Thursday Feature: Reviews & Interviews - Soft Flex Trios from Rings & Things

This month Rings & Things provided their blog partners with the opportunity to select what product(s) we wanted to review. I've been reading about the Soft Flex Trios on the Soft Flex Girl's blog as well as at the Flex Your Creativity Contest and the free patterns on the Soft Flex site. So my selection was a variety of Soft Flex .019" diameter, 49 strand Trios. Each Trio has three coordinating colors on 10' rolls.

The wire is color coated stainless steel with a test strength of 26 lbs. They say it can be knotted, which I tried with some light yellow quartz beads and the bone color from the Harmony Trio (Bone, Lemon Quartz and Copper)

The beads curved instead of lying along a straight line when I tie simple knots between them, so I went to the site to see what they recommend, which is a figure 8 knot. I couldn't figure out how to get the knot tight to the bead, however, and until I learn how, I won't be using this for knotting.

The pricing at Rings & Things is lower than the list price, but you do have to meet their minimum purchase requirements and there's a small additional cost for purchases under $50. The plus side is a full selection of trios, quantity discounts, and great customer service (plus a candy treat in the package).

By the way, if you do get a product from Rings & Things, there's a contest on this month - you only need to submit a review to enter.

There are several things I want to try, but first I decided to make a quick and fun necklace using some glass beads I'd gotten from various bead mixes. I used three strands, quartz (white) and Rhodocrosite (light pink) from the Romance set and Pink Tourmaline (a bit darker pink) from the Mystical set. I used a large sized tube crimp that all 6 strands fit into (unfortunately, I don't know the exact size) to form the loops for jump rings at the ends so I could add a clasp.

I also knotted the strands as tightly as I could against the last beads on each side and then left the rest of them bare to show off the color. Unfortunately, I had to do some adjusting and one side got a bit kinked. I'm hoping that the weight of the beads might pull out the kink, but I'm not too optimistic. Next time, I'll forgo the knots. The small pink beads between the larger glass ones are strung on just one of the three wires, by the way, to allow some additional color to show.

(click to enlarge for detail)

I'm having fun thinking up new things to try with these colors and may even make something I feel good enough to enter in the contest (deadline is September 1, 2009).

New Necklace - Gunmetal and Garnets

First off, thanks to Lisa and Sandi who left very helpful comments on the last few posts, where I asked for input on new photo layouts for my Etsy store. I'd still love to hear from anyone else with an opinion!

Tonight's work in progress is a 3 strand necklace featuring garnet stone beads (I'd link, but the item is not in stock right now) from Artbeads, garnet Czech glass from Shipwreck beads faceted Czech glass bead mix and gunmetal chain from Rings & Things, with antiqued silver bead caps (Artbeads) here and there.

I mentioned the bead assembly technique I used for the garnet stone bead bits on the outer strand in a previous post, and left off there not sure where I wanted to go with the rest of the necklace, but I finally got some inspiration:

It's not finished yet. I need to decide how to finish the part that goes around the neck and fastens. I saw a designer fashion site showing a vintage style necklace that has chain and cameos in the front and then finishes the piece with frayed ribbon ends tied in a bow in back. I'm pretty sure I don't want to do that, but I was thinking about perhaps a silk or satin cord. Will need to ponder.

I also wanted to share links to a couple new jewelry artist sites I found today - beautiful stuff, so I hope you'll book mark them, too!

Bev's Jewelry - the chain maille necklace profile picture is really striking - and she has a blog, too.
Then there's Naked Jewelry, by Sally Jewett-Brocato who I discovered on Twitter.

Happy weekend!

Weekend Beading Update

Between watching all 17 episodes of the 1960s series The Prisoner online on AMC and listening to Man in the Dark on audiobook, while I beaded, and other non-beading distractions, I again didn't get to posting about my works in progress over the last few days...so here are some pictures.

Friday night and some of Saturday, I worked on some knotted strands with peach beads on white Silkon thread. The rice beads have a soft feel to them, definitely not glass, maybe resin or acrylic? I liked the color and sheen when I saw them at Global beads, so I bought a bunch. On the top strand I used them, two shades of glass and two light peach shades in seed beads size 11/0 and 6/0 from Dyna-Mites. The second strand is just the rice beads and the third strand is just the seed beads.

