New Bead Embroidery Book
Posted by Administrator on Jan 23, 2008
The Art of Bead Embroidery: Techniques, Designs & Inspirations
If you’ve never tried bead embroidery, be prepared to spend a LOT of time on this craft. Each tiny little bead has to be stitched on individually, so even small projects can be time consuming. But, like knitting, the repetitive action of stitching each bead onto a piece can be a meditative experience for a lot of people, and there is definitely potential to make some absolutely beautiful things with bead embroidery techniques.
More gift ideas - jewelry books
Posted by Administrator on Nov 30, 2007
I was looking at jewelry books on Amazon and found a bunch that I think would make good gifts for an aspiring jeweler. Here are a few:
Marketing and Selling Your Handmade Jewelry: The Complete Guide to Turning Your Passion into Profit
Bead On A Wire: Making Handcrafted Wire and Beaded Jewelry
500 Earrings: New Directions in Contemporary Jewelry (Lark Jewellery)
All Wired Up: Wire Techniques for the Beadworker and Jewelry Maker (Beadwork How-To series)
Jewelry 101: Tools for Wirework
Posted by Administrator on Sep 19, 2007
Wirework is a fun way to get started working with metal, and I have continued to use basic wire techniques in my jewelry making even after learning other metalsmithing techniques.
You can make beautiful jewelry using only wire and beads, but it helps to have the right tools.
In a previous post I talked about finishing wire ends. It is important to have files or another tool, such as a sharpening stone, for smoothing out wire ends. This makes the work look much more professional, and also makes the jewelry more comfortable to wear. Imagine trying to put on an earring that had a sharp or jagged wire end - ouch - so if you plan to make your own earwires, this is doubly important.
You also need some wire cutters. I use cheap wire cutters for all my wire up to about 18 gauge, and for wire thicker than that, I use metal snips. After cutting the metal, I always smooth the ends quickly using a file.
Finally, you need tools for forming the wire into the shapes you want. Two pairs of pliers are enough to get started: flat or chain nose pliers and round nose pliers. You can use the round nose pliers to form loops, and the flat or chain nose pliers to make 90-degree bends in the wire, as well as to grip the wire firmly while wrapping. I sometimes use two pairs of flat nose pliers at once - one to hold my work and the other to wrap.
Some other tools that are nice to have include mandrels and/or jigs for making shapes, a bench block and a mallet for hardening wire, a metal hammer for texturing/flattening, and a torch (plus soldering block, flux, and pickle) if you want to start making ball-end headpins or soldering things like jump rings. A jeweler’s saw is also nice if you want to cut your own jump rings. However, you can definitely get started with just the pliers, wire cutters, and a file or two.
Jewelry 101: Pickle
Posted by Administrator on Sep 6, 2007
Pickle is used to clean oxidation and flux residue off of metal. It is an acidic solution that you can buy from a jewelry supply store, or you can make a do-it-yourself version at home. Pickle can be stored in a glass jar or a ceramic crock pot. It works faster if it’s heated up, which is why a lot of people use a crock pot. It helps to keep pickle in a closed container so that the liquid doesn’t evaporate as quickly.
I use a product called Ph minus for pickle, which is an acid that lowers the Ph level in pools and hot tubs. I dissolve a little of this in water, and it works well for me. I don’t bother heating it, since it works fine cold, just takes a bit longer.
Other DIY versions of pickle that I’ve heard of include using Simple Green (the household cleaning product), lemon juice, and vinegar. I can’t vouch for how well these work since I’ve never tried them, but they are all inexpensive and safe, so they might be worth a try.
To use pickle, drop your oxidized metal in and wait for the oxidation to come off. Avoid touching the pickle in any way with steel (such as steel tweezers) because this will automatically copper plate everything you are trying to clean. Copper tongs are available for dropping items into pickle and then fishing them out later. Since pickle is an acid, even if you use one of the milder at-home versions, you might not want to get it on your skin, so copper tongs or even some wood chopsticks are useful to get your jewelry in and out of the pickle.
