Wire Jewelry Idea May 16:
Good and Bad Gemstone Faceting

by Rose Marion, Wire-Sculpture.com

Video by John Dyer

If you have the budget for quality cut stones, you have to check out this video by John Dyer. John explains the faceting in gemstones to look for, including windows and polishing quality. While there is nothing "wrong" with economy stones that have windows or crooked facets – in fact, buying imperfect gemstones is an excellent way to prepare for wire wrapping the real deal -I hope you’ll enjoy this video.

While we don’t carry John Dyer’s magnificent stones at this time, you will enjoy wire wrapping our selection of cut gemstones!

Happy Jewelry Making!

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Wire Jewelry Idea May 2:
Wire Wrapping Medical Jewelry

by Rose Marion, Wire-Sculpture.com

Something that I usually don’t talk about here on Wire-Sculpture is my medical history, but today I’d like to share a bit of it. I have life-threatening food allergies as well as asthma. Luckily I outgrew many of my food allergies, but I’m still very allergic to milk, eggs, tree nuts, and peanuts. Let me tell you, I am saddened by the rise of allergies and things like gluten intolerance and Celiac Disease – but I’m delighted by the new range of gluten-free, milk-free, egg-free, and nut-free foods that just wasn’t available 10 or 20 years ago! (And my poor husband is, too!)

The Bracelet I Loved to Hate

I’ve had allergies and asthma all my life, and it was a lot to learn about as a child – I learned to read ingredient labels before I read Dick and Jane. But one of the big things I had to learn was to always wear my medic alert bracelet, which was a metal box with the medical insignia that I wore around my wrist; the box opened to reveal a page of waterproof paper with my allergies and doctor information on it. I wore my medical bracelet so that if I started to have an allergic reaction, an adult could call 911 and paramedics would know to use my Epi-Pen. And so began my love/hate relationship with jewelry.

You see, I was a very small child and the jewelry wasn’t designed well for children – the band dug into my wrist, was heavy, stuck on hot days, was very unattractive, and I got teased for it in school – but it protected my life.

I "upgraded" to a more standard medical alert bracelet as time went on and I could explain my medical issues to strangers. I got a simple engraved plate with my name, allergies, and "Call 911" written on it with the standard red medical symbol. But it came with an ugly curb chain that didn’t fit well and I hated looking at it.

I have to admit – many days, I would just stuff it in my pocket. Luckily I never needed to use it during that time – I’m sure paramedics are used to looking for medical jewelry on wrists and around the neck, but wouldn’t dig through my pockets!

Then I Saw a Solution to Unwearable Medical Jewelry

Then one day in school, I noticed another girl who wore a medical bracelet, and she had wire wrapped beautiful glass beads on links to attach her medical ID – no curb chain there! And it fit beautifully. I was amazed. Who knew that was possible?

Well, now I know. My ideal medical id bracelet will have wire wrapped beaded links that are interchangeable with the medical tag, so I can match my outfit. The links will be fairly heavy, to balance the medical ID plate in the middle of the bracelet, so it doesn’t slide around my wrist all day. And the bracelet will have a toggle clasp, rather than a lobster claw clasp. You have heard me mention I hate lobster claw clasps – there was a time when I didn’t know there was another kind, and I had to clasp and unclasp my darn bracelet myself every day!

You can find many generic medical id pendants and bracelets in drug stores, near the pharmacy, and there are also many medical id tag sellers online who will engrave your information and customize it for you.

I had to have some information changed, so I am waiting for my new medical id tag to come in the mail. I can’t wait to dress it up!

Do You Make Medical Jewelry More Wearable?

I’m sure there are many jewelry artists who’ve found creative solutions to wear their medical jewelry, or ways to dress up friends’ and clients’ medical jewelry. It’s a great service that you can mention when you see people wearing medical jewelry that are checking out your jewelry booth, too. While it’s careful to make sure paramedics will still recognize it as a medic alert bracelet, I’m sure there are a lot of people like me who would love a customized option. You can make wire wrapped links, as I did (use this pattern for inspiration!); incorporate the medical tag into a wire bangle; use chainmaille techniques or a charm-style bracelet; or even create your own perfect style of wire wrapping medical id tags.

How about you? Have you helped a friend or relative design their own medical jewelry, or medical jewelry for yourself? Leave a comment below about your wire solution to such an important piece of jewelry!

Happy Jewelry Making!

