Valentine's Day Idea #10 - Gunmetal Beading Chain Necklace

Had a 3-day weekend and was a total slug throughout. Accomplished very little, but I did manage to make Valentine's Day project #10:

(Click to enlarge)

I think the gunmetal chain goes really well with the ruby colored glass beads, and for my first try with the beading chain, I'm pretty happy with the results.

Don't forget, if you'd like to win a cute Valentine's Day bracelet, all it takes to be entered is a comment! Say "Enter me in the bracelet giveaway" on any post between now and the end of the month. If you're on Twitter and RT any of my tweets this month you'll get another entry. If you're a fan or become a fan of Dawno's on Facebook and leave a comment on any post there with "Enter me in the bracelet giveaway", you get another entry - so there's a total of 3 entries you can make towards the giveaway.

Random drawing will be held on January 31st - and if selected, you'll get the bracelet in plenty of time for Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Vintage Style Red Jasper and Gunmetal Hearts Necklace

Only 40 days until Valentine's Day!

Rings & Things sent a blog partner package a while back, and I was immediately inspired by the heart-shaped gunmetal filigrees. So was Lisa at A Bead a Day, while over at JustATish, Tish focused on the lampwork hearts. The package also included another pair of filigrees and some beautiful black and red glass beads and a couple of Tierra Cast's charms. I'll give more details about those when I get to work with them.

I was so excited about the heart-shaped filigree because, quite some time ago, I bought a strand of 8 mm red jasper beads and a set of red jasper hearts intending to make a Valentine's necklace. For who knows what reason, now lost in the mists of time, I never got around to it. Once I saw the heart shaped filigrees, I knew exactly what I wanted to make and dug them out again.

The filigrees come with three loops at the top, two of which I had to snip and sand. I strung the red jasper beads with hematite Swarovski bicones and 3mm gunmetal beads for the outside strand. The center jasper heart is strung on a black Soft Flex beading wire with two more 3mm gunmetal beads.

I crimped the little strand to the bottom loops of the filigrees and then covered the crimp with a gunmetal crimp cover. I put gunmetal eyepins through the rest of the hearts, connected them with chain to each other and the filigrees. I added another short length of chain just above the final small hearts, as you can see, but I may fiddle with that a bit.

More later in the week on the other cool goodies from Rings & Things, so please come back!



FTC compliance notice of material connection: The gunmetal filigrees, as noted above, were provided to me for free, to be used for design purposes, or for a statement of my honest opinion of them, by Rings & Things.

Monday Miscellany - Leopard Skin Jasper and Gunmetal Necklace, part 2

I've been fiddling with this leopard skin jasper necklace for some time now. Back in September I posted this:

I mentioned that I thought something was missing. I went back to work on it this weekend and now it looks like this:

Now I'm not entirely sure that the chain part still works, but I certainly do like the addition of the new strand. I don't have enough crystal volcano to do another strand like the top one, so the decision is do I order more and replace the chain with another one like the top? I'm leaning in that direction. By the way, the chain is a bit challenging to work with when it comes to connecting it because of the way the links are made - they're like little cages that clasp through each other in one direction. At one end of the chain it's pretty secure, but at the opposite end the clasping part tends to bend apart too much and it's nearly impossible to close them well.

I enjoy reading the thinking processes of other designers, so I hope that these little glimpses into mine are interesting or even valuable to you, too.

'Til tomorrow -

Friday Pick - Gunmetal & Swarovski

The picture above shows items from recent on-line purchases from (top) Fusion Beads, (left) Dry Gulch and (right) Rings & Things. The "chain" stretching diagonally between the Dry Gulch and Rings & Things items is an experiment I'm working on, made with gunmetal hooks and split rings from Rings & Things. I think it's going to go well with some of my Steampunk style ideas.

I really love to design with gunmetal. I've been building up a stash of stuff so I'll have what I need when the inspiration hits to make something. When I was writing last Saturday's Supplier Sales post, I came across some really great deals at Dry Gulch using their (now expired) 30% off coupon and was able to get a lot more of the great gunmetal findings they stock than I would have otherwise.

