Third Free Jewelry Making Project from New Dimensions in Bead and Wire Jewelry

Magnoliophyta Copyright 2011 by Margot Potter from New Dimensions in Bead and Wire Jewelry

Hey Boys and Girls!

I am unpacking and exhaling from my trip...but I will announce the winners in this blog next Friday, for both posts, so add another comment here if you want to double your chances of winning a signed copy of my new book! Two winners from each post will be selected!

Here is this weeks FREE project from my new book New Dimensions in Bead and Wire Jewelry! This is the last one, hopefully you've enjoyed. The vintage plastic beads are from Beadin' Path, I have a small dragon hoard of them. These are the beads I use on my personal, oversized, plastic jewelry I wear at shows. Fabulous! This is (IMHO) a fun book filled with great new techniques and creative inspiration. If you'd like a free copy, leave a comment below. I will announce two winners from this post and two from last week's this Saturday! Don't forget to comment on both to maximize your chances of winning!

xoxo
Madge

Magnoliophyta
New Dimensions in Bead and Wire Jewelry
Margot Potter

I love flowers, but they don’t love me. I’m highly allergic to pollen. I brave the outdoors and when I can’t do it further, I drape myself with floral themed accessories and clothing. These lovely Lucite flowers came to life with the addition of brown Artistic wire stamens and tendrils. I love the unexpected combination of frosted plastic, sparkling crystals and shiny wire. Making the tendrils is so much fun you might even find it a bit addicting. I can’t stop looking for ways to integrate them into projects.

Finished length (from top of ear wire to bottom stem): 3”

Materials
2 45mm wide frosted Lucite green 3-petal flowers
2 20mm orange Lucite flowers
2 15mm golden yellow Lucite flowers
2 burnt red Lucite floers
6 6mm light topaz SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS rounds
20 gauge brown Artistic Wire

Tools
Jump ring maker tool w/4mm mandrel
12mm oval bead to form ear wires (or a 12mm dowel)
Round nose pliers
Chain nose pliers
Wire cutters
Wire rounder tool

1. Wrap the wire tightly around the jump ring maker tool mandrel working up to the top of the mandrel.

2. Cut wire coil from mandrel and gently pull apart.

3. Cut 1.5” segments from wire. Use round nose pliers to form a large loop in one end and a small loop in the other.

4. Wrap the wire tightly around the jump ring maker tool mandrel again, working up about halfway to the center of the mandrel. Remove coil.

5. Use wire cutters to create jump rings, go back and make a flush cut on every ring.

6. Cut a 2 2.5” sections of wire and create a large loop in one end of each segment.

7. Cut 2 1”, 2 1.25” and 2 1.5” segments of wire. Thread a 1” segment into the top of a red flower bead and add a crystal. Use round nose pliers to gently turn a small loop at the end of the wire and a larger loop at the top of the wire. Repeat.

8. Thread an orange flower followed by a crystal on the 1.25” wire segment. Loop ends as before and repeat for second orange flower.

9. Thread a golden yellow flower followed by a crystal on the 1.5” wire segment. Loop both ends and repeat for second golden yellow flower.

10. Thread the orange flower wire segment and a coil on a jump ring. Secure jump ring.

11. Thread a second jump ring with the red flower wire segment and a coil into the first jump ring and secure. Keep coils on the outside.

12. Repeat for the golden hello flower segment and a coil on a third jump ring threaded into the second and secured.

13. Thread the top jump ring into the large loop on the end of your 2.5” wire segment and thread this into the large green flower bead.

14. Use round nose pliers to coil the wire flush to the top of the green flower bead.

15 .Repeat process for second earring.

16. Create earwires using a large oval bead as your form upon which you will wrap a 1.5” segment of wire.

17. Use round nose pliers to form a loop in one end of the wire while it’s still wrapped around the oval bead.

18. Gently bend end of wire and use tool to remove any sharp edges on exposed end.

19. Attach ear wire to top of each green flower earring using chain nose pliers.

Second FREE project from New Dimensions in Bead and Wire Jewelry!

Atlantis COPYRIGHT 2011 Margot Potter from New Dimensions in Bead and Wire Jewelry

Hey Howdy Hey, Boys and Girls! It's time for your second of THREE FREE projects from my new book New Dimensions in Bead and Wire Jewelry. This is a book about dimensional, architectural designs featuring both beading and shaping wire. I really think it provides a fresh take on looking at ways to play with wire. If you'd like a FREE signed copy of my new book, leave a comment here and I will randomly select TWO winners! I'll announce them next week with the third and final free project. Atlantis Necklace

New Dimensions in Bead and Wire Jewelry by Margot Potter

I began with the idea of hammered wired flat half circles creating a scale like effect as they cascaded from the neck. My initial vision was all metal, but as I began to problem solve I realized that a beading wire base with pretty blue beads would create a fabulous foundation for the links. Then I started thinking on a larger scale and added beaded accents to mimic the half circle motif. Finally I added swingy beads at the bottom of each half circle to give the design some movement and interest. Then I tried this on and gasped. Wow. I felt like a mer-queen!

