This is a fried marble in a wire wrapped cage. The fried marble involves heating a regular clear marble evenly, then throwing it into ice cold water. It shatters on the inside, but stays whole on the outside. I was inspired to try these after seeing someone else's pendants. It was a little scary, but not difficult. The wire wrap pattern was made using a tutorial online. This was my first attempt so I was very pleased with the result. I love this look so much that I am trying to find these clear coloured marbles in as many different colours as I can find. I have this pale blue, a purpley blue (we call it heffalump purple - blame Linda), green, and clear. I would love to find, a tawny brown colour, a brighter purple, pink and obviously red. ;)
This is the same pendant lit from below to create a pretty effect. It really shows the internal fractures in the glass well.
This is my first ring. I initially wanted to try the wrap wrap technique that you can see on the band. It didn't look too hard and actually wasn't. ;) So I kept wrapping and thought, "Hey, I have enough for a ring band now." Having no mandrel I shaped it around the barrel of a broad marker. I set the glass bead using the smaller wrapped wire, and the thicker (20 gauge) wire was made into the decorative swirls. So there you have it. Already I can see where I can refine the design, but overall I think I did well.
One of the other styles of jewellery I have been playing with recently is painted beads. A dear friend of mine gave me a whole baggie of these beads. Originally I was going to make little christmas ornaments out of them. (I still may eventually). They came from one of those massaging car seat covers.
So, three coats of red, white spots and two coats of clear acrylic and voilà.
I like the pretty flowers too.
These were a little more involved, but I love the look.
I loved the look enough to make them into a necklace as well.
Here's a set I made for Linda. These actually have about 6 coats of purple (because I changed my mind about the shade after I already started....lol In amongst the swirls on three of the beads are an "L", a "D" and a "C".
And here are the matching earrings and bracelet. This is my favourite set of all the painted beads I have made. Linda loved them too, which just makes it all that much better. I am an extremely blessed person. Not only do my family support and encourage all of my artistic endeavours, but they also cherish and value any pieces I make for them.
Here are some memory wire bracelets I have made. These are a combination of glass beads, glass crystals, shell beads, and there are some irregular, cultured freshwater pearls in there as well. I love the eclectic look of these.
In blue - this also has a couple of plastic fish, and some ceramic beads also.
This is the black and white set in addition to the other beads is some hematite.
This is a cute simple pair of earrings. I love the spirals. I have always been a bit of a spirally kind of girl. I love that it translates to jewellery so well.
These are some wire rings that I made using an online tutorial by a fellow called Preston Reuther. He makes absolutely beautiful jewellery, and while he sells his tutorials on DVD, he offers some free tutorials online also. What a guy! :)
