Loops and Spirals - A Teaching Exercise

This week's challenge for me was to solidify my plans for a beginner class at the gallery that sells my jewelry. The owner was not very specific about what she wanted, so I thought for a while and gave myself several criteria for a successful presentation, and of course, class.

• The project should teach a very basic skill set, easy enough for someone with no jewelry-making experience whatever.
• It should fit in the timeframe -- quick enough that the students have something nice to take home, but enough substance that they can spend the whole class time working on it.
• It should be an attractive finished product, something the students would be proud to wear.
• Because it is being made in the gallery, it should incorporate supplies that the students can purchase there, i.e. gemstone beads.
• Aside from the gemstone beads, the tools and materials should be very basic and, if possible, inexpensive without being cheap or tacky.
  

Because I feel very strongly about the value of practice and mileage in jewelry-making, I also wanted something that repeated the skills several times in the course of the class time.

The project I came up with is this set called Loops and Spirals. Basically the students will learn a wrapped loop and the simplest tight spiral. After making several wrapped loop/spiral dangles, they will make ultra-simple earwires and an ultra-simple pendant hoop to hold their beads. The cool thing is that the earring drops are interchangeable, so students could go home with several pairs of earrings as well as a pendant, depending on how quickly they get the technique. They also will be able to practice it several times, which is pretty much necessary if you want to make nice loops.

I made my first version with hardware store copper, very impromptu, and then this version in sterling with a lot more attention to detail so I could get the instructions exactly right. I will bring a sample of the instructions as well as the set to the gallery this week, and if they like it, we can hammer out the details. My thought would be to make up kits with 4 or 5 each of 4 or 5 kinds of beads, each kit the same. That way they could break up only 4 or 5 strands to make a bunch of kits that would still have a nice assortment of beads. I lean toward working with copper at first, but I'm not sure if copper earwires are a good idea so we'll have to discuss that, too. We also haven't talked about pricing, class size, all that. I have thought all that out and will have a pretty detailed bullet list of ways it could work.

Now for what I actually made -- I used 4 kinds of gemstone beads, 2 shapes of pink peruvian opal and 2 shapes of lapis nevada. The drops are made with 22g sterling wire, roughly 2" for each bead. I made 5 of each, 2 for earrings and 3 for the pendant. The earwires are 20g sterling, again a 2" length each. If you look closely you will see that the drop simply slides into place and falls into the bend behind the spiral at the front. This means that you can exchange a different drop onto the same set of wires. The spirals on the drops and the earwires are both decorative and functional, eliminating the need for headpins. The omega-style hoop pendant is made from 18g sterling. I slid the beads on in an order that pleased me. The top is very simple closed (not wrapped) loops to go over a cord or chain. I used a 3mm 18g jump ring to close and stabilize the top of the pendant. It will help it hold its shape and also prevent the beads from slipping off.

The tool list for the class will include round-nose pliers, chain-nose pliers, cutter, a pen and a wine cork as mandrels. Students who have only one pair of chain-nose pliers will have to share for two brief steps that use 2 pair of pliers (closing the loops on the pendant, opening and closing the jump ring) but that should work okay.

Now, my cheater alert -- I use step pliers exclusively for wrapped loops, wouldn't do otherwise. I like uniform loops, and that's how to get them. In fact, I almost never use my round-nose pliers any more. However, I'm not about to require students or the store to buy $15 step pliers when $4 round-nose will work fine for absolute beginners, and come in a starter set with a chain-nose and a cutter. Likewise, I use both chain- and flat-nose pliers, depending on which step, just because I've been doing this long enough to appreciate the difference in the way the different pliers bend the wire. But that is NOT necessary for absolute beginners, and there is no reason that they need the $150 of fancy Swedish ergonomic pliers and cutters that I use every day when for $13.99 they can get the whole set including a handy zipper case from Beadalon. By the time they wear out or break down, the students will know if they enjoy wire enough to get better quality tools.

How do you like this project? If you had never made jewelry, but were at a shop for a meditation class, would a class like this appeal to you?