Materials

18 gauge gun metal Artistic Wire

129 7x8mm aquatic blue AB Czech glass pillow rectangles

Gun metal spring ring clasp

2 8mm gun metal jump rings

16 size 2 gun metal crimp beads

.018 49 strand Beadalon Wire

Tools

Chasing hammer

Steel bench block

Bench block pad

2 pairs chain nose pliers

Round nose pliers

Crimp tool

Flush cutters

1. Create the wire elements first. Each of the half circles starts with a 5.5” segment of Artistic Wire. You can wrap this around a dowel or free wrap it into the half circle shape. The opening should be 2” wide on each. You need to create 13 total.
2. Use your round nose pliers to form loops at the top of each half circle that face towards the back of the circle as in photo.
3. Flat hammer the curved portion of your half circle.
4. Use the round end of the chasing hammer to add texture to the front of each half circle.
5. Attach an 18” segment of beading wire to a jump ring using a crimp bead. Thread on a bead, one end of a half circle, six more beads and the other end.
6. Add your one end of another half circle, six more beads and the other end.
7. Repeat this process seven times. Add a final bead and attach the wire to a second jump ring using a crimp bead, leaving some play between the beads by rounding the design before you crimp.
8. Attach a 4” segment of wire after the first bead in your first beaded segment on the necklace using a crimp tube and chain nose pliers. Slide on seven beads, attach to the space before the last bead in the first beaded segment using a crimp tube. Repeat this process, adding beaded half circles inside of every wire half circle.
9. Attach the second row of six wire half circles to the bottom of every two main half circles on the top row. ‘
10. Create 36 loop topped head pin dangles using 36 of the beads. Attach these to the bottom of each bottom row half circle.
11. Attach the clasp to one of your jump rings at the end of the necklace.

Free Mixed Media Jewelry Project: Shakespeare's Garden for Art Beads

Shakespeare's Garden Necklace by Margot Potter for Art Beads ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

View Two Shakespeare's Garden by Margot Potter for Art Beads ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I received an email while I was in Cincy from the fine folks at Art Beads that a tutorial I'd created for them a while back is live on their site! The necklace above is called Shakespeare's Garden and it features beaded wire circles and stamped resin pendants in a whimsical and sculptural design. What I love most about this is that these circles have dimension, but also fluidity because the wire underneath is not stiff.

I've been playing with these beaded circles for several years and every time I think, we'll that's about all you can do with those, another idea pops into my head. I do love to explore a theme and the circle is such a powerful, archetypal and cross culturally relevant symbol. Endings and beginnings and the journeys we take come around and around and around. Each of us a point on the sacred hoop making our own unique way to the center of higher understanding and universal love. Even Einstein once postulated that if we stood staring into space and could see to the farthest reaches, we'd eventually see the back of our own heads. Round and round and round she goes...

Powerful stuff, that circle. And as for Shakespeare, I've had the pleasure and the privilege of playing some of his greatest female characters...including Viola from Twelfth Night.

If you follow this link, you can get the full tutorial with step by step photos for this design. Enjoy!

"O Mistress mine, where are you roaming?
O, stay and hear; your true love's coming,
That can sing both high and low:
Trip no further, pretty sweeting;
Journeys end in lovers meeting,
Every wise man's son doth know.
What is love? 'Tis not hereafter;
Present mirth hath present laughter;
What's to come is still unsure:
In delay there lies not plenty;
Then, come kiss me, sweet and twenty,
Youth's a stuff will not endure."
William Shakespeare-Twelfth Night

Love
Madge

Free Halloween Craft Project: Vintage Plastic Hooty Owl Necklace

Hooty Owl Necklace Set Copyright 2009 Margot Potter

Hoot, hoot! I gave you a sneak peek of this necklace a while back. It's so seasonally apropos, I thought this would be the perfect time to share the instructions. This is another easy to whip up in a flash idea and you can sport this puppy all year long. These adorable owl beads come in a variety of colors. I'm a HUGE fan of vintage plastic beads and Beadin' Path has a phenomenal selection. I think plastic is a highly underrated material. It's lightweight, it comes in fantastic colors and effects and often you find far more whimsical ideas done in plastic than would ever be done in gemstone or crystal. I'm not a materials snob...I'll make jewelry from anything! Heck even trash if it's clean! (Designer note: I ended up going back and taking off the last two black beads after I photographed this, so the instructions reflect the updated version. You can add more beads if you want it to be longer.)