I'm particularly happy with the eyeglass holders, the cone ends and the twisted flat bar links. The big double chain circle pendant piece has me thinking of a number of designs. One which will feature it in a Steampunk type necklace, should show up here on my blog soon. The other pieces shown are cord ends, crimps, crimp covers in two sizes and wire guardians - I'm so happy to have wire guardians that don't detract from the look of a gunmetal piece like silver ones do.

Also shown are some gunmetal purchases made recently from Rings & Things. I'm restocking some items and trying out a few new ones. I got a few magnetic clasps to try out, a number of folding clasps, some hammered links and a couple three to one hole connectors to play with, too, in addition to more hook & figure 8 loop clasps, since I use both of those pieces for other purposes as well.

Finally, I went looking via Google for the gold-filled 3 strand sliding clasps that I need to finish off a couple new bracelets, and found them at what I thought was a very good price at Fusion Beads. They also seemed to have pretty good Swarovski pricing, so I picked out a number of colors I thought I'd use for fall and winter designs. I'm really fond of the Crystal Copper and Pacific Opal colors, but all of them are wonderful.

That's it for the Friday Pick. Tomorrow I'll share another list of the Supplier Sales I've gotten wind of that you might want to get in on before they run out. See you then!

Mid-Week Mutterings - Another, "I Need Something to Wear for Work" at the Last Minute Post

Monday the weather got cold enough to get out a sweater. I wore a white cotton cable knit over a gray polo and topped that off with a gray and white tweed blazer. I decided to wear my Toolbox Treasures pendant with it.

The remaining question was what other accessories to use. I have to wear a badge for work and, of course, I try to always wear one of my own creations as the lanyard for it. I wasn't crazy about how any of the ones I'd already made went with the necklace. So, with about 30 minutes left before I had to get out the door, I opened up my gunmetal chain box and stared at the choices for a minute.

Decided on the chain I wanted to use, which I bought at Michael's ages ago - from the Lost and Found (Blue Moon) collection. To make the lanyard, first I put a gunmetal jump ring and lobster claw to each end of the chain - I don't remember for certain where I got these, but they are both available at Rings & Things and I think these were from there, too. Then I put a gunmetal split ring on an extra large gunmetal lobster claw, (both definitely purchased from Rings & Things - I kept the labels), to hold the badge loop. By hooking both of the small lobster claw finished ends through the split-ring, I now have a badge lanyard necklace that took probably 10 - 15 minutes at most to make:

For earrings, I just took two small sections of the leftover lanyard chain and hooked them to ear wires. This took about 5 minutes, at most.

All I needed now was a bracelet. This time I used the same chain (more Lost and Found by Blue Moon, purchased at Michael's) that I'd hung the Toolbox Treasure pendant on, added the jump rings and lobster claw clasp. To finish it, I put two Tim Holtz Sprockets, picked up on a whim at Michael's the other day, on a large oval light gunmetal (looks more like pewter, actually) jump ring and strung the two chains through the jump ring. Ten minutes? Maybe a tad more if you count hunting out all the right parts from the boxes I store them in.

I made it out of the house in time, by the way.

The whole set:

I'm probably going to re-work the earrings and the bracelet - thinking of maybe adding some small clockwork/gear bits on the earrings, and something colorful to the bracelet. If I can remember to get to a hardware store for nuts and bolts and washers, those will be incorporated. Haven't decided on whether I want to change the lanyard, though. I kind of like it as it is. I'll post pics of any re-work when it happens.

See you tomorrow!

Monday Miscellany - Gunmetal and Jasper Three Strand Necklace

Hope you're all planning on Tweeting Your Studio today - information about the contest is on my Thursday blog post of last week. Great prizes for three winners have been contributed from The Beadin' Path and me.

Over the weekend we had another warm spell and I didn't get as much done as I'd have liked. I did, however, start the necklace below.

I believe the stone is leopard skin jasper, a somewhat twisty, large rectangle bead, some long, thin rectangular tube beads, gunmetal bead spacers and Crystal Volcano CRYSTALLIZED™ - Swarovski Elements from Artbeads. The gunmetal mesh tube chain came from Michael's.

