Pippi made this necklace for the Etsy Wire Artisans Guild March theme challenge of 'Emerald Isle' The design was adapted from the book, Celtic Art, Methods of Construction by George Bain (Dover books). She did a sketch of the knot in the size she wanted before starting.There is close to 70 feet of fine silver wire wrapped into this piece, and it took over a week of patient wrapping to complete. The center features a piece of green sea glass she picked up off a beach in Ireland, and the tiny green beads are glass seed beads. Each tiny bead was looped around with wire after being wrapped onto the knotwork, to frame it, and the sea glass is set in a bezel of faceted Thai silver beads done in peyote stitch. The doubled, double eight chain hooks in the back with a sterling lobster clasp, and a 3-D, silver, sand dollar charm hangs from the adjustable chain in the back. Find out more about this beautiful piece here!
Emerald Isle Necklace By Pippijewelry
Let's meet Crystal From CharmAndJewels
Let's meet Crystal Carlton from www.charmandjewels.com. She was very kiind and agreed to answer our invitation to be featured in the club here. Read her story here:
I am Crystal Carlton, a wife, and a mother of 1 lovely little daughter named Taya. I am 38 years old, and I live in Akron, Ohio.I have been a hairstylist for 19 years, and I have been an Independent Artist/Designer since January 2004. Charm & Jewels offers a wide variety of beautiful handmade jewelry. The designs in my collection are unique, eyecatching, and elegant. Designed with the finest components including handmade lampwork beads, charm beads, gemstones, sterling silver, bali silver, gold-filled, jangles, ceramic, Swarovski Crystals and much more. My designs include earrings, rings, bracelets, necklaces, beaded ink pens, children's jewelry and much more. I love to design wedding jewelry and designs for special occasions. 
I create all of my jewelry designs in a extra room in my home, I have designated as "My Studio"! Sometimes when I want to relax a bit more and spend some time watching television with my family, I take a small table into the family room and do some beading there as well. I have always been artistic, but I get my inspiration from just about anything I see, I love to watch the seasons change, with all the beautiful colors we see they sometimes inspire me to design pieces made up of those colors. Designing jewelry really began with "My Little Inspiration", Taya. I was working 4 days a week 16 hours a day in the salon, and when I had her I decided I wanted to be home more to be with her, and that's when I decided to make jewelry and sell it. 
Because I have always been creative, I purchased a bead kit, put it together and that was it! I began to go to local Bead Shows, and began to frequent Bead Shops. For the most part I taught myself, and when there was something I couldn't do I would not hesitate to take a class! I promote my wares any way I can. I sell it in several shops here in the Akron area. I always donate to charities and auctions for even more exposure. I've also been in several malls, selling my jewelry for short periods of time, and of course my website,and my Etsy shop. 
The most important lesson I've learned is to budget my time and my money!!! You have to, this business can be time consuming and can consume you financially!!!
Crystal can be found at:
http://www.charmandjewels.com
http://www.charmandjewels.etsy.com
Crystal, thanks for sharing your story and creations with us! Cheers
Are YOU a Stalker?
The Biggest Stalker is determined by several things...Most importantly is how often we "see" your pretty faces :) Whether it be in threads, in the 24/7 BHR Chat, in the BHR forums, emails we've received telling us what you've done to prove you're the Biggest Stalker.... (although we do require that you refrain from doing anything illegal).
If you've chained yourself to a lamp post and screamed "Listen to blockheadradio.com" as everyone passed by... we wanna see the video.
Of course you don't have to take it to that level. But that would be cool ;)
Let us know when you've blogged! Bring a friend to the show. Support the BHR Charity Sampler box. Email us if you've told some random person on the street. Get that random person to email us. Tell them to let us know you sent them.
How the Biggest Stalker is decided is totally up to the Stalkers and the precedents they set forth. Bombard every host in every way you know how. Emails, blogs, chat, shows.... Just stop short of hiding outside their houses in the bushes.
Dazzle us with your persistence and creativity.
I will tell ya this... The Biggest Stalker every month will be handsomely rewarded!
Pass this blog along. Let us know ya did. It'll earn ya those frequent stalker points. No little annoying card to keep up with either.
I copied the above from the BHR Blog, go there to comment and let them know YOU are a stalker! Of course I'd love a comment here too :) And guess what? I'm one of those hosts they talked about you stalking . . . so tune in Thursdays at 9pm EST for a lot of fun, some great music, and to get to know a wonderful artisan better!