Then, on Saturday, I worked on this necklace with aventurine beads, gold plated bead caps and disk spacers on black FFF Gudebrod silk.

And today, I strung this extra long strand (about 116 inches total) with all kinds of glass beads, including Swarovski bicones, and copper on white Silkon thread. (click for larger image to see details). Because of its length, it can be worn a number of ways, included twisted with an 'S' clasp to fasten.

My workspace is slowly getting organized, but I still have a long way to go.

Today's Holiday Necklace Lanyards

Finished two more new lanyard necklaces in red and green to wear for Christmas time. These will be added to my bargain lanyards group as they are entirely Czech glass and seed beads. The first is 31" long and features large (10mm) pinched oval glass beads culled from Blue Moon glass assortments and some iridescent glass seed beads (as with all pictures you can click it for a larger view).

The second one uses 6mm fluted green pressed Jablonex Czech glass rounds, separated by ruby matte glass seed beads (possibly Toho - I didn't keep the original label, something I do now) small, clear square beads with an iridescent finish (also Czech glass) and an oblong red glass bead of forgotten origin. This is quite light and at 29" is a good lenght for an eyeglass leash.

I put together a bracelet design with some fun red glass beads and silver 'bali' style spacers but wasn't happy using stringing wire for it as the wire seemed too fragile for the fairly heavy beads. So I tried attaching some crimp ends I had to a length of jewelry cable but it didn't work out. Now I'm a bit stumped on what to use for the bracelet, although I have a few ideas that I plan to try.

Inspired by Snow on Mars

Read today that NASA's Phoenix Mars lander detected snow in the atmosphere. I have a number of opaque white faceted glass beads in the bead mix I recently received, and I just felt inspired to make something snowy.

The chain is pretty short right now, about 7 1/2". I don't have nearly enough of the gold roundells to go all the way around in a full necklace length (18 - 20" is what I think will look best), so I'll probably finish up the chain with just the white druk and gold tone bead links.

Today's Necklace

I finished this today, using a variety of sizes of faceted light sapphire blue glass beads and gold tone 22 gauge wire, finished with gold plated 4mm jump rings made into a chain in the Byzantine pattern.

The beads are from a faceted glass mix I ordered from Shipwreck Beads. There are a lot of the tiny light sapphire blue beads in the mix which influenced my decision to make this in that color.

Should I Name it "Captain Hammer"? And What About the Anvil?

I actually did a bunch of beading related stuff last night (before and after watching some TV) but didn't make anything new, although I did finish the blue glass linked necklace I posted about on Tuesday. I think it turned out pretty cute.

I'm still pondering the re-make of the rhodonite vintage style piece (it started as a choker)and still trying to figure out how to set the peridot colored glass gems in the other vintage piece, to say nothing of how I'll finish it off. Did get some peridot colored faceted drops for it in today's mail, so they definitely will be incorporated.

So what do I do tonight? Start something new! I'm linking light amber colored wavy diamond beads in two alternating sizes, with large antiqued brass links and smaller jump beads. I really don't have enough of them to make a very long piece, so I have to decide if it's going to be part of something with multiple chains or if I'm going to try and find more of the bead mixes that these came in. I'm pretty sure I bought all the stock at one Michael's, will have to go to the other one that's further away, I guess, and see if they have them.

In the package with the drops, I also got a small anvil and chasing hammer - want to flatten some of the ear-wires I've made to make them look more finished. I'm leaving marks on the practice wire, though, so I will have to scour the internet to find out how to keep from doing that. There are some other things that I've seen done where the wire has been flattened, too - for strength as well as for the look of it, so I figured it was a skill I need. What started as a little hobby is so fun, fascinating and satisfying, it's turning me into a serious student of various jewelry crafts. Well, you know what they say about idle hands...

Message to an Online Bead Store: If You Make it Hard to Find the Beads, I Won't Shop With You

Two necklace lanyards finished except for hardware, tonight and one "apprentice" type necklace with wire looped beads, jumprings and large circle links nearly done. The reason I'm calling it an apprentice type is that I made it to practice making loops, try out a design idea I had, and used very inexpensive materials. I eventually intend to make more necklaces with wire loops, etc., and for sale, but with much better materials. I just don't want to start using those materials until I'm satisfied I have an excellent product.

