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· Sapphire and gold hoop earrings
· Pic of redone blue chalcedony necklace
· Rambles...
· "A" sapphire earrings
· 2007, the year in beading
· Aquamarine necklace pic
· Keishi pearl necklace part 2
· Keishi pearl necklace (no pics yet)
· Square pearl pendant on goldfilled chain
· Aquamarine earrings, version 1.1
· Aquamarine earrings to go with the necklace
· Aquamarine and Bali vermeil necklace on goldfilled chain
· Coin pearl pattern
· Freshwater coin pearl jewelry
· Rambles and some pics
· Bali vermeil and freshwater pearl earrings
· Turquoise necklace
· Black Swarovski crystal and vermeil earrings, turquoise and vermeil earrings
· Freshwater pearl necklace and bracelet set
· Labradorite and vermeil necklace and earrings
· Bali vermeil cage beads and turquoise necklace
· Turquoise and labradorite bracelet
· Turquoise and vermeil bracelet
· Turquoise and Bali vermeil choker
· Peridot and vermeil necklace and bracelet
· Peridot and vermeil necklace, version 2
· Peridot and vermeil necklace
· Three strand freshwater pearl necklace
· Swarovski crystal, Bali vermeil and colorless aquamarine bracelet
· Chalcedony necklace, then and now
· Black Swarovski crystal and Bali vermeil necklace, part 2
· Black Swarovski crystal and Bali vermeil bead necklace
· Jade bracelet with Bali vermeil beads and green apatite clasp
· Turquoise choker and leather cord end caps...
· Jade and pearl necklace and bracelet pics
· Jade necklace: then and now
· Wire thimbles...I love you!
· Jade and pearl bracelet
· More blogging here, with pics
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Sapphire and gold hoop earrings
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
March 20, 2008
at 7:03 PM (Pacific)
This is a somewhat lower grade of sapphire. Still a tiny bit translucent, but without the rich color of blue sapphires.
I was very pleased these beads had been hand selected...I bought them online, three packages of four beads each. Someone had gone through and made sure I got two of each color. That's how I could make matching earrings.
This is goldfill and vermeil, with karat gold beads.Labels: earrings, gold, goldfilled, hoops, sapphire, vermeil
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Pic of redone blue chalcedony necklace
posted by TheBroadroom.Net,
January 24, 2008
at 8:28 PM (Pacific)
I didn't change much, it's just longer in the back (the two blue beads in back were too high before), and the wrapping is much nicer.Labels: bali, chain, chalcedony, goldfilled, necklace, pics, vermeil
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Rambles...
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
January 21, 2008
at 11:38 AM (Pacific)
Haven't been doing many new projects lately, aside from the aforementioned earrings. Mostly, I've been going back over old projects...the ones I want to keep...and fixing them up. It's a slow but steady process.
Traditionally (if three years' worth of anything can have tradition), I've been taking a month or two off beading every year. Now I don't need to do that. I suppose I've felt a certain amount of stress, in whether I could really make jewelry.
I'm not crafty by nature. My interest in making jewelry derives from my interest in the thing itself. But now I feel I have the capability, and it's simply a matter of keeping at it. So, instead of grinding to a halt, I've decided to do it more slowly, more introspectively, for the given month or two.
Here is a redo of a hoop originally designed with thicker wire. I ran out...of course...actually I was short in the neighborhood of a quarter- to half-inch of wire, and my supplier is out of stock of this gauge (and has been for quite some time). I don't want to switch suppliers, so I redid the hoop with the gauge on hand.
The golden circle is nice...I made it like a wedding ring in size. Haven't worked out the top 100% yet, I had to bend the loop over to get the pendant to hang straight. It's balanced, but I'd like to make the loop look more centered.
Wondering if these guys have something in common:
For this necklace, I had made some "moral obligation" earrings, plain hammered silver hoops with lapis dangles. Nice, but, the sapphire earrings are nicer. I haven't worn them together yet though.
Discovered I'd fluffed one of the Bali vermeil beads in the back. If I'm redoing it though, I'll probably add an extender chain.Labels: bails, beading notes, earrings, goldfilled, lapis, necklace, pearls, pendant, pics, sapphire, silver, vermeil, wire
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"A" sapphire earrings
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
January 17, 2008
at 5:32 PM (Pacific)
The bottom pic was taken rather hastily, I didn't have time to hang the earrings properly so I put them down on a white tee shirt. :)
Here I went for grade over size, so these sapphires are really very small. But they're not the opaque stones normally used in handmade jewelry; they're translucent, with small areas of transparency.
This is a hoop idea I got from Midori Jewelry. That was the first place I saw such a hoop. I'm getting better at making them although I've found I need to be very slow and patient while doing the wrap at the top. It's easy to fuddle it up. I added my own "touch" by hammering the wraps. Mainly because on some of my hoops, I didn't feel the wrap was secure enough, but I don't dislike the finished look. The idea for me is to produce something that looks a tiny bit rough, after all.