1000 Markets: Reclaimed To Fame Market
A few things from fellow members at the Reclaimed to Fame Market on 1000 Markets. Click the pictures to go to the shops! Enjoy! The best part? Everything is made out of recycled materials! Very cool! Now, off you go, off you go...go check 'em out!
April Dogwood
Jakrandomart
Ecume - Recycled Skirt
Hyena
Casa Real Abundance Treasure Box
Svasara
April DogwoodJakrandomart
Ecume - Recycled SkirtHyena
Casa Real Abundance Treasure Box
Svasara
The Web and It's Tutorial
Did this pendant using swarovski crystal and wire. This design requires some detailed work to ensure it looks good and nice. The picture shows the pendant on different background. It seems to fit in most colour.
Weekly Special - Spirals and Hemp!
Only $7.60!
This is one piece that I absolutely LOVE how it turned out! Ok, I love how a lot of my pieces turn out. I'm easily excited and entertained after all. *wink* But I just knew these beads had to go with a spiral weave in hemp...and it turned out just like I visualized it! I love it when that happens :) And today it can be yours! The $7.60 price includes your 20% discount, and shipping to anywhere in the world!
This bracelet is designed to be fastened by tying the ends in a simple knot, because of this, it can fit a range of wrist sizes. Over all length is 9 1/2 inches.
Hemp Jewelry Information:
As you wear your piece the fibers will bind tighter together and it will slowly gain a "smoother" appearance than it does initially. Hemp itself is very diverse in it's uses, and has been around for thousands of years! It's use in macrame become popular because it's not too slippery and it's very sturdy. Macrame has been around for centuries, and it's use in jewelry has recently seen a revitalization. I hope you enjoy my pieces!
Treasury Goodness!
I'm in a treasury! Woot! A big HUGE thank you to peacoxcreations for featuring my Purple Mountains Majesty Earrings in her treasury!
Did you know there is now an awesome site you can go to and find out if your in a treasury? I love it! Especially since my computer can be slow sometimes...so searching through the actual treasury to find out if I'm featured gets tedious. Just go to www.craftopolis.com and enter your user name and you'll find out if your featured!
Did you know there is now an awesome site you can go to and find out if your in a treasury? I love it! Especially since my computer can be slow sometimes...so searching through the actual treasury to find out if I'm featured gets tedious. Just go to www.craftopolis.com and enter your user name and you'll find out if your featured!
New Products in my Shops....
I have been working on some new brooches for my shops. They are constructed of two layers of wool felt with a form-fitting piece of acid-free mat board in between the layers to support the weight of the button. A hand tatted medallion has been appliqued to the felt so that it does not separate and wrinkle all up. Finally, the brooches are topped with a collectible button. The picture above features a large painted wood button and the picture below features a hand painted poppy on antique pearl. The artist is unknown. Last night, I listed a brooch in this line on 1000Markets.com featuring a leaf shaped button encrusted with rhinestones on black tatting and dark green wool felt. I have several made up and will be listing them on Etsy and 1000Markets over the next few days. Feedback is always appreciated!
100th Post!
(Kimchi & Blue Top, Arden B. Skinny Jeans, Jeffrey Campbell Oxford Shoes via Solestruck.com)
YAY to my 100th post!
Thank you to all of my lovely readers. Thank you for the kind comments, funny emails, encouragements, and taking interest in my blog.
All of you guys are so awesome. seriously.
Amy The Awesome of BlockHead Radio
Thursday night I had the privilege of sitting down with the Amy the Awesome and interviewing her live on the air! Many followers of BlockHead Radio are already familiar with Amy. This wonderful gal has a passion for life, and as a part of her passion she has done a lot to support BlockHead Radio! In fact, she's now on staff here, and doing a fantastic job of helping maintain the blog, and promoting BHR to the masses.Amy is a stay at home Mom with two rambunctious boys. When I asked her why she had named her etsy shop "Mamas Little Monkeys" she told me it was because it sounded a lot better than calling them rascals! Sounds like normal little boys to me though, and she obviously loves them a lot.
On top of taking care of her boys and her work with the radio, you can find Amy doing lots of fun creative things and spreading that creative goodness all over the web! On etsy you can find her under MamasLittleMonkeys and FleurdeInk. She's also a faithful member of CafeMom and she sells on several other venues as well! Unfortunately I don't have every one of her links to share with you.
In her shops Amy sells childrens clothing, recycled crayons in fun shapes, photography, graphic design, toys, soaps, pretty pens, and whatever else her awesome mind comes up with! Do you have kids? Then Amy probably has exactly what your looking for!
