CLUSTER BEAUTY

GZ shown me a picture of a pair of beautiful clustered earrings and requested to make one for her. She even bought the flower shaped beads to be added to the earrings.  After some "research", I finally pick up the courage to make one for her...with whatever beads are available in my stash. This is the best I can do:

As usual, I will not stop at one when I learned new beading style. I proceed to do two more, but the results are not satisfactory. Firstly, it is the type of beads and ear hooks that I used. Secondly, I did not control the coiling which ended the earrings are not of same length as it is shown below:

I wanted to do a few more but was discouraged by the last two results. 

SNOW WHITE

Using the same pattern, I made this necklace with this white colour stone...it could be White Agate. I paired it wth pearl glass bead and the necklace turns out to be my favourite...it goes with almost any outfit.

I can wear it with another of the same kind...nice!

CHIPPY CHIP CHIP

Finally, I found a way to use my gemstone chips...inspired by one of the post in Pinterest. Yes...borrow ideas...I know I am the least creative but I just like the craft😁.  Anyway, I bead for fun...mostly bead for friends or myself.

I still have quite a lot of these chips.  I will search for other ways to use them.

Rose Quartz Naughty Nugget

Some kind soul has given me this pack of Rose Quartz nuggets. Perhaps she has given up hobby, or simply could not handle the nuggets because of the odd shape and random position of the drilled hole on each of them. Naughty nuggets! It is really tricky to design the necklace which I intend to make because of the second reason. The bead stones simply would not stay in place.  Here is how it looks like:

It looks normal laying down, right? Okay, we shall see how it fares in the normal position as if wore on someone:

Ta da! Haha, no matter how I adjust the position of the nuggets, the necklace always looks lopsided. Sigh!

Multi-style Jade necklace

After trying to revise on bead weave, wire wrapped techniques, it is about time to do stringing. I have been wanting to make a necklace with these cute jade cylinder tube beads but cannot decide on the style. Should I make it short, long, multi-strand, combine with chain, leather cords....? It took me weeks to come up with this ideal - multi-style :

The above are long versions. 

The above are short versions.

I stringed two strands of slightly different lengths with tiger tail thread. Both ended with jump rings. The main joining components are chain, lobster claws and magnetic clasps(for short versions).

I am so pleased with the outcome. It is about time for me to take a rest. zzzzzz z z z z

Big Amazonite Pendant

I bought this big pretty stone in my holiday trip to Hokkaido two years ago. The sales person told me it was a Amazonite. It is a stone without any drilled hole. I have to wire wrapped to cage it in order to make it into a wearable pendant. It is not a cabochon because it does not have a flat surface to act as the back of a pendant. It is a thick piece of stone of irregular shape. I have googled many Youtube videos to get ideals and needed to combine different techniques to get it done. This is not my own design and I cannot recall the source of it as I had referred to too many of the videos.

The top one is the front of the pendant. The bottom one is the back of the pendant. The measurement of the stone itself is about 4.7cm(H)x3.2cm(W)X1cm(Depth at its thickest point).

Because of its thickness, I used 18 gauge wire thinking that thicker wire would secure the stone better. Yes, it did the job, BUT, it was so difficult to be manipulated! Big mistake. Probably a 20 gauge would have been better.

Haha, I think the wrap is a bit loped-sided.

Jade Pendant with Details

I found this piece of jade in my stash of stone beads and I really wanted to use it as a pendant. At a close look, the indent part was kind of rough thus not presentable. 

As I was pondering what to do with it, something in my beading board caught my attention - scrapped wires from previous project. I can fill up the indent with little wire coils made from the scrapped, some tiny beads and blink-blinks!

Yeah, I have done it! It is a bit crude as it was quite difficult to apply the glue with my clumsy shaky hands. 

I am quite please with the wire wrapped bail though. [pat on the back]

Lime Jade Necklace

Okay, enough of dealing with teeny tiny beads, have to give my eyes some rest.  Let me try to handle some wire work. I have these pretty rectangular tube stone beads of unique lime colour waiting to be used. I believe it is lime jade. Design work is never my strength. It took me weeks to come up this simple necklace.  It is a revision of basic wire work.