I can't wear 14KT gold earrings so you'll note, I used vermeil ear wires for the gold pair (from Shiana). Normally I don't think vermeil would work, but the Shiana vermeil, so far, is as superior as they claim. The gold plate is thicker than usual, plus it's over fine silver rather than sterling.
I went for the relatively inexpensive 14KT gold tiny beads to give the earring a more golden appearance. In fact it crossed my mind you could cover most of the wire with these beads if you wanted to.
It took me forever to come up with this design, because I specifically wanted to make smaller earrings. Tiny stones + smaller earrings...the stones didn't show well with my earlier designs. For example, I tried the one where you take a piece of wire and wrap it round and round the hoop--similar to this: Going Green Hand-Forged Earrings--and the tiny little sapphires hardly showed at all. weeps! I concluded the only way to get them to show would be to use a lot of them, all together.Labels: argentium, earrings, gold, goldfilled, pics, sapphire, vermeil, wire
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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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Aquamarine necklace pic
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
August 13, 2007
at 4:13 PM (Pacific)
Redo of this:
As you can see, it's a much simpler design. I knew the 3-to-1 was too busy, but didn't want to waste the chain or other aspects of it.
I ended up with three extra pieces of chain, but they're all long enough to do something with, say matching earrings (I'm going to redo the earrings too). As far as the aquamarine "bobbles," I was pleased to be able to rework some of those too...bend the top loop open, trim the wire a bit, pop the top Bali bead off, replace with a daisy spacer, redo loop, reattach.
I'll take a pic of the "tacky strand of diamonds" one after I've put the crimp covers on.Labels: aquamarine, bali, chain, goldfilled, necklace, pics, vermeil
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Keishi pearl necklace part 2
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
August 5, 2007
at 9:51 PM (Pacific)
Very pleased with this; it's a lovely piece. I tried photographing it in the usual way, but there hasn't been enough natural light, over the past two days, to do that. So I finally gave up, had someone else model it, and used a flash. And it came out better that way.
I'm still waiting on my catalog; it's a metals company, so I'm thinking now of buying some karat gold beads...you wouldn't need a lot of them. For this model, you would need six at most, and a small karat gold clasp, to make a perfect necklace.
Not that I'm thinking of restringing these pearls. But I can see now that keishi pearls work well. They're different from traditional round pearls, but better, for a single strand, than regular freshwater pearls. The lustre is high, plus the "cornflake" shape makes the lustre reflect the light from various angles.
Here's some info on keishi pearls:
Keishi pearls
How are keishi pearls formed?Labels: bali, keishi, necklace, pearls, pics, tourmaline, vermeil
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Keishi pearl necklace (no pics yet)
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
August 4, 2007
at 7:53 PM (Pacific)
I tried taking a pic of this, but it's too late in the day to get a good picture (I don't use a light box, so must rely on natural light). It's the first piece of jewelry I've made in almost two months...I suppose I was a bit rusty (got my double crimps slightly too far apart, that sort of thing), but I felt the process came more naturally to me than before.
It's a necklace made from a strand of natural pink keishi pearls I got months ago, same ones in these earrings:
They're gorgeous pearls in the classical "cornflake" or petal shape. I went through 300 designs figuring out what to do with them lol...then concluded that with these pearls, simplicity would be best. So, no triple strand, double strand, 2-to-1 design, super long strand (yep, I tried that too)...no mixing them with labradorite or lots o' vermeil. The finished necklace is just the pearls, strung with a few Bali vermeil daisy spacers and smooth tourmaline rondelles (opaque, not gem grade), finished off with a simple Bali vermeil toggle.
Even the bead spacing came naturally, something like 12 in the front, then ten, ten, six. One of those things that probably shouldn't work and does.
I had the idea of saving out a couple of the pearls to make some earrings...as it turned out, I couldn't use two of them anyway, the drill holes were too small. That, btw, is going to be my next tool purchase: a bead reamer. I never got around to buying one before, but it's easy to see it would pay for itself the first time you used it.
I feel much better. I like making jewelry, but it's something you have to take a break from at some point, or at least I do. It's so easy to just keep buying stuff...if you step back from it, it becomes clearer what you should buy, and what you shouldn't.
It's not the price of the beads, not at all. Some cheap beads become next to useless, you really can't do much with them. Hence they're a waste of money. Other beads, like the keishi pearls, okay I was lucky and bought them right before they doubled in price (rolls eyes), those look beautiful almost simply strung on a piece of softflex, with a few inexpensive accents.