Did I mention that Amy blogs as well? She does a lot of the blogs posts here on this BHR's blog, and she has her own blog! So head on over to it and learn even more about Amy! Plus you can get to know her better by tuning into her show, Mom's Cafe, Wednesday night at 9pm on www.blockheadradiolive.com.
Emerald Isle Necklace By Pippijewelry
Pippi made this necklace for the Etsy Wire Artisans Guild March theme challenge of 'Emerald Isle' The design was adapted from the book, Celtic Art, Methods of Construction by George Bain (Dover books). She did a sketch of the knot in the size she wanted before starting.There is close to 70 feet of fine silver wire wrapped into this piece, and it took over a week of patient wrapping to complete. The center features a piece of green sea glass she picked up off a beach in Ireland, and the tiny green beads are glass seed beads. Each tiny bead was looped around with wire after being wrapped onto the knotwork, to frame it, and the sea glass is set in a bezel of faceted Thai silver beads done in peyote stitch. The doubled, double eight chain hooks in the back with a sterling lobster clasp, and a 3-D, silver, sand dollar charm hangs from the adjustable chain in the back.
Find out more about this beautiful piece here!
Tropical Chic - Choker
I really love this design! It was created by Triz Designs for the EtsyBeadWeavers “Tropical Holiday” Jan/Feb Challenge.
The flowers were beadwoven using purple, turquoise and royal blue Japanese Delica beads and gold Czech seed beads woven around off-white Swarovski crystal pearls. The flowers hang from a simple gold beaded choker which fastens with a hook and bobble. The choker itself is gold and nickel plated base metal.
You can find a few variations in different bright colourful combinationse from Triz Designs' blog. Click here to find out more!
Zodiac Jewelry
By XQ Designs & Tutorials
Created these pendants over the weekend! I like it a lot. Will come up with different designs for other zodiac signs. So watch up for my next release.
Created these pendants over the weekend! I like it a lot. Will come up with different designs for other zodiac signs. So watch up for my next release.
Vintage Rose
Beads Garden Fashion proudly present "Vintage Rose".
Vintage Rose bracelet
Code: B040
Type: China Crystal - Helix Shape
Beads Size:
- China Crystal (8mm)
Price: RM 25.00 / unit
Length available: 7 inches.
Vintage Rose earring
Code: E038
Type: China Crystal - Helix shapeCode: E038
Beads Size:
- China Crystal (8mm)
Price: RM 8.00 / pair
Special: Buy both @ RM 30.00
For more details, please send an e-mail to Eva Ng at evang_yanyan@yahoo.com.
URL: http://beadsgardenfashion.blogspot.com/
Featured Designer
I love to see what people do with pendants they purchase from me! These pendants had to travel "over the pond" to Jo Smith in the UK before they turned into these beautiful pieces.
She has a blog, is on etsy and has and a website so go take a peek!
Featured Etsy Blogger - Designs by Nora!
It's time again for the etsy bloggers team's featured artist! Woohoo!
This month's featured artist is DesignByNora, and I've actually had the privelage of buying from her! Now generally, as a jewelry artist, I don't buy jewelry. I don't, however, make stud earrings, and that's what my Mom usually wears! So I went searching and bought a couple pairs of flowers like these from Nora. She was great to work with!
Nora also sells some of her uncles Naz's purses in her shop! I liked this one in particular. Can anyone guess why? LOL
And don't forget to check out her blog!
This month's featured artist is DesignByNora, and I've actually had the privelage of buying from her! Now generally, as a jewelry artist, I don't buy jewelry. I don't, however, make stud earrings, and that's what my Mom usually wears! So I went searching and bought a couple pairs of flowers like these from Nora. She was great to work with!
Nora also sells some of her uncles Naz's purses in her shop! I liked this one in particular. Can anyone guess why? LOL
And don't forget to check out her blog!
Zipper Flower Jewelry
You can now play a part in recylcing a broken zipper from clothing and turn them to beautiful accessories. This unusual flower brooch tutorial is made from a zipper and comes to you from Martha Stewart Crafts.
Watch Video Here:
Tools and Materials
36-inch Zipper
Scissors
Hot-glue gun and hot-glue sticks
Scrap of felt
Brooch or hair clip
Needle and thread
Zipper Flowers How-To
1. One zipper makes two flowers. To begin, cut the zipper stop and plastic reinforcement off the ends of the zipper. Open the zipper to divide it in half.