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Wire Jewelry Idea April 25:
Tagging Handmade Jewelry Gifts

by Rose Marion, Wire-Sculpture.com

They’re one of those cultural things that seem everywhere. On your car, in movies, needing attention every couple of years: license plates. License plates, surprisingly, began in France in the 1800s, before the car was invented. On this day, April 25, in 1901, New York became the first state to require license plates; but rather than provide a metal plate with year and month stickers, like states do nowdays, drivers were expected to make their own! Early license plates were made of cardboard, copper, plastic, leather, porcelain, and even pressed soybeans before standards were put in place.

What does that have to do with jewelry? Well, I drive a Toyota Camry. I love my car, but it’s not exactly unique; there are usually a couple other Camrys in the same color when I park at the mall or to get groceries. And if I didn’t have my electronic key FOB that I can press to make my car beep, I’m sure I’d have a harder time finding my car. Now could you imagine if we didn’t have license plates, either?

I was thinking about license plates and I started to wonder how I identify my jewelry. Sure, compared to the rest of my jewelry box, my jewelry stands out pretty well: I recognize what I’ve made (much better than remembering where I parked). Even my wild and crazy experiments still are familiar to me. But what if one of my circle of friends, who gets showered with handmade jewelry on my birthday, can’t remember who made her bracelet, can you blame her? So here are a few ideas I came up with to help “license” your jewelry.

• Does your jewelry tarnish? Include a small polishing cloth, or an anti-tarnish strip and a plastic bag with the gift.
• Give your jewelry in a special box: many gem shows will have a vendor who specializes in beautiful wood, silk, cloissone, or ceramic tiny gift boxes and pounches.
• Include a personal note on scrapbooking or handmade paper that begs to be saved in her jewelry box
• Do you have a special symbol, or a special thing that will remind your friend of you? Attach a small charm, such as a cross, peace sign, dolphin, or “Mom” charm near the clasp, so she thinks of you whenever she puts it on.
• Search online for jewelry tags and metal jewelry stamping punches so you can stamp your initials on the jewelry tag charm

What ways can you think of to “license” or “mark” your jewelry that you give as gifts? Let us know in the comments below!
Happy Jewelry Making!

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by Rose Marion, Wire-Sculpture.com

I can’t help but be disctracted by the beautiful weather outside lately! Here in northern Utah, it’s a balmy 72 degrees with light gusts of wind. The trees have buds on them, which glowed green under a blanket of snow last week – but the snow’s gone now, and the earth’s dried out. Just a beautiful spring day with nature screaming to be looked at!

Why not turn to nature today for jewelry inspiration? The flowers are starting to come out – white, purple, and gold crocuses, even some roses are in bloom. Of course, flowers are a natural inspiration for wire artists, since many of us have our own gardens or just love to match the beauty of flowers.

Albina Manning created these pretty Spring Flower Earrings:

And Jill Gentry made a daisy pendant with a little craft wire, these would be beautiful pendants for you to give as gifts:

You can also wire wrap a stone that’s reminiscent of flowers. Flower cameos are inexpensive but beautiful. For those with expensive taste, here’s a John Dyer stone I saw in Tucson – the back is cut to show the petals in this irradiated Lime Citrine – my photography doesn’t do it justice, click the image below to see a much better-quality photo!

Leaves are also inspirational: these 2 leaf pieces are part of our Free Email Jewelry Patterns series. By Albina Manning:

by Dale “Cougar” Armstrong:

And we couldn’t ignore garden visitors! Here’s are two artist’s take on a visiting butterfly:

And of course, every successful garden has to have a bee. Dale teaches her original wire pin in the Intermediate Series.

That reminds me of another animal I’ve seen in wire. In Tucson, I met a man who had discovered a horse’s head carved from turquoise. The horse was turned to the side, and had its teeth slightly parted, and had a nice long neck. This man devised a bit and harness for the horse using twisted gold wire, and created a bail for the horse pendant. What a cool idea, for a cabochon that would be hard to wrap in a standard frame!

A fun animal to wrap – yes, it’s a real animal there! – is the orthoceras cabochons you willl find in Tucson. These sea creatures are stunning.

Just as stunning are ammonites and ammolites:

I hope this trip through organic nature will help you find jewelry-making inspiration this spring! I’d love to hear what your favorite nature inspirations are this time of year. Happy jewelry making!

