Creative phases

I am currently going through an earring making phase. Do you end up in jewelry making, creative phases? What are you really enjoying making right now?

Sarah just brought these super awesome earrings in!

Catherine's birthday party goodie bags

We have a lot of fun jewelry marking birthday parties coming up in the next few weeks for the younger set; kicking off with Catherine's birthday party this evening.  We love helping kids discover a love of making their own jewelry and they're so enthusiastic.  

Our jewelry making birthday parties for kids come with fun little goodie bags!  Each set of goodie bags is different, depending on the age of the group (primarily whether or not they have their ears pierced) and what the birthday girl's favorite color is.  A group of 11 year old girls is coming in this weekend and Catherine's favorite color is purple, so we put together some purple earring kits for them.

Supply list:

• Mixed beads (make sure they're in pairs)
• make sure that they match
• Ear wires, head pins, wire (we usually do the earring goodie bags with 2 sets of each)
• Organza bags (to put all of your things in)

We also tossed in some quick directions, just in case they forgot how to make earrings when they got home.  

Here are the beads from one of the bags:

They should be able to get a few pairs of cute earrings and have some left over for other projects!

Weekly wrap up - Sunday, April 7th

It has been a busy week here!  It's been a great week, but a bit busy!  I've been working on finalizing the May scheduling and getting a bit of the June schedule done too; it's so time consuming... and so much fun.

We have some classes next week that still have space, give us a call or register online:

Tuesday, April 9th at 6pm - Caged Stone Pendants (1 space left!)
Thursday, April 11th at 9am - Wire Wrapped Stone bracelet (m+m, 12+)
Saturday, April 13th at 1pm - Birds Nest Rings + Pendants (m+m, 8+)
Sunday, April 14th at 1pm - Craft It! Afternoon (m+m)

Here's a sneak peek at the new classes for May:

Earring Party for May and June

Join the party--whether you are a new beader or an experienced earring enthusiast, you will love the Earring Party! This party will make the three pairs of earrings pictured (Daydream Weaver earrings, mixed up clusters with feather charms, and the mobius chainmaille flowers). Learn different techniques incorporating head pins, wire, briolettes, and more.  Level: beginner.  Cost: $30 (all supplies included)
 
Saturday, May 11th at 1pm 
Thursday, June 6th at 6pm

Love Me Knots chainmaille bracelet

This is a wonderful chainmaille weave to fall in love with. We'll use colored jump rings to make our love knot clusters and create a beautiful bracelet with them. This is a great class to practice opening and closing jump rings, creating a sweet bracelet to wear. Level: Beginner. Cost: $35.  All supplies included.

Tuesday, May 14th at 6pm

Minneapolis bracelet

To know it is to love it!  Get to know bead weaving a little bit better by mixing sparkly crystals and classic pearls with seed beads. Practice weaving with two needles as you follow this crossweave pattern. You'll wear home your glamorous bracelet that will make you feel gorgeous each time you put it on.  This lovely little bracelet is a shout-out to our friends at The Bead Monkey in Minneapolis, if you're in the area, check them out!  Cost: $30.  All supplies included.

Thursday, May 30th at 6pm

Hopefully I'll have the schedule finished on Monday and send it out to everyone. 

***

In other fun news, Sarah made this really cute necklace with the new bird connectors we got in. She used a thin chain, wire wrapped some tiny stones and connected the bird.  

Guest blog - Amy teaches us how to make little duck earrings

For my birthday last year, my friend Amy, with Old West Leather and Beads in Greeley, made me the cutest chicken earrings.  I get so many fun compliments on them.  I asked her to create a How To for us!  

The originals!

 "Spring calls for a new project …. and this one is simple and oh so fun!  I love these little duck beads, but couldn't decide what to do with them.  Then I thought, what do ducks need?  Water, of course!  And we have this cool blue SoftFlex craft wire …. since I like working with wire in my projects, this was a perfect fit.  Here's the step by step to make these little duckie earrings. Happy Spring!" - Amy

Supplies:

•  2 glass duck beads
• 36 inches of 22ga SoftFlex craft wire in Pacific Blue
• 2 gold ear wires
• round nose pliers
• flush cutters
• chain nose pliers

Step by step:

1. Cut 36 inches of your 22ga wire with your flush cutters.
2. Smooth the wire as much you can, then fold in half.
3. In the center of your bent wire, take your chain nose pliers and squeeze gently to get the fold as tight as possible. *Remember that colored wire can scratch and the color come off, so be gentle with your pliers!
4. Take the ends of your wire, bend at 90º about 1/2” or just a bit more from the end, and make your loop for the earwires, using your round nose pliers.
5. Take the folded end of your wire and run it through one of your duck beads from top to bottom.  Your earwire loop will be sitting on the top of your bead.
6. From the bottom side of your bead, bend your wire again so it lays flat against your bead. From here you want to start forming a spiral.  You are not forming a tight spiral, this just helps give you a base for your duck to sit on. I don't recommend using pliers for this, just use your fingers and thumb to hold the wire in place.
7. You want to spiral the wire out around the duck, I prefer to keep the wire fairly close to the bead, but not tight.  After about 2 times around the bead, take a loose wrap on one of the wires and continue wrapping in the same fashion until you get to the end of your wire.  
8. At the very end of your wire, wrap tightly around one of your wires 2 wraps.  I recommend using your flat nose pliers to wrap the end.This will secure your end so it won't come undone.  Now you can “make waves” in your wire.  Bend gently with your fingers to form as you wish.
9. Add your earwire.  Done!