2. Place a dab of hot glue onto one end of the zipper, on the fabric part, and close to the teeth. Fold in cut edge; press down to secure.
3. Roll end of zipper into a very tight "bud," securing with another dab of hot glue, and spiraling downward so teeth do not overlap each other.
4. Roll three more times, tacking down each roll with a dot of hot glue.
5. Continue rolling, making looser coils. Once the bud is about the size of a nickel, make a petal by forming a loop perpendicular to the bud; secure with hot glue.
6. Make your next petal by swirling the zipper to create a figure eight; secure with hot glue.
7. Repeat until you reach the end of the zipper. Sew a heart-shaped piece of felt to a brooch pin or hair clip. Hot glue to back of flower.
Resources
All supplies are available at crafts or sewing-supply stores. Special thanks to Annie Mistak for demonstrating this craft. For more information, visit bettyeinc.com.
Etsy, Artfire, 1000Markets....A Review.....
A little while ago, it was asked of me my opinion on the comparison between the three wonderful online selling venues for handmade things. I'm ready to give my opinion, but please keep in mind that this is simply an opinion and there is not scientific evidence backing this!
We'll start with a positive note: the pros of all three venues. Etsy has certainly been around the longest and therefore, has the most traffic. Definitely a plus! Shopping experiences are easy and search options are equally as easy. You also get a decent amount of tags for your items. Now, Artfire is in it's beginning stages, but believe it or not, I am getting a fair amount of traffic to my Artfire shop. What's better is that Artfire has integrated Rapid Cart so you can put it on your blog. Don't laugh, I got a sale last week in my Artfire shop using Rapid Cart on my blog! The fees are super reasonable ($7 a month, no more, no less), it is impossible to get lost in the shuffle because items come up at random, whereas on Etsy, they come up in order listed/relisted. Artfire also doesn't seem to favor certain sellers, every one is treated equal and you get unlimited tags. One thing to keep in mind about Arfire's $7/month deal: I purchased my spot several weeks ago when there were still 1600 out of 5000 slots open. There is now only 205 slots left open. If you do not lock into the $7/month, it will rise to $20/month. You can still have your free account, but you can only list 10 items on it. More items = more exposure. 1000Markets also just began and I get very little traffic to the site, but it is very upscale. The administrators actually "jury" your pieces. If you don't have what they are looking for, you don't get in. Kinda like Trunkt (they even have a section for 1000Markets members who are also Trunkt members!). I prefer the total look and feel of this site compared to the other two.
Now for the cons...I'm not trying to trash any venue, I am just giving my honest opinion. While Etsy does get alot of traffic, it is so very easy to get lost. There is so many sellers to compete with and items come up in order they were listed, so you have to keep yourself very visible which can be very expensive. At $.20 a pop, it tends to add up by the end of the month. In fact, my highest fees when I did my taxes were my Etsy fees! I also tend to notice that certain sellers are brought into the spotlight over and over. Favoritism? Who knows, but the bottom line is that I am getting consistent sales there, so I can't complain. Artfire, as I said before, is still in the beginning stages, so the con is not as much traffic as Etsy, but I am getting more hits and sales than at 1000Markets. Another "can't complain". However, even if I don't list anything and don't sell anything, I'm still charged $7/month. Cheaper than Etsy, but worth the gamble to see if they become more popular like Etsy. 1000Markets is still in beta mode, so there is barely any traffic at all and no sales. But when you consider the fact that I didn't pay anything to list there, I have nothing to lose. I only pay if I sell. You also get very few tags. This may be something they will change in the future, remember, this is only in beta mode right now. The other con is that 1000Markets doesn't do their money exchange through PayPal, you have to sign up for Amazon. I've never used them before, so this experience is new to me. If 1000Markets gains some momentum and I turn sales there like I do on Etsy, 1000Markets will certainly be my preferred online venue!
I do need to mention that I have accounts on DaWanda and ShopHandmade also. They have been there for about six months: barely any hits, no sales. Sure, it didn't cost anything to list on either site, but I took all my items out of the shops so I could stock Artfire and 1000Markets. Oh, a word of caution: If you sell one-of-a-kind items, don't list the same item in two shops. If it sells in both shops at the same time before you catch it, you will certainly be in a pickle. It's just bad business. Suck it up and make sure you have made enough items to stock all your shops. I'm not speaking from experience, but I certainly don't want to experience it, either!
I hope this has been helpful...now....get selling!