Jewelry 101: Seed Bead Sizes
Posted by Administrator on Aug 24, 2007
Seed beads are the small glass beads people use in intricate beadweaving projects. They come in various sizes which vary slightly by manufacturer, but in general, the larger the number, the smaller the bead.
One of the most common sizes is size 11. If you look at the wall of seed beads at your local bead store, there will probably be more size 11 beads than anything else (if your local bead store is anything like mine, anyway).
As the number gets bigger, the bead gets smaller. Size 12, 13, 14, and 15 are fairly easy to find, and although sizes smaller than 15 exist, they are not nearly as common. In my experience using seed beads, you need an extremely small needle or very find beading wire to work with size 14 and smaller seed beads. Size 15 beads are maybe half the size of 11s.
As the number gets smaller, the bead gets larger. Size 8 and 6 are common sizes. A size 6 bead will be much larger than a size 11, with size 8 being somewhere in between.
Combining different size beads in a beadweaving project can create very interesting textures. I used to make bracelets and necklaces using peyote stitch (a kind of needle and thread method of weaving seed beads together) and by using a variety of beads from size 8 down to size 15, I was able to get interesting textures and sculptural details on my beaded fabric.
Jewelry 101: Finishing Wire Ends
Posted by Administrator on Jul 31, 2007
I make a lot of jewelry using wire - in fact, nearly everything I make incorporates wire in some way, even if it’s just a wire head pin or an earwire.
One problem beginning wireworkers have is that when you cut a piece of wire, the ends feel sharp and jagged. To make wire jewelry look and feel smoother and more finished, it is necessary to smooth out the ends of the wire.
Luckily, this is not difficult, it just takes a little bit of time.
Here are just a few ways I’ve smoothed wire ends:
- Using a cup burr - cup burrs are used with dremel-type machines or flex shafts, and come in different sizes for different wire gauges. If you use a cup burr to smooth the end of your wire, they will become slightly rounded, so this is a good method for finishing ear wires. Cup burrs & flex shaft machines are available through jewelry supply companies - but there are several simple methods that don’t require special eqiupment.
- Using sandpaper - wet/dry sandpaper can bu used to smooth out wire ends. I especially like the sanding pad that are sold at hardware stores. A relatively fine grade - 300-400 - will work well.
- Jeweler’s files or needle files from the hardware store - using files is quick and easy and with a little practice, you can get very smooth, flat wire ends using files.
- Sharpening stones - a lot of wireworkers I know swear by using sharpening stones. There are special stones made for sharpening fish hooks that have a little groove, and you just swipe the wire through the groove a couple of times for a smooth, slighlty rounded end. Flat sharpening stones also work, but won’t automatically shape the wire end the way the grooved stones do.
- Fingernail files - this is one of my favorite tricks, if I’m working away from my studio. Fingernail files are great for smoothing wire ends, and they come in many different grades, and are easy to find at drug stores and grocery stores.
Jewelry 101: Flux
Posted by Administrator on Jul 19, 2007
I’m writing a series of short articles on jewelry making basics, called Jewelry 101. You can click on Jewelry 101 under “categories” in the right-hand column to see all the articles (this one is the first). Even if you aren’t interested in making your own jewelry, it might be interesting to learn a little bit about the basic tools and processes I use to create jewelry. Now, on to my first topic: flux.
Flux is a liquid or paste applied to metal when heating the metal. There are many different kinds of flux on the market, and they all work for different temperature ranges. In jewelry making, when using a torch to solder or fuse metal, it is important to get a flux that is intended for use at very high temperatures. This means that flux sold for use with soldering irons probably will not withstand the amount of heat a torch gives off, so make sure that the flux you buy is appropriate for use with a torch.
Flux protects silver from firescale while heating, and prevents oxidation of metal. It is always used when soldering, as the solder will not flow properly if flux is not applied to the solder & the area it should flow into. Flux can be applied with a paintbrush, and should be applied before heating the metal. As you heat the metal with your torch, the flux will bubble and then start to look glassy. If you notice that some of the metal is not covered with flux, you might want to add a little more and then re-heat the metal.
