New Ideas

I had a friend ask me about a month ago to make her a necklace of a mixture of colors, I was having such a hard time coming up with an idea. I made three different versions of the first idea I had and didn't like it at all. Needless to say I took those apart and tried to start again, although it wasn't very easy. I have come to find that its easier to be creative when I don't have anything in mind and can just sit and do what I feel like at the time. Needless to say it was a couple of weeks before anything marvelous came to mind, this is what I came up with:
I really like how it turned out!! I chose the colors she wanted and some beautiful silver chain and started to wound wire through the beads and around the chain. This took a long time to do compared to other styles of jewelry I have done but I believe the beautiful look is well worth the work! I like doing it so much that I decided to make a bracelet following the same guidelines. I love the bracelet even more!!!

More Wire Jewelry

A few days ago I blogged about some wire earrings that I made. Staying with the same theme I decided to see what it would look like to make if I took the basic design of the bent wire and added bigger beads to make a bracelet. I decided to go for it and this is what I came up with:

I love how it turned out. The greatest part was I finally used these beautiful blue beads for something I really liked. I had made a couple of different pieces of jewelry with them before I decided to use them in this bracelet and ended up taking the others apart. I found them at Michaels on sale for a great price but just couldn't figure out what to do with them. So, all in all I am very pleased with how this bracelet turned out. I like it so much that I decided to try and make a pair of earrings to match. I am still trying to figure out if I like them, they are a bit different from what I have made in the past, still cute, but different. Here they are:

So I need your opinions to help me figure out if these should stay or if I should try something new with them? I really value your opinions and learn from what I have done to try and make what is better and more beautiful. Thanks for supporting me in my little adventure.

Cancer and Jewelry

I had never really thought about cancer as being something that could be used as inspiration for things in everyday life. When my Mom was diagnosed with Breast Cancer in July I thought and thought about things I could do to help. My sisters and I decided that I would make a bracelet that as sisters we could wear everyday to show our support to our Mom. Before I had even gotten our bracelts completely made we had over 20 orders from people who wanted to purchase a bracelet to. This both thrilled and totally surprised me, its crazy to think of the support that people give as they rally around the you in troubling times. These are a couple of designs that I came up with:

My sister Stephanie had this great idea that because so many people wanted to help out by buying a bracelet that we could donate some of the proceeds to our Mom to help purchase her wig. Before we knew it we had the entire wig paid for and purchased! I was so happy with all that was pulling together. My Mom then had this idea that since everyone was going to have a bracelet she wanted all us girls to have something special, shared only by the six of us, so we decided to make watches. I thought this was a wonderful idea but had never made a watch band before. So my sisters helped me figure out what beads to use. They wanted it chunky and full of pink and silver. So I sat down and this is what I came up with:

I really like how the turned out. They are nice and chunky and after 5 trips to many craft stores they really came to life. I hope you like them. I am going to dabble in making more watch bands so keep looking back to see whats new. :o)

First Jewelry Ideas

So one of the very first pieces of jewelry I made was a necklace patterened after one that I found in a department store and thought it ridiculous as to how high the cost was. So i firgured it wouldn't be that hard to recreate to my liking. I thought it turned out ok:

Since making this necklace I have learned many new thing. What beads can and cannot be placed in the same piece, everything doesn't have to be even, what materials to use and what ones will fall apart on you. I mostly enjoy making earrings the most. These are some of the first ones that I have made:

I made these for my Aunt Heather to match her Max Muscle Store colors. I had some fun trying to figure out a way to be playful, yet still look somewhat professional. I am not quite sure thats what happened but we both liked the way they turned out.

When first making bracelets at first I was skeptical because they all looked the same. Many of the first ones made I ended up cutting them apart and reusing the beads elsewhere. Finally after many attempts and some research I decided sometimes the simple patterns can be the most beautiful. This bracelet is one that is made with simple plastic pearls, but when you get it in the right light it they look like they could be real! This is from just a handful of gold accented jewelry I have made. Personally I love silver and rarelly wear gold but I would sure wear this one.