I’m running out of skeleton keys and haven’t been able to find a good selection of them at a good price for a long time. This is one of my last bigger keys. I still have several small keys that I can only put one bead on. Those are still cool but I like making several beads on one key.
This one I use silk ribbon for the necklace part and of course, a button for the clasp and glass end caps.
I used a black silk ribbon on this one. I made the glass end caps and button clasp to make the length of the necklace adjustable. These buttons work out well and don’t slide around but can be moved easily.
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!!
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.
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 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.
Using one of the components from the This Is All I Got post, I made a necklace.
Well, kind of. I didn’t make the two other charms except add the jump rings so I could hang them from the ball chain. I don’t like those ball chain connector thingys. They are too hard to use so I soldered on some end caps and fabricated a clasp. Much easier to wear now. I’m planning on making some little charms, just have to get started on them after I buy the supplies. As long as I’ve been making things, you’d think I have everything. Well, I do, I have everything I need for the last project I just finished. Isn’t that they way it always is?
Instead of using 10 strands of satin cording for the lariats I decided to use three strands of leather. The dangles on the ends weight the lariats a bit and they hang wonderfully.
I used bronze wire and chain on these as I thought it complimented the leather well. I like making all the different beads/glassy things for these.
Mewkittie Creations 