Tree of life

What happens if you mix up two techniques you don’t master?

I think that the final result depends on the lucky you have and this time luck was on my side.

Last week I stumbled on this youtube video and find it very inspiring. And you know, I had to give it a shot.

I picked a big cherry quartz glass and started my project.

First of all I had to make a sort of bezel to set the pendant. It took me two hours to come up with something decent and workable.

It didn’t look great, but I knew it would have worked. So I took several pieces of wire and from now on it was all a wrap-and-thread work.

At first it looked pretty messy and I felt lost. But I suddenly remembered that there was no thing as wrong nor a pattern to follow. It was just the wire and me. As I realized this, everything became simpler.

Full of hope, I kept wrapping and threading and the next thing I remember was that the design was taking shape.

It all happened in a couple of minutes. I don’t know how, when and why, but a tree was there.

Only the roots were missing and, at this point, they were a piece of cake.

I love it!

Another go

After my first wrapping attempt I made a new one.

I used a similar semi-precious bead as the regular shape really help the wrapping process and I think I did a better job. I could not stand all the marks that my pliers left on the wire on the first pendant and now I cannot see any, even if I look very closely.

It remains a basic wrapping, nothing compared to the wonderful designs I have seen around. But I’ll get there.

The most scary thing is that you cannot improvise.

The more I think of new wrappings, the more I realize that to make complex and wonderful wire architecture you must figure out in advance what you want to do.

So, please, tell me I am wrong because I am not so good at planning.

Trying and learning

Last weekend I tried my first serious wrapping.

After seeing some pictures of wrapped beads and a tutorial video, I thought “OK, enough with the studying. Let’s do it!”. Yeah, I am that kind of person. I like learning while doing things rather than reading a complete step by step procedure.

So I took my three pieces of wire and started.

As I was bending the wire around the bead, I soon realized that my wire was too hard. Anyway, I didn’t undo everything and went on with my project.

I added rose/purple beads just to have fun before making the final big hoop. I should have thought better about it, really. Eventually, I could do a hoop and my first wrapped bead pendant was finished.

It’s a basic wrap with a lot of flaws, next one will be better!

Bead Table Wednesday

Happy Bead Table Wednesday everyone!

There are earrings on my working table today.

Not much but my creativity was still buried under kilos and kilos of all the delicious things I ate in Italy.

What about you? What’s on your bead table today?

 

A great start!

Now that I am back, I can wish you all a wonderful new year.

Picture taken from Flickr

2012 started pretty good for me. On the very first day of the year, I sold these two pairs of earrings.

They are ready to go to Austria and I hope Claudia will love them.

As if this was not enough, my very special and personal graphic designer surprised me with my new business cards.

They are plastic coated and I struggled with the light to take a decent picture… not sure I made it, though. I am biased, but I can assure you they look great!

Let’s be honest, I couldn’t have wished for anything better.