Book Review - Fine Art Wire Weaving by Sarah Thompson

Jewelry making books, I have almost as many as I do beads, but few are as good as Fine Art Wire Weaving by Sarah Thompson!

Fine Art Wire Weaving

"By combining the weaves with shaping, layering, symmetry, and three-dimensional forming, wire work bursts with a whole new level of possibilities."

"You have never seen projects like this before"

Not only is the book packed full of useful information such as which materials to use, what tools you need, lots of techniques and so many useful tips but there is also an amazing array of beautiful designs at every skill level.
There are 5 beginner projects, 8 intermediate projects and 4 advanced projects (17 projects in total, so great value for money!!) and what was most surprising to me was that with this book I actually started with a beginner project! Normally I want to jump in at the middle but Sarah's designs are so organic with such wonderful textures and shapes that I want to try every project. I particularly like how at the end of most pieces there is a photo of a variation of the project, showing some of the many ways to make each piece your own.

Rivulet Pendant

I also find the lay out of the book really appealing, and well thought out, there are lots of amazing photos (great if like me you are very much a visual learner) and the instructions are clear and easy to follow.

Free Lampwork Tutorial :: Plant Poke Flowers

If you're a lampworker, you know that those 1/16" mandrels bend so easily when you're trying to get your beads off, and usually don't last very long without becoming wonky.  What do you do with mandrels you can no longer use?  Make plant pokes out of them!

These are some plank poke flowers I have made.  While it's a beginner project, I thought I'd show you how I make mine.  I'm sure you'll have some other ideas of what you can do too!  It's a good way to use up your glass shorts!

Above, I'm starting with a glass short to make the base of the flower.  The tool I am using is the Hold Me Tight tool from Graceful Customs.  This is an essential tool, in my opinon, especially for shorts!

Heat up the end of your mandrel (not too much or it will melt) and the glass short.  Wind the glass onto the tip of the mandrel as you would if you were making a bead.  Do not use bead release on these flowers, or they won't stick on the mandrel! (In my best Wizard of Oz voice - please ignore the dirty messy work bench!!!!).

Here's your glass blob.  Move it around, allowing gravity help you to get it into a nice round, pea sized shape.

 Here's the pretty shape! It's still a little hot so it looks red. Notice the nice shape?

Gently flatten the blob on the top, very evenly, on a tool such as your torch mounted marver, or a graphite marver, or even a lentil press.  Just make sure the shape is nice and the way you want it cuz you're stuck with it at the next step!

 Next, you're going to get either a longer short (oxymoron there!) or a rod, and wind the glass around the pretty base shape as you would a disc bead.

Make as many wraps as you want, paying attention and heating the whole flower occasionally so it doesn't shock and break. Make several wraps, round and round.

Here's how it looks from the side.  Make sure you like the shape, and the number of wraps.  Feel free to use other tools to move the glass or shape it up to the way you like it.  I like to have my large tweezers on hand in case I have to bend the glass a certain way.

Sometimes I like to add a little interest to the flowers by using my small pliers to create texture.  To do this, just heat the glass in a small area, and quickly bite the glass with the pliers.  Then move the heat a little bit to the right, and do the same thing.  Repeat the whole way around the flower.  If you find that some of the bites are too far apart, just go in and heat that blank area and bite with the pliers again!

Here's how it looks from the side.  This is your opportunity to use your large tweezers to even up the shape - lightly heat where you want to move the glass at this point, or it will sag on the end of the mandrel.  Also, make sure you keep flashing your glass in the flame to avoid thermal shock.

Here's the finished plant poke flower!  You need to anneal this as normal, using the proper anneal schedule.  Here's another flower I made, but instead of using the pliers to create bites in the glass, I used the tweezers to "wave" the glass for a different shape.

By now, I'm sure you're saying, OH, I can do...this...that...the other!  So some day when you don't know what to make, make some plant pokes!

Susan Kennedy

And the (April COM amulet bead) winner is....

Amulet beads ready to mail to winners... 

On Monday I will be mailing amulet beads to....

Jess Green and Brooke Bock!! Thank you to all who commented and I do so look forward to seeing your creations this month. (I will have more amulet beads this weekend at Bead Fest in Oaks PA - so please contact me is you are interested in purchasing one... )

Until next time - have a great weekend! 

Miniature Jewelry - Dolls Like Beads, too!

I'm coming out of the closet to you all today - I am a doll enthusiast.  Besides beads, dolls have been something that I have been interested in, collected, and created for most of my life.  I go through more sporadic doll phases though, and lately I have been swept up in the tide of creating for them again.  It all started with some new clothes for some of my Momoko dolls (10.5 inch fashion dolls from Japan.

So, I've been sewing a lot!  There is still quite a bit of hand work to be done with these ensembles - The blazer needs pockets and a closure, the purple blouse and skirt both need closures, the dark purple dress needs some embellishment on the bodice, and the dark calico dress is in need of closures and a repair to one sleeve....but I got distracted...by beads.

This is Lobelia (Momoko Beautiful Lines), wearing her stock outfit.  This dress came with two removable collars - the peach one matches the ruffles on the dress hem, and the lace one is an interesting contrast.  These tiny accessories got me thinking about making jewelry for the dolls.  It's a challenge to make clothes and accessories that are in scale for these girls - they're smaller than a Barbie!  Time to break out the tiny beads...

I thought I would start with a couple of long necklaces, so I wouldn't need to worry about a clasp.  The first necklace is a long rope of "pearls"...approximately 20/0 vintage pale blue ceylon seed beads.  The second one...is actual blue seed pearls, knotted on silk with a sterling silver Nina Designs hummingbird charm!  I need to find more tiny charms!  But knotting between those tiny pearls is NO fun, and the silk is a little too springy to drape quite right.  Hmm, what to try next?

I pulled out the little teeny seed beads again.  Keep in mind, these are quite a bit smaller than a 15/0 seed beads.  Ultra fine size 15 needles and 000 thread are necessary just to pass through these beads...even with those tools, the holes fill fast.  But I managed to make a netted collar with little opal glass drops, reminiscent of the pearl collars of the 1950's.  I feel like the drops are still a little big at 5x3mm...the next version might need to incorporate a seed bead drop instead.

At this point, I really wanted to try a couple of things that I hadn't seen before...but Momoko's are a little bit expensive.  In an effort to not wreck one of them in a test, I rustled up a Barbie to practice my ideas on and broke out the dremel...

I've caught myself thinking several times, I wish that a ring would stay on this doll's finger!  Well, with the help of a micro drill bit, I made a little hole in between a couple of fingers.  I then cut a piece of 28g copper wire and passed it through the hole with both ends coming up to the top of the hand.  I slid a crystal sequin over both strands of wire and cinched it down tight to the hand.  I'm going to have to figure out how to finesse the next part...because I just snipped the wire off and curved it over to keep the sequin in place.

After the dremel success with the hand, I thought I would attempt to make true ear "piercings" in the softer vinyl of the head.  Most doll earrings consist of a post earring that is punched straight into the head.  I've always thought that real earrings would look really neat, and I think it actually worked out ok!  The craft wire I used (26g) is a little softer than I would prefer, so I will probably break out the sterling to make earrings for the Momoko's.  Ooh, little pearl earrings!  Wouldn't that be pretty?

I hope you all enjoyed my explorations into miniature jewelry making!  Please excuse me while I rummage to find more tiny beads!