Well, I have enough beads left over to...

Remember the freeform cuff from a few days ago? (and a year ago?)

These are the bead piles I worked from on Wednesday when I recreated the cuff (which sold yesterday morning).

I have enough beads left over to make this cuff again, and those of you who read this blog regularly will NOT be surprised to learn that I haven't put the beads away yet!

So - here's the deal. If you are seriously interested in owning this cuff, I will be happy to make one for you - just sign onto Etsy and send me a convo letting me know you would like one. This will be first come, first served - offer good while bead supply lasts only!


Once I receive your convo, I will create a custom reserved listing for you, which will have a picture of the bracelet I made earlier this week. Your bracelet will look slightly different - although I am using the same bead assortment, this is a freeform design, and the beads go where they want to go! Once I have received payment (in full) for the design, I will make your bracelet, and ship it off to you within 3 business days. Easy!

Please be aware that this cuff is not really adjustable. The cuff will fit from size 6 to size 7-1/4. The cuff form itself, being steel, is quite durable, but also rigid, so on a smaller wrist, it will be a little loose, and probably impossible to shape to the wearer's smaller size. Similar, it can't be opened wider to accommodate a larger wrist.

Pics of the first 2 versions of this cuff:

freeform wire cuff, 2013

 freeform wire cuff, 2012

If you'd like one of these almost one-of-kind cuffs, send me a convo on Etsy!

BSBP Deconstructed: Sari Ribbon Cuff with Bluebird

For those of you looking for my BSBP reveal, it is here - I hope you'll click the link and check out the whole reveal!

This is the 4th in a series of posts devoted to breaking down the design process that went into each of my BSBP creations. The series so far:

1. kumihimo lariat with gemstone chips
2. sari ribbon and enameled bead necklace
3. Vintaj charm/cha-cha bracelet

If you've been following along, you know that so far, I have used 2 clasps AND bunches of beads sent to me by my partner, but I haven't yet used any of her focals, so I still haven't met the BSBP challenge - gotta make something with one of the wonderful focals Kate sent me!

The Vintaj charm bracelet I made started out as a design for one of the focals, but as often happens, the creative process took on a life of its own, and edged the blue bird right out of the finished piece.

{Reminder: this is how the charm bracelet started}

I had specifically shaped and  patinated the (formerly silver) bird blue FOR this charm bracelet, and I really wanted to use this happy bird, so I started ruminating on bracelet designs that could accommodate this focal.

I have a huge stash of sari ribbon, but it's not something I am real comfortable using - I want to work with it more and figure out innovative ways to add it to my designs! I had some gorgeous grass green sari ribbon that looked terrific with the bluebird, so I started playing around with ways to work both elements into a bracelet.

I finally settled on a wrapped cuff, using this copper-plated steel lattice-style cuff as a base:

I have used this cuff for a number of different designs, and it looks different every time! This BSBP cuff used up my last one - I need to get more!

I started carefully and methodically wrapping the ribbon around and through each section of the cuff, taking care to make sure the ribbon didn't twist and get folded, and still covered most of the cuff, just letting the twisted dividing pieces show through. I crossed my fingers that the long piece of green ribbon in my stash would make it all the way through the wrapping!

view of inside of ribbon-wrapped cuff

Once the ribbon was secured, I used some fine gauge copper wire to attach the bird, as invisibly as possible, to the front of the cuff:

I love this piece - it is out of my "normal style," and reminds me of a bird flying over a green field. I love the textural variations: the soft ribbon on the hard cuff, and the bright colors!

And this fun size 7 cuff is now available on Etsy!






Stay tuned - more deconstructing tomorrow!

Blue, Green, and Copper Freeform Wire Cuff

Here is another freeform wire wrapped cuff, this one with green and blue beads that were just screaming to be paired with copper!

I formed the frame for the cuff from heavy, 12g square copper wire, and then started adding the beads in random zigzags from one side of the frame to the other, sometimes connecting the zigzags with another piece of beaded copper wire. I used round 24g copper wire for the beaded cross pieces.

The beads are a mixture of kiwi jasper, turquoise, matrix jasper, and various blue and green glass seed beads, with several shapes of copper beads and spacers interspersed.

I love freeform creating - it's a perfect fit for my personality: outside the box, with no rules! I hate rules! But whether it is freeform wire work or freeform beadweaving, the challenge is to always be thinking a couple of moves ahead, because even though it is "freeform," a little bit of planning is required, especially if you have certain elements that you know you want to fit into the finished piece.

Now, if I only had more time to express myself freely!

Freeform Wire Wrapped Bracelet

I combined a bead soup mix of blues, pinks, and neutral colors with Vintaj Natural Brass wire to create this freeform wire-wrapped cuff. The bead mix includes aquamarine rondelles; freshwater pearls in peacock blue, pink, and off white, and a mixture of seed beads and small Czech firepolish beads in pinks, blues, and bronze.

Freeform wire work is my preferred way to work with wire, because wire is not my friend! Wire likes to bend, break, and just generally be uncooperative when I work with it, so creating formal, structured pieces is a real challenge for me. I get better results when I either let the wire do whatever it pleases, as with this cuff, OR when I beat the wire into submission with hammers. Either way, I win!

Metal Dogwood Cuff

This cuff was truly a labor of love! I wanted to create an ornamental metal cuff, and had the idea for a sterling silver flower with leaves, and made several sketches, but initially balked at working with the sheet sterling - it's so expensive, and I was so afraid I would make a mistake!

