I promise, there’s a wire explosion on the way. I’ve been spending the winter making components for some new wire-based jewellery, though, so today you get more clay! The other day I bought these two amazing polymer clay tutorials (Rustic Beads and Organic Beads). They seemed a little expensive but …
Oh boy. Oh boy oh boy oh boy. I feel like I’m getting sucked in DEEP to something new and delightful :) I first played with carving designs into some erasers, and of course immediately shoved them onto some scrap clay: At the first slice, I was intrigued; at the …
I’m super excited to play with my friend Whitney tomorrow… as a visual/doodle artist, she’s just started with polymer clay by carving her own stamps. Meanwhile, I’d love to create my own stamps for my clay – I’m currently using another lady’s zentangle stamps, which I love but they’re not …
Ever do anything super boneheaded? I’ve been sick this week but determined to make jewellery anyway. I didn’t have the brainpower for steampunk assemblage, so I figured I’d re-try my beach glass in polymer clay experiment. The earlier design won an award but didn’t sell much; I think because I …
So, I’ve been sitting on some really big news for oh… say, a year. It’s been taking up a lot of my time and it’s been KILLING ME that I couldn’t announce it. But now – I can! You guys. I wrote a book. Last fall, FW Media found my …
I played with copper today! Created a fun new hair fork and some antiqued hammered circlets which I’ll use soon as frames for steampunk pieces! A fun little gallery of the antiquing process below.
One of the simplest, well-known methods of making a wire-wrapped ring using a 6mm bead and a length of 20ga wire; demonstrated in 2.5 minutes! Click inside here for examples of finished rings.
A friend took a trip into Artisans in the Attic this week and she pleasantly took some pics for me, which showed me that my clay pendants were getting low. Which means it’s time to make some more. She mentioned she’d like to see more colourful ones so I obliged! …
Super quick embellishment made from 16ga copper wire. Can be used as an element in other pieces or pop it on a chain for a quick pendant!
I live on an island. For the past six years, a significant chunk of my income has come from wire-wrapping beach glass and selling it to tourists, or folks from here who have family away and want to send them a piece of home. It’s been great, and my parents …
Yep, I skipped #2 but that’s only because my sketches for those are upstairs – they were made while I was still doing the exercises physically, on paper with pen. But then I bought this tablet, mostly because touching it in the store gave me a completely visceral reaction, and …
Two weeks ago I had some vacation time, and my younger brother and I headed out across our wee island in search of rusty crap. It was a gorgeous summer day, warm but not so hot we needed the A/C so all the windows were down and everything smelled like …
As promised, I’ve begun the drawing exercises on my journey towards a new style. Above is the first exercise in the Think and Design Jewelry Series, which is to, essentially, draw a flower. I drew a bunch because it was so much fun to remember that hey, I used to …
Take a beautiful focal bead – such as these handmade lampworked artisan beads – and turn it into a wearable pendant in three minutes, using only some 20ga wire, your hands, and one or two tools!
Back when I first started making jewellery, there were no tutorials online – no pinterest, no craftsy, no jewelrylessons.com. So when I wanted to make a ring, I had to sort of figure it out myself. And what I came up with was pretty neat – a base with beads …
I purchased a small fistful of these tiny watch parts one time because I couldn’t help but think they’d make perfect bird heads. Today the muse hit to give it a go! I had a pretty good idea of where I wanted it to go, but first, I traced the …
Today I’ve been having fun with copper and oxidation. First, I created some earrings out of non-non-tarnish wire (bare copper!). Next, I prepared a solution of Liver of Sulfur and dumped all my shiny pretty earrings into it. They instantly turned black! But that’s OK, that’s the point: Next, I …
I’ve added an index of tutorials to this site; you can catch them all at the link at the top or click here to view all the tutorials (so far!).