Please share your thoughts, and meanwhile, don't forget to stop by Year of Jewelry and check out all the beautiful things my jewelry friends are sharing there.

Networks, Spirals and Triangle Beads

Social networking is a wonderful thing. This week, thanks to Facebook, I found a very helpful article on jewelry pricing strategies. Jodi Bombardier, the artisan behind Jewels by Jules, has built a wonderful site full of information and beautiful things. Please stop by there for a look. I also had a nice conversation with Camille Sharon, the artist whose Facebook tutorial got me started on the string art variations.


Because it was a fairly quiet week with little on my schedule, I was able to make several pairs of earrings in styles you have already seen, and then tried another variation on the couched beads technique. This time I made a pendant of 20g sterling with silver-lined blue #10 Miyuki triangle beads. Excluding the bail, the pendant is 2" tall by about 1 5/8" wide. The center of the spiral features a Swarovski crystal in a similar blue for a bit of sparkle. It is finished with my signature herringbone bail. Because this will be placed for sale at the same gallery that sells my chains, the bail is sized to fit either a medium byzantine or double spiral chain as well as a cord or ribbon.

If I make another version of this pendant, I will use a heavier base wire, maybe even as heavy as 16g, to give it more solidity. I would even consider hammering it a bit for texture and a more rustic look. As it is, it is delicate and open and that is nice, too.

Next week I'll be going back to string art with a couple of new ideas. If you came here from Jewels by Jules or from Camille Sharon's site, welcome, and I hope you'll come back for more. Don't forget to check out all the pretties at the Year of Jewelry, as well.

I always appreciate your comments and critiques. Thanks for looking.

Busy week (with earrings)

What a busy week this turned out to be. So busy, in fact, that I'm posting my item for Year of Jewelry a little late, although the earrings were done almost on time.

We spent several days during the past week watching and/or playing with Yosef and Shalom. I think it's just about my favorite thing. Yosef is big enough now that he wants to help, and I was able to find a way for him to help. With supervision he was able to run the Coiling Gizmo. He just loved that he was helping make necklaces. He has always been very interested in my jewelry, and it was a big treat for him to start being a part of it. When he is a couple years older, you better believe that he will get pliers and learn to make chain.

The first part of the week I made several more string art pendants and earrings. My biggest success was in finding a way to stretch the coil uniformly. I use a plastic card -- actually the Morningside College Alumni luggage tag that my college sent me -- slide it between the coil and turn to open it just exactly the right amount. What a useful gift! Thanks, M'side! I also tried some variations, with different degrees of success. I tried using beads as spacers instead of the coil. Unfortunately, the spacing of even very small beads was too open to make a nice looking weaving and the smaller the bead, the less depth to help hold the thread in place. However, the beaded examples did lead to this week's project, and probably next week's as well.
I'm calling them Widdershins earrings because the trick to getting the beads to set perfectly is to wrap counterclockwise. I suppose they could also be infinity or figure 8's or Kringle -- oh, that would be good. The core wire is 20g sterling, the beads are #10 triangle Miyuki beads in a green AB finish, and the wrapping wire is 28g sterling. The triangle beads align easily and have a hint of faceted sparkle, and I like that. Also, I have a bunch of them in boxes that I'd really like to use, so there you go.

Overall they are about 1 1/4" or 3 cm tall. Once I figured out what I was doing they went really quickly. These are actually the 2nd and 3rd ones I made. The first one was repurposed because by the second one the bead placement had improved so much.

I personally prefer post earrings to earwires because I have attached earlobes and don't like the way that earwires look most of the time on me. This is the 4th post earring design I've come up with this year, and I'm enjoying it very much. It was also nice to get back to working with silver. I have not used sterling for the string art pieces because of the tarnish problem. I know copper tarnishes, too, but it should darken to a nice patina that will be somewhat unobtrusive while the tarnished silver would just look dirty, and would be hard to clean with the thread in place. Or so it seems to me.

