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· 2007, the year in beading
· Various jewelry pics
· Various pendants
· Rambles and some pics
· Turquoise hammered goldfilled wire earrings
· Turquoise necklace
· Black Swarovski crystal and vermeil earrings, turquoise and vermeil earrings
· Bali vermeil cage beads and turquoise necklace
· Turquoise and labradorite bracelet
· Turquoise and vermeil bracelet
· Turquoise and Bali vermeil choker
· Turquoise choker and leather cord end caps...
· Wire thimbles...I love you!
· Turquoise necklaces
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2007, the year in beading
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
December 8, 2007
at 2:15 PM (Pacific)
For your reference:
2006, the year in beading
2005, the year in beading
Technically I should wait until January 2008, but I'm afraid I'll be caught up in something else by then.
From this point forward, I'm going to post the first image of the given year, and rip it to shreds write some commentary on it:
Neither of these exists anymore, although of course I've recycled the beads.
American turquoise nugget necklace and earrings...hmmm, same sweater. This is a nice set; I still wear it.
This is okay too. I've had better luck placing flat oval beads toward the back and sides, rather than doing them all around, because, in the front, they tend to flip around too much.
I've also become pickier about aquamarine. I still have the aquamarine from the first necklaces but the quality of it is pretty eh.
And now the last piece I've made in the given year (okay, I know I should wait until the end of the year):
These are really nice. I fell asleep wearing them...very comfortable. This is me wearing the earrings:
I can admit one thing that drives me nuts, is that no one seems to take pictures of earrings "on." I can dig the necklaces, because these are usually photographed on a bust, or at least placed in such a way you can guess what they'd look like on, but earrings really must be worn. jhmo
I've moved away from fancy premade clasps in the main. They're expensive, and I've found something simpler tends to work just as well. If I truly hankered for a fancy clasp, I'd make one, and I've been making my own extender chains too.
As far as the stones, turquoise is still one of my favorites.
Predictions for 2008:
I'm not planning anything radically different for 2008. I can't afford to start silver- or gold-smithing, that's off the table (although I haven't ruled it out for the not-so-near future). I've given a certain amount of thought to selling my jewelry, but the tax system tends to make me think it's not going to be worth it. I do bookkeeping for small businesses in California...we are, ah, a heavily tax-oriented state.
I am planning to continue making jewelry as I have been. I enjoy it even more now, both making and wearing it.Labels: argentium, bali, earrings, hoops, necklace, pearls, pics, turquoise, vermeil
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Various jewelry pics
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
December 5, 2007
at 5:28 PM (Pacific)
This is the lapis and silver necklace and earrings mentioned earlier. The bracelet ended up looking not so good, so I didn't wear it.
This is the American turquoise necklace and earrings from a while ago.
This is a new piece I'm fiddling around with. It's entirely personal, not something you'd make to sell (conversely, not something you'd be able to buy either). It is to commemorate the sea around Jamaica (the two above pics were taken there, as well as the background pic of the boat), which is just the most kick-ass sea you've ever seen.
Here I used American turquoise...the water there is turquoise. If you look out at it, you'll see patches of turquoise and deep blue. The turquoise sea is over areas of sand, the deep blue over coral reefs.
The labradorite has mostly greenish-blue or blue flash, and the pearl is a naturally pink keishi pearl.
The anchor is gold, actually. I went looking around for a golden anchor, and the best one was a 14KT gold charm. I found a sterling silver anchor at Target, but I really wanted a gold color (plus the sterling one was too big). In real life it looks almost like a fleur-de-lys rather than an obvious anchor.
It has an extender chain in the back, the kind you make using short lengths of chain and jump rings.Labels: chain, earrings, keishi, labradorite, lapis, necklace, pics, silver, turquoise
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Various pendants
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
August 28, 2007
at 4:55 PM (Pacific)
American turquoise
Citrine
Czech glass and a tiny red glass heart
Chinese millefiori
The top two are some experiments with handmade bails. The red glass one, I made specifically with red glass, but it hangs really nicely. It could easily be used with three small gemstones instead.Labels: bails, citrine, czech glass, goldfilled, millefiori, pendant, pics, turquoise, wire wrapping
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Rambles and some pics
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
May 17, 2007
at 7:16 PM (Pacific)
Haven't been able to make anything new (or even redo anything old) lately...been fixing up the site. Got fed up doing it for a long time...now I'd like to get it back into shape.
So far I've finished most of the active blogs and some of the archived ones. I started doing the Wit & Wisdom Blog--it used to be five enormous posts, before there were individual pages for blogs. Now I'm making it one quote = one post. (It's probably less than half done now, since you can't keep posting like that on Blogger.)