I have miscalculated the joining chain so the gaps between each bead are too big. It looked a bit "sparse" so I added some green dangle beads. I hope it is more balanced now.

I think it needs more dangles but I am too lazy to do. I will just leave it as it is.

Rondelle Spiral Bracelet

Finally, I found a use for my rondelle beads, YAHOO! This is yet another one which can be handled by beginners or people like me who has shaky hands. I have made two of this :

These were made using Flat Spiral Stitch.  I followed the instruction of two tutorials :

https://youtu.be/ZfTUPBphO5U by Danysska 

https://youtu.be/WUIHlvUn4XM by Orchid and Opal Jewelry & Beads

I followed also the latter for its ending as I prefer to use wire guard for the sturdiness.

Humble Royal Bracelet

It is named Royal as it has got lots of pearl and blings. However, the size of it makes it humble as compared to the real royal jewellery. Haha, this is IMHO😁. Anyway, this is pretty easy to make, like beginner level with RAW and modified RAW weaving techniques. I made two of this with bling bling magnetic clasp. Nice!

This is the front view

The reverse side is also very pretty

 

Complete look with the clasp

The tutorial which I followed is :

https://youtu.be/YUr5yki8158  by Bronzepony Beaded Jewelry

 

Little Tennis Bracelet

"Stay at Home" advice during the COVID-19 pandemic is not all that bad.  It means I have all the time in the world to do more beading projects!  I am not a creative kind of person so I googled to find interesting beading tutorials.  The first project in line is Tennis Bracelet.  

Tada! Done! It was indeed a good practice for weaving skill for a start.  I was making use of whatever I have so it took me a long time to select and match the colour combination of crystal and seed bead.  

The tutorial I used was :

https://youtu.be/8g7OYGM---w

by Geula AG Channel

It is using Prismatic Right Angle Weave - PRAW.

Easy Netting Weave Bracelet

Three pieces of linear bracelet is enough.  I shall move on to try something a bit less simple and yet easy to make. As I was searching, I was immediately attracted by a tutorial that produces a simple yet interesting bracelet. Without much delay, I weaved two pieces of such design :

It was really simple to make and the tutorial was easy to follow :

https://youtu.be/6b461RPSM4s  by GGC's Beginning Beaders

According to the video, it is suppose to be a kind of netting weave technique.

Crystal and Pearl Pavé Bracelet

I came across this tutorial and the bracelet looked interesting as the beads were closely weaved together to form a rope like bracelet. A search in the dictionary shows that Pavé means 'a set of precious stones placed so closely together that no metal shows in the piece of jewellery.  Hmm, okay, make sense. So these are my pieces :

The top left one was my first and it was a failure. I thought since all the beads were of light colour, I thought Fireline Crystal was the correct beading thread to use. Ha, the thread was showing allover 😞. From now on, I will stick to Fireline Smoke. It was ok even for the top right piece.

The tutorial I followed was:

https://youtu.be/U7t0nKWmE10  by EurekaCrystalBeads

Native Earrings

I thought I will never going to bead again due to Parkinson's decease - shaky hand.  After years of denial, that dormant urge to bead has re-emerged. Okay, I will start with the simple weaving technique first.  

 

This was my first attempt to weave and it turn out fine!  This was done according to this Youtube tutorial :

 https://youtu.be/HzmNZ6kM82w?list=RDCMUCE5zvAShB-CDmSqlMv46q4A

However, it was a bit too long for my short neck.  I gave it to my daughter GY.  I hope she likes it.

Hey, I can still handle these tiny beads with my shaky hands!

 

I did this second piece which is a shorter version.  This was done with some bugle beads resulting in a different look.

I thank God for slowing down the progression of the Parkinson's disease and allowing me to continue using my hands to pursue my passion.

Sweet Pinky

Sigh, another year has passed.  It's about time to bead something.  Anything.

This, was commissioned by a friend who wanted to present it to her future mother-in-law.  The colour was her choice and the rest of the project was my idea.  Ha ha, this is the least I could claim for myself, right?  (Blushing)

She wanted a simple spiral necklace with two colours and it should not be too chunky and stiff.  As I have not been in touch with beading thus it took me awhile to research on the different techniques and decided on a double spiral rope technique (by Ms Jill Wiseman) which I got from this link :

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V_iWq5rBOQ

The end product is quite satisfying as shown below.