I guess I've been babbling, but I hope you like the earrings enough to allow me that. Be sure to check out everybody's new pretties at Year of Jewelry, and feel free to comment, critique, whatever, in the comments either here or there. Thanks for looking and see you soon.

Learning about String Art

It seems that string art jewelry is showing up everywhere just this week. Maybe it's something in the water. I spent my jewelry time this week experimenting with it, and am sharing 3 of the 5 pendants I made. The others are just as nice, or possibly nicer, but they already have new homes, and I'll get their photos for my records later.

Here are some of the things I learned:

• Nice quality sewing or machine embroidery thread works really well for this technique.
• Spooled thread is easier to manage than embroidery floss, regardless of what the tutorials all say.
  
• Variegated thread is lots of fun to work with and gives really interesting effects.
• The direction of the coil makes a difference in the way the thread lies and has a BIG impact on how easy it is to get it to look nice and stay in place.
• Because you are wrapping in several different directions, sometimes the coil direction will be against you, and you'll just have to learn to work with it.
  
• Generous application of sealant is important to durability.
• The tension on the final wrap before the knots is critical.
• Getting the coil uniformly stretched without wobbles is the very hardest part -- still working on that one.
  
• String art is still fun, 45 years after freshman geometry class.

I'll be experimenting more next week because I bought a few spools of thread on Friday and can't wait to try them. I also bought some steel wire for frames, to see how that works. The dark annealed finish is interesting and should contrast nicely with the gloss of the threads.

Technical details: 18g hardware store copper wire for the frame, 22g colored craft wire and/or niobium wire for coils, 28g copper wire for the herringbone bails, Sulky brand #30 mercerized cotton sewing thread in both solid and variegated for the string weaving.

Are any of you playing with this? Want to talk about it in the comments?

Thanks for looking, and don't forget to look at all the beautiful stuff over at Year of Jewelry.

Aspect Ratio and a Blast from the Past

Remember last week that the folks at On the Rocks were interested in chainmaille rings? Well, I spent most of my jewelry time this week wrestling with creating the perfect chainmaille ring. I have one that I wear all the time, in European 6-in-one weave. It is close to the perfect simple, elegant and comfortable ring. I say this as someone whose hands are prone to swelling, so rings in general are not something I can wear any more unless they are very flexible.

So I am trying to recreate this exact weave. Unfortunately, it seems that the wire I used for it was from an irregular lot, labeled as 22g but somewhat oversize -- possibly IRL a 21 g. So when I naively treated it as 22g, the weave was loose and floppy, and when I tried to use 20g, it was unworkably stiff. My mandrel set is in .5mm increments, and the AR is so sensitive on this weave that I haven't found the exact match yet, and I don't have any more of this weird wire. I spent a lot of time playing with the math, and came to the conclusion that the perfect AR for this weave as a ring is 4.75. Then I had to figure out the ring size for each of the gauges of wire. Either I have to find an alternative mandrel -- a possibility, I have a bunch of mandrels in inches that I haven't tried out yet -- or I will splurge and add an ounce of 21g to my next wire order. Trouble is, I'm trying to use up wire I have, for budgetary reasons, and would like to put off buying wire for a few weeks at least. Or until I have a job if that happens sooner.


However, those things don't make for much of a picture for Year of Jewelry. On Friday morning, Gen Smith posted a Youtube of Camille Sharon making string art pendants, and I decided to take a break from math and rings and useful things like that and try my hand at one. I used some 18g copper for the frame, 22g craft wire for the coil and one plain and one variegated rayon machine embroidery thread (contrary to the video's advice and because it was handy) for the string. I made a nicer bail, just because I can. It needs some practice to refine it, but definitely a fun, quick project with a TON of potential. I highly recommend it.

Next week I have to make a bunch of earrings, also plan some Earth Day fun with grandchildren, and make up a nice presentation for Carolyn and Gonzo at On the Rocks. When that is under control, I hope to post a bunch of new things to Etsy for sale. Oh, and look for a job.

Thanks for looking! Till next time.

