I made these beads on the skeleton keys a while ago and finally got around to making them into necklaces. I think brass compliments the old look of the keys.
All the beads move on the key. I like making more than one bead on a key. Makes it more fun to fidget with!!
I’ve been wearing two bracelets all week long at work to see how well they hold up. So far so good. And they are really comfortable. I thought about wearing them to bed to give them the real test but have yet to try it. I’m not used to wearing jewelry to bed, except earrings that I never take off. These are two more that I finished.
These bracelets are a lot of fun to make.
These beads are cursed. I’ve never had this much trouble with any bead except when I tried to encase yellow with clear. I usually have several made by this time of year but things keep happening to them. I flung two across the room when I picked up the towel they were laying on. While these beads can take a beating, hitting a hard floor and having them bounced around, well, I don’t need to say more.
This one I used sterling silver bail and chain.
I used brass chain and finding on this one. And I added dangles.
I’m hoping to make a few more kokeshi doll beads this weekend out of some different colors.
I need a make it and take it project that only uses a few tools and supplies and is really quick to make. I came up with these friendship bracelets.
They are made out of glass seed beads and various copper beads and pearls. I added a chain tassel. Every project comes with it’s challenges. I usually buy the heaviest beading wire as it works the best with lampworked beads but it wouldn’t fit through pearl holes. Digging in my endless stash of stuff, I found an old roll of thinner beading wire. Yay!! Then I came to making the tassel. I’m using these old base metal copper plated necklaces and cutting them up. The chain is so fine that I’d have to use a very thin piece of copper wire to fit through the chain which wouldn’t be the best choice as it’s not hard enough to hold up to much abuse. Fortunately, the necklaces use a bigger ring the the clasp and there’s one on each end. It’s some kind of base metal and even though it’s thin it’s hard enough to be pulled on without bending the ring. Problem solved!! These are really fun as any combination of beads can be used.
Well, kind of. Two are the same kind I usually make. The third one is a new one.
I love the red and ivory one. I’ll probably make one for myself someday. 
This is the new one with a piece of viking knit for half the bracelet and beads on the other half. The viking knit is make out of copper wire. It’s made on a dowel, then pulled threw a drawplate. I carry a bag with my viking knit stuff all the time so whenever I have a few minutes I can work on it. It takes a while to get a long piece made.
Since I made more than a few charms, I had to make up some more necklaces. Here’s the last three I finished:
They obviously are the same design but I used different charms in them. Sure wish I could figure out what I did to my camera. All my pictures are coming out blurry. Surely, it’s not user error. LOL!!
I put together three charms I made onto a sterling silver ball chain. I added the clasp as those connector things are too hard to take apart and put back together.
I stamped the little rectangle tag with a Kanji character – Happiness and made the bead that is cored with silver tubing. The triangle charm is made with scraps of silver that I’ve accumulated. I want to use some of the bronze clay pieces in necklaces like this.
I made a few more charms to go with the square charms.
I didn’t shine up the circle and triangle one and I’m thinking I like the matte look better so I might matte the squares up too. I’m not planning on using more than one charm per necklace so it probably doesn’t matter that much though. These are all hollow sterling silver and tiny. It’s on 2mm ball chain to give an idea of size.
I didn’t want to get started with a new medium but I broke down, the temptation was too great. I’ve been wanting to play with bronze and copper clays but I already doing so much that learning a new thing wasn’t in my plans. I wanted to make some rustic looking charms to use in my jewelry and couldn’t figure out a way to do that easily with a bronze sheet metal so I bought some bronze clay and tried it out. Now I remember why I don’t like metal clays. I don’t like working quickly and don’t like doing test pieces in my kiln to make sure the temperature and time is correct. But I was on a mission. My first batch was a total failure, my second batch took all night to fire because I realized the binder probably wasn’t going to be all burnt out so I turned off the kiln and let the whole thing cool and started the firing over again. Those two pieces turned out great. So, this morning I fired the rest of the pieces I made. Here’s the results:
I used Hadar’s Smart Bronze clay which is fired differently than all the other bronze clays. It’s a nice gold color. These have been cleaned and tumbled. The sterling silver square charms are what I did last night since I couldn’t make beads. I’m still not all that confident that all is well with these pieces. I guess wearing them and time will tell. The reason for this is when I drilled the hole in the charm to the right of the little square charm, I thought the drill bit when through kind of easily and I got out black powder. Also, the second charm from the left has a hairline crack in the back and I’ve tried to break the piece but couldn’t. I did make some thin pieces that came out warped and when I bent them they broke up into pieces. They were about 2 playing cards thick which I did read after I made them that for copper and bronze clay, the pieces have to be thicker than with silver metal clay. The second one from the right, I cored with sterling silver so I did hammer on it and it held up just fine.
More bracelets. Yes, I made a lot of bracelets. I guess people like bracelets. I’ve been making a set of beads each time I torch and have several sets already made. These are the first four I made.
I still have several more to make up some more to come in all different colors. These are made out of copper wire and my lampworked beads.
Mewkittie Creations 