We'll start with a positive note: the pros of all three venues. Etsy has certainly been around the longest and therefore, has the most traffic. Definitely a plus! Shopping experiences are easy and search options are equally as easy. You also get a decent amount of tags for your items. Now, Artfire is in it's beginning stages, but believe it or not, I am getting a fair amount of traffic to my Artfire shop. What's better is that Artfire has integrated Rapid Cart so you can put it on your blog. Don't laugh, I got a sale last week in my Artfire shop using Rapid Cart on my blog! The fees are super reasonable ($7 a month, no more, no less), it is impossible to get lost in the shuffle because items come up at random, whereas on Etsy, they come up in order listed/relisted. Artfire also doesn't seem to favor certain sellers, every one is treated equal and you get unlimited tags. One thing to keep in mind about Arfire's $7/month deal: I purchased my spot several weeks ago when there were still 1600 out of 5000 slots open. There is now only 205 slots left open. If you do not lock into the $7/month, it will rise to $20/month. You can still have your free account, but you can only list 10 items on it. More items = more exposure. 1000Markets also just began and I get very little traffic to the site, but it is very upscale. The administrators actually "jury" your pieces. If you don't have what they are looking for, you don't get in. Kinda like Trunkt (they even have a section for 1000Markets members who are also Trunkt members!). I prefer the total look and feel of this site compared to the other two.
Now for the cons...I'm not trying to trash any venue, I am just giving my honest opinion. While Etsy does get alot of traffic, it is so very easy to get lost. There is so many sellers to compete with and items come up in order they were listed, so you have to keep yourself very visible which can be very expensive. At $.20 a pop, it tends to add up by the end of the month. In fact, my highest fees when I did my taxes were my Etsy fees! I also tend to notice that certain sellers are brought into the spotlight over and over. Favoritism? Who knows, but the bottom line is that I am getting consistent sales there, so I can't complain. Artfire, as I said before, is still in the beginning stages, so the con is not as much traffic as Etsy, but I am getting more hits and sales than at 1000Markets. Another "can't complain". However, even if I don't list anything and don't sell anything, I'm still charged $7/month. Cheaper than Etsy, but worth the gamble to see if they become more popular like Etsy. 1000Markets is still in beta mode, so there is barely any traffic at all and no sales. But when you consider the fact that I didn't pay anything to list there, I have nothing to lose. I only pay if I sell. You also get very few tags. This may be something they will change in the future, remember, this is only in beta mode right now. The other con is that 1000Markets doesn't do their money exchange through PayPal, you have to sign up for Amazon. I've never used them before, so this experience is new to me. If 1000Markets gains some momentum and I turn sales there like I do on Etsy, 1000Markets will certainly be my preferred online venue!
I do need to mention that I have accounts on DaWanda and ShopHandmade also. They have been there for about six months: barely any hits, no sales. Sure, it didn't cost anything to list on either site, but I took all my items out of the shops so I could stock Artfire and 1000Markets. Oh, a word of caution: If you sell one-of-a-kind items, don't list the same item in two shops. If it sells in both shops at the same time before you catch it, you will certainly be in a pickle. It's just bad business. Suck it up and make sure you have made enough items to stock all your shops. I'm not speaking from experience, but I certainly don't want to experience it, either!
I hope this has been helpful...now....get selling!
Ways to wrap a tear drop bead
This post was originally written and posted in The Work Room some time back. Beginners would most probably find this useful and therefore I thought I would also post a copy here to share with you guys. :)
When I first started making jewellery, I was rather fascinated with the tear drop bead. I’ve always thought that it was a very elegant shape. However, I had a problem. I didn’t know how to join it.
Prior to much knowledge on wire wrapping, common sense told me that using a jump ring is the most appropriate method I know of at that time. But due to the shape of the bead, it wasn’t an easy task after all. I could hardly attach a small size jump ring such as a 4mm one to it. I would need bigger sized jump rings. Even a 5mm jump ring seemed to me to be pushing it a little.
The main reason I don’t like using jump ring to attach a tear drop bead is due to the finishing it gives. Since I would almost definitely need a bigger jump ring to do the job, the end product looked a bit unrefined to me. Unless of course if I could use a smaller jump ring. But that’s not too likely to be the case, isn’t it?
I couldn’t find the exact picture I want. This was the closest that I could find. Just imagine the round bead being a tear drop bead.
The Japanese beaders, I’ve noticed uses a head pin instead. Basically what they do is insert a head pin through the hole. The head will act as a stopper on one side preventing the bead from sliding off. The other end of the head pin is the bent upwards to form a loop.