It's still kind of calling out for something else. Not sure what yet. I kind of have an idea about creating a connection between the two chains, but not sure how I'll accomplish that.

I'm looking forward to seeing all the entries in tomorrow's contest! Hope you will enter!

Monday Miscellany - Day 1 of 3: Not Quite There Yet Necklaces

During my sorting of various beads and chains and other stuff, I chanced to see some gunmetal chain and some little twisted leafy gunmetal links. I put them aside with a thought to making something with them. Then I got to sorting some glass bicones which had come in a strand of blues and blue-gray and a pale gray. Hmm.

This is the current state of the necklace. I'm definitely going to do more work on it, but have been rather busy and haven't gotten back to it yet. I'm debating whether to add a bright contrast color or maybe make it multi-strand. Stay tuned.

Tomorrow I'll show you version one and version two of the next "Not Quite There Yet Necklace".

Monday Miscellany - Gunmetal Circles Choker

Summer doesn't end on Labor Day weekend, but there's a definite feeling that it's really over when I go back to work on the Tuesday after. The weather here will probably stay mild for quite a while - well into October usually. The weather forecast for next week has temperatures in the upper 80s with one day's high at 90, so I'm not putting away my short sleeved shirts and lightweight slacks quite yet. Still, I'm mentally ready to start pulling out the autumn colors if for nothing more than the change of pace.

Because my Fall and Winter wardrobe has a lot of black and gray, I've kept an eye out for gunmetal chain and findings. I've also a fair amount of brown and rust color pieces, so antique gold and brass get picked up, too.

With that in mind, when I visited Michael's on Friday to pick up, oh, one or two essentials for the long weekend (ha! thank goodness I remembered my 15% off coupon) and found an good assortment of gunmetal items, I ended up grabbing quite a bit. One of my selections, from the Plaid "Bad Apple" display, inspired me to grab the remaining Rings & Things gluable challenge bracelet blank (which has been sitting on my worktable mocking me ever since March '09) and make something with it. There's no glue involved, however.

I've used black and purple jump rings from the Blue Buddha Boutique assortment I bought several months ago to connect the rings, except for the ones attached to the bracelet blank, which are gunmetal. I've resisted the temptation to do anything more to it so far. I think keeping it simple works.

During that same trip on Friday I bought some alcohol inks, clear unmounted stamps (and acrylic blocks so they can be more easily used for stamping), rubber stamps, embossing powder, a heat gun, memory glass, memory glass frames, black chain and findings, more gunmetal chain and findings, brass chain and findings some new beads and a package of Shrinky Dink plastic. After reading Beyond the Bead I have serious urges to try all sorts of new things. Experimentation makes me a little bit nervous, but recently I've come to see that even the experimental failures have taught me valuable things and improved my work in the long run.

Well, that's it for today. If you're American, hope you're enjoying your Labor Day and I wish everyone a lovely day and a good week. See you tomorrow for Tuesday Tidbits.

Tuesday Tidbits - Mixing Czech Glass and Semi-precious Stone

Ever wish you had the kind of financing that let you buy the highest quality semi-precious or precious stones in any quantity? Me, too. And unless I win a really big lotto jackpot, I don't think it's going to ever be a reality. But, I do think that sometimes a judicious mix of stones plus matching Czech glass beads works very well. You can have a lush look at a fraction of the price.

Here's a piece I started on what seems like ages ago, when I bought a spool of beautiful gunmetal chain from Rings & Things (scroll down to read about the garnet piece, it's in the second half of the post). I'd started out working on making components with garnet on black SoftFlex, crimping and adding them to the chain.

When I finished fiddling around with the garnet pieces, I decided to make it a 3-strand necklace but didn't have enough variety of actual garnet. So I got out the garnet-colored Czech faceted glass beads and went to town. All the smooth, round beads are garnets, the faceted ones are Czech glass. Here's what I thought was the finished piece:

But something bothered me about the composition. I decided to fiddle with it this weekend. Shorten here, move there - I think it's starting to look better...

