and the others) up on my website. Again, it is very solid and weighty,. nothing moves on it.
I tried something different to get the picture also this week because I have not been happy with the way my pics don’t really reflect what these are like IRL. I read somewhere on the net when searching for a light cube… “Make a light cube from a milk carton” When I clicked on the link,.. I had to pay to find out how phrrrrt!!, so I decided how hard can it be with a bit a playing about. Sooooh,..this pic was taken with my milk carton as the light cube,lol. Just a quick snap,.. no fine tuning of the camera or anything, so not bad I think for a snap. Will play a bit more later and will post a thread on the forum for you to see my Crude Light Cube Setup.

Week - 22

This piece was made over yesterday and today. Actual hours work,.. I estimate to be very close to 12 solid hours. It measures 2.25″ x 1.25″ and includes faceted Rutilated Quartz, Swarovski bicones and sterling silver beads. I’m not sure what the cabochon at the bottom is,. I originally thought it was green turquoise, however I’m not so sure now. Any ideas?? I think this is my new best piece. I’m very happy with how it turned out,.. nothing like I imagined, but hey!

Ok,. I’m convinced,.. I’m definitely going to buy a light cube now and re-do these photos for my website and hopefully they will look more like they do IRL.

Week - 21

Well I think I’ve finally and definitely found a place in jewelry making, which is exactly where I want to be. This is perfect for me. Some of you will remember I left jewelry making a while back to persue watercolours again. This shift occurred because of my sheer frustration when working with wire after previously working with watercolours and coloured pencils. My belief back then was that wire had serious limitations that would not allow me to manipulate it like I could with watercolours and pencils to get freeform flowing shapes and blends of colours that I craved doing so much. Wire still has it’s limitations (well it’s not a liquid for one ;] ) however I can already see the greatest limitations are my lack of skills and not so much the wire itself. It’s hard to explain, but I feel like the doors have just opened for me after years of floundering around and not knowing where I’m going with jewelry making and I look ahead through the door and see this perfect new place to play and explore.
This piece is 2.25″ x 1.25″ and has a white opal(hard to see in photo but has green and red flashes), a faceted quartz briolette, a large faceted amethyst bead, a faceted amethyst rondell, three swarovkski bicones (grey, need to look up name), one large and ten peacock pearls and eleven SS beads. I hate to think how much wire went into this piece, but I am running out fast. It’s quite weighty and very solid as was the previous piece.

This piece took a guesstimate of about 12 solid hours to make, mostly sitting and figuring out design through the whole process. I expect this figuring will drop greatly as I become better skilled and will just be left with labour time,.. which is significant in itself.

I’ve already begun the next one with nervous excitement. I go into these with not a clue how the finished piece will turn out and just make it up as I go, which is quite fun, but a bit scary because of the wire invested in it. However, I also look forward to a time when I can know this style well enough to actually plan out a piece on paper when I want to,.. and follow it through to the finish.

I think I really do need get myself a light diffuser thingy and set up a photo shoot area, because these pics are not showing them very true to actual piece at all.

Week - 20

Before and after Liver of Sulphur (LOS) treatment.

OK, this was a cracker of a week for me,.. the planets in my solar whatchamacallit must be aligned correctly,.. or perhaps I’ve finally paid all my dues for being such a dreadful person in a previous life :] . Anyway,.. things come in threes,..and this week we have;
1. I’m posting on time - whoot!
2. I’m on theme &
3. I’m really happy with my piece and think it’s the best piece I’ve ever made.

Ok I’ll add a fourth :},..
4. It feels like I’ve finally gotten off a very long plateau in my skills/work and have begun to move again.

Week - 19

I made this mobile/cell phone dangly(minus the caged component) for a friend about a year+ ago and about last Oct she gave it back to me and asked if I could add the Herkimer diamond nugget (she wanted it in there for theraputic reasons). At the time, I hadn’t done any jewelry for many months and I tried a few designs to hold this awkwardly shaped nugget nicely, but I wasn’t happy with any of my efforts and knew I could do better, so I cut them off each time. I asked my friend if should would mind giving me some time,. until my skills have picked up again and I can give more thought to a better design that would hold the nugget very securely as much as being pretty. Anyway,. I finally sat down and thought about it again one night this week and felt more confident that I could do it now that I’m back ‘into’ jewelry making again,….and this was the result. I know it was a long wait for my friend,. but it’s free,lol and I think she will love the result. It now just needs to be popped into the tumbler to shine it all up and off it goes back to my friend. Phew,.. I’m glad I have that one off my plate now,lol.

Week - 18

It’s been a while since I’ve made a ring, and this week I had a sudden urge to make a biiiiig ring. It is made from Sterling Silver, Rose Gold and Gold Filled. Fits great and is comfortable to wear but I have to be careful not to knock myself out when I take a drink :] . I LOS’d it and I like the extra depth it has given the design. It was completed on time, however I ran out of time to photograph and post it up here because we zoomed off to Sydney last Friday for a fantastic fun weekend away with the kids (last chance to get away while hubby was still on leave)before the new school year starts. We had a blast snorkelling at one of Sydney’s best snorkelling beaches,.. absolutely awesome,. we all went waaaaaaaaay out and saw hundreds of fish, octopus, stingrays, squid, and I even got a chance to dive down amongst a school of huge blue groper fish and almost touch them wow, what a thrill it was. Oh see.. waay OT,.. that’s how fun it was,lol.
I just want to take the chance to thank everyone who has commented on my pieces in the FSOJ and apologise for my absence in commenting myself,… I wholeheartedly appreciate your comments and will be back to ‘normal’ and posting more often very soon.

week - 17

Whoot! Done,..posted on time, and in keeping with the theme this week. Can hardly believe it myself. In case you can’t see it,.. this is a leaf, lol. As soon as I decided to go with the theme this week I knew straight away I wanted to do the leaf in seed beads,.. thanks to Beadedflower who showed me how much fun seed beads can be. I never thought I’d ever use the words FUN and SEED BEADS in the same sentence. Interestingly enough, the seed bead leaf was the quickest part to make in this piece. I have been enjoying doing Leah’s (MichonDesign.com) style pendants so I decided to combine both techniques into one piece. Almost too much fun for one evening,.. I must have done something right to deserve that much quiet time having fun without having to clean something up. :]