Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Inspiration never ends....

The other day I invited a friend to my studio to give her a  tutorial on making soldered glass slide charms.  I'm working on Day of the Dead inspired jewelry using charms.  We talked about her Pinterest board of her jewelry ideas.  She showed me this piece....  I loved it!

DiPiazza Metalworks - via Pinterest

I have a huge collection of beads and wire.  So not try to make some earrings using this as my inspiration??

I used brass #18 wire as the base of the earrings.  I used three flat glass beads to start the wrapping.

I used brass #22 wire to wrap my beads.  Second row is metal beads.


Third row are neat glass rondelle beads.  I've had these beads for a long time and they worked perfectly with the color combination here.


Here are the are the finished earrings, I did some minor soldering and added a dark patina to  them.  I love love love them!  I think my next pair I will keep the base wire longer to give me me options on how to finish the earrings and add a earring wire.  It wasn't as easy as you would think.  I appreciate the talent of the artist who inspired me.


Here's another pair of earrings using the wrapped wire technique.  I used brass #18 wire flattened  and soldered.   I used #22 brass wire to wrap a variety of my beads. I also added more solder to these. I really like the white faceted beads.  You would think they were heavy but they're awesome on.


Tried my hand on some beaded hoops.  I haven't tried wire wrapped style but this is another way to get the beaded look.  Again, I used brass #18 wire as the base.  Metal beads and turquoise colored  round beads.




Yet, another set of earrings.