Well, "finished" in the wirework sense. I still need to give it a patina...yukky pic, but I was so excited to be finished with the wire part...I call this my "Three Tutorial Bracelet".
When I first saw the wire-wrapped bracelets made by Julie Sigmund of Jewlie Beads my jaw hit the floor! I was perusing the Lampwork Etc. galleries last September/October and saw her bracelets:
WOW! They were "just my style" made with mixed copper and silver and highlighted with a lampwork bead. What could be better? Why... a tutorial or pattern, of course! Eventually she wrote up the tutorial and put it up for sale on Etsy.
This is the bracelet that she wrote the tutorial for:
To purchase your own copy of Julie's tutorial go to JewlieBeads.etsy.com and look in her shop for the "Tutorial for Wire Wrapped Cuff Bracelet".
As you can see, I did not use a lampwork bead focal for my bracelet. It isn't that I don't have one, I had one all ready to go, but then I saw another tutorial that was being written that I just had to have, yet oddly enough, it had nothing to do with making the bracelet.Lydia Muell of AshtonJewels makes large floral lampwork beads and charms. Plus she writes killer lampwork bead tutorials. So when I saw this bead cap she had "spun up" I, as usual, had to try it. Oh, just look at that labradorite...
Lydia does not sell this tutorial in her Etsy shop. To purchase the tutorial for this bead cap you have to go to her site, Lampwork Treasures.
I really had no business making a bead cap for a 27-30mm bead which I do not actually own and am not yet willing to make. But I was so freakin' intrigued. Honestly, this bead cap is HUGE and looks like a funny "hat" on top of a bead any smaller than 27mm. I know, I tested on a few of the larger beads that I had, none of them quite 27mm.
So I got this really fabulous idea that the bead cap would look nice wired to the center of a large stone donut. I seem to have misplaced my assortment of large stone donuts. I can find the small ones, but none big enough to make my little "idea" work. I had very little luck finding a decent donut out in the local stores as well. I ended up with an antiqued metal donut with a pendant bail on the back. And my bead-cap-donut-pendant-thingie would have worked out very well if a wired heart I had just made hadn't fallen on, and hooked inside the metal donut. Oh, yeah! That heart's going there! But what about the bead cap...hey, wait a minute...it fits in the center of the bracelet...and it's copper...and it's woven...
But if you can see in the picture above there's this big honkin' hole in the middle of the bead cap. I needed a bead cap for my bead cap! Enter Perri Jackson of Shaktipaj Designs and her "Periwinkle Bead Cap Tutorial". Oh, yes...that would work just fine...To purchase your own copy of Perri's tutorial go to ShaktipajDesigns.etsy.com and look in her shop for the "Periwinkle Bead Cap Tutorial".
I made the little bead cap from sterling silver and attached it to the big bead cap, then attached the whole assembly to the bracelet base.
My muse forces me to vary from written instructions after I get the understanding of a basic concept. It also depends on what meterials I have on hand. I didn't have exactly the materials called for in any of the three tutorials but I made the pieces work.
I thought I was going to go blind putting on the little scrolly coils on both sides of the focal. I put them on with 30-gauge sterling wire. One, it's hard to see (for me), and two, it can be terribly brittle if it is bent too much. I had to use a freakin' magnifier to get it done. Nearly blinded me :-)
Next a liver of sulphur bath and a tumble for this lovely piece!
Comments
Post a Comment