I made a thing last night!
I thought I'd try something that used wire in an actual piece of jewellery, so I started with a pendant. I'd been looking at the info on jewelrymaking.about.com, which has a bunch of articles for beginners complete with simple steps and a lot of photos.
I made a pendant that consists of a large aquamarine chip hanging from a circle. The circle's threaded with seed beads in grey, greens and clear. There's a loop at the top to hang it on a necklace. It's made with thicker wire than I use for the trees - 0.6mm silver-plated copper that I got a 10m coil of from the bead shop in Seven Dials (I have plain copper too). Amusing thing happened when I got it out and undid the ends so I could use some - the whole thing went *sproing* and is now mostly still a coil, but with two big loops sticking up at the top that are going in totally the wrong direction and don't lie flat. It was very silly :p
It took me rather a long time - wasn't helped that the first time I was doing the bit of wire that holds the aquamarine and lets it hang from the circle, my wire broke just as I was finishing (overworked, nooo), so I had to repeat that part. I didn't leave quite enough at the top of the circle for that loop either - it's ok, but it could have been neater.
Things I have learned: yes, I could definitely do with some round-nose pliers. I ended up making my loops more diamond shaped, because at least that way it looked deliberate that they weren't round. Also some nylon jawed pliers, because yes, normal ones do scratch up your wire. Fancy that.
Photos will follow at some point, hopefully tonight. It's very simple but took a couple of hours to do.
I've been thinking about what kind of necklace it should hang from. I kind of have the idea that a memory wire one with smaller aquamarine chips spaced out along it, held in place by crimps would be nice. It seems like it would be nice on a single solid loop of wire, rather than a chain or anything like that. Obviously, I can't do that right now, and normal wire would get bends and kinks in it. So I'm trying to work out what else would suit it. I'm pondering a necklace made from curled loops of wire - not a chain, but a bit more like a vine. Dunno how that'll turn out, but it's something to try.
I made a pendant that consists of a large aquamarine chip hanging from a circle. The circle's threaded with seed beads in grey, greens and clear. There's a loop at the top to hang it on a necklace. It's made with thicker wire than I use for the trees - 0.6mm silver-plated copper that I got a 10m coil of from the bead shop in Seven Dials (I have plain copper too). Amusing thing happened when I got it out and undid the ends so I could use some - the whole thing went *sproing* and is now mostly still a coil, but with two big loops sticking up at the top that are going in totally the wrong direction and don't lie flat. It was very silly :p
It took me rather a long time - wasn't helped that the first time I was doing the bit of wire that holds the aquamarine and lets it hang from the circle, my wire broke just as I was finishing (overworked, nooo), so I had to repeat that part. I didn't leave quite enough at the top of the circle for that loop either - it's ok, but it could have been neater.
Things I have learned: yes, I could definitely do with some round-nose pliers. I ended up making my loops more diamond shaped, because at least that way it looked deliberate that they weren't round. Also some nylon jawed pliers, because yes, normal ones do scratch up your wire. Fancy that.
Photos will follow at some point, hopefully tonight. It's very simple but took a couple of hours to do.
I've been thinking about what kind of necklace it should hang from. I kind of have the idea that a memory wire one with smaller aquamarine chips spaced out along it, held in place by crimps would be nice. It seems like it would be nice on a single solid loop of wire, rather than a chain or anything like that. Obviously, I can't do that right now, and normal wire would get bends and kinks in it. So I'm trying to work out what else would suit it. I'm pondering a necklace made from curled loops of wire - not a chain, but a bit more like a vine. Dunno how that'll turn out, but it's something to try.