Here is a picture for illustration.
I gave this a try myself.
Quite frankly, I’ll have to say that I don’t favour this method at all. I sort of stopped after making the bend. I’m so worried that it might break the tip off that I just couldn’t bring myself to go ahead and finished it with a loop.
If any of you have used the Swarovski crystal tear drop bead before, you should realize the crystal is almost as fragile as glass where they will splinter or break if more than necessary amount of pressure is exerted. I’ve experienced a handful of broken tear drop beads that I’m beginning to be wary of using the bead.
But of course, that was all before me using wires. Now that I’m using wire already, I basically categorized the ways I use to wrap a tear drop bead into 2 methods.
Classic
I call this the classic method because this is probably the method you’ll generally find printed in any beading books or magazines or even online beaders forum.
Considered as one of the basics in wirework.
Here is how you do it.
Slide your tear drop bead in.
Measure about 1” from the end of the wire.
With your chain nose plier, grip onto the wire.....
.... and make a 90 degrees angle turn upwards.
For convenience sake, some people may use a round nose plier for the job since you will be using it to make the loop and would rather save the hassle of changing pliers.
But I like to use a chain nose plier for this kind of job because I feel that it gives me a more precise angle than a round nose plier.
Slide your bead back down and grip onto the other end of the wire.
With your chain nose, make another 90 degrees turn upwards for this other end and cut off at a desired length.
But of course you can always pre cut the desired length of wire first. I’ve just got the knack of working out from the spool but some may find it a bit difficult to work around since the spool of wire is constantly in the way. This may be especially true for beginners. So, maybe it would be a better idea for you to pre cut the wires out first and then take it from there. ;)
You might however want to have one side longer than the other, just in case if you want to make a wrapped loop for your tear drop bead since the short one will only be used to make a few wraps as the midpoint of the loop.
One thing to note though is that when you were making the bend on both sides of the wire, don’t bend it too close to the bead. You should leave a small gap on both sides so that your tear drop bead could dangle nicely later on. Also, be careful not to exert too much pressure or you might break the tip as I have done so many times!
Now that you have wires on both side of the bead. What you are going to do next is to cross these two wires to form an X.
Similarly, you might not want to cross it too close to the tip because you should have enough space for you to grip with while wrapping.
Ok, so now you have two crossed wire. One of it will be one which you will form the loop with and the other to make the wrap at the midpoint.
With these two wires, you are going to form a 90 degrees angle at the top of the bead by turning one of the wires down to form the horizontal line......
I know the picture here is a bit misleading since it doesn't look horizontal here but I'm talking in the sense that the bead is in an upright position, where bead is at the bottom and wire above. Try visualizing it, ya! And then you'll get what I mean. ;)
........ and another up to form the vertical line.
It doesn’t matter which wire to form the horizontal or the vertical one.
The vertical one will be the one you will be making the loop with and the horizontal one the one that you will be making the wrap with.
Here’s the 90 degrees angle at the tip.
With your round nose, grip at the bottom of the wires. Well, you can also use a chain nose. It doesn’t matter. I like to grip with my round nose and wrap with the chain nose. You may do it the other way round. It’s just a matter of preference at the end of the day.
Using the chain nose plier, grip onto the horizontal wire and wrap around the vertical wire.
Wrap as many or as little times around as you like and cut off the excess wrapping wire. Now, you are left with a single vertical wire with a wrapped bottom and reshape if necessary.
Well, I would say you have two options to finish it off here. You can either make a wrapped loop or a lolly loop with the wire. It makes not much difference really. A matter of preference, maybe? I made a comparison between the two types of loop here. So, if you are interested, you may want to give it a read.
Capped
This is probably one where you would see mostly used by wire jewellery artist, I reckon. It’s as though the wire wrappings formed some kind of bead cap at the top of the tip.
Basically what you will be doing is make a loop with one end of the wire and leave the other end of the wire much longer to make the ‘wrapped cap’.
Cut a 3” long wire. This is just a guide only. You may want to adjust accordingly to the size of the tear drop bead you are using or how long of a ‘wrapped cap’ you want to make. Here, I’m using an 11mm Swarovski tear drop bead.
Measure approximately 1” from the end of one of the wires.....
And make a 90 degrees bend.
Slide your bead in and we are going to make another 90 degrees bend on the other wire end. You may not necessarily use a tool each time for making the bend. Here, I’m showing how you can also make the bend with your thumb as well. The thumb, I find, to be presumably much gentler than the tools.
