Do I Miss Stringing? Yep, I Do!!

Sunday, July 13

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Saturday, July 12

Except for a few pieces here and there, it has been months since I actually created something with simple stringing wire.

I didn’t realize how much I missed just sitting at my craft table eyeballing my jewelry supplies and just pulling different pieces of this and that together and making something pretty. Quickly.

After struggling for hours on wirewrapping the necklace in my prior post, I decided to make another necklace using the same beads but to string them instead of wirewrapping. It is such a satisfying feeling to get something started AND finished in under an hour.

The gemstones have specks and stripes of green and goes nicely with the green pearls which BTW are fake. Though I have to admit when I spotted them in the craft store, I actually thought they were real. About 1000 of them for $21. LOL!! Yeah right!! The Giant Earthtone Pearl Bead Box. I think the manufacturers missed a word when describing them. They forgot FAUX!! But I like them.

I think this turned out great. I made a bracelet and earrings to match. I used 8/0 Toho Smoked Topaz seed beads and also 4mm round copper colored beads as fillers. The clasps are antique brass filigree.

OK. Now… back to wirewrapping.

Pretty Faux Pearls and Gemstones

Saturday, July 12

This necklace almost didn’t get made.

I had a time wirewrapping the 12 gauge brown wire with 26 gauge wire while adding beads at the same time. I just do not get it. How can I unroll a long enough piece of wire AND keep it from getting tangled and knotted as I wrap? I tried wrapping it around my hand to get it out of the way but then had to unroll it to add a bead. ???? But I kept going. Slowly.

This is what I started with. This brown wire thingy. I created this design with my Thing-A-Ma-Gig spacing pegs out on the board.

I worked on the bottom half of the necklace first. I figured I would get the hard part out of the way and then worry about how to finish the top later.

So starting with the 26 ga wire, I wrapped around the round swirl enough times to cover the cut edges. Then I added a few seed beads, then a pearl. Wrapped once, twice, sometimes three times around the brown 12 ga wire. I continued adding seed beads and pearls, going from left to right until I reached the round swirl on the opposite end. I then wirewrapped five large flat round gemstones and dangled them from the front.

The top half of the necklace is a strand of beads on stringing wire. I used faux pearls, seed beads and copper beads. It connects to the bottom with a circle of seedbeads on the right and a toggle bar on the left.

Pearls are plastic in rose, peach, taupe and ivory. I made a pair of earrings to match but need to get some fish hooks in copper to finish them.

To prepare the 12 gauge wire, I hammered on it a bit with my new hammer. Not too much. I didn’t want to crush the wire or break it. I was expecting the wire to get rock hard, but I can still bend it by touching it. I guess I need to pound harder next time.