It's not going to be nearly as horrible as it looks now...I'm going to put a search engine on it (once at least some of this stuff gets crawled) so you'll be able to search it properly.
I did get to take a couple new pics as follows:
^ This is all labradorite and vermeil.
^ This is citrine and sterling silver. It's not a new piece, just a new pic.
Top view of my Bali cage bead necklace.
Same black Swarovski crystal and Bali vermeil necklace and earrings.
The rest of the new pics are in my Picasa album.Labels: bali, beading notes, bracelet, chain, citrine, crystal, goldfilled, labradorite, multistrand, necklace, pics, turquoise, vermeil
Handmade Jewelry photo gallery
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Turquoise hammered goldfilled wire earrings
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
April 21, 2007
at 6:10 PM (Pacific)
Sweet! Got a hammer and a "block" today. The block...coughmade in Chinacough was a steel block glued to a wooden base, and the block came completely off the base after I'd used it...once.
I'm not overly concerned, as the steel block seems beautifully solid and it's simply a matter of E-6000'ing it back onto the wooden base...and you could just as well not glue it at all, and use it set on top of a wooden cutting board. Still, guys, could ya just glue the darn thing?
Anyway...still loads of hammering pleasure. Here is my first project...it's crude but I will keep it, the same way I've kept a sample of just about every "phase" of my jewelry making journey. The hammered spirals catch the light when you wear them. Plus, they feel just gorgeous when you touch them...nice and smooth.
My aim is to make more of my own components out of wire. I've seen some beautiful ones and found them inspiring. Plus, I'm tired of having to buy something every time I turn around in order to complete a project.
The bottom line is that handmade components can look better because the eye can discern that they were not mass produced.Labels: earrings, goldfilled, pics, turquoise, wire
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Turquoise necklace
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
April 12, 2007
at 4:47 PM (Pacific)
Wonder whose hand is in the background? lol...
I'm not sure this necklace is quite "it." If I were making it to sell, I would have used fancier chain or some other way to make it stand out more. In fact I'm thinking chain with long and short links (don't have any on hand).
I'll give it some thought...designed it anyway so that the turquoise dangles could easily be moved to a different chain.Labels: bali, chain, goldfilled, necklace, pics, turquoise, vermeil
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Black Swarovski crystal and vermeil earrings, turquoise and vermeil earrings
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
April 11, 2007
at 6:13 PM (Pacific)
Not sure yet about the black ones. They're exceedingly simple, made to match a black Swarovski crystal and Bali vermeil necklace. Since the necklace was kinda fancy, thought I'd go simple with the earrings. They're a good light weight, and not too long, on.
The turquoise ones are standard jig creations...the trick is to bend them so that the turquoise drops don't flip around when you wear them. I also "soldered" the side loops with some fine gauge wire. Debated whether to wrap the bottom loops as well, but there's no purpose in doing so (I could also have wire wrapped the top loops but wondered if that would be "too much").Labels: bali, chain, crystal, earrings, goldfilled, pics, turquoise, vermeil
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Bali vermeil cage beads and turquoise necklace
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
April 3, 2007
at 3:34 PM (Pacific)
It's...the yard chicken! I wanted to take this picture showing the few California poppies we have in the yard, but there was no place to put the necklace near them (haven't given up though, love California poppies!).
Unfortunately the toggle didn't come out at all, it's a nice plainish oval-shaped one. Don't those awful tiny thin soldered jump rings make a nice chain?
This pic makes the necklace look shorter than it is...the two barrel-shaped turquoise beads in the back show completely. I had to lean back some to take the pic. But I wanted to show how pretty the open cage bead is in the front.Labels: bali, chain, goldfilled, necklace, pics, turquoise, vermeil
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Turquoise and labradorite bracelet
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
April 1, 2007
at 5:34 PM (Pacific)
No crimp covers yet, still trying out the design.
Getting a little bored photographing everything indoors...and inspired by the Heartworks by Lori site, where she uses natural objects such as flowers, shells and leaves in her photos...thought I'd try out a few outdoor pics.
Hm. Mine are probably not as good as my indoor pics in commercial terms, but I'm loving the idea of including natural objects somehow...especially for stone jewelry, or pieces with a tiny bit of roughness to them.Labels: bracelet, labradorite, multistrand, pics, turquoise, vermeil
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Turquoise and vermeil bracelet
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
March 31, 2007
at 1:14 PM (Pacific)
This was made to match the Turquoise and Bali vermeil choker.