Unlike the earlier method, for this you may bend the side wires as close to the bead since the tip would be covered and the tear drop bead is not expected to dangle from the triangle frame other than from the loop joint above the bead.
Now, you will have two wires parallel to each other but one is longer than the other. The short one will be the one you will be making the loop with and the longer one will be the one for wrapping.
What you will be doing next is to cross the wires to form an ‘X’.
Turn the shorter wire such that it now forms a horizontal line.
The two wires need not necessarily form a 90 degrees angle here since it will make not much of a difference since the longer wire will eventually be used to make the wrapping downwards. It just so happens that the angle in which it was took appears to be so.
With your round nose plier, grip onto the shorter wire. We are now going to make a loop on the shorter wire.
Turn the wire around.
And form a loop
Alright, you are going to stop right here.
This is what you will get. The shorter wire somewhat parallel to one of the sides of the wire framing the tip of the bead.
See how the shorter wire is longer that the wire framing the tip of the bead?
We’ll need to cut the excess such that it should be at the least of the same length as the side wire.
Bend the longer wire downwards to form a horizontal line and this is somewhat of what you’ll get.
Okay, now we are going to make the wrapped cap. Here’s where the wrapping part begins. I used the round nose plier to grip onto the loop.
Be careful when you want to make the wrappings here though. As you can see, the longer wire is just a bend and without securing the bend as the midpoint, the wire tends to ‘run’. So, what you can do here is maybe to make a round at the bend to secure it as the midpoint for better grip while making the rest of the wrap.
What I normally do is to turn it upside down and grip the frame near the tip together with the shorter wire.
Make a single wrap around to secure all the wires together.
Turn back to the upright position and grip at the loop.
Now, start wrapping downwards.
Cut off the excess wires and do the necessary nip and tuck and this is the end product.
I hope you guys had fun reading them just as I had in writting them. Feel free to drop by The Work Room sometimes for more jewellery making tips and tricks. ;)
When I first started making jewellery, I was rather fascinated with the tear drop bead. I’ve always thought that it was a very elegant shape. However, I had a problem. I didn’t know how to join it.
Prior to much knowledge on wire wrapping, common sense told me that using a jump ring is the most appropriate method I know of at that time. But due to the shape of the bead, it wasn’t an easy task after all. I could hardly attach a small size jump ring such as a 4mm one to it. I would need bigger sized jump rings. Even a 5mm jump ring seemed to me to be pushing it a little.The main reason I don’t like using jump ring to attach a tear drop bead is due to the finishing it gives. Since I would almost definitely need a bigger jump ring to do the job, the end product looked a bit unrefined to me. Unless of course if I could use a smaller jump ring. But that’s not too likely to be the case, isn’t it?
The Japanese beaders, I’ve noticed uses a head pin instead. Basically what they do is insert a head pin through the hole. The head will act as a stopper on one side preventing the bead from sliding off. The other end of the head pin is the bent upwards to form a loop.
Here is a picture for illustration.
I gave this a try myself.
Quite frankly, I’ll have to say that I don’t favour this method at all. I sort of stopped after making the bend. I’m so worried that it might break the tip off that I just couldn’t bring myself to go ahead and finished it with a loop.
If any of you have used the Swarovski crystal tear drop bead before, you should realize the crystal is almost as fragile as glass where they will splinter or break if more than necessary amount of pressure is exerted. I’ve experienced a handful of broken tear drop beads that I’m beginning to be wary of using the bead.
But of course, that was all before me using wires. Now that I’m using wire already, I basically categorized the ways I use to wrap a tear drop bead into 2 methods.
Classic
I call this the classic method because this is probably the method you’ll generally find printed in any beading books or magazines or even online beaders forum.
Considered as one of the basics in wirework.
Here is how you do it.
Slide your tear drop bead in.
Measure about 1” from the end of the wire.
With your chain nose plier, grip onto the wire.....
.... and make a 90 degrees angle turn upwards.
For convenience sake, some people may use a round nose plier for the job since you will be using it to make the loop and would rather save the hassle of changing pliers.
But I like to use a chain nose plier for this kind of job because I feel that it gives me a more precise angle than a round nose plier.
Slide your bead back down and grip onto the other end of the wire.
With your chain nose, make another 90 degrees turn upwards for this other end and cut off at a desired length.
