Beading Blog Archives - Page 6 of 7

DIY Halloween Party Jewelry

October 2, 2014 By candiecooper 4 Comments

It’s officially October people, so I’m kicking off the month with a quick Halloween Jewelry project! I love October. My husband and I got up super early to go to the store for a few things, including some pumpkins. We found some with long stems. Is it me, or is a pumpkin without a stem a little bit sad looking?
For this necklace, I used JesseJamesBeads.com bead mix in strands and funky singles along with that sassy black chain. The “bones” of the necklaces are connected with black Beadalon wire and gunmetal crimps. Take a peek!
Use this tutorial if you’re new to stringing beads on wire. It will show you how to crimp, connecting the wire to the chain.

Lately, I seem to be stuck on making slip-over-the-head necklaces and I made them two different lengths so I could wear them together. This striped bead in the next picture is one of my very favorites.
So, I’ve got a pretty big to-do list that’s calling my name. Top secret projects await. Don’t you hate teasers? 😉 You’re going to love this surprise though!

On another note: Tomorrow our children’s gallery, the Wabash White House (I know, I still need to post about this special little place!) is open from 5 to 8 pm for First Friday in Wabash. If you’re local, come get in the Halloween spirit with us!

Filed Under: Bead Love, Tutorials

How to Make a Crystal Layering Necklace

September 12, 2014 By candiecooper 8 Comments

This post is brought to you by Beadalon.com. All opinions are yours truly.Have you been to a bead show lately? I have and I can tell you there are so many stunning strands of quartz crystals and druzy beads. It’s not good for the pocket book. Take a peek at some of the ones I brought home from Bead Fest Philly Summer.

I am especially smitten with, well all of them. Well. Except maybe the blue ones. I don’t know what happens to me when I’ve been around beads too long (it also happens when I’m in Walmart too long), but I inevitably end up with something that I just. don’t. know. why. I. bought. Sigh. It’s cool, but is it jewelry worthy? The verdict is still out and may be for a very very long time. It’s over indulging I think. Eating dessert when you’ve already had a slice of pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving. Just too much of a good thing!The main materials are Beadalon‘s Champagne colored beading wire in 49 strand, .024″, brass stamped chain, #2 or 3 crimp tubes will work and some crimping pliers and wire cutters.

I also worked in some added strands from Dakota Stones–more purplish quartz chips and gold hematite squares.

These colors are all over the Fall look books so I know this necklace is going to get a workout in the next couple of months.I was so happy to find I still had 10″ of my very favorite colored Beadalon wire to use for this. I love champagne anything! However, Beadalon makes beading wire in pretty much every color in the rainbow!

Note! These stones are heavy and have rough edges that can potentially saw through thinner beading wires. That happened to me once (love learning those lessons the hard way!) so take it from me, get the good stuff! Beadalon, .024″ 49 strand is the way to go because it’s super embarrassing to say you “make jewelry” and then have gems and beads scattering all over the floor. Even more humiliating to be on your hands and knees picking them up at a party. None the less, when using stones like this, it’s always a good idea to take a peek at how the wire is doing and holding up.String the tail of your wire through a crimp bead, the last link of chain and back through the crimp bead. Grab your crimping pliers!Place the crimp bead in the opening closest to the handles and smoosh down like so.Turn the crimp bead 90 degrees, place in the next opening away from the handles and fold it on over like this:See how it folds the crimp bead over?This necklace does not have a clasp. I simply determined how long I wanted the necklace to be so I could slip it on and off, opened a link of chain from side to side and removed the extra which will be used for a rainy day.Slide all the beads to the finished end, string a crimp onto the wire and through the last link of chain and crimp again. Trim the excess wire.Blissfully simple!
Meet your new favorite necklace! She can roll solo or party with a few necklaces.

Filed Under: Beads, Tutorials

DIY Layering Locket Necklace

September 12, 2014 By candiecooper Leave a Comment

There’s something magical about a locket. Maybe because you just never know what’s inside. I have a small stash of these sweet little printed lockets. Ok, let’s face it–what don’t I have a small stash of in terms of jewelry making supplies?! They’re perfect for quick necklaces like this one.

This locket dangles from sparkly Jesse James Beads chain. To get started, remove the split ring from the ends of chain.Connect the ends together with a jump ring.Connect the first jump ring to the locket with a second jump ring. Close up the ring. Almost finished!Hold the necklace up around your neck to determine the length. Trim away excess and link the ends together with a jump ring.

Instant craftification, at your service.Here’s a bike version I made with an added tassel charm. Just when you thought a bike locket couldn’t be more sweet, the tassel sends it over the edge of cuteness.