Eventually I screwed up my courage, and started cutting the silver; I annealed, and folded the edges, and then deeply scribed the leaves for texture, following this up with liver of sulfur to enhance the ridges I'd created.

Attaching the flower and leaves was problematic, since I had already folded and textured the cuff. I was finally able to solder the leaves to the cuff, but I wasn't confident in my joins because only small areas took the solder, so the leaves were also riveted to the cuff. The height of the leaves prevented any soldering of the flower to the cuff, so I wired the flower to the cuff using Swarovski crystals to create the flower's center, with a pop of color. Graceful copper tendrils were then wired around the flower and leaves. I ultimately affixed a leather swatch to the inside of the cuff to hide all my rivets and wires, and protect the wearer's skin and clothing (even though everything was carefully filed down and smoothed!)

The cuff is malleable, so it will form to your wrist easily, and will fit up to size 7.5.

This elegant, contemporary piece of wearable art is now available in my Etsy shop.

Shedding Dog Hair is Sweeping the Nation!

I apologize for being a terrible blogger- am currently putting in 50-60 hours a week at the shop (it takes a lot to keep it running; I don't just get to sit around all day making jewelry!), and there's the Etsy shop,  Facebook, Bailey and all his social activities, and Gumball, and just trying to have a little time for sleeping and eating. How does anyone keep up with everything? I could seriously use a cabana boy!

I haven't had much time at all to make jewelry over the past month, but have done a little bit of metalwork, primarily - this cuff is new since I last blogged:

as is this pendant, which includes a piece of my own fused glass:

I have a made a few pairs of earrings:

and

Both of these pairs of earrings sold so quickly that I have decide to deviate from my own OOAK rule, and recreate both of these pairs, and list them on Etsy. When I get some free time!

And speaking of deviating from my OOAK rule - I made an enamelled copper pendant sometime last year:

it was my own creative take on the South Carolina Palmetto Tree symbol. One of my customers fell in love with it, and her husband eventually came in and bought it for her as a birthday gift, but before he could give it to her (he kept it in the console of his car so she wouldn't find it) his car was broken into and the pendant was stolen. So he contacted me and asked if I could re-create it, and this time "add a little blue". So this was the result:

They both loved it, and so the husband asked if I could recreate the original. I was playing with techniques, and decided to solder the moon to the pendant instead of riveting it, and evidently the application of all that heat to the copper changed the way the copper took the enamel, because this was the result:

He loved it though, and has asked me to make another - but that one is way way on the back burner (he's in no hurry.

I brought home a kumihimo project that I desperately want to do JUST FOR ME. And I am slowly but surely completing a super-secret beadweaving project that just "came to me" one day about a month ago - I am determined to finish it (it's gorgeous), and I have a new rule (that I break almost everyday) that I absolutely canNOT start a new project until I finish another project, but this beadweaving thing is so tedious, that I need a break. So I am going to Kumihimo this weekend. At least, that is the plan. And we all know what happens when we make plans!

Oh - speaking of Facebook, Bailey and I (OK,. mostly I) were feeling a little goofy this morning. You see, Facebook makes these weird suggestions of pages it thinks you will like, I'm sure based on some complicated algorithms, but yesterday it suggested to me (on 2 separate occasions) that I join:

 and then:

Really?  Rock, Paper, and Scissors? In first place: WHY??
And in the second place - why are there groups of thousands of people who have joined each of these pages. Do they log onto Facebook and go, "Gosh, I sure do like scissors. I think I will go join a Scissors fan page so I can get ALL the latest scissors news?"

So, since the Rochambeau of Facebook suggestions was egging me on, Bailey and I have created a fan page for ..... drum roll please ...... Shedding Dog Hair. Go ahead - check it out. Click the Like button - Join us! We want to be the most popular idiots on Facebook!! Our motto, in case this will sway you, is Share the Link, Share the Love, Share the Hair.

Very Sparkly Spiral Chainmaille Bracelet and Earrings

The spiral chainmaille rope is another of my favorite weaves. This set is woven with sterling silver half-round rings, so it is lighter in weight than you would expect, and the spiral weave allows the bracelet and earrings to catch the light with every movement. I just love this set!

The textured toggle reflects the spiral pattern in the bracelet, which is now available in my Etsy shop.

The matching earrings are also available in my shop!

And by the end of this week, I will have this bead embroidery cuff bracelet finished - or at least, that is the plan....lol.

New Endeavor

I'm learning bead embroidery; I had my first class just a couple of days before my surgery, and only remembered enough details after the surgery to get the bezels beaded onto the focal beads.

As with ALL my projects, I never start small.

This will be a wide cuff bracelet, and this gorgeous focal bead from Etsy's Aneurythm will be the centerpiece.

I don't honestly know how she let this bead go - it is stunning - I can't believe all the colors in it, and I have a huge choice of colors to work with in the cuff, thanks to her!

These are the 2 smaller focals which will sit on either side of the large one - I have also beaded their bezels (but forgot to take a pic) - I used delicas in a deep brick red for these 2.

And now I am in a holding pattern, waiting for the teacher to come remind me what comes next. All I know is that I get to combine a huge variety of seed bead colors and sizes, and shapes for that matter, as I am going to use some bugle beads and some triangle beads, in a crazy glitzy freeform pattern, which is just my favorite way to bead.

Yay freeform! Yay asymmetry! Yay chaos!

Boo logic, rules, and order!