My day 26 project was a Memory Wire Dangle Necklace. The inspiration for the necklace came from this pin of an eBay’d item that I ran across last year. I’ve made plenty of memory wire necklaces in the past, but never incorporated any extra decoration aside from a pendant before.
I had some cool spike dangles on a chain that I found at Michaels last year (Beadaholique also sells them, but without the chain). I’ve been using them sparingly to make craft show earrings, but have been trying to think of another use for them. Those, combined with matching beads and some black pearls, made up the necklace.
The beading on the necklace took me about 30-45 minutes. I think it ended up as a nice mix of the pearl and metal tones.
Adding the spikes took me about another 45-60 minutes. Half of that time was measuring out the correct lengths of chain and then re-attaching the spikes I wanted to that; the other half was devoted to attaching the dangles to the necklace with copper jump rings.
I did try it on as well and love how it looks. I’m going to take it with me on my business trip and see if I can’t find an excuse to wear it!
Tomorrow’s project will be the last one posted from home this week, and it is Stitch Markers! More specifically, crochet stitch markers… I had made some in the past, but they weren’t usable in crochet, only knitting, so now it’s time to rectify that. 🙂
My day 24 project was a Worry Ring. I first saw this via this pin, but today found out that the linked tutorial had been removed. I searched some more and found a second pin that was similar, and between the two pictures I decided on a plan of attack.
For this project I used my mandrel, 20 gauge wire, and a few beads (I want to say they’re 3mm).
I wrapped both ends around fully once, then slipped two beads around what became the middle section. Then I slipped on two more beads, one on the top and one on the bottom, and while holding them in place, wrapped the wires around one more time.
The final step was twining the ends around the ring, to hold it all in place. I’m not very good at explaining this part, but Step 6 of this tutorial taught me how to do this the first time I made a wire-wrap ring. File down any pokey ends that are left and you’re done!
I’m still a novice at wire-wrap rings, so somehow I always end up making the ring either one size larger or one size smaller than intended. My size 7.5 ring ended up being nearly 8.5. Oh well, it’s still cool!
Tomorrow’s project is a No-Sew Crayon Wrap!
My day 23 project was Chakra Jewelry. The seven colors (energies) of a chakra are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet (you can read more here). I love seeing chakra jewelry, and some of fantastic pins are these earrings by Wire Sculpture, this bracelet by Love Pray Jewelry, and this chunky bracelet by Connie Hanna on Etsy.
I thought I had all the appropriate colors, but sadly I’m missing indigo in my design. So my final earrings and bracelet aren’t the full chakra, but I got it the closest I could. Next time I’m looking for beads I will definitely pay closer attention to this detail!
This wasn’t part of today’s project, but I also completed a bracelet for a co-worker this evening and wanted to share the picture. She was my not-so-Secret Santa and sent me these gorgeous Czech Fire Polished beads, so I made her a bracelet featuring them and will send it to her tomorrow!
Tomorrow’s project is a Worry Ring!
My day 22 project was Paperclip Earrings. The idea came from this pin, but both myself and my 13 year old try to replicate the result and, while we were able to get the spiral, it was far from nice looking. In the end, I decided to just make a couple pairs of earrings that featured paperclips, to keep with the spirit of the project! It also gave an opportunity to work in some clay beads I made last year as well as newer cats-eye acrylic beads.
For this one I didn’t do step-by-step photos, but took some at the end!
Tomorrow’s project is Chakra Jewelry!
The Concordium of Cyliena 