...but still not happy. The garnets at the top of the outer chain - they've gotta go. I have a number of online friends and acquaintances who are writers and they all say of first drafts "sometimes you have to kill your darlings" - meaning that during editing, things will get cut out of the final draft. This apparently is true of making jewelry. I fiddled quite a bit on those garnet bits, but they aren't going to work out. Must be strong and say "bye-bye".

Where is my chain? Dug around in the still not completely unpacked BayCon bin and found it. Have hooked the tail end to the jumpring, the rest is still on the spool until I get the spacing right - links are not open on this chain, measure twice, cut once. And, to let you know that all of this is not without it's little foibles, one of the two jump rings, used to attach the 3 strands to the back piece of the necklace, went "sproing" and has completely disappeared *and* I can't find anymore just like it. Took one I was using for the clasp to replace. Will have to re-work clasp now.

Hooking on a link made from garnet glass bead and two TierraCast bead caps that match the one in the pendant. That part I'm connecting the bead to is the only part of the original third chain that will be re-used.

Link on left is in, positioned where I want, excess chain clipped off. Now for the other side.

Ok, done. Well, except for the clasp. I have to do that part, but I won't bore you with the details. New "final" piece. Will sleep on it, stare at it again later. Decide if it's really done. Who knows, could be a version 4 coming up...

Mid-Week Mutterings - Featuring Rings & Things Product Review

What can you do with 2mm (size 1) black satin like (40% cotton, 60% polyester) rat-tail cordage (about a yard of it) and a foot long section of gunmetal hammered oval links? I was stumped. Then I saw Margot Potter's post about how she used these items, together, to create a fabulous mixed media necklace. She is the Beading Inspiration Muse-person of the Universe. First it was the choker forms, now this one. Thank you, Margot!

I'd posted back in March about some gunmetal colored metalized beads I'd found at Michael's, and these good sized, plain cobalt blue glass beads I'd gotten as a gift but couldn't figure out what to do with except that I wanted to use them together somehow. I'd gotten as far as deciding I'd string them on black Gudebrod Champion silk braided pendant cord. Well, the other day I swapped out that cord and used the rat-tail, which, by the way, made much nicer looking knots.

I kind of wish I had done some step by step photos...but I didn't, because once I got the inspiration, I just dove in and beaded to the finish. So, you'll have to imagine the steps as I describe them. I knotted the rat-tail between each of the gunmetal spheres and cobalt glass tubes and didn't use a repeating pattern (this is unusual for me, as I like symmetry) since the piece was going to be asymmetrical by virtue of having one side made from the oval link chain.

I used a gunmetal pendant for a focal that I'd found at Michael's during a different shopping trip, to facilitate the connection between the knotted beads and the gunmetal links. The back has a tubular loop, so I threaded the cord through that, used a half hitch knot to attach the links and took the free end of cord through the hole in the center of the disk and added a large gunmetal bead and a glass bead to tie off the loose end and secure the whole thing.

To finish it off, I made a coil and bent up the last loop, fixed it between two knots and put a split ring with a large gunmetal lobster-claw fastener* on it. Then, to fasten, you just clip the lobster to which ever link you want for the length of necklace you prefer.

Large lobster claw from Rings & Things - this is the size I use to finish my badge lanyards, it's where I fasten the snap loop that holds the badge.

Minor drawback to using this cord, had to enlarge holes in the beads a bit, so the reaming of same with a round file took a bit more time. Well worth the effort though.

For two more looks at how you can use the chain see JustATish and ABeadADay's creations.

Way back when I first was trying to figure out how to make this necklace I offered free earrings if I used a suggestion left in my comments for a focal piece. Although I didn't use either suggestion, I'd love to give those earrings to RockCreekCreations and Wombat1138 just for being so wonderful and making great suggestions - please email me if you want them, we'll talk about what kind you'd like.