I liked the pattern of roundelles (rondels, roundels, whatever - nobody's consistent with the spelling that I've seen) and then a larger bead, like I did in pink and citron colored glass so much, I did one in aqua glass and one in light sapphire glass. They're both about 30 - 31" long (I don't measure until I've added the hardware).

I want to do one in peridot glass, but I couldn't find any roundelles, so I decided to check some bead supply sites. Shipwreck Beads has them in a color they're calling peridot, so I'm ordering there. The one thing that has kept me from doing a lot of ordering from them is their search feature. It's so frustrating. I'll put in very specific terms and end up with 20,000+ items 'matching' the search. Often the results go page after page of stuff that isn't even close. Finding the right faceted roundelles at Shipwreck took me probably 5 - 10 minutes of searching.

For example, I decided I'd like some more aqua beads. I type in 'Aqua' with a few other terms to try and narrow the search, and reds and pinks and topaz and black beads show up on the page. Frankly, if I don't know exactly what I want and enter it exactly the way they name it, I spend way too much time just clicking from page to page. I'd rather search somewhere else where they've got a decent search tool, and as a result I end up buying from Fire Mountain, Artbeads or DI Beads (and I've shopped at others, too - just not as much, and usually because I've seen something on a beading site or blog that led me directly to the item I wanted). I've noticed that in some cases the prices seem better at Shipwreck, but it's too hard to find anything and my time is more than worth the few cents I'd save.

I'd just about finished my linked necklace when I noticed that I'd connected several beads directly instead of using jumprings, as I had on the rest of the necklace. That's what I get for trying to do it while watching "House" on tv. That Dr. Wilson is kind of cute, so I get distracted *grin*.

Here's the work in progress - I'll add the missing jump rings, tighten up everything and it'll be done. I guess it's obvious I was into blue today. Tomorrow, though, I'm a bit beaded out for now.

More Sorting Beads than Beading Accomplished this Weekend

As I mentioned, I did go out looking for briolettes, didn't find what I wanted, but I still didn't come home empty handed, picked up some copper and antique gold colored spacers and bead caps, and a few new beads (lovely peridot green ones) at Global Beads yesterday.

Spent a great deal of time yesterday and today organizing and cleaning my work space and various bead storage bins - I can only go so long with it all splayed out around me - eventually I don't have room to walk around if I don't. Last night and this morning I played around some olive colored glass beads using inexpensive silver colored wire wrapped loops, but I didn't like how it was turning out, so disassembled it. I like the idea I had, so I'll give it another try.

Tonight I decided that I need to make more earrings, so I got started with these glass bead earrings from some beads out of a glass bead mix batch (not attached to earwires yet):

...and began work on this lanyard necklace tentatively named "Chateau Picard" - may add a vintage year, will have to do some fact checking - because the citron colored glass made me think of champagne. I think it's not just the lighting of the photograph that makes some of the faceted roundels look a bit darker than the others, so tomorrow when I have some daylight I'm going to sort the roundels and make sure I'm using just one shade.

It's Great to Be Home Again

Got back from my travel to Chicago today. It rained hard Thursday, was overcast but dry on Friday and beginning to warm up today with blue skies. Of course I was headed to the airport by 8:00 this morning, so I didn't get to enjoy the day in Chicago. It was 90 degrees here at home, today.

While in the Chicago area I did stop by a Michael's and picked up a few things to play with including some glass bead mixes in clear, amber, red and pink - sorted them, and there were some fun beads. I'm working now on the necklace I started there using gold tone wire, light and dark amber colored glass beads and some gold tone links. I'll finish up and post a picture tomorrow.

I gave out a few of my cards at the conference and got some nice comments about the lanyards I wore. When I got home and unpacked I saw that the TSA had left me a note that they'd looked inside my luggage. I suppose the wire, metal findings, beads and tools were the culprit. Everything was fine, the packed items didn't look disarrayed and nothing was missing.

I'm quite tired, but trying not to go to bed too early. This weekend is the Arts & Wine festival in my town, and we try to go every year. I'm not sure we'll make it this year, but we'll see how we (that's my husband and I) feel about it tomorrow.

Holiday Beading - Started Working in Silver

I've begun working with my 20 gauge silver wire. I'm making much smaller loops with very small beads in white, ecru, beige tones and connecting them with silver jump rings. I'll keep going until I run out of jumprings or the right size/color beads, which ever comes first. Hope to have something long enough to actually wear when I'm done.