Here again, some experimentation with photographing jewelry. This is a plain white cotton tee shirt and a different camera. I think the white paper used for the choker background worked better...but I think this camera works better (it's about the same age as the other camera, but I'm more familiar with the settings on it).Labels: bali, bracelet, pics, turquoise, vermeil
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Turquoise and Bali vermeil choker
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
March 27, 2007
at 6:07 PM (Pacific)
I'm going on what they call "cold turkey" on the cosmetics forums...all it means is that you stop buying something for a set period of time (with a couple of ground rules of course). Makeup junkies love to buy makeup, natch, so cold turkey for them means not buying cosmetics for x months.
I have a lot of supplies now, so I'd like to not buy them for...hm. It's the end of March now, so I'd like to go at least a quarter without buying beads and components. As to the ground rules, that would cover necessities such as crimps, crimp covers, stringing material, wire as needed (I don't think I actually need wire, I'm just saying)...stuff like that.
Bails and clasps and stuff like that, fall into a somewhat grey area, but I'd like to see what I can do with what I already have on hand.
Having done quite a few cosmetics cold turkeys, I can say it's easier than it looks. It's easy to fall into a habit of buying. Once you stop buying new things, you then have time and space to examine what you already have, and come up with a better concept of what you actually need.
lol! I strung this same piece three times, on a double length of softflex. The first time I got the length wrong...decided it looked best as a choker on its shortest setting. Bugger. The second time, I got the crimps right but neglected to leave enough space for the crimp covers...I'm not kidding, it was off by literally one millimeter (space enough for a 2mm crimp but not a 3mm crimp cover). It's that kind of mistake that's worth fixing, as tedious as it is, because I know it's going to bug me unto eternity if I don't fix it.
I think the engineering is good though, because so many crimps would have to fail, it's not all on one crimp, or even two.
I made the little extender chain and I'd like to see how that flies. It's regular handmade jump rings connecting soldered jump rings.
I got some tips on photographing jewelry from the jewelrymaking.about.com forum...here's the site: Heartworks by Lori
Here the advice was to use a white background, natural indirect lighting, set the white balance setting to sunny...there is more advice also, including to use a tripod, however this is as far as I got (I don't have a tripod as of yet). It's much better focused than before.Labels: bali, choker, cold turkey, pics, turquoise, vermeil
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Turquoise choker and leather cord end caps...
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
February 11, 2007
at 1:05 PM (Pacific)
Restrung this today:
Heh heh! At first I added the usual two inches to the softflex...that's what I've been doing for bracelets. When I started stringing this though, I realized I would need three inches, not two--the wire thimble and two crimps on either end, take up enough additional space to warrant it.
These are Artbeads.com goldfilled crimp covers. They are the right size, but the opening is smaller than Fire Mountain Gems' equivalent covers. I ended up jacking open the covers with my pliers to get them on. Once they're on, they're easier to close than FMG's, and they close very neatly. But there is that extra hassle in having to open them further before attaching them.
Trying out my Rings 'n' Things end caps here:
I tried to squeeze 'em full of Hypo Cement. As usual, it's messy. I'll need to let them dry for 24 hours before knowing whether or not glue alone will anchor the end caps. If it doesn't the first time, I'm going to try injecting the caps with more Hypo Cement.Labels: choker, cord, necklace, pics, turquoise, vermeil
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Wire thimbles...I love you!
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
January 31, 2007
at 3:05 PM (Pacific)
My wire thimbles came from Rings 'n' Things today...oh, these are worth it.
They do make your loop bigger though...it looks fine but you do have to incorporate the slight extra length into your design.
Here is a piece I was working on when the order arrived (mind you, I'm still waiting on my crimps, so this design was temporarily strung anyway):
You'll note how much the wire thimble extends the length of the strand. When I get the crimps and actually make this piece, I'll likely take out the vermeil beads at the two ends of the strand, and just go with the look of a gf crimp cover terminating the strand.
Here you can see again how much difference the wire thimbles make in terms of length and space.Labels: bali, bracelet, labradorite, multistrand, pics, turquoise, vermeil
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Turquoise necklaces
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
January 7, 2007
at 1:02 PM (Pacific)
Neither of these is 100% finished as of yet. Usually I put off using crimp covers until I'm sure the piece is perfect. The piece on the right, needs crimp covers on top of the cones as well as in back. It's kind of awkward wearing it without the covers, but then it's hard to recycle the covers, and I like to wear the piece at least one day, all day, before deciding it's done (I'm not sure if the length is right for this piece).
These are both American turquoise. Here you see the cones I was blogging about earlier. They're really nice cones (from Baubles and Beads in Berkeley).Labels: choker, cones, necklace, pics, turquoise
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