Tools

Making jewelry or other kind of crafts you need some good tools to work with your materials. I started with some cheap versions of various pliers. However, some of them have been replaced with new and better versions.

This Christmas I was so lucky to get a new tweezer (really good when you are making knots) and a flat-nose pliers that is a must-have and a heart in soapstone (Not a tool, but it is so sweet and I am going to make a necklace with it).

I never thought that I was someone who wished for tools as gifts but it is really really nice when you have good jewelry making tools.

What tools do you use in your jewelry making?

Dansk Smykkekunst

Dansk Smykkekunst is a Danish company that sell beautiful and affordable jewelry in many different designs. I had wished for two pieces from the Fall/Winter collection 09 and was so lucky that my boyfriend had given them to me as his Christmas gift.

I normally do not wear big necklaces, but this is just so cool and bring forward a lot of colour.

The bracelet is just so pretty and have lovely 'curves' that I relly like.

You can take a look on Dansk Smykkekunst's Spring/Summer collection 2010 which is going into stores/dealers in January 2010.

Braided scarf

My sister and I went to her local charity shop and I found a duvet cover that looked like Liberty fabric, with small flowers on it, in a pale pink/purple colour. First I thought that Mivs should make me yet another scarf... love them. But then I remembered an idea which I saw here. I could make a braided scarf!
I started to cut the fabric into shreds

And then I braided these shreds into a four-braid (you can just as well make it in a three-braid)

I hade enough fabric to make 3 (x4 shreds) braided fabric ropes.

And I put them together, some needlework was needed (My sister ws the guinea pig model)

And the finished result was this. Only costed me the fabric (which was $2) and some thread. I could have made it more 'finished' if my sewing machine was in order, as you can see some of the threads from the fabric.

I think I will have to stop making things in purple now. I was so lucky to get a purple coloured soft shell jacket for christmas and spending time with my sister,who also loves purple and also have a purple jacket made us look like two old 'purple' ladies :D.

Heart charm

Enjoying the christmas with my family, making the food for tonights 'celebration'.

In Denmark we have a saying that Christmas is the time of hearts ... I do not know if there is a similar saying in english?

As I have written earlier I am a big fan of Etzy. And I have ordered a lot of different things from various sellers. Last week I was so lucky to recieve one of my purchases really quick, as it only took one week from Canada to Denmark, really nice. One of the pieces in the package was a heart charm/pendant, that has an antique silver look.


I had some pale blue stone peals that I connected with the heart on the 'mother and son' antique silver chain. Approximately 70cm chain, so it can 'hang'.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas :D

Scarab

Today, I am going to the theatre with my siblings and I really look forward to see the play.


Made this bracelet some days ago with glass pearls and a scarab charm. Put it on a mother and son chain. My sister got it, she was pleased :D

Zipper bracelet

I have been inspired by Disaya Prakobsantisukh's zip bangles, but I think that they cost too much for me to even consider to buy. That is why I have made my own version, although you clearly can see that the resemblence is far from Disaya's version.

It is more raw and looks nice beside a more feminine bracelet.

Hairband and hair clip

Today I had the time to make differnt projects - other than written ones (Hurrayyy). I will show some of them today and others will appear through the christmas holiday as I am going away, which reminds me that I have to start packing....

I have made some items, that is going to help me control my very big and curly hair.

Hair clip
I am quite satisfied with this hair clip. Only glued a piece of flat braided leather 'look' ribbon on it and a metal button, which I found in a bag that I had forgotten all about, nice surprice.



Hairband
I have put black ribbon on the 'band' and glued 3 metal buttons on it. I really love the look of the buttons, specially after I polished them. The 'glue-gun' and I are not friends at all, although you cannot ... But the result is good enough for my own everyday use.

Etzy....