I went through trying to make a three-strand necklace too, out of labradorite rounds and vermeil...and it finally struck me, that the design was fine but would look much better with a stronger-colored bead (rather than the grey of the labradorite), I dunno, something like garnet. A three-strand (twisted, not graduated) necklace of garnet rounds with the vermeil. Of course I have no garnet on hand...but it further occurred, it would be better to get pickier and buy better garnet too.
Oh, and I am going to fix up this blog, especially the tags. We recently overhauled the tags on The Lipstick Page Forums Beauty & Fashion Blog (Dain's got a cool article up there on lipstick colors, if you're interested)...it's roughly 450 posts, so it's going to take time to re-label them, I doubt I'm going to go back and do all of my posts. I put up a script to list the labels in the first place (FTP Blogger.com users don't have this feature), then pull out the main categories and list them first. These also create a "links list" page rather than just the label page itself, because some of the labels have tons of posts and would take forever to load.
Anyhow it's great being back making jewelry. :)Labels: bali, keishi, necklace, pearls, tourmaline, vermeil
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Square pearl pendant on goldfilled chain
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
June 9, 2007
at 4:33 PM (Pacific)
Please excuse the photo...I was out in the garden today, digging up holly. Can you believe holly is a weed out here? It was a cherished, Christmas plant back home. Plus there are tons of English ivy (another weed out here) and blackberries (we have a blackberry "zone," but the darn thorny things seed all over the place).
Here I am trying out the idea of finishing the ends of a bulk chain with wrapped loops (see How to finish the ends of fine gauge bulk chain).
Probably overdid it a bit here, added some Bali vermeil beads, hmmm...what would be nicer would be the small goldfilled beads, but a bit bigger than the ones I have now. The biggest size I have on hand is 2.5mm, because I don't usually use goldfilled beads except as tiny spacer beads (the ones in the pic are 2mm). Thinking more in terms of 3mm, possibly one of the fancier styles.
Oh yeah, and because everyone needs an animated gif:
 Labels: bali, chain, goldfilled, pearls, pendant, vermeil, wire wrapping
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Aquamarine earrings, version 1.1
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
June 6, 2007
at 1:21 PM (Pacific)
Okey dokey, the version I did yesterday was too heavy. Too much silver at the bottom, stones probably too big...this one uses smaller stones and less than half the silver.Labels: aquamarine, bali, chain, earrings, goldfilled, pics, vermeil
Handmade Jewelry photo gallery
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Aquamarine earrings to go with the necklace
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
June 5, 2007
at 5:09 PM (Pacific)
Sorry for the less than stellar pics...I'm getting a bit tired. Soon I'll go water the garden. :)
Here the issue is how to "pop" the color of the aquamarines. In my experience, aquamarines are sold dyed, unless specified otherwise (and priced accordingly). i.e., when you wash them, you lose much of the color.
Yellow is a good color to pop blue (if you have blue eyes and "warm" coloring, you can enhance your eye color with yellow-toned eyeshadows: champagne, gold, peach, orange, brown with a golden tone, etc.), so I went with Bali gold vermeil for these stones.Labels: aquamarine, bali, chain, earrings, goldfilled, pics, vermeil
Handmade Jewelry photo gallery
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Aquamarine and Bali vermeil necklace on goldfilled chain
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
at 1:03 PM (Pacific)
This is what I was noodling around with yesterday. The fun part is in getting the strands to lie correctly. I'll have to try out wearing it today, but at least in theory, the weights should be in the right places.
Going to make some earrings to go with it too.Labels: aquamarine, bali, chain, goldfilled, multistrand, necklace, pics, vermeil
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Coin pearl pattern
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
May 23, 2007
at 12:25 PM (Pacific)
This is what the bracelet and necklace are going to look like. I'm going to try stringing it using a three-to-one reducer, not sure about the clasp yet (thinking of using handmade wire hooks though).Labels: bali, goldfilled, pearls, pics, vermeil
Handmade Jewelry photo gallery
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Freshwater coin pearl jewelry
posted by TheBroadroom.Net,
May 20, 2007
at 6:42 PM (Pacific)
Okey dokey...
They're both pretty straightforward pieces. The bracelet is "reversible" of course, you can wear the coin pearl side toward your hand or away from it.
I'm still playing with the idea of making bracelets composed of multiple bracelets, rather than just multiple strands of the same bracelet, if that makes any sense. I have a couple of these already strung...one is mostly Swarovski crystals, but I crowded all three strands into the same loop and I think it would be better to use jump rings. The other, as mentioned earlier, is the same as the one pictured above only with silver beads instead of vermeil.Labels: bali, bracelet, crystal, earrings, goldfilled, pearls, pics, vermeil, wire
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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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Bali vermeil and freshwater pearl earrings
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
May 2, 2007
at 4:01 PM (Pacific)
These are yesterday's earrings. I've decided they're not too heavy. In fact I'll probably make a silver version, although I'm not sure I'll use pearls for that one.
