Free Spirit Bohemian Necklace

Free Spirit

(a Bohemian necklace by me) 

For this necklace I used rough Chrysocolla, blue Peruvian Opal, Larimar, a few vintage 

Czech glass beads, sterling silver wire, and a few lengths of sterling silver chain. 

Here is a brief tutorial walk-through of the process...

Freshwater pearls and sterling silver wire...

I wanted the ends of the wire (the wraps) to be flat so after I strung on the pearls I carefully...

...flattened the wire ends with a hammer. Carefully.

Lookin' good

Meanwhile... I couldn't wait to use these rough Chrysocolla beads. The colors are spectacular.

I cut a piece of copper to stamp on because I was out of silver sheet... Improvise! 

Flux.

Flood with silver solder. Lead free always. 

Nice and clean. Kinda looks like a stick of gum LOL

Using a hole punch. To punch a hole.
I also trimmed the corners to make them rounded.

Wouldn't you know, I got two letter M's and no H! LOL
Back to the store tomorrow to get my H. 

I first stamped this with 1/4" stamps but didn't like the way it turned out so I made

another one and used the smaller sized letter stamps instead...

 Makes me happy.

At the same time... 
beading, hammering, wire wrapping, and making some connections.
I work in no particular order or pattern (no math here, LOL) I just assemble
it together as I think it looks best. 

Wrap it around.

I cut two lengths of chain that will be on the clasp ends. This makes it more 

comfortable to wear... comfort is important! 

Almost finished....still too shiny...

Love those loopy wraps! Time to go into a Liver of Sulfur bath to get that antique finish...

Love the blackened silver...but still needs a polish to bring out some of the silver...

Much better! Love!

Finished! This is a longer necklace - Opera length, about 32 inches long.

I like the feel of this necklace...it's peaceful and powerful  :)

Check out my new jewelry instruction book!

What do you think?

Art From Reclaimed Wood Shipping Pallets

Wood shipping pallets are one of the hottest items being repurposed and upcycled 

today. We've seen potting benches, tables, all types of furniture, and the list goes on.

One of my favorite ways to see old pallets being upcycled is when they are

 turned into some type of art. 

Here are a few that you may find interesting...

Red lips

Exhibit from Galery 543 at the Navy Yard via Free People blog (and below)

Pallet clock by Sanserif Creatius

Hello sunshine pallet art by Life as a Thrifter

Shark wall art by Sand and Sisal

Dr Seuss quote

Pallet Christmas tree art by songbirdsandlace via Etsy

Painted pallet art by Pamela Joyce

Painted pallet wall art by I should be mopping the floor

123 pallet art by Creative Outlets of a Thrifty Minded Momma

Pallet flag art by mom2dom

Dr Seuss quote

Want to see more pallet projects? 

Check out these posts:

God Save The Pallet! Reclaimed Pallets Revamped

How To Disassemble A Wooden Shipping Pallet

What do you think?

Check out my new book!

On My Workbench: Wire Wrapped Peace Sign Necklace

  

A peek into my workshop...

Wire Wrapped Peace Sign Necklace 

When I put the photo below up on my facebook page

Friday night, I entitled it "The Friday Night Special!"

I was playing with some fine gauge sterling silver wire before you know it, the peace sign appeared! ...I had some beads in mind that I had been in the mood to work with - mainly the small rainbow moonstones on the right.  I decided to add just 2 or 3 of them to the pendant as accents. 

Problem was, once I had the moonstones attached they faded right into the peace sign design! This would not do... so I used a Liver of Sulfur mixture to patina the silver, transforming it into a dark gray. 

This is what it looked like after I removed it from the 
patina solution.

Next I took a polishing cloth with some old silver polish
 on it and just polished it up a bit, removing some of the gray
so that you could see spots of the shiny sterling silver.

Finally finished!

My favorite finish is to show great contrast between the dark black and the shiny silver. 
I love the way this turned out! 


What do you think?


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How To Make A Scarab Necklace

Remember scarabs?

Scarab beetles were worshiped by the ancient Egyptians. 
Mysterious!

 I've always liked scarabs because #1, I think they're interesting 
and #2, I think they make unusual & unique jewelry. 

Check out how I turned some scarab beads into jewelry pendants!

On my workbench... I'm going to turn these carved stone scarab beads into one of a kind 
necklace pendants. 

My sketch inspiration. The page says I sketched this one on 2/7/08! Sometimes ideas and designs
 stay on paper a long time until I actually fabricate them into finished works. Half of it is finding the
time to try out new designs, the other half is being in the mood! Mood is everything!

The first thing I did was cut a 4" length of 22g sterling silver wire, strung on my scarab, and made a wrapped
loop on each end of the wire. The top loop will serve as the bail to hold the chain. The bottom loop 
is where I will attach a few beaded accents of coordinating beads. Notice how I made the 
directions of the loops opposite each other. 





Here's the wrapped loop from the bail end that will accommodate the chain. 
I make that loop a little larger than the one that will be on the bottom.

And then there were three. Now for the fun part...

Choosing coordinating beads for the beaded drops. I use a selection of gemstones, pearls and or crystals.

I used sterling silver headpins for the beaded drops and simply made three drops for
 each scarab and attached them to the bottom loop with another wrapped loop. That's it!

The finished scarab necklaces.

A few types of scarab beads:

What do you think? 
Do you like scarabs? 



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