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Posted by Colleen Shirazi, Saturday, September 24, 2005 3:58 AM (Eastern)
Hmmm...I think I am reaching the end of my experimentation here...not really, perhaps just the end of the first phase.
I haven't even gotten into semi-precious beads yet. I can see the logic though. Even a simple turquoise stretch bracelet costs a bum, and, it's never the way you want it to be. Why not just buy the turquoise beads you like? I've already gotten the pre-stretching and knotting part down.
I've gotten better at wrapping too. It is tricky. The hardest part is figuring out exactly how much wire to expose in the first place. The wrapping itself is relatively easy, all you're doing is holding the loop with a pair of pliers...any pliers will do, including the same round-nosed ones you just used to make the loop. And you are grabbing the other end with a regular pair of pliers such as you already own.
Make sure the loose end doesn't start to point down, as you want a tight twist of wire.
It took me a few times to figure out when to cut the loose end of the wire (sometimes it doesn't need cutting of course, depending on the size of the bead you're wrapping). If you hold the whole thing close to a flat surface and cut it, it's a lot safer that way since the cut end of the wire tends to just land on the surface rather than flying off.
Hum. I have I think maybe three or four designs done that I'm happy with. And I have to be happy with it, otherwise why bother? If you have to redo a design on stretch cord, you have only the cost of the cord to consider in redoing the design (and if it's a necklace, you don't even have that since you can turn the same cord into a bracelet).
One consists of small clear pink seed beads, lined with silver. There is a tiny glass Hello Kitty at the end. Then a pair of fuchsia glass beads. Yes, they make fuchsia glass beads! Intense, pure fuchsia, the kind of thing daughters covet. Then, I forget, I put a few more pairs of different beads in it. The concept is to use a "base" of the seed beads, with the selected beads as accents.
The second set consists of clear, unlined seed beads. Here my daughter found a pink glass bead shaped like a cat's head, complete with little glass eyes, mouth, etc. Bonus: it has a face on either side (okay that's actually a bit creepy if you think about it, but from a jewelry point of view it's good).
I wrapped this cat's head bead to use as a pendant. Again the same concept...the necklace is mostly small clear beads, with pairs of beads my daughter selected added at regular intervals.
Then...I discovered these tiny tubular glass beads. What you do is combine them with the seed beads. I still intend to make some pieces with larger beads, but my personal preference is with the small ones.
Stretch Magic 0.7 mm cord is thin enough to use with the tubular beads btw. It was hard to tell until I tried it.
You have to be careful when wrapping...I tried using a tubular bead at the top of the wrap. That was a mistake! One slip of the pliers and the tubular bead broke. Unless you are very dexterous, it's not worth having broken glass around.
I'm working on a design of simple green glass leaf beads and clear silver-lined seed beads. The effect is good...it's like real green leaves and dewdrops. Oh you know, how you used to try making jewelry out of flowers when you were a kid.
I'll have some pics up soon.
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