The Lipstick Page Forums Fashion Blog: Jewelry making #11

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Jewelry making #11

Posted by Colleen Shirazi, Saturday, October 15, 2005 2:42 PM (Eastern)

And now...finally...I'm making the final designs. Let's look back for a moment, shall we?

I made my first "jewelry making" post on September 13. Back then, I was still thinking mainly of making children's jewelry. I had not figured out a way of turning beading into anything sophisticated enough for adults.

I tried out what I believe is called "tiger tail"--fine steel wire covered with clear nylon. I also tried out those spiral wire bracelets. I tried "jelly string" and I had a brief flirtation with using regular string. I used crimp tubes for most of these.

But I ended up with a strong preference for Stretch Magic and using knots rather than crimp beads. Why? The obvious reason is that it's comfortable. That slight stretch means the piece never feels tight or strangly, nor does it ever feel heavy on.

So, back to the final designs. Once you've figured out what materials to use, and where to buy them...then and only then, can you truly create whatever you want.

So far my final designs seem to have a lot to do with jewelry that I've been looking for, for a very long time. i.e. I have been looking for, say, a yin-yang design for quite some time. It isn't made that much anymore. I'm not a religious person but the yin-yang design is sheer perfection. It's as good as the cross. I like the cross as a design, it is beautiful. I also like the "ankh" so that is something I'm keeping an eye out for as well.

I've often looked for a "green eye popping" design...it has to be green. For this so far I have a design with two pairs of (real) turquoise beads in front, flanking a Chinese round pendant that contains some green (I have one with a green bird in it). For the sides, I have six green glass leaf beads. I may not stay with the leaf beads; nice green beads are actually quite difficult to find.

Then, I've often looked for a design using green and peach together. So I have one of these...yellow-toned green beads for the sides, peach-colored cloisonne beads in front, and a pink lotus pendant.

Red is the easiest color to work with, because there are so many choices in red beads. I already have 3 red designs up...a "warm" red, rather Chinese looking thing, it's got red cloisonne beads in front, a nice red lotus pendant, and six vintage warm red beads on the sides. I have a neutral red piece with Indian red beads and a ladybug pendant. Then I have one with just different kinds of red beads on a clear-bead base...with a heart pendant.

Blue...I have a "youth" butterfly necklace. I like it, but it's too youthful for me. It has butterfly-shaped blue beads on the sides and a butterfly pendant. I'm planning on making an "adult" version of this as I happen to love butterfly designs. It'll be the same but with plain blue beads on the sides.

For the children's designs (aside from the butterfly and ladybug designs mentioned above), I have two just for kids. One is a sea of pink beads, it is very pink. It has a tiny glass Hello Kitty bead, then pairs of different small accent beads. The other design is the glass cat's head bead (still fiddling with that) on a clear-bead base, with pairs of different colored accent beads...whatever catches your eye, buy two of it and add it in.

That's about it. I have two children's bracelets to match the children's designs. But I'm still playing with the adult's bracelets. I'm going to finalize the adult necklace designs first, then figure out the bracelets.

Labels: fashion, handmade, jewelry, personal, style

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