I'm trying out a new online storefront application - ToldYa! So here's today's message from our sponsor:

The 2009 Rings and Things Bead Tour as Seen by Dawno

Tour logo used by permission, © Rings & Things

Yesterday I went to the Rings & Things Bead Tour in San Mateo, CA. I've never been to any gem or jewelry supplier shows before, just seen pictures in articles or on blogs. I know intellectually that this, being a single supplier's venue, is very different from shows where there are multiple vendors, but I couldn't tell you how it's different. At least, not until I finally get to one somewhere. I guess Tucson is a biggie, and I'd like to go there someday.

So, all I can give you is a few pictures and some of my own impressions of the San Mateo stop of the Rings & Things Bead Tour 2009.

The event opened at 1pm and I was there around 1:15, stayed until 3:30 - shopping through 50 long tables full of trays of semi-precious gemstones, pearls and various other types of beads - I focused on the stone, pearl and metal (and a few bags of Swarovski's), so I'm not sure what the other offerings included - I would venture to say bone, ceramic, wood and glass.

Here's the view at about 1:30 from the back of the hall - not many people there yet, did get a bit busier later, but it was never very crowded. I think I saw about 4 or 5 male shoppers, the rest were women.

Here's the first item of major interest to catch my eye - Tootsie Rolls!

Actually by the time I got to that table I'd already put quite a haul in my tray. I should have taken a picture of that, too, but I forgot.

Lots of turquoise - Nevada and Mexican were the two regions I noticed. Didn't get any, was not on my list of 'must haves' this time around, but the prices were good and the quality looked pretty good as well. I just don't use many turquoise nuggets or faceted turquoise stones in my designs right now.

I'm pretty sure this was one of the tables with a nice selection of various shapes, sizes and colors of freshwater pearls. I picked up a few strands as you'll see below. I loved the little top-drilled ones and some shaped like mushroom caps, so I got some.

Big glass pearls at the near end, and I think there were double drilled, large dyed stones at the far end - but I'm not 100% sure.

At the very back were tables overflowing with findings and components in gold fill, sterling, gold and silver plate and basemetals; cords, wire, chain, tools and a pretty good selection of Swarovski colors and sizes and shapes. I picked up some 4 & 5mm Swarovski bicones packages (the one that just looks like a white bag is some opal colored ones that I've been thinking about ordering, so I was really glad to see them there), some gunmetal chain and - oh, heck, let me just show you (not shown, two 100 ft spools of Beadalon 49 strand wire):

Swarovskis, Sterling bails, Bali Sterling caps and spacers, Gunmetal chain,
Freshwater Pearls, Hessionite, Opalite, Amethyst, Dragon's Blood Jasper, Prehnite, Onyx

After reading about amethyst on the Rings & Things blog, I tried to get a good selection in sizes and shapes I knew I'd use, so that's the clump of purple in the middle. I'm very happy with what I found. I'm exceptionally happy with the prices! They also had a good selection of "lab" amethyst - a deeper purple in color and very pretty. I may get some one of these days to use in lanyards that I want the look, but not the expense to pass on, of natural amethyst, but also prettier than amethyst colored glass beads.

All in all, I had a great time - a rather solitary one since my friend, who I met for lunch couldn't come and I didn't know anyone else there - but that gave me the chance to really take my time, examine things closely and make what I think were really good selections. I probably had about half as much again in my tray when I sat down to decide what I really wanted and what I could do without, as I had given myself a budget. I'm proud to say that I stayed in it!

I want to thank Dave for coming here and leaving a comment last October, that first introduced me to a real live person at Rings & Things. I'd bought some Scrimps from them when, via a Google Search they were the only supplier who had the ones I wanted, but I hadn't gone back for other beads or supplies with them yet. Based on his taking the time to come by and comment here, I started using them more and more. I feel like they (through Dave) are a partner in getting my little business growing, not just a place where I shop. The same goes for just a couple other supplier partners, but since the focus today is on the Rings & Things tour, I'll talk about them another time.

And that's it for my Bead Show reflections. Hope to see you back here tomorrow, and especially Sunday, when I'll have a *great* tour of the Beadosphere lined up for you!