Completely WIRED!!

                                                                    by Kelli Pope 

First of all, let me apologize for my late posting this morning, but my adorably, lovely little granddaughter has kept me quite occupied ALL night.  :o)

 My little Makaroni enjoying her breakfast. 

OK... on to wire!  My FAVORITE medium!!!!!  It is SO versatile!!  It can be shaped and bent and twisted and curved into anything you want!!   You can make beads from it, closures, links, bead caps, chains, neck wires, pendants... ANYTHING!!!!!  Whatever shape you imagine, can be formed in wire.   It can be patinated, antiqued, enameled or left bright and shiny! 

 twisted wire waiting to be formed into neck wires

 finished neck wire, awaiting a liver of sulphur bath

  On my jewelry desk (yep, it's really this messy), formed toggles, squiggles, links

  pendants and cut lengths ready to be hammered

              On the workbench, formed silver links, earrings, toggles, and pendant parts waiting to be hammered

  Some finished copper pendants and links ready to be used in jewelry.

one finished piece incorporating some MissFickleMedia patinated chain, link and pendant.

Free Your Mind for Free form Wire Work

by Staci L. Smith

Since this months Boot Camp is all about wire and what you can do with it, I thought we'd talk a little bit about my history of crazy free form wire work.

 

I do not read instructions.  I do not follow rules.  Typical wire wrapping is Greek to me, and I never tried it because I hate to have to measure anything (yes, I am kinda lazy that way).  For me, the free form wire work comes very natural, so it all worked out.  However, I realize that it is not so for everyone.  Some people are very intimidated to just dive right in and play.  I will not lie, there is a learning curve, lots of unwrapping and re-wrapping or wrapping too much, until you can get that balance of function and design....but you can do it.

 

When I started- I basically learned so I could capture sea glass in wire.

 

 

Staci Louise Originals the early days.....lol

 

 

 

I never took a class to wrap stones or sea glass (obviously) so there was a lot of trial and error.  The most important thing to me at first was to learn to capture the glass securely, so it couldn't be pulled apart.  There is nothing worse then wrapping something up really nice and then it pulls apart off one side, and your sea glass falls out.

 

Then I learned to drill sea glass, so the wire wrapping was able to become more decorative and less functional.

 

 

(this was all sterling silver mind you, back when it was $8-$12 an oz!!!!)

 

 

 

Then I tried this style below, the loop with beads wrapped around the outside, and only made a couple....it just wasn't me

 

 

However, trying this allowed me to think about making a wire frame and attaching beads to it.  So, of course, I took this technique and ran with it- and made it bigger...................

 

my tide line design in sea glass

 

AND BIGGER...................

 

 

 

 

Then I added wire as charms and adornments to my beaded pieces

 

 

 

and that is about it. 

 

 

Free form wire work- just try it, and be bold and have fun!  You won't discover anything amazing if you don't try!

 

I hope seeing my early work has inspired you to just jump in and try.  And remember- post your progress, experiments and success's in our flickr group (for the current Boot Camp Only)! 

 

have fun!

An Introduction and Some Salmon Skin Leather

Hello folks, let me introduce myself before I launch my very first blog post on LMAJ.

My name is Kimberly Rogers - aka Kim

Some of you may know me already from my blog Numinosity ( pronounced new-min-osity) or my Etsy shop numinositybeads.

I make lampwork and torch fired enamel components as well as my own jewelry designing.

Now that I am retired from my many years working as a heavy equipment operator and groundskeeper for the great Sate of Alaska I can pursue my passion for creating both in mixed media and jewelry making. I am fortunate to enjoy the snowbird lifestyle spitting my time between Alaska and Arizona with a healthy dose of world travel in between.  My husband and I are inveterate collectors and share a love for the shiny, sparkly, vintage and antique collectibles, ephemera and stones. 

I maintain two glass studios now as I can't bear to be with out my ability to do some torching for half of the year.

This past March we went on a trip to Chile Argentina and Uruguay.

It was in Puerto Montt Chile where I found an artisan leather shop that was selling leather made out of tanned salmon skins. I just knew that it could be an element that would work well in my designs.

I simply cut out the leather for dangles in these pieces.

