Still practicing stringer control. Trying to figure out new designs too that aren’t too complicated but still look good. I still need a lot of practice.
Copper Tube Beads
Having some left over tubing from coring the bottle caps, I decided to use them to make some tube beads.
I wrapped the tubing with hammered copper wire. I wanted the balls on the ends to be silver colored and in the process got solder all over the place. It doesn’t show up as much in person. I have another idea of how to do it and maybe it will be a little cleaner. My soldering skills don’t help.
More Bottle Cap Beads
I got these done. I’m working on them in an assembly line fashion so I have a bunch of the bottle caps domed and ready to be riveted together. Just have to get more copper pieces made.
Still not sure what I’m going to do with them.
Carnival Beads
Not knowing what to make last night, I decided to practice stringer work. Thin pieces of glass are called stringer. Some people can use a stringer like it’s a pencil. They use hair-fine stringers and their work is amazing. Mine, not so much. They are what I’d learn in a Stringer 101 class.
Course I couldn’t help doing a few dots too.
Kokeshi Doll Beads
My aunt’s friend wants a kokeshi doll necklace. It’s been a while since I made one. These are ones I made over the weekend.
The last two, I picked up the wrong color for the face. I like the lighter faces, or at least a lighter face on the ivory bead. Looks like she has a suntan. Now I have to make them up into necklaces. Stay tuned…..
Prima Donna Choker
I’m calling this choker the Prima Donna Choker because Donna Conklin made the beads. She has a choker just like it and I wanted to copy. She had the leather and I attached the flower to the leather using wire head pins. It’s really cute.
Class Beads
I’m taking a glass class this weekend with Kimberly Affleck. It’s a fun class. She does more organic or free form beads. I rarely make them because I can’t seem to slap stuff on and get it to turn out looking good. Kimberly knows about glass!!
These are the beads we made the first day.
The first one we made is on the right. The big ivory egg. Mine looks like an egg because I didn’t shaped it well. Kimberly was showing us how to form a bead without using tools and also how to get the striations in ivory. The next bead we made is the bottom one with the black lines in it. Mine would look better if I put end caps on it but I ran out of room on my mandrel. The last one is the flower bead. By then I was getting tired. We use different COE glass to make the flowers to get the intense color. I could have made a bigger bead but I ran out of steam.
Bottle Cap Beads
Yes!! Finally something new!! These are the first two bottle cap beads I made. I don’t have a very good selection of bottle caps yet so I used what I had which was some craft bottle caps and a virgin olive oil cap.
This is one side of them.
Another view. They don’t look as scratched up or dented in person. It’s hard to see the tiny blemishes.
And of course, more push pins!!
Guess What?
More push pins!! I tried a few new designs this time. A cherry, apple and pear. Not sure how popular fruit is so I probably won’t be making a lot of them. Just getting tired of doing the same designs over and over. I’ve been working on the turtle and I still don’t like it but other people do so I’ll probably make a few more turtles. 
More Push Pins
The fundraiser was a success!! I sold all the push pins. I got an order for more too. Here’s the results.
The buyers wanted blue ones.
I’m trying to come up with some new designs. I tried a ladybug. It still needs some work but I think this will be a keeper.
Lastly, some push pins all made up into sets.
I think I’m going to be making push pins for a while. It looks like they are going to be a good seller for me this year.
Mewkittie Creations 