When making jewelry you often need some material. The questions is, is it going to be something you can afford (as in student prices) or is it something where the quality is really good and therefore often more expensive. On one side I am most often practicing doing different jewelry pieces and sometimes the result is not something that is worth selling and therefore not worthwile speding a lot of money on, but on the other side, when I do make a piece that is good looking I also want it to in a decent quality standard.
The danish shops that deliver jewelry making items are sometimes a bit pricy after my oppinion (although when I go to one, I often find my hands full of new items), so that was why I tried to do some shopping on Etzy. There are really many suppliers of various jewelry making items (and much much more) and you can make some good bargiens (incl. shipping) if you know the prices from your local store and you know what you are looking fore I think I have done some good deals there, although I have also tried to recieve some things that did not correspond with the quality I exected it to be - lesson learned.
It is vey easy to shop on Etzy, perhaps too easy if you have a paypal account . I often find myself putting various items in my basket (although sometimes I will remove the items again). Now I just need to be patient and learn how to find the right size chain!

Friday night results

Just to show some of the results from friday night's labour.

I tried to make a Snake knot bracelet - first attempt. You generally need more leather cord than usually. I think that I will need ca. 1,5m of each colour to make one i my size (16cm).

A thin version (8 strings) of the Kumihimo flat braid

A wide version (16 strings) of the Kumihimo flat braid. I did 4 different versions before I was satisfied, sometimes the strings cross each other in a way they are not supposed too. However, next time I will switch the place of the closing button and make the loop at the start.

(I know my pictures are not showing all the small details, but I only have my phone camera)

Scheduled procratinations... hmmm

I am a bit busy at the moment (as all other students) with projects, exams and preperations for my master thesis. Although I want to do some of my creative projects, I have to focus on my study. However, at the moment I just have so many different things I want to try to make and you know it is hard to keep your hands from these. So I have to schedule my small projects :) But I suppose that it is not different from other people who have similar project.


Tonight I will spend the evening making differnt bracelets and earrings that people have ordered, so they can have them before christmas :). My grandmother recieved the 5 bracelets that I have made for her to give to some children, she was just so happy and appreciative that I had spend time to make them. And what makes my grandmother happy makes me happy too. Hopefully I will make some more people happy with the results of tonights labour!



I have a little project with my Kumihimo disk, hopefully it will turn out well!
Looking forward to have more time to experiment with colour, patterns and material on the Kumihimo disk. Perhaps I will get one of the books that I have wished for christmas, who knows!

What is your next project?

Rubber twisted bracelet

I ordered some rubber cord the other day together with some coloured leather cord. I wanted to make a rubber bracelet I saw in a magazine. I was however, a little bit corcerned how I could make the rubber cord stick, without glueing too much (Glue and I are not always best friends). The idea was to twist the rubber cord around another piece of cord (I used a 4-5mm leather cord). The rubber cord was hollow, so it laid itself flat as I twisted it around the leather cord and I finished with a dot of glue in the ends. I also triede with a 2mm bronce leather cord on the other leather cord, but the result was not as god as with the rubber. In order to make it work with e leather I had to use much more glue.



Left; a bronce twisted leather bracelet, right; a rubber twisted bracelet.

Wool balls on a necklace

Talking about colour-spalsh yesterday, today I made this necklace:

The form is not quite as I wanted it to be, but it is very hard to rearrange them (or at least for me and my big fingers after you have put 10 balls of so together) when you have finished. It is a very different piece of jewelry!

I started to pull a headpin through each wool ball; this demanded some strenght in my hand and I am a bit sore now. Then I made a loop so I could connect my wool balls with my jump rings. Here you have to be patient, if you like me have some trouble reaching in to the jump rings.

Perhaps there is a better and easier way to connect the wool balls with each other, beacause it takes some time.

In my first 'draft' for this piece, I had made the wool ball myself, but they did not end up as pretty as I wanted them to be, therefore I bought some, which was cheaper if I wanted to make them myself in the same colours.

Try-out

It happens that I get an idea sometimes. And in my head the result of this idea is just great. However this might not be the case when the idea is brought to life.

My idea was to make a monkey's fist knot with a bit of colour splash, so it could be used as a pendent/charm on a leather cord or rubber cord.



So I started to braid (round braid) some small ribbons. This actually took a while, due to the lenght I needed to make the knot.

The result was as the above picture visualise a 'ball' of colour... where it is hard to se the 'knot design'. Not at all what I expected.

What do you think?