Free Halloween Craft Project
Vintage Plastic Hooty Owl Necklace
Copyright 2009 Margot Potter

Materials
6 15x30mm "limey" vintage plastic owl beads
5 18mm white with black polka dot vintage German plastic rounds
12 10mm _Plastic&search=yes&page=search.html">filigree white vintage plastic rounds (these are available in bulk only on Wolf Myrow)
2 15mm frosted black Plaid Fresh rounds
2 3.5" segments Beadalon polyester chain
Frosted black Blue Moon Beads Noir toggle clasp
2 sterling silver EZ-Crimp ends
11 5mm silver plated jump rings
6 2" silver plated head pins
4 1.5" silver plated or sterling head pins
2 silver plated or sterling French ear wires

Tools
Round nose pliers
2 pairs chain nose pliers
Mighty or EZ Crimp Tool
Scissors

1. Cut off 2 3.5" segments of Beadalon polyester chain.

2. Create 6 coiled owl dangles, 2 coiled polka dot dangles and 2 filigree double loop dangles.

3. Attach an EZ-Crimp end to a 12" segment of .018 19 strand Beadalon wire
.
4. Slide beads on in the following order: filigree, owl, filigree, polka dot, filigree, owl, filigree, frosted black, filigree, owl, filigree, polka dot...continuing this pattern until you reach the final (12th) filigree bead.

5. Thread wire into EZ-Crimp, use chain nose pliers to pull it through. Keep piece rounded to prevent it from being too stiff. Attach EZ-Crimp. Cut off excess wire.

6. Use jump rings to attach EZ-Crimp ends to your two poly chain segments.

7. Use jump rings to attach the clasp to each open end of poly chain.

8. To create earrings, attach ear wire to one end of double looped filigree, attach open bottom of filigree to coiled polka dot and repeat for second earring.

Designer Note: All materials used in this design were donated by the manufacturers and website owners for use in my work.

Free Jewelry Making Project from Design Secrets Exposed 'Connections'!

Here's a free jewelry project from beading Goddess Katie Hacker to whet your appetite for Bead & Wire Jewelry Exposed co-written by Katie Hacker, Fernando DaSilva and yours truly (F+W Pubs 2009). From wire designs that defy gravity to innovative uses of everyday findings, there is inspiration for the beginning beader and the experienced jewelry designer on every page.

Congratulations to Sheila from Halo Hill Blog for winning last week's Bead and Wire Jewelry Exposed book giveaway! Email me your snail mail address Sheila and I'll get that prize out to you ASAP! This week's prize is another copy of the book, a spool of Beadalon purple Clear Colors wire, a pack of star tipped headpins, a pack of crimp covers, a pack of textured solid rings AND a small stash of Swarovski crystals! Leave a comment and I'll select a winner next Wednesday! Stay tuned for more contests from this book and my other new book Beyond the Bead in the next few weeks!

Connections
Excerpt from Bead & Wire Jewelry Exposed
Design Copyright 2009 Katie Hacker

This week's free project from Exposed is a design that Katie created using toggle rings in an unusual way. Can you spot them? The toggle rings act as links and echo the geometric channel-set crystals.

Materials
18mm crystal twist sew-on stone
3 14mm cosmic rings
5 8mm Siam round double-loop channel set crystals (these are sold at JewelrySupply.com see link)
3 6mm clear round single-loop channel set crystals
small silver curb chain
17 4mm round silver jump rings
9 8mm round silver jump rings
10 silver toggle rings
silver toggle clasp
(Order from Art Beads before July 31st and use my code to save 10%:SCF10P-POTTER-0112)

