Tuesday, November 08, 2011

Free Bead Weaving Tutorial!!!



As I mentioned before, to celebrate my 1000th page view, I am having a contest.  Well, we made it!  Time to find out what you can get.


Win a FREE copy of my Shimmering Beaded Leaf Earring Tutorial which I announced to you here and is for sale here.  However, right now, you have a chance to get it for free!  All you have to do is leave a comment on this post saying what you would like to see more of on this blog.  That's it!  The contest will be open until December 8th, 2011 at midnight EST.  On December 9th a comment will be picked at random and the person who posted it will get the tutorial for free.  One comment per person please.  I'm excited to see what you have to say!

Friday, October 21, 2011

New URL

In an effort to consolidate my 'brand', I've been unifying everything associated with making jewelry under one name:

Crossed Wires Jewelry

As such, the URL for this blog has been changed to www.CrossedWiresJewelry.blogspot.com.  My esty store has now been updated to www.CrossedWiresJewelry.etsy.com and you can contact me via my profile or at CrossedWiresJewelry@gmail.com.

Stay tuned as we're only a few page views away from a contest!  Who doesn't like free stuff?!

Monday, October 17, 2011

So close to a 1000!

I checked my blog stats today and realized that I have had 974 views. I can't believe that so many of you are coming and taking a look at my little corner of the internet. To mark my 1000th view, I will be having a contest. I will post it once that milestone number has been reached. Stay tuned for details.....

Friday, September 23, 2011

DIY Earring Displays and Organizers

If you're anything like me, you have piles of earrings that you love and need a way to store them. However, I find that when I put things away in a jewelry box, I forget that I own them and don't wear them. I found a couple of neat earring display ideas that are easy to make and are really neat decor as well.




The first is a new take on an old picture frame. You can find the tutorial here. The tutorial includes instructions on how to knit or crochet the lace, however, I would just make a trip to the fabric store and buy some. You could make this in any combination of colours. You just need some paint for the frame and backing, and a coordinating lace colour. If you bought the frame from a thrift store, you could probably make the whole thing for under $10.




The second is quirky and cool all at the same time. I love it! The original came from here, although there is no formal tutorial. To make this you will need
- one cheese grater (which I suggest getting at the dollar store)
- 4 hooks (the kind meant to screw into the ceiling would likely work well since they have a straight base to glue into the cheese grater corners)
- 4 larger beads for the hook ends
- glue (something like epoxy or the gel crazy glue should work well)
- paint or spray paint
- creativity!






The options are pretty much endless. You could paint multicoloured designs, stencil on patterns, glue on rhinestones, add lace trim, or anything you can come up with to make it your own. Again, by getting your supplies at cost efficient places, you could make this whole thing for less than $10.

These two ideas are great ways to keep your earrings out in the open without making a clutter. The organizers themselves are cool pieces of art too!

Friday, September 02, 2011

Beaded Paisley Wire Wrapped Earrings

So it's been a while. Summer fun definitely stole me away from my beading and away from my computer. To welcome the first day of September, I sat inside after work and made a pair of earrings. It helped that I have a birthday party coming up this weekend for which I offered to contribute some jewelry as part of the gift. Having a deadline definitely gave me that extra bit of motivation! I ended up combining both wire work and beads to create some fun earrings. They kind of remind me of a paisley pattern.

When I had finished the first one I wasn't quite sure if I liked them but once the mirror image pair was complete, I was really happy with the results. The wire frame is made of 20 gauge silver round wire which I hammered to stiffen it once I had shaped it. The inside swirls are made of 24 gauge square silver wire. Some mauve frosted glass seed beads on the outside and a dangling 4mm swarovski bicone crystal completed the look. Everything was woven together using 28 gauge round silver wire. Hopefully the recipient will enjoy them too!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

New Items Up On Etsy!

I finally got around to photographing some pieces I had intended for sale.  Mostly fused glass pendants, but there are a couple wire wrapped goodies in there too.  These are all now up for sale at my Etsy store. Hope you enjoy :)

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

A New Wire Wrapping Tutorial Site

Just wanted to share with you a new website... well, new to me website that I stumbled upon the other day: http://www.wire-jewelry-lessons.com . I've already purchases the Solitaire Faceted Ring tutorial. It looks so much more delicate that a lot of the other prong ring tutorials I've seen and will be perfect for some of the smaller stones I received in my bulk stone orders a little while back.

There were also many other beautiful patterns that caught my eye. Some I can figure out how they were made just by looking at the pictures, but some have got the "I need to know how they did it" part of my brain going!