It’s so crisp and cool out today. I’m loving this Fall weather! We’ve been without internet and television for almost a week now. Yes, hubs has practically broken out in hives. Me, I’m embracing Pandora radio and hand stitching. Now, I’m here at my grandparent’s house using their WIFI. Gram just made a lunch of the most ooziest grilled cheese sandwich and a side salad. Delightful. Now I’m back on the front porch writing with the glow of the lamp nearby and listening to her washing dishes. Someone is outside mowing. I could take a nap it’s so peaceful. But, instead I’m going to post one more tutorial and call it a day! Our high school homecoming is tonight and my sis is coming down. I can’t wait to see her.

Filed Under: Jewelry, Tutorials

How To Knot a Strand of Pearls or Beads

September 8, 2014 By candiecooper 9 Comments

This post brought to you by Beadalon.com. Confession: I have a hoard of old necklaces with great intentions of re-doing each and every one of them. Tell me, I’m not alone.
Here are two prime examples. Stunning, heavy glass and crystal beads topped off with a tired clasp that is about to fall off because the original stringing job has done it’s time and then some. Here is one idea for making over vintage jewelry and giving it new life!

Before I forget, I like to clean beads like this with a soft toothbrush and Dawn dish soap. I’m always amazed at how shiny and pretty they look after a good bath.
For this makeover, I’m using Beadalon’s Knot-A-Bead tool. In the past, I’ve tried knotting with the traditional wooden hand knotter tool. My first attempts with hand knotting were scary and disgusting with big spaces between the knots and beads. I put the hand knotter in a box and haven’t played with it since. However, after gaining some confidence with this tool, I may give it a go again.

My first attempts with the Knot-A-Bead came out awesome on the other hand and now I’m a believer and am ready to knot every bead in sight!!

I’m also using a sparkly Upper Clasp from Beadalon and #10 Griffin Silk. These beads have larger holes, so I can get away with using this heavier silk.

So, here’s how it goes…

Unwind your silk from the card and pull to remove kinks and tighten the silk. I opted to keep the pattern on the crystal strand, removing the plastic pearls and replacing them with the salmon colored glass beads. The gray silk made for a perfectly vintage and modern fusion which I found to be super appealing.
Cut two pieces of French bullion wire. This is essentially a tiny, tiny, tiny coil of wire that protects your silk where the clasp will rub. Make sure to get the corresponding bullion wire to your silk size.
String one bead, bullion wire, and clasp end onto the silk. The silk has a needle pre-attached to it so stringing is extra easy!
Thread the needle end of silk back through the first bead so the bullion wire makes a loop and the clasp sits in the middle.
Knot the silk just below the orange bead and dot with G-S Hypo-cement. Leave the tail long until you are done knotting.
Now string the rest of your beads in the desired order onto the silk. Can I just tell you it took me THREE times to get these beads right?! I first knotted the whole strand and realized I missed a bead. Cut, cut, cut. Ain’t no way those knots were budging! Made me sick to cut it apart, but I did. SIGH. Restrung them. Fail. See my next mistake? Three orange beads in a row!?!

Third time was a charm!

Sanity is not overrated.

Before I forget, put a tiny jump ring (which will serve as a marker) before the last bead at the end of the strand–you will not knot between these two beads.
Lay the clasp end over the awl so it drops behind.
Cross the clasp in front of the long tail/string of beads and through the loop.
Pull the strung end tight and push the short clasp end back over the top of the awl.
Place the long tail into the yoke/hook and pull snug.
Continue to pull snug while sliding the lever on the left to the left. The awl tapers down the knot and slides it up next to the last bead perfectly.
Like this! Now, go into Zen mode and repeat, repeat, repeat. I actually found myself day dreaming about chocolate (which I’m trying to back off of) and enjoying the crisp air. I’ve also watched a lot of movies while working on the Knot-A-Bead in my Lazy Girl chair.
If you are working on your lap (I usually do!), find a tray and put a beading mat down. Just remember–DO NOT knot between the last two beads or you’ll be in a world of hurt trying to undo one of those knots.

P.S. It’s very hard to explain to your dog that no, she hasn’t been replaced by the Knot-A-Bead and that you’ll pet her when you’re finished with this tutorial. She stayed by my side through this whole tutorial. Good girl. Treats to come.
When you come to final two beads, string another piece of bullion wire and the opposite end of the clasp.Thread the tail of wire back through the orange bead.
This cinches up the bullion wire and makes it ready to knot again between the last two beads. Dot the knot with G-S Hypo cement and leave to dry. Trim the ends.
The thing I love most about knotted strands is how flexible they are! Just beautiful! I love this combo so much!
Have a stash of your grandmother’s jewelry that’s been waiting for you? Go forth and knot your heart out!