I also took a photo of the work-in-progress to show the thickness of the necklace:

I used size 11 Toho seed beads (Pink, Silver, Black and Metalic black) for the body and size 8 (clear) bead for the core.

Hmm...may be I should make one for myself too....with two different size of beads....or substitute with crystals....or....add accent bead....change size of core bead......or.........hmm....

 

 

FIERY MYSTERY

I have made this necklace months ago for my SIL. It was her 60th birthday which is an important milestone for Chinese. I used this very special stone for the special birthday. However, I am not sure of its name. It could be some kind of Agate.  It was chosen for its beauty.

Isn't it beautiful?  The cracked pattern within gives a lovely mystical touch. 

The bail and necklace accompanying the stone were made simple to let this beauty enjoy the limelight. 

It's a big stone.  I hope she like it.

REDDY - JADDY

I love challenge...in the field of beading.

A friend saw my heavy weight necklaces and requested me to make one for her. The challenge is - to make use of the jade pieces which were supplied by her:

Her request was to have a pendant as big as possible.  After days of thought, I have decided to join up the four jade donuts to form a centre piece.  It seemed wire wrapping was the only method to be used so that the joined up piece will keep its shape as it intended to be.  Bead weaving  may be a better way but it is not my forte yet and there was time constrain.  After a few attempts, I finally achieved the desirable effect:

Mission accomplished! It is a long necklace with the centre piece resting just below the chest.  If she so decides to have it shorter as show in the second picture, I will just have to take out a few pieces of the red bead.  This would not be possible if stringing method was used.

HEAVY WEIGHT ATTEMPT 2

I was all ready to make another BIG necklace.  While trying to find another big stone for the pendant, I found a big jade ring.  I must have stripped and sold off the gold embellishment because the design was no more appealing to me. 

It took me quite a while to come out with a design and here it is:

The metal flower at the centre of the ring and the two big metal beads are very, very heavy.  The jade it self is not light weight either. So, I used super light weight beads (the four irregular shaped ones) to complement.  Hopefully the wearer will not have to suffer from stiff neck and shoulders.

HEAVY WEIGHT ATTEMPT 1

Ahhh...my hands were itching again...just got to bead.

Hmmm...let's see what I've got........got it! I'd try BIG pendant necklace. 

I have never tried stringing with heavy beads.  Should I use Tigertail? Well, I went ahead and gave it a shot.

Here is my first attempt:

Oooo, I really enjoyed the process of beading especially the initial stage of design.  I have got to look at what was available and tried to mix and match.  The second challenge was to think of the technical part.  In this case was making a bail for the pendant.  This was where a little bit of wire wrapping came in.  Hey, I still could do it!

Now that I have gained a little confidence making big necklace of this kind, I will have a second go - perhaps a heavier one.

SIMPLY PEARL

Oh my goodness, time flies! It has been almost a year since I last beaded and blogged. Well, it was my choice to have taken up two courses over the past nine months. Priority, priority, priority. No regrets.

Now, back to beading.

I have been commissioned (by my daughter) to reconstruct two of her old pearl necklaces.  I totally stripped of one of them, salvaged only the beads and added new ones to make a long pearl necklace (pic A).  As for the other one, I took out the crocheted flowers and added some new pearls to make a pearl-chain necklace (pic B). These two new pieces can be worn on their own as shown or combined together as one multi-strands pearl necklace (pic C).  How about that?

                                       pic A                                       pic B

pic C

Prior to this project, I have made for myself a simple bold pearl necklace.  "bold" because those are BIG pearls.  See for yourself!

Its bead size is 16mm The one at the foreground is the necklace shown in pic A and the bead size is already 10mm!  The stringing material for this short necklace is tigertail wire. I used seed bead between the beads to prevent the pearl from rubbing against each other. 

By using a decorative clasp, I am able to wear it in different ways:

                  

   

Hmm....I should have use a bigger clasp to make a statement .....and pearl goes better with gold than with silver.

Lessons learnt.