Here's a collage of some of the beautiful things that Amy has made!  

I also included a link to her Etsy page, find a bit of inspiration.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/CowGirlGemz

Do you want to learn more about wire wrapping?  Take a wire wrapping class!  They're really neat and the skills are great to add into your jewelry making or to have a new fun hobby.  To take classes in Northern Colorado visit Amy at Old West Leather and Beads.  To take wire wrapping classes in our Denver location, visit us at The Colorado Bead Co. 

A weekend project - cluster earrings (how to)

What a fun late night project! Having 4 children, I love projects that I can finish in one sitting since I never know the next time that I will be able to sit and create in peace :) These little clusters can make big a statement in just a little package.

Red donuts with crystal and leaf clusters

Supply list:

• 2 - 1" donuts (you don't want these to be too heavy or else your ears will fall off)
• 4 - glass leaf beads (the ones I used are drilled top to bottom and I liked them a lot, but briolette leaves would work too)
• 8" - 22ga wire
• 8 - glass crystals
• 1 jump ring (6 or 8mm)
• 2 - ear wires (if you're planning on giving these as a gift, don't forget to use nickel free ear wires, just in case the person you're giving them to has a nickel allergy)
• headpins (I used the ball head pins we carry because they're a softer temper than most head pins and I wanted to wrap the ends)

How to wrap the doughnut bead:

1. Cut four inches of 22ga wire.
2. Put one inch of the 4” wire in the center hole. Fold both ends up towards the top. With the 3” section, wrap the doughnut 3 times.
3. Make your loop with what you have left over of the long wire
1. Not sure about loops?  Check out our wire loop making how to. 
4. What is left of the shortened wire wrap the base of the longer wire to make it secure.
5.  Repeat on the second doughnut.

For the smaller beads:

1. Put each smaller bead on a ball head pin - do not trim the pin yet!
2. Make your head pin loops and wrap the extra wire from the head pin around itself and toward the bead.
3. Trim the excess wire.

Connecting everything:

1. Open your jump ring, (tip: always twist a jump ring clockwise/counterclockwise to open, don't pull them straight out).
2. Decide which beads you want on each earring.
3. Put half of your beaded headpins onto a jump ring (1/4 of the total headpins).
4. Put on your wrapped doughnut.
5. Put the other half of your beaded headpins on.
6. Slide on your ear wire.
7. Close your jump ring.
8. Repeat.

Another example!  This one is done with large briolettes in place of the donuts.

Blue goldstone briolettes with crystal clusters

 The ideas and color schemes are endless! The bead layout I have together for the next late night project is: Gold metal, light Blue, burnt orange, & dusty brown (but who knows when that is going to be!) I look forward to seeing what you all come up with!

 - Aimee

P.S. - if you're confused or unsure about this project, we're always here to help!  We also offer a lot of jewelry making classes in our Denver bead store - The Colorado Bead Company.  

wire loops - how to

Making loops is an important skill for any jewelry maker to master, especially if you want to make earrings.  We have jewelry making classes in our Denver bead store location, as well as at our bead store in Greeley, and we're more than happy to help you anytime!  

Head pins - are straight pins with a disc, ball or other fancy shape at one end.  You can use these to create dangles or as the last bead in a series. 

Eye pins - are straight pins with a loop at the end.  You can use eye pins when you're planning on connecting multiple pieces together. 

How to make a simple loop:

1. slide bead on pin
2. cut pin down so that the excess is 1/4" to 3/8"
3. use your fingers to bend the wire to a 90* angle
4. using your round nose pliers, grasp the end of the wire (where you cut), and roll your pliers towards the bend, creating your loop (make sure your loop is closed all the way so that your ear wire or other pieces don't slide out)
5. you can open and close these loops just like you would a jump ring (clockwise or counterclockwise)

How to make a wire wrapped loop:

1. slide bead on pin
2. use your chain nose pliers to create a 90* angle, 1/4" above the bead
3. use your round nose pliers to form a loop with the rest of the wire crossing over the bend
4. wrap the excess wire tightly around the 1/4" space you created
5. wrap all the way down to the bead and trim any extra wire 

 <3 anne.