Filed Under: Beads, Tutorials, Uncategorized

Hammered Metal Earring Tutorial

September 4, 2014 By candiecooper Leave a Comment

This is a quick tutorial of the earrings I taught on the Country Music Cruise for Beadalon (makers of great jewelry findings) and Jewelry Television. One of the things I love most about them is that you can take pre-made findings like Beadalon’s Quick Links and alter them with a chasing hammer to make them your own. Here we go!
You’ll need a steel block and chasing hammer for this step. The steel supports the metal so that it can take the imprint of the hammer’s round end to make a planished texture. This is by far one of my favorite things to do in jewelry making! Just. Beat. It. Beat it.
Here we have a pinch bail. Use chain nose pliers to open up the bail.
Attach it to a Swarovski drop crystal so the prongs on the bail go in the holes of the crystal drop and then pinch the bail closed.
Use two pliers with flat ends to open a jump ring like so.
Connect all the layers of rings and charms.
Close the jump ring how you opened it.
Use a second jump ring to attach the first jump ring to the ear wire. SO fast to make!! Hello, Christmas presents for everyone you know!
Sweet. Sassy. Romantic. Just the way I like my earrings as you know!

Filed Under: Tutorials

Beginner Jewelry Project

August 14, 2014 By candiecooper 1 Comment

My husband got me an amazing new camera for my birthday. He even called Amy at Mod Podge Rocks to see what to get. How sweet is that? My birthday is in May and I only recently picked it up (I think the owl button bracelet was my first post with it). It’s big. It’s powerful. There are a lot of dials and buttons. It’s a Nikon d5200. I have NO idea how to use it. So, bear with me as I fumble through getting to know this mega machine.See this picture? It looked great on the mini screen of the camera. Then, I pull it up and……..Oh. Hello, blurry pendant. But! I really loved the shot with the old brick and brick so I’m documenting it. Someday when I’m taking fabulously focused pictures, I’ll look back at my humble beginnings and say: Candice, you’ve come a long way baby.

Ha. My hubs just walked in and said, “that looks nice, honey.” Love is blind. I love that guy.

Better.

Much better (and a lucky shot).

Want to make this necklace?

You might think I strung all the seed beads onto head pins, but I didn’t. This is actually a very cute pendant from Plaid’s Sea Sparkle line.

I connected each end of the pendant to a piece of chain with a jump ring and finished the end with a little lobster clasp (also connected with jump rings. It took me about 5 minutes. Maybe.

This is an especially great project for beginner jewelry makers such as tweens or your friend that wants to make a piece of jewelry with you. All you need to know is how to open and close a jump ring and you can make the hole thing. Jump rings are simply round rings with an opening so you can connect all the components together. You can see opening a jump ring in this tutorial.

Keeping it simple today. I hope you have a good one!

*Sources

Sea Sparkle components at JoAnn Fabrics and Crafts.

Filed Under: Beads, Jewelry

DIY Earring Making: Boho Style

July 23, 2014 By candiecooper Leave a Comment

What a dreary day, this day started out to be. By 6:30 this evening the sun popped out coupled with a cool breeze. I didn’t see that coming! Thank you, Mother Nature. My hubs fixed hot dogs, I made mac and cheese and after we ate (2 hot dogs each I might add), we felt we needed to take the dogs on a walk.

It was a great day. I got a nice note from one of my Etsy customers first thing this morning. She lives in Tel Aviv, Israel. This amazes me. I moved through my deadline/to-do list nice and easy and topped it off with a walk. Now we are watching the Outsiders. Well, I’m 3/4 watching and writing.

Now about these Boho earrings! This is the final pair of orchid colored earrings for awhile. I promise! This tutorial will show you how to make an eye pin or a bead link.
To do this, I am using Beadalon’s Artistic Wire 20g. The pictures tell the story. I’ll chime in from time to time if there’s something specific I want to show you (and also because I’m a babbling brook and just can’t help myself).
Grasp the end of the wire at the point on the round nose pliers where you want that diameter of loop. Tiny loop at the tip–bigger loop at the back of the jaw.

When you get the loop completely formed, it’s going to be wonky. Here’s how you fix it:

Basically grab the loop at the back side and tweak it backwards.

To open an eye pin, switch to your chain nose pliers and open the loop from side to side.

Close it in the same fashion. See how it keeps its shape?
String your select beads (by the way, those are from a Jesse James Beads Design Pack) and make a 90 degree bend at the top of the last bead.
Trim leaving approximately 3/8″ (or the width of the side of your finger like I do).
Roll the end of the wire into a loop with the round nose pliers.

This type of loop isn’t as secure as a wrapped loop, but for earrings, it should be ok since they aren’t in a high traffic area while worn.

On another note, the names in this movie are great!! Pony Boy, Sodapop, Darry and Two-Bit. I’m pretty sure we had to read this in school. My memory is vacant, but Hubs says he actually read it. Decorating my locker was more of a priority than reading if that tells you anything.

Funny how things change. These days, I love reading and thankful for that change.

Ready to get on the earring making train? May I humbly suggest Earringology, my latest book geared for beginners to enthusiasts looking for some new inspiration.