Easy Stringing

A few weeks ago I visited Allegory Gallery. It's a lovely little gallery, a sweet bead shop, and they have an Etsy shop too.

www.etsy.com/shop/AllegoryGallery

While I was there I purchased this sweet clay owl.
The plan was to use some copper and beads from my stash to make a necklace.

I guess I'm out of practice, because I couldn't get my fingers to do what my brain was thinking. I just could not get the copper wire to bend the right way.

So instead of doing the wire wrapping technique with beads on hand, I ordered some clay beads with larger holes from www.etsy.com/shop/AtHomeInTaos
Love their beads!

I strung everything on a leather cord. No wire required…

Keeping it simple.

Have an easy day!

Karen

Vintage Love

Velvet-Silk-Chalkware

 Linen-Glitter

 Amber-Paper

karen

Beach Pebbles And Silk

Silk Fiber

 White Beach Pebbles

 Organic Shape

 Natural

 Unconventional Crochet

One Of A Kind

karen 

Stinging Nettle Fiber

Who knew that this amazing organic fiber could be made from the Stinging Nettle plant.

 It's a bit difficult to crochet with as it's not as smooth as most other fibers and has no stretch to it, but it has a great rustic look and becomes softer the more it is handled. I am pairing it up with these lovely chunks of quartz to make a wearable earthy art piece.

 On my work table.

It's my current work in progress.

karen

Textile Bracelet Tutorial

Just a quick how to:

You will need some...

memory wire

wire cutters

round nose pliers

scissors

fabric strips or ribbon (1/2 to 3/4 in. wide and 1 yd. long)

glue

embellishments

 Cut a piece of memory wire 2 inches more than the circumference of your wrist.

Using the round nose pliers, curl a loop onto each end of the wire.

 Place a dab of glue next to one of the loops and anchor the end of your ribbon.

Wrap wire tightly, overlapping as you go.

When you reach the other loop add another dab of glue and anchor your ribbon at this end too.

Wrap again in the opposite direction.

 When you reach the end or beginning, depending how you look at it...anchor with one final dab of glue. Trim off any excess ribbon. They should look like this.

You can either leave them like this

or add whatever  you like. I embellished mine with beads and wire.

 I apply a jump ring to each of the end loops to keep the charms and beads from sliding off.

Here are some made with torn strips of cotton textiles.

You can see I over wrapped some with flax, hemp, ribbon and wire.

Here you can see the jump rings and some beaded wire wrapping.

Another set with just bright copper wire wrapping and some simple silver beads.

If anyone decides to make some of these I would love to see them.

I think the possibilities are endless.

karen

Just Jewelry

Practicing my jewelry making.

 Just keeping busy and trying to get through the winter.

Cabin fever is creeping in on me.

karen

Developing My Own Style

 Making Jewelry...

Inspiration can come to us in many forms.

Other artists, nature, moods, experiences, books, magazines, pinterest, flickr, etc., etc.

Inspiration is all around us.

 Sometimes buying a new outfit will trigger the urge to create a piece of jewelry.

Sometimes sorting through the supplies I've accumulated over the years will do it.
(Check out the cool fiber covered wire...and these ceramic beads are just awesome!)

 Treasure hunting in junk and antique shops is another place that I find inspiration.

 A little inspiration from a lot of different places and there it is...

My own style.

 A combination of tattered lace and handspun fibers.

 Glass, stone and mixed metals.

Broken vintage jewelry mixed with some new parts and pieces.

It's all coming together nicely.

Random Salvage

karen

Some Handmade Bling

Felt the need for some new bling.

The kind that I put together myself with some of the parts and pieces I've gathered over time.

I needed something blue as it is my favorite color these days.

 This one is mixed metals, stone and glass.

 And this one is ...

 horn and stone, metal and bone.

A little something odd is fun sometimes.

karen

Random Salvage Spring Pieces

Oh, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and it makes me want to get up and do things!

How was your Easter?

Is everyone exhausted from all the planning, shopping, running around, cooking and cleaning up?

I figured after all of that, I deserved a break, so I took some time to make myself a few new pieces of jewelry.

These hammered copper earrings were made from salvaged bits of wire left over from the work we are having done on the house.

These were very therapeutic to make. All the pounding and bending of metal was just what I needed.

I love the rustic quality of these and I was very excited to have finally made some of my own findings.

 These ones were simple to do as they didn't require anything but to choose the parts and put them together. Everyone likes a little bling now and then.

 I love the rustic clay beads on this pair.

They are from an old necklace that I found on one of my junkin trips.

It's always fun to recycle something old and ugly into something that you love.

 Another pair of put togethers.

Some of the parts were ordered from Etsy and others were from Michael's.

No matter...These will be great for Spring and Summer.

I hope you take some time out to do something nice for yourself this week.

Hugs!

karen

Random Salvage Jewelry Spring 2013

It's been a while since I was here last.

I have a ton of catching up to do.

So many good blogs to visit.

There just aren't enough hours in a day.

In between the life happening thing, I've been trying to make a few new pieces of my Random Salvage Jewelry.

 Something new to wear for Spring.

I love these big green glass earrings.

Although, I wish I had nicer ear wires for them. 

They were vintage clip ons that I picked up for $2.

These bright colored ones are really simple and fun.

Random Salvage

Spring 2013

karen