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by Rose Marion, Wire-Sculpture.com

3 Tools to Help You Pick Color Schemes in Your Jewelry-Making

Why does a jewelry artist need to pick out colors? You may say, well, I just pull out my bead tray and I go with what goes together, I trust my eye. That’s great, and that works for many of us some days, when the sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and we have a calm, quiet house to ourselves.

However, when you’re under pressure, or designing a new collection of jewelry – several pieces that go together to create a cohesive “look” – you may need to do some planning, based on your materials that are available, the look for that collection (bridal? floral? autumn? children? fantasy?), and the people who will wear it (can they afford the gold-filled wire? will they feel they overpaid if the plated wire chips?).

Whether you’re designing your business logo, your craft table color scheme, your new collection of jewelry, or even a single set of jewelry based around a stone – say, a colorful opal or tigerseye – it helps to plan. Here are 3 tools you can use to plan your color schemes so you’ll create wire jewelry with confidence and joy, without a look back!

Kuler, by Adobe

You may recognize Adobe as the software company behind creative programs such as Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, and InDesign. But those aren’t the only things Adobe has developed to help creative professionals (you’re a creative professional – just like photographers, graphic designers, fashion designers, and interior designers the world over).

Kuler is a free web-based program from Adobe that allows you to create color palettes using up to 5 colors. You can choose to relate the colors based on Analogous, Complementary, Triadic, Monochromatic, and other color relationships, or freestyle. Simply use the color wheel to select a color; advanced users can specify certain RGB, CMYK, Hexadecimal, or other color values to perfectly match logos or images.

You can save these color palettes if you create an account (it’s free), and if you’re an advanced user, you can export the swatch and import it into a program like Illustrator, so you don’t have to write the color codes down. This has helped me match just what beads would go with my copper jewelry, and I can even guess how the colors will look as the copper patinas!

ColourLovers.com, Color and Patterns

ColourLovers is much like Kuler, with a few additions. First, you can upload a photo, which allows you to use colors from that photo without touching Photoshop or any image software.

It seems a lot like Kuler at this point. However, now that you have a palette, you can now create a pattern with it (might be useful when choosing your company’s logo color – you can make a website background)

ColourLovers also seems more social than Kuler. While you can share palettes with others and comment on them in Kuler, ColourLovers allows you to join groups; you’ll meet a great community that loves color. Paid products on ColourLovers include fabric made from the palettes and patterns you choose, posters, and a color-matching software program.

Polyvore, for Fashion Ensembles

Have you seen the pages of the fashion magazines that have pictures of pieces of an ensemble, with information on each piece, its price, and where you can find it? Polyvore is a site that will allow you to create your own fashion spreads online. If you’ve mastered ColourLovers, Polyvore is next on your must-explore list.

This site has a bit of a learning curve to use, but it’s a fun way to piece together outfits and see what others have made – a bit like Pinterest. But the very cool thing is that you can add your own images and jewelry to Polyvore using its Clipper tool. Due to legal & copyright business, Etsy doesn’t allow Polyvore to use images that are on Etsy, but you can still clip pieces from your blog, Artfire, or Flickr. Then you can add your own jewelry to outfits!

After you publish, you can choose to get the code to place the fashion collage on your website; the images will automatically link to their respective sources (including your Artfire listing or website).

Bonus Resource:  Using a Color Fan or Color Swatches

If these online resources for organizing color and looks are a bit too much, don’t worry, you can do practically the same thing without a computer. For a totally off-line method of choosing colors, you can take advantage of color fans, which you can buy from Pantone (if you have a suitcase of cash) – thrifty options include visiting graphic design firms and printing companies to see if they have old Pantone color fans and paint shops.

Can’t find color fans, or are you bootstrapping along? Head to your big box home retailer and pick up some paint chips. This requires more effort in the long run, if you have to rush in every time you’re planning a piece – but it’s free, and it’s an okay substitute until you can find a color fan or be comfortable with online options. And I do recommend being professional here. Most of the folks that work in the paint departments are pretty friendly; I don’t recommend hiding what you’re doing. They would probably be interested to hear what kind of unique jewelry you make. And of course, when you do need to buy paint, patronize the shop that’s been kindest.

As far as imitating Polyvore: there’s the old standard of clipping clothes and accessories from magazines and taping or gluing them to a piece of paper for a “mood board” or “inspiration board.” You can even add a picture or sketch of your jewelry to that paper for a complete ensemble. That may make a fun photo backdrop, catalog addition, or sample sheet to show your customers – the possibilities are endless!

Happy Jewelry Making!

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