Saturday, August 05, 2006

Hi everyone-
I hope you all had a good week.

I have been pretty busy working on my beading. A couple of weeks ago, I went to Vintage Knits in Michigan to look around. I bought a bracelet kit from Candamar (www.candamar.com), which consisted of wire, a piece of ribbon and some great glass beads. To put it together, you knit or crochet the wire to get a piece wide enough to fit the ribbon and long enough to go around your wrist. Then you threaded the beads onto the wire, then sewed the wire and beads to the ribbon.

The first one turned out great and I had some extra ribbon, so I decided to do another one. Now that I am finished with it (except for attaching the clasp) I am not wild about the beads. It is hard to find good glass beads (except for the ones in the kit and I didn't want to spend another $15 to get the beads when I had all the other materials).

I will take photos and post them, hopefully this weekend.

My next projects are as follows:
-First I am going to make a ring from The Beader's Palette by Ondori. This is an afternoon project.
-Next, I recently dug out my bead loom and am going to make a "loopy-loom" bracelet. This will take a little longer. This bracelet and the ring I make first are going to match.
-Then, I am going to make a choker, titled "Lovely Links" from the February 2006 issue of Simply Beads. This necklace is made of jump rings with beads inside them. It should be pretty cool. I am unsure how long it will take me, probably a couple of days.
-I also want to try my hand at making some earrings. I have an idea that needs to be fleshed out. This is an afternoon project.
-And, of course, I want to make something with my new jig. I had been wanting one and finally bought one. I have put a moratorium on bead spending for now. Really, any craft spending. I have so much that I need to use up my stash of beads and findings.
-I have one more project that I would like to do before I start working on my Halloween costume (I am going as a gypsy this year), and that is a necklace from the Fall 2005 issue of Stringing magazine titled "Vine." It is beautiful and looks like a nymph something a nymph would wear. Maybe I should go as a nymph for Halloween?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Matt-
You mean jump rings, right? I did a quick search and the biggest I found is 9mm, which is .35 inches at FusionBeads.com (http://www.fusionbeads.com/shop/productchart/91/)

I haven't done anything with metal yet, although I am taking a metalsmithing class at the museum this fall. That doesn't help you now, of course.

I'll keep looking around for them and let you know what I find.

Unknown said...

I will take a photo of a jump ring and post it on Wednesday. I have a feeling that we are talking about the same thing, just with different names.

I was thinking about it, and I could probably make you some. All I would need is wire, a pair of pliers, and a mold to wrap the wire around. How many do you need?