Using Up the Stash #2

Continuing my quest to use up the stash, I pulled out these light green enameled beads with large holes I bought a bunch of packages of when they were on closeout at Michael's. When I color sorted various beads they ended up in a box with some unusual geometric patterned light green glass beads that closely matched.

I never figured out what I wanted to do with them and they've been lying around for a year or two. Then I pulled out a coil of Beadalon jewelry cable I'd wanted to use and these beads came to mind. I planned the pattern and spacing out on a bead board then started to string them with crimp beads along the cable. Green glass bead holes were the tiniest bit small, so I had to ream them out a bit.

The holes in the spacer beads are quite large, so I designed the pattern so they'd fit over the ends of the glass beads.

sorry this is off center, too lazy to go photograph it again

Now, I could have sworn that the larger enameled beads were the same shade of green as all the others, but in these photos they show up creamy yellow, so I guess I was wrong. Even so, I think the color difference is ok, and a good combination for spring.

UUtS#3 coming soon!

Product Review: Choker Forms from Rings & Things

I've been meaning to get a post up on the choker forms sent by Rings & Things for days! I'd like to say, right off, thank you to Dave at Rings & Things for including me, it's fun to see new products, experiment with them and then share my thoughts.

I received a package of 6 choker forms - two black, one with a sliver tone magnetic fastener, one with gold tone; one red and silver tone twist fastener, one turquoise blue with silver tone twist fastener, a steel 16" choker form with magnetic fastener and a open ended steel choker form.

As you may have noted on an earlier post, I almost immediately thought of a way to embellish one of the choker forms with some glass beads that had just a large enough hole to go over one of the clasp ends and a pendant I made with sardonyx, sterling silver and glass spacer beads. I like the way it turned out and have gotten compliments (which gave me a chance to talk about my jewelry design and hand out cards, always a good thing!)

So, what do I think about the choker forms?

Pluses

Assorted Lengths - I have a long and thin neck so I prefer a length where the pendant hangs just at the collarbone. That means anything larger than 16" is too big and gives me a bit of a 'Saturn' look as the choker 'floats' in an orbit well away from my neck. The exception would be if I wanted something that would fit over a bulky turtleneck.

The choker form lengths available go from 15" to 20" on the magnetic clasp selection page, There is a silver plated 16" cable on the base metal choker selection page, the colored ones are 18". Sterling silver comes in 16" & 18" with a variety of fasteners and open ended choices. The unfinished end forms come in 16, 18 and 20 inches - and can be cut down to size with heavy duty flush cutters.

Assorted Colors - love that there is a good selection of colors. While the simple silver or gold tone works most of the time, it's fun to have more choice. Helps with the inspiration when it comes to designing something different or seasonal. Would love to see copper colored ones!

Clasps - also love that there are the screw-type or magnetic clasps. I think I like the magnetic ones best as my fingers are less flexible than they used to be. I also like that you can get unfinished ended ones and add beads with somewhat smaller holes.

Minuses

I'm mostly a 'stringer' - I like to have a lot of detail in my work, using small gemstone or glass beads and metal spacers and bead caps. I don't do much in the way of making pendants and these forms, due to the pre-attached clasps limit the kinds of beads you can get on them, unless you get the unfinished ended ones. Since I've not had a lot of experience in attaching a closure to a jewelry cable, I'm hesitant (for now) to invest in the open ended type and find that I can't get a good tight clasp attached. But that's a very tiny quibble and completely a factor of what I do, and where I'm at, in my current stage of learning.

I'd like to see more colors with magnetic clasps and in more sizes.

I am working on an idea (first pass, shown above - subject to a lot more tweaking) using the open ended choker form I got, which came with a magnetic clasp included. I was able to assemble with small, faceted, AB crystal saucer spacers and cathedral cut glass beads, so the 1mm dimension of the cable wasn't a problem. I needed to glue the one part of (there are assembly instructions and gluing recommendations on the listing details) the magnetic closure (I used Aleene's Jewelry and Metal Glue, which is not recommended at the link previously, but seems to be holding fine).

I would like to do two others, one with a black with a gold tone magnetic clasp (available with a 'white' clasp) and one in gold tone wire (not listed online), since I have some cloisonne and oxidized brass wire ball beads I really want to use, but the cloisonne is primarily black and gold.

All in all, I can easily recommend these choker forms, they got me thinking about new ideas and were fun to use.

Frustration, Your Name is Jewelry Cable!

Worked tonight for quite some time trying to get the crimp tubes (one has a hook attached to it, the other the eye) on the jewelry cable. There's something to working with jewelry cable that I'm not doing right. I'm thinking I need a blowtorch...

Just kidding (although I do wonder). The cable should fit the tubes - and I've gotten them to fit on one end just fine, but for some reason when I try to put the final one on, it just doesn't go well at all. Then there's the problem that cable is nearly impossible to cut, even with brand new heavy duty memory wire cutters. There's usually one fine little thread of cable left to trim, sometimes a few. Then after putting on just a couple beads the cable starts to unravel and those little steel threads are very sharp. I've literally put blood and sweat into working with the danged cable. All I wanted to do was put some heavier glass beads on one for a bracelet...it really seemed like a good idea at first.

Well, trial and error is what teaches me, so I'll keep trying until I run out of cable. No pictures tonight since I didn't complete anything.

I have the week of Dec 29th off from work and I'm thinking about a total 'makeover' of my office space. I have a picture of how I want it set up, I just hope I can find all the stuff I need to do it. One of the reasons is I need a better working surface - especially if I'm going to experiment with making polyclay beads and maybe even try my hand at metal clay. Stringing and even making wire loops isn't hard to do with a small surface area, even just a lap tray, but the clay work won't happen without a work table, which I currently don't have.

I'm hopeful I'll be able to enlist my son to help with some of the heavy lifting (book shelves and a large hutch will have to be moved). He's coming home from his tour in Iraq (he's in the Army) soon, and if all goes well, he'll be home for Christmas through New Year's Day. Of course, I'm looking forward to having him home for more than the moving - that's just an added bonus.

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.