Still finishing off the six-strand pearl necklace...that's 24 crimp covers to add. :p Probably take a pic tomorrow.Labels: bali, earrings, pearls, pics, vermeil
Handmade Jewelry photo gallery
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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
Handmade Jewelry photo gallery
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Freshwater pearl necklace and bracelet set
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
April 8, 2007
at 8:39 PM (Pacific)
Tried taking this pic at night...the previous pics were taken just as the sun was going down, and they're better than this one. Indirect artificial light didn't work, so I put the overhead light on and played with the settings on the camera. It's still not optimal...the shiny parts of jewelry make them difficult to photograph...but it'll do.
Here, the gift bag didn't actually belong with the set but I liked the idea of including a gift bag in the picture! Makes it all look so gift-y.
This set incorporates some Bali vermeil beads including the square one in the center of the necklace that didn't come out too well. It's this one (in vermeil of course):
image courtesy bali-handmade.comLabels: bali, bracelet, necklace, pearls, pics, vermeil
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Labradorite and vermeil necklace and earrings
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
April 4, 2007
at 7:12 PM (Pacific)
The necklace is actually not new, though you'll note I haven't attached crimp covers yet. It's a random design of labradorite rounds, some faceted rondelles, and Bali vermeil beads.
The earrings used to be made with tiny pearls...I made them a while ago and intended to redo them, I wasn't happy with my detail work. They were nice earrings but a bit ordinary, so I took them apart and used the chains for the new pair.Labels: bali, chain, earrings, goldfilled, labradorite, multistrand, necklace, pics, 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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Peridot and vermeil necklace and bracelet
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
March 23, 2007
at 6:07 PM (Pacific)
This is the same necklace pictured earlier, only now you can see the back (and the fact that I haven't put crimp covers on it yet). There's still a possibility I may redo this piece...I'm going to get a three-strand vermeil connector bead anyway, so I may add that in the front. Or might not. I like it the way it is actually.Labels: bali, bracelet, multistrand, necklace, peridot, pics, vermeil
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Peridot and vermeil necklace, version 2
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
March 19, 2007
at 1:40 PM (Pacific)
Okay, I got rid of the double side strands and added more weight to the center of the necklace. The top pic shows the shortest length (choker), the bottom pic is the longest setting.
If the side beads won't stay put, I'm going to ditch this design and get a three-strand connector bead to put in the middle. I'm hopeful about it though.Labels: choker, multistrand, necklace, peridot, pics, vermeil
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Peridot and vermeil necklace
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
March 17, 2007
at 7:46 PM (Pacific)
At first I thought, at least I'm not reinventing the wheel...since this is the same design as the black crystal necklace. But, I wanted the two side strands to be twisted, and that doesn't work. If you do that, the tension in the twist migrates to the 3-to-1 beads and twists them too, messing up the front of the necklace.Labels: necklace, peridot, pics, vermeil
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Three strand freshwater pearl necklace
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
at 7:25 PM (Pacific)
Heh heh, I'm really nervous. This is my first "commission piece"; it's the first piece I've been commissioned to make for someone else.
Did I put enough slack in it?
It's a straightforward enough design, three strands of freshwater pearls (literally: three 16" strands transferred to softflex and double crimped, with wire thimbles). I tend to prefer slightly more, rather than slightly less, slack in my own pieces. Here I felt nervous so I didn't do that. Now I'm hella nervous. Did I mention I was nervous?Labels: multistrand, necklace, pearls, pics, vermeil
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Swarovski crystal, Bali vermeil and colorless aquamarine bracelet
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
March 14, 2007
at 10:01 AM (Pacific)
This is it so far...as you can see, I still need to move the strands off the diamond-shaped part of the toggle and onto a jump ring.Labels: aquamarine, bali, bracelet, crystal, multistrand, pics, vermeil
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Chalcedony necklace, then and now
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
March 2, 2007
at 5:22 PM (Pacific)
Then (far left):
Now:
There is another pair of the Bali vermeil cylinder-shaped beads in the back, behind the last pair of chalcedony beads, that would show in the summer when you put your hair up (in fact I think of this as a summer necklace).
These are the same chalcedony beads I used before; I bought six of them, so there is now a lone chalcedony bead in the box. I suppose I've gotten away from "wrapping for wrapping's sake" and more into trying to create simpler, more wearable designs.
Speaking of wrapping...AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! There are so many different choices even for wire for this. All along I've been using half hard, round wire, usually 22 or 24 gauge. Now I've been reading that soft wire works better. I tried out some dead soft for doing my briolettes:
...and it worked great, but I never thought of using soft wire for wrapping!
Then, to make things even more interesting, I saw a rec for half round wire, this one:
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