Welcome to my Musings

Well I am not happy with this bead but it is the best so far.  I still get mush when I encase the flowers.  But the project has to be in by the 30th and I doubt that I will do better anytime soon.  I takes a LOT of PPP. Some of the beads look ok lifesize but when I blow them up as pics all the flaws take over and the bead looks terrible. I now appreciate even more all of the gorgeous bead pictures I have seen.  Off it goes to Glass Apprentice.

I am working on the beads for the second project, florals.  They are hard! At least for me.  I guess that is why I have avoided them until now. The first attempt is mostly mush.  The "leaf" bead at the end is a bead that was so bad it was not worth saving even as a example of what not to do. Too hot and too fast! 



Day 2 - Win some, lose some.  The beads are too big.  There is some scum from the clear, ends are yucky, the shapes are wonky and the flowers are misshapen. Back to the drawing board.



Day 3 - Back to basics.  This time I tried simple flowers, just one layer, and longer but smaller  diameter beads. These are better. Almost usable.

I certainly need the whole 2 weeks for this project. I am determined to "get" florals.

The 3rd week of FSOJ is already here and I am not ready for it! I am still working on the necklace.  The ideas is from the Fall 2007 issue of Step by Step Wire Jewelry 5 Minute Jewelry.  Ha! 5 minutes!!! Takes me that long just to get to my workbench.  But, it is a cool idea. 

Here, at least, are the matching earrings. The base is hammered 10 gauge copper wire and the coils are 18 ga.  The beads are torched from Effetre opal yellow with green frit burned in.  The necklace, if I ever get it finished, will have similar beads on the same base.  I am still deciding putting them on a copper neckwire with copper coils in between the dangles.

I used a micro torch for the first time to melt the balls on the ends of the ear wires.  Not as easy as I thought it would be.  It is tricky to find the sweet spot where the flame is the hottest. It took me longer to melt the two balls than if I had fired up my regular soldering torch. 

Now, back to the necklace. 

This is my first, I think, picture for a new challenge, Glass Apprentice.  It is sponsored by LampworkEtc Forum and hosted by TheFuzzyLizard.  Every two weeks a bead is due.  There is  a theme for each posting.  This time it is Raised Dots.  This is mine.  Dots are not the easiest thing for me to do so this is a good challenge for me. Actually getting a decent picture was even more challenging than making the bead.   I am not happy with the picture or the bead but it is a start.

I am working on another necklace but it is not finished yet. Here are the earrings I made to go with the necklace from last week. I had to make more beads since I did not have a matched pair left over from making the necklace. The beads are dark topaz with goldstone frit encased in clear. (The goldstone sparkles don't show up in the picture. I can't figure out why yet. ) The metal is copper and the bead caps are copper colored pewter.

The link to FSOJ is http://creativewirejewelryyoj.typepad.com/fsoj_2008/

                                   

Finally! Finished this in time for week 16 of Year of Jewelry. This one just would not come together.  I had to remake every component at least twice.  Couldn't find glass to blend with the seed beads so I used copper plated ceramic beads that I bought from Connie Fox last summer.  The end caps were a challenge. I am not completely happy with them. The rope was crocheted with size 8 hex metallic colored maroon beads. I fell in love with the color but they were very uneven and made the rope difficult to make even. Still love those beads.