Great week, not-so-great jewelry project

Don't you just hate it when your blog software eats your post?? That's what just happened here, but I'll try my best to remember what I meant to say, ok?

This week was full of win. On Saturday, after a lovely birthday lunch (thanks, Dad!) and a trip to Spice House (mmm, smells so good) we decided to drive past the gallery where I have some pieces for sale. I had been concerned that they might be suffering in this economy, and was wondering if maybe I should just try to sell my things on the internet. Imagine how pleased I was to walk in the door and see the shop full of people, eagerly buying things. Even better, when the owner saw me, she exclaimed,"Oh, I have a check for you!" They had sold several pairs of earrings as well as a bracelet, one of the high price point items. In fact, they only had 3 of my things left.

After a nice conversation in which I agreed to bring more earrings and some rings, and also to bring some other new items to swap out with the stock that hasn't moved yet, I asked, just in passing, whether they might be interested in my teaching some classes. She loved the idea -- it seems that her fiance, the other owner and a very talented wire artist, has been so busy with custom work that he no longer has time to teach, and they have been looking for a way to offer beginner classes. So I'm also preparing proposals for a couple beginner level classes. I'm thinking of bead-drop earrings with hand-made wires, and a bead pendant with a simple bail. I'll be very busy this week. Yaay for busy!

Now, my Year of Jewelry project falls more in the category of "best laid plans", I'm afraid. It was supposed to be the next installment in my embellished herringbone series. I think the title for this embellishment is "Lumpy Ugly Embellishment Option." I don't like it at all. I actually cut away about half of the work I had done, it was so ugly. It also follows a pattern -- I have a string of these beautiful moss agate beads, one lovelier than the next, and I have yet to make a project from one of them that pleases me.


Still, you deserve the technical details -- 28g sterling wire wrapped on 22g sterling wire, 2mm sterling beads as embellishment to the herringbone weave. The stone is about 1 1/2" or 35mm tall and has a very pronounced mossy pattern. My lesson for this week is that this is not the way to embellish herringbone, and the next one of these beads will be treated as a cab in a pendant.

Thanks for stopping by, and of course I love to read any and all comments!

Another week, another pair of earrings

I came to jewelry-making from a needlework background. In fact, I have several pieces of embroidered jewelry that are very beautiful and involved a lot of work and lovely materials. For some reason, though, they are always seen as novelty pieces, something you would wear to a quilters' meeting, but not "real" jewelry. I never understood that, but the truth is that once I started working in wire and beads or gemstones, my work gets a LOT more respect, regardless that it is using the exact techniques I used with silk or even metallic thread and a threaded needle. Go figure.

In any case, these earrings are, as promised, the next variation on the herringbone stitch earrings from last week. I made the hoop diameter 1/2 inch smaller for a slightly smaller, rounder earring. I also bowed out the sides a bit more, making for a slightly wider earring, at least at the bottom of the hoop.

After the herringbone portion was finished, I added #11 seed beads in a blue iris colorway. The beads are stitched in place using a backstitch. The technique is similar to one that is used in a form of embroidery called hemstitching. In that technique, threads are pulled out of the fabric adjacent to the hem, and various stitches are used to group and embellish the remaining crossthreads, creating a lacy but geometric effect.

Anyway, I'm pleased with this first variation, and have several more in mind, so I'll be working on those. And as long as I have to keep making herringbone base earrings, I'll be taking step-by-step photos so I can publish a tutorial for them. Since you can use the same technique for earrings, a bail for a focal bead, the bail on a wire-wrapped piece, and probably several other things I haven't thought of yet, I figure it might be a nice value if anyone is interested.

Apologies in advance for the photo -- Photoshop dot com wasn't happy about allowing me to upload so I wasn't able to edit it at all. I would have cropped it, at the least.

Thanks for looking. You know I love to hear your comments and critiques, how your day is going, whatever.

This is also posted at CWJ's Year of Jewelry. If you haven't already done so, stop by there to see all the wonderful work. You'll drool, I promise.