Sneek Peeks on experimental jewellery making!

Well this week has been quite productive for me, I must say.  Productive in two senses - I have been discovering what I can and can't do, and I have actually made some jewellery!  I have been playing around with beads which I may or may not sell online and perhaps keep them for potential craft fairs.  I'm not sure, we'll see.

Anyway, I had lots of teeny tiny seed beads which I thought I would use to try my hand at bead sewing and weaving.  I tried a few things and actually found the process...not difficult as such but incredibly time consuming.  I know people who do this all the time can do it really fast, but the smallest thing took me 40 minutes to make and realistically, I thought perhaps this wasn't such a good idea!  I did make two charms which could be put onto a keychain though!  I decided to keep some beads and pack others into small bags.  I gave them to my boyfriend who took them to work where his colleague's 10 year old daughter apparently squealed with delight upon receiving more beads!  She's obviously better suited to this bead weaving lark than I am!

Other techniques which I tried and decided were not for me included wire crochet and wire knitting.  As great as it looks, I found these really difficult...and painful on the fingers...!  However, I continued making things and trying things out - I tried crocheting cord with the larger seed beads which looked allright, I have to admit.  I also tried macrame, which I remember doing a bit of at school and not too long ago - I just had to remember which cords went where and I was off!  Macrame doesn't take me too long - nowhere near as long as beadweaving anyway - so this might be something I could use with the remaining non-gemstones which I have in my collection.  Something which I was successful with was creating a few necklaces with some wooden beads, some of which a friend had given me before she move to the States (Thankyou Liv!), which included a HUGE pendant which I ended up making an improvised bail for.  No really, it was a case of threading the wire through the hole and thinking "Oh. What now?" - I had not thought it through but it turned out good in the end.  I thought copper worked well with the rest of the necklace.

The next thing I did was a bit of wire-wrapping.  A while ago I had won some large wooden beads in a little magazine competition (I love beads. ANY beads. A competition to win some is something I cannot ignore, regardless of what beads there are...!!!).  They were plain and black, and I had NO idea what to do with them.  Fortunately, I had kept many blog posts from other people online who make jewellery and as I was going through them wondering what on EARTH to do with these plain wooden beads, I came across a tutorial for wire-wrapping sea-glass.  I didn't look at the tutorial at all - I saw the photos.  I tried it with copper wire and the result was very pleasing!!

I have to admit that I have tried wire-wrapping before and I dont' have any luck with non-drilled beads.  I personally find it so much easier to have a drilled bead (like these wooden ones here), so I can create a bail at the top, take the wire through the drilled hole, and wrap it around the bead that way.  Yet another thing discovered. I really enjoyed creating these actually, and I honestly think the copper wire works REALLY well with the black wood.  I think silver would also have worked well but these were meant to be practice pieces which I am now keeping as is.  Trouble is....I want more of these wooden beads to wire wrap and I have NO idea where to get some from LOL!  I'm sure I will find some eventually.

Anyway, this is what I have been up to as of late, and next week I hope to have some photos of some gemstone beaded jewellery which I have been making in order to sell online.  Well, maybe it'll be another "sneek peek" as I'm not putting them up yet - I'm building up stock in preparation to "launch" my shop on Etsy! :)