Cabachon wrapping class

Yesterday, I taught a cabachon wire wrapping class down at the bead shop in Palm Harbor.  I do enjoy teaching quite a lot.  This is what I made for the class.  I have it listed for sale in my Etsy shop here.  It is made with sterling silver wire, and comes on a sterling chain.

Cabachon wrapping is pretty neat stuff.  It is geared towards non-drilled stones, but sometimes I use stones have holes in them.  It's like building a cage around the stone with wire, so that it can be securely worn as jewelry.  It is easiest to start with a rounder stone, as I found out yesterday.  One of my students picked out a beautiful Feldspar rectangle, which turned out to be quite difficult for her to wrap.  Those darn corners are tricky.

Square wire is used to build the frame, which is then held together with half-round wire.  The square wires are lined up next to each other, and the flat side of the half-round wire binds them together.  The front and back square wires are pulled and bent to form around the stone and hold it in place.  When the wires meet up at the top of the piece, they are gathered together, then formed into various decorations.  The hardest part is figuring out what to do with all of those wire ends.  I used 4 wires to form the bail, 1 wire to wrap around the gather, and 3 wires to give it an asymmetrical design.  I also twisted a few of the wires, which make the pendant glimmer a little more in the light.

The weekend is here.  I hope that it's a good one.  I need to be productive.

Todays Creation

I love this ring.  It's made of AA grade Aquamarine faceted rondelles wire-wrapped onto two handmade rings, which were created with fine silver and a torch.  The rings were hammered to give the piece texture and facets which reflect light.  Very nice.

I had a special order for this one, but it is found in my shop.  :O)

Peyote Beads!

I just learned how to do the peyote stitch, mostly because I saw this beautiful bracelet the other day, and the beads were made of little tiny seed beads, all stitched together.  I decided to attempt making one and here is the result.  I will be making more of these to put together in an uber fun jewelry project.  Yippee!!
--------------------------
UPDATE:  January 22, 2010
Caroline stole my two peyote beads!!  Each one took me about 20 minutes to make.  I am sad.  I am sure they will turn up eventually, but for now, they are scared and gone.  Darn the luck.  I just can't leave anything on the coffee table.

Side note:  Caroline often takes my wire cutters to trims off ears and arms of her little figurines.  She will complain if one ear falls off, they must both be gone.  Everything must be even.  She will be 5 years old in two weeks, and she already has a great feel for beading tools, I give her that.  Little stinker.  :O)

Here's a little something that I made yesterday

Small Faceted Amethyst beads on 26 gauge wire.
I have a tutorial on how to make this ring here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/buyhappiness#p/a/u/1/r6WSrqeyjQ4
Or you could commission me to make you one.  :O)  I have many stones to choose from.