Tools
chain-nose pliers
wire cutters

Instructions
1. Cut the chain into the following lengths:
2. Pass one 8mm jump ring through the lower hole on the sew-on stone and use it to connect a toggle ring.
3. Pass a 4mm jump ring through the loop on the toggle and use it to connect a Siam crystal channel.
4. Pass one 8mm jump ring through the lower loop on the Siam crystal channel and use it to connect a cosmic ring.
5. Attach another 8mm jump ring to the cosmic ring and use it to connect a toggle ring.
6. Use a 4mm jump ring to attach the three 2" chain lengths to the lower loop on the toggle. Cut the chains so they're slightly uneven in length.
7. Use a 4mm jump ring to attach a clear crystal channel to the end of each chain.
8. Pass one 8mm jump ring through the upper hole on the sew-on stone and use it to connect a toggle ring.
9. Pass a 4mm jump ring through the loop on the toggle and use it to connect a Siam crystal channel.
10. Pass a 4mm jump ring through the other loop on the Siam crystal channel and use it to connect the loop on a toggle ring.
11. Pass one 8mm jump ring through the toggle ring and use it to connect a cosmic ring.
12. Pass another 8mm jump ring through the cosmic ring and use it to connect a toggle ring.
13. Pass a 4mm jump ring through the loop on the toggle ring and use it to connect a Siam crystal channel.
14. Pass a 4mm jump ring through the other loop on the Siam crystal channel and use it to connect the loop on the toggle ring.
15. Use a 4mm jump ring to attach three 4" lengths of chain to the toggle ring.
16. Use a 4mm jump ring to attach half of a clasp to the end of the necklace.
17. Repeat Steps 8-16 to complete the other side of the necklace.

All crystals are from Create Your Style with CRYSTALLIZED™ - Swarovski Elements; chain and findings are from Beadalon.

Free Jewelry Project! Hugs and Kisses Necklace

I am in full swing show prep mode. It means I look rather scary because there is no time at all for the foofing or the poufing! I sure hope Ed Macmahon doesn't show up with a film crew or I am seriously screwed! Tee hee.

In lieu of any deep thoughts I'm giving you a freebie mixed media jewelry project for Valentine's Day. I used a vintage French image from my personal collection, but there are plenty of sources for vintage ephemera online and I'm sure Dover has a V-day themed permission free image book. I made this for a mag but it got bumped and I think it's really cute so I'm sharing with the class.

I'm off to spin more straw...until next time...craft on with your bad selves!

Cheers,
Madge Hugs and Kisses Necklace Copyright 2008 Margot Potter
(click on image to view close up)

Hugs and Kisses Necklace
Copyright 2008 Margot Potter

A trip to the Paris Flea Market yielded some tres charmant vintage postcards, one of which inspired this romantic pendant. This mixed media design shows you some fun techniques you can apply to your own romantic images. If you can’t find any vintage postcards at the local antique malls, there are many online purveyors of laser printed ephemera image sheets and there are also databases of permission free images on the internet.

Materials
2” square Ranger Memory Glass Frame
2 2” Ranger Memory Glass squares
2 7/8” frosted clear acrylic letters (x, o)
2 small letter beads (x, o)
6x9mm padparascha Swarovski briolette
6mm light topaz Swarovski rounds
7mm faceted freshwater pearl
3 6mm silver plated jump ring
26” length silver plated ball chain
Ball chain connector
4 24 gauge sterling head pins
Ranger Gloss Paper
Cornish Heritage Farms Plaid Stamp
Jet black Archival ink
Marigold Distress ink
Alcohol ink silver mixative
Alcohol ink red pepper
UHU twist and glue

Tools
Brayer
Round nose pliers
2 pairs chain nose pliers
Sharp scissors
Felt and felt applicator tool

1. Ink Gloss paper with marigold Distress ink. Brayer ink into paper until you get a consistent color.

2. Stamp paper with jet Archival ink using the plaid stamp.

3. Cut paper to fit inside of frame.


4. Select an image, cut into silhouette and adhere to stamped paper along the right hand side. Adhere small images of roses on lower left hand corner.

5. Insert images in between two panes of glass and inside of frame, securing closed.

6. Place a small drop of each color of Alcohol ink on opposite corners of your felt on the applicator tool.

7. Gently pounce colors on acrylic letters, alternating in layers until satisfied with the result. Allow to dry.

8. Adhere inked letters to top left and bottom right corner of frame. Allow to dry.

9. Create coil topped dangles for your small letter beads, faceted pearl and light topaz round.

10. Slide the pearl, briolette and light topaz beads on a 6mm jump ring and close.


11. Slide the letter beads on a 6mm jump ring and close.

12. Slide both beaded jump rings on a third 6mm jump ring and attach to the top of the pendant.

13. Slip the ball chain into the top jump ring and secure with ball chain connector.
Sources
Letter beads and acrylic letters JoAnn, frame, inks, brayer, felt applicator tool, Gloss paper Ranger, UHU glue Saunders Manufacturing, findings Beadalon, ball chain and connectors Rings n' Things, ephemera sheets available at Art Chix Studio, rubber stamp Cornish Heritage Farms, crystals CRYSTALLIZED-Swarovski Elements.