Mixing it up! Beads, stone, wire wrapping and caged!

I found the stone in the middle at a shop in the Khan el Khallili on my latest trip to Cairo.  I liked the stone but it is sort of lumpy which makes it a bit hard to set in a ring or pendant.  Of course, I started to have ideas after working with other bead caging efforts.  I felt the stone was too small to be on its own, so I went searching for some turquoise beads in my stash.   I have a lot of fake stuff (good for fun stuff) and I have some real ones too.  It was just a matter of getting a good color match.  These are very close in color with both having the brownish veins.

Caged and wire wrapped . . . half way done!

Done!   

I added some more swirls to hide the connecting wire wrapping around the top of the pendant.

Back view.

Front View.

More of the new ideas I have been working . . wire wrapping strung beads

Digging around in my stash, I find a project box full of ideas . . . well, it did have a purpose but now I have just forgotten or just dropped the idea out of the important list.   But it gives me fun things to try.   I must use the stash for something.

Like these beads: 

some glass beads of various shapes along with some round cracked glass and plastic faceted beads.  Oh, the possibilities.

Just trying out some ideas with the different colors of wire: gold, silver and copper.

The silver on this one is ok.  I think I could have done it with a smaller gauge wire and double wrapped.  I could do another one.  Maybe???

Not sure what I was doing to the one on the left.  I strung the beads than wrapped them but the uneven shape of the beads made the wire uneven too.  Then I had a harebrained idea to take a really. small gauge (28?) to bind it in the middle.  hmmmm, not so great. Took a 24 gauge wire and worked it around in a circular fashion like weaving,  Still sort of a mess.  Not sure I like it but if I let it sit it might be OK.  The one on the right looks more like an ornament.  I used copper and rose gold wire

I have some more beads I can try different takes on this idea.   But I have other things I am trying to learn and/or perfect.  

It is an endless process.

Lots of new ideas . . . Part Three

I have found so many tutorials through Pinterest that I have to try some of them.   I think it will take me awhile to get around to all of them.   Here are some of the results from two of them.

I found this cute idea for a charm pendant.   I made it first in a lighter weight gauge of silver then went to the heavier gauge of copper.  Not bad for first efforts but I do need more practice.

I decided to show how the charm pendants can be used.  Here I used some stitch markers as charms.  I think it is a great idea for a way to carry around stitch markers if you are a crochet or knitting person.   

I did a bit of tweaking on the copper charm pendant and it looks a bit better.   I have added a couple of items to show off its use.   I like it.  Maybe someone else will like having one of these.

Another tutorial that I found was another wire wrapping style.   This one takes beads that have been drilled and strings them in a circle shape then wraps wire around them.   Of course, I tried one with 6 of the same beads as in the first example  Then I made another and another.   Why not??   The tutorial suggested trying different sizes and different numbers of beads together.

The one of the right is the first one I made.   The one on the left is two different styles/colors of fresh water pearls which I have had in my stash for awhile (of course).  A bit lopsided but the more I look at it, the more I like it.

This next one is a blue tiger eye stone in the middle surrounded by blue tiger eye beads.  Not sure I like it but someone might.   If not, I can always take it apart and do something different with the stone and beads.

This last one was a thought that popped out of my stash when I was looking for other beads.  Just big plastic shiny beads that I had not remembered.   They make up nicely for a decoration/ornament and I have some colored wires that have been languishing in my wire stash.  I think they turned out well.   Too bad I don't have more of those big plastic beads.  I could have made a lot more of them to give as gifts.

Lots of new ideas swirling around in my head! Part One.

Speaking of swirls . . . but I am getting ahead of myself . . .  I have been experimenting with wire again.   Wrapping, bending, jigging, rolling.   I need to try some weaving soon. Maybe today as I have a tutorial pulled up.  Yes, I have been on Pinterest saving lots of ideas along with looking through all those books I bought. Books are a great resource that I always turn to for ideas.

Then I decided to take a class (Caged Beads) in March at my favorite bead shop in Dallas (Beads of Splendor) to get back into the swing of wire work.  In anticipation, and in my usual over enthusiastic fashion, I bought several candidates for the class from the shop then went to The Rock Barrel near my house.  

This group includes 3 different versions of amethyst ( geodes and polished stones -  I love amethyst), jade, blue tiger eye, snowflake obsidian, moss quartz, lapis (I went back to get more of this), agate, matte rose quartz.

 I also pulled out some polished fossils I brought back from Morocco (2016) with the idea of making jewelry.

Here are 2 of the candidates that actually made it through the class and were all wrapped up.  These were gifted to relatives but I have more to wrap.  I love amethysts and so do they!

I need to show you another angle on the amethyst bead.   Back to the idea of the swirls . . . because they are on the top.

Learning how to make the swirls gave me an idea for wrapping one of the fossils. Not too bad.  It was snatched up by my brother's GF even while I was explaining its faults.   I dropped it and broke off the tip which isn't obvious as I positioned swirls around the pointy end.  I tried to display more of the fossil part while building a cradle that will hold it.