But of course you can always pre cut the desired length of wire first. I’ve just got the knack of working out from the spool but some may find it a bit difficult to work around since the spool of wire is constantly in the way. This may be especially true for beginners. So, maybe it would be a better idea for you to pre cut the wires out first and then take it from there. ;)
You might however want to have one side longer than the other, just in case if you want to make a wrapped loop for your tear drop bead since the short one will only be used to make a few wraps as the midpoint of the loop.
One thing to note though is that when you were making the bend on both sides of the wire, don’t bend it too close to the bead. You should leave a small gap on both sides so that your tear drop bead could dangle nicely later on. Also, be careful not to exert too much pressure or you might break the tip as I have done so many times!
Now that you have wires on both side of the bead. What you are going to do next is to cross these two wires to form an X.
Similarly, you might not want to cross it too close to the tip because you should have enough space for you to grip with while wrapping.
Ok, so now you have two crossed wire. One of it will be one which you will form the loop with and the other to make the wrap at the midpoint.
With these two wires, you are going to form a 90 degrees angle at the top of the bead by turning one of the wires down to form the horizontal line......
........ and another up to form the vertical line.
It doesn’t matter which wire to form the horizontal or the vertical one.
The vertical one will be the one you will be making the loop with and the horizontal one the one that you will be making the wrap with.
Here’s the 90 degrees angle at the tip.
With your round nose, grip at the bottom of the wires. Well, you can also use a chain nose. It doesn’t matter. I like to grip with my round nose and wrap with the chain nose. You may do it the other way round. It’s just a matter of preference at the end of the day.
Using the chain nose plier, grip onto the horizontal wire and wrap around the vertical wire.
Wrap as many or as little times around as you like and cut off the excess wrapping wire. Now, you are left with a single vertical wire with a wrapped bottom and reshape if necessary.
Well, I would say you have two options to finish it off here. You can either make a wrapped loop or a lolly loop with the wire. It makes not much difference really. A matter of preference, maybe? I made a comparison between the two types of loop here. So, if you are interested, you may want to give it a read.
Capped
This is probably one where you would see mostly used by wire jewellery artist, I reckon. It’s as though the wire wrappings formed some kind of bead cap at the top of the tip.
Basically what you will be doing is make a loop with one end of the wire and leave the other end of the wire much longer to make the ‘wrapped cap’.
Cut a 3” long wire. This is just a guide only. You may want to adjust accordingly to the size of the tear drop bead you are using or how long of a ‘wrapped cap’ you want to make. Here, I’m using an 11mm Swarovski tear drop bead.
Measure approximately 1” from the end of one of the wires.....
And make a 90 degrees bend.
Slide your bead in and we are going to make another 90 degrees bend on the other wire end. You may not necessarily use a tool each time for making the bend. Here, I’m showing how you can also make the bend with your thumb as well. The thumb, I find, to be presumably much gentler than the tools.
Unlike the earlier method, for this you may bend the side wires as close to the bead since the tip would be covered and the tear drop bead is not expected to dangle from the triangle frame other than from the loop joint above the bead.
Now, you will have two wires parallel to each other but one is longer than the other. The short one will be the one you will be making the loop with and the longer one will be the one for wrapping.
What you will be doing next is to cross the wires to form an ‘X’.
Turn the shorter wire such that it now forms a horizontal line.
With your round nose plier, grip onto the shorter wire. We are now going to make a loop on the shorter wire.
Turn the wire around.
And form a loop
Alright, you are going to stop right here.
This is what you will get. The shorter wire somewhat parallel to one of the sides of the wire framing the tip of the bead.
See how the shorter wire is longer that the wire framing the tip of the bead?
We’ll need to cut the excess such that it should be at the least of the same length as the side wire.
Bend the longer wire downwards to form a horizontal line and this is somewhat of what you’ll get.
Okay, now we are going to make the wrapped cap. Here’s where the wrapping part begins. I used the round nose plier to grip onto the loop.
Be careful when you want to make the wrappings here though. As you can see, the longer wire is just a bend and without securing the bend as the midpoint, the wire tends to ‘run’. So, what you can do here is maybe to make a round at the bend to secure it as the midpoint for better grip while making the rest of the wrap.
What I normally do is to turn it upside down and grip the frame near the tip together with the shorter wire.
Make a single wrap around to secure all the wires together.
Turn back to the upright position and grip at the loop.
Now, start wrapping downwards.
Cut off the excess wires and do the necessary nip and tuck and this is the end product.
I hope you guys had fun reading them just as I had in writting them. Feel free to drop by The Work Room sometimes for more jewellery making tips and tricks. ;)
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