Will finish it off with some silver chain and a lobster claw if it's short and make it an eyeglass leash if it's long enough - I'm at 12" right now (need about 24" for a short one). This morning I also finished a red glass bead necklace with copper links, 24".

Detail of silver chain, red/copper & silver chain full length:

click picture for larger view

Will be traveling on business this week, not sure how much updating I'll be able to do - thinking about taking some stuff on the trip to bead with in the evening, have to make up my mind soon as I leave Wednesday morning.

New Names for My Necklace Lanyards

For the most part I've been giving my pieces names descriptive of the stones or colors in them. I've lately seen a number of bead artists giving evocative names to their pieces, either from quotes or, perhaps, lovely sentiments they've created themselves. I am charmed by and enjoy the thought that goes into the naming.

My pieces sold pretty well at BayCon, so I'm (as mentioned on this blog) hoping to be approved as a dealer at LosCon and am going to look into other cons I can attend. Since most of the people at the cons are SF and Fantasy fans, using SF inspired naming seems like a fun idea, and it represents something I enjoy personally, not just a gimmick. So I was pondering where to get my inspiration for the names of my pieces.

Flash forward to a post about day lilies I clicked on yesterday. There are varieties of day lilies that have been given Star Trek names. I'm a fan, and I got a kick out of looking at the beautiful Borg Technology and Cloaking Device flowers. I've named my most recent pieces with a Star Trek theme, with many thanks to Memory Alpha Wiki to help me find information and quotes.

Here's Tears of Elaan, a short-ish piece at 24" in frosted Czech glass druk beads and iridescent glass seed beads with a larger iridescent Czech glass bead at the ends, best suited for an eyeglass leash. I'm going to also pick a quote from the episode that inspired the name, for each piece. This one comes with the quote from Spock to McCoy at the end of the episode:

"The Enterprise captured his heart long before the Dohlman did"

And almost finished (still need to attach the hardware) this morning, is a longer badge lanyard necklace - approx. 30 - 32", with two sizes of clear glass bicone (diamond) Czech pressed glass beads, separated by silver glass and iridescent glass seed beads. I've named it Treasure of Rigel XII, and the quote, from a conversation between Kirk and Harry Mudd:

"You either believe in yourself or you don't."

First commenter to tell me the name of the Star Trek episodes the necklace names come from, can claim these earrings (Enterprise-A not included), if they'd like:

Frosty and Foil-lined Clear Glass Bead Combo

I started beading rather late last night, so I didn't stay up after I was done to photograph and post about my work. I made a long lanyard necklace - almost 36", so it would work great for swipe badges or on taller wearers. Can be doubled when worn as a necklace.

I think it's a bit heavy for an eyeglass leash, the foil lined coin beads add a bit of heft to the strand. I used silver plated copper discs around the foil glass coins and silver plated pewter bead caps with the smaller frosted glass coins. In between are frosted glass druk beads separated by clear glass seed beads.

The frosted coin beads were collected from a good number of different Blue Moon Beads "Crystal large glass bead mix" packages with beads from "Czech. Rep. & Asia". I always grab four or five of these packages when I see them, and while I was in Denver, I picked up maybe six or seven. A few of those packages each had two or three of the frosted glass coins in them. So, as I was sorting them out, I pulled the frosted coins and got the idea for this design.

and here's a view of it flat against silver-grey background

Back to My Usually Scheduled Bead Blogging

Finished two pieces tonight. One I had started at the convention and just needed to finish off, the other I started fresh today. The outside beaded badge lanyard is black Czech druk beads, silver glass seed beads, silver plated saucer spacers and a larger silver colored metal (I have no idea what, have had these for ages) beads. I thought this was a rather 'industrial' design and wasn't sure I'd like it, but I do.

The inside necklace lanyard is from a purple India glass bead mix or two. I picked out all the round ones and sorted them by size and then randomly placed them between the brass beads. The holes in the brass beads are rather large, so I used a tiny gold plated pewter bead cap at each end which fit right into the hole and provides stability around the beading wire. I think it's a fun piece.

Sometime this weekend I'm going to have to do tons of photography (have to replace a burnt out bulb first) and get some stuff up on Etsy. If you see anything in the blog or on my Flickr page you like that's not on Etsy, just email me about it and I'll send you all the details.