I appreciate the lightness of the leather as I like to make large pieces and the weight of the components can add up quickly.

A simple redo on some earrings I had made previously that had sari silk ribbons that didn't highlight the lampwork. I was much happier with the backdrop of the salmon skin leather.

Some of my torch fired enamel against  a bit of fringe.

 ( almost too easy but I like the effect and these sold immediately!)

Putting the textured leather behind some nearly transparent beads gave the beads some new life.

Here's what the pieces looked like before I started cutting them. I left half of the supply back in Arizona for when I return next fall.

Here's what Staci Louise made with some fish leather.

She sandwiched it between the elements in the focal piece.

I'm sure there must be more sources than Chile for fish leather. Right off the bat this Canadian company selling fish leather showed up on my google search. 

It's quite possible that I may be able to dig up my Chilean source as well but with my moves back and forth I sometimes have trouble locating things!

And here I am happy at the Pink Palace in Jaipur from when we travelled to India last year.

It's hard not to be inspired when you go to a place like that.

Thanks for having me as a new contributing member to Love My Art Jewelry.

You can also find my facebook fan page here or see my Pinterest boards 

I have a board that features the way other jewelry designers are using my components here.

Boot Camp #3: Wire Work-Out

by Staci L. Smith

This Boot Camp is going to be all about working with wire.  We are gonna work out our wire skills and grow some muscles!!!!  Learning some very basic skills in wire can open a huge world of possibilities in jewelry design.

 sea glass swirls by Staci Louise Smith

Whether you are just jumping from stringing to wire work, or are an old pro, we hope to give you some information and inspiration to get your wheels turning. 

Boot Camp is all about you taking a new or existing skill, and getting creative with it- or, for newbies, even just trying it out.  I really hope that no one is shy here, because we all started somewhere, and we are all continuing to learn and grow.  So join in, share your attempts and successes in our flickr group, and join the fun.

I am no expert in wire wrapping, I have no formal training, I am not the tidy, measuring my wire and making each twist neat wire worker.  However, I will share what I know with you, and feel free to share as well, if you have more information then I have offered.

I thought I'd talk about some simple wire basics:

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There are three hardness's of wire, hard, half hard, and dead soft.  I always use dead soft for all my wire work.  It works easily, and holds it shape the best.  It is exactly how it sounds, its dead soft.

Hard and Half hard are springier, and they are mostly used for clasps and ear wires.

 

You also have many kinds of metal wire to chose from:

sterling silver: works easily, desirable, but expensive

silver filled: works a little tougher then silver, desirable, less expensive then sterling

copper:  works easily (more easily then silver), very inexpensive

brass:  works a little tougher then copper, inexpensive, doesn't antique as easily as silver and copper

annealed steel wire:  easy to work with, strong, must be sealed though or it will rust

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For today's intro, here is a little tutorial on wrapping a briolette so it has that extra wrapping to create an organic look.

 

First, chose your briolette.

 

 

 

I like to use the thickest wire possible without stressing the hole of the stone (you still have some flexibility and movement).  In this case, I chose 22g copper.

 

 

 

Cut a long piece- for this briolette I used 1' of wire, but I could have used more in hindsight.  It's better to have more then not enough.

 

Put the wire through hole, leaving about 1" on one side, and the rest on the other.

 

 

 

Turn the wires up, following the contour of the brio.

 

 

 

Cross them, straighten the long one at the point of the brio- so its centered- and wrap the short end around that wire.

 

 

 

Make your loop at the top.  Through the process, make sure you are centered over the brio.

 

 

 

Now, take the excess wire and wrap it semi-loosely down the brio until you reach the point where the hole is.

 

 

When you cover the hole, wrap back up and down until it is filled in thicker at the bottom then the top.   Make sure you finish at the top, and that it is wound tightly for the last couple times.  This is what will hold your wrapping securely. 

 

 

Trim and tuck your wire end in tightly so it won't catch on anything.

 

 

 

If you need more wrapping, cut another piece, and wrap tightly around the top, wrap in down and up and tuck both ends in. 

 

It takes a little practice, but I just love the look you end up, and think its worth wire to try it until you are happy with it. 

 

 

Well, I hope you will join us this month!  Can't wait to see what you guys do with wire work as your guide!