Flux is almost always used when heating sterling silver, whether soldering, fusing, or annealing, because it helps prevent firescale from forming. It is not necessary to apply flux to fine silver when heating it, since fine silver does not get firescale. However, if fine silver is being joined with silver solder, you should apply flux to the solder and the spots that will be joined with solder.
With Argentium sterling silver, some people don’t use flux except for soldering, while some people also use flux for fusing. It is not necessary to use flux when annealing Argentium. In my personal experience, a tiny bit of flux (less than I’d use with regular sterling silver) helps a lot if I’m fusing or making ball-end headpins with Argentium.
Flux is also used when soldering gold. Since I have limited experience soldering gold, I won’t comment more on that right now. If you want to use silver solder to solder copper, using more flux seems to help, since copper oxidizes easily.
I use liquid flux. A brand I like is Batterns, and I also like a very similar product called My-T-flux. Some jewelers prefer to use a paste flux, but I find that it’s harder for me to see what I’m doing if I use paste flux. Whatever you decide, I recommend buying flux from a jewelry supply company - and make sure you get one that is intended for use with a torch. I’ve heard that people have had success making a paste flux from denatured alcohol and borax, but I’ve never tried this myself.
After you complete your soldering/fusing/annealing, you might notice that there is some glassy flux residue all over the metal. This can be removed by soaking the metal in an acidic solution known as pickle. I’ll be writing about pickle in a future article, so stay tuned!
Scrap Pendant
Posted by Administrator on Jun 14, 2007
I made this pendant from scrap sterling silver, with a few freshwater pearls added. One thing that is really nice about working with metal is that it is easy to reuse scraps. In this case, I had some half-round sterling silver wire in a size that I just don’t use. I’m not really sure why I bought it originally, but it had been sitting around my studio for quite a while. So, I sculpted it & fused it with my torch until I was mostly happy with the look, then added pearls to contrast with the rough look of the semi-melted silver.
This piece took a while to complete because there wasn’t an obvious place to attach a bail, but with some small alterations, I was able to add the wire bezel shown in the picture.
Crocheted Bobble Cuff
Posted by Administrator on May 21, 2007
This is my favorite crocheted jewelry design so far. I wanted to learn some new crochet stitch patterns, and found a bobble stitch pattern in my Reader’s Digest needlework book (it’s a huge hardcover book that was given to me by a friend’s mom, and has instructions for all kinds of needlework including knitting and crocheting).
To make a bobble stitch, you yarn over, insert hook into stitch, yarn over, pull hook through stitch, yarn over, pull hook through two loops. You keep doing this into the same stitch until you have six loops on your hook, then yarn over and pull the hook through all six loops. The bobble will look kind of flat at this point, but so you single crochet into the next stitch, which gathers it up and makes it look more bobble-like.
For this bracelet, there are two single crochet stitches in between each bobble. I used a multiple of three stitches and alternated where the bobble was in each row. In between a row of bobbles, I did a row of single crochet. That’s basically the stitch pattern as printed in the book! I ended up with a flat bobble at the end of the middle row of bobbles, so that’s where I sewed on the button. To make a closure for the button, I did a row of single crochet along one end, but chained a couple stitches and skipped a couple before continuing the single crochet, forming a small loop.
I used sport weight yarn and the hook size recommened on the label, and did nine repeats of the bobble to get a decent length for my wrist. You would probably want to experiment with gauge to make sure your bracelet is the right length for you. I think I’ll make it a bit tighter - maybe one less repeat - if I make this again, because it stretched a little when I wore it for a while. It still fits okay, but I’d prefer a tighter fit. I have some beautiful silvery gray yarn (”Love” from southwest trading co’s vickie howell line of yarns - the black version here was made with “Craft” from the same line) that I think I’ll use to make another cuff and a matching necklace. The black was really tough to photograph, so I’m hoping to get a better picture once I’ve made this in another color.
Metalwork In Progress
Posted by Administrator on Apr 25, 2007
I started a new fused silver pendant last night. Since metalwork is such a mysterious process to many people, I thought I’d post a picture of what it looks like on my soldering pad at the moment. It definitely still needs some work, but I think it will be a good one when it’s done:
