Gail Nettles

Posts Tagged ‘beaded jewelry’

Bead jewelry - is it in your blood? If you're reading this blog, you probably love beads, in one form or another. Maybe you like making them, from glass or polymer or silver clay. Maybe you like making bead jewelry -- lampwork, seed beads, Swarovski, gemstones -- it's all fair game. Or perhaps you just love wearing one-of-a-kind original artwork?

Whatever your love of beads, there exists (somewhere) beads for you. And although I'll go into it in greater detail in a different post, there also exists the best beads for you project. But in a nutshell; you don't want to use expensive artisan-made lampwork and loads of Swarovski crystals for a bracelet for a young child; inexpensive lampwork and generic crystal glass work just fine.

Conversely, you don't want to use cheap lampwork and generic crystal in what I term "grown up jewelry". Nope, now is when you want to select the most wonderful lampwork, the real Swarovski and maybe some sterling silver and/or gemstone beads. (In a separate post I'll talk more about how to determine the quality of lampwork beads).

Lampwork Bead Necklace (Click to Enlarge)

What I'm really trying to say is make sure the quality of the beads and supplies match the intended purpose. Yes, one time I tried making a beautiful Swarovski bracelet and necklace for my young niece. It didn't last long before she grew out of the bracelet and lost the necklace. Now, I'm waiting til she gets a little older before I try that again!

I've also made inexpensive "fun" bracelets for some craft shows I attend, just so the little ones clutching tight to a dollar or two can proudly buy something. But I wouldn't use the beads from those bracelets for anything even moderately upscale. Once again; use the supplies appropriate for the intended purpose.

OK, I've gone on enough for one post! I'll close with another photo from Jennie. Once again, these are some of my very early beads (mid-2005 I'm guessing), but I think Jennie did a nice job with them.  I'm especially fond of the tassels hanging down from the focal; I just like some movement in my jewelry.  Thanks, Jennie, for sending me this photo to post -- I appreciate it!

Bracelet, "Caribbean Blue" (Click to Enlarge)

I am always so very thrilled when people send me photos of what they've made from my beads.  Today I am honored to have my friend Jennie send me some pictures of some of her lovely items.

Here's the first photo, and it's my favorite as I bought it!   And it's as much fun to wear as it is to look at.  Narly every time I wear it, people remark on it.  I don't think Jennie named it, but I've christened it "Caribbean Blue" (after the song I like so much).

This has some of my very early lampwork, from 2004 and 2005.  And as you see, Jennie was not stingy when it came to the amount of sterling silver that she used!

True story about this bracelet.  One day David and I went to Home Depot.  I decided to wander around and see what I could find that was interesting.  As I was walking down an aisle, a gentleman passed me going the opposite direction.  He then backed up, stopped me, and said, "That's a wonderful bracelet!"  Never expected to get that kind of reaction in Home Depot!

Cobalt, Black and Silver Bracelet (Click to Enlarge)

OK, another of Jennie's creations.  This one I haven't seein in person, but I do remember making the beads!  Once again, Jennie did a superb job of wrapping all those headpins full of beads, pearls and silver.  I don't even want to think about how long it took her to do it!

But it's funny how we can spend time with beads and not notice the time passing?  Have you ever sat down with a pile of beads (or glass) in front of you, and the next thing you know, it's 5 hours later?  I think every true-blue, dyed-in-the-wool beader has had that happen!

I enjoy lampworking, when the weather isn't too hot.  Lampworking, if you don't know, is the art of making glass objects (in my case, beads) with a torch.  In other words, I take rods of glass, heat them in the flame of a torch until they melt, then make beads.

Here's one set that I made.  The beads are about 18mm tall and wide, and about 11 mm thick at their widest.

I mentioned that I prefer to make beads when it's not too hot.  You see, my studio is in my garage, and I live in South Florida.  As you can imagine, between May and September, the weather is hot and humid.  Since being in the garage seems to make it hotter (especially with the torch and kiln going).  So it will be another month or so before I'll start up again.

You know what's funny?  I make all these unique glass beads (and trust me, they are unique; it's rare that I can make two exactly alike) and I rarely make jewelry!  I tend to sell them faster than I can hang onto them.  However, sometimes buyers want me to make bracelets for them, so I get a chance to play then.

Seed Beads

Before I got into lampworking, I did make jewelry -- from seed beads, mostly.  Although I did also like to include keshi pearls, gemstones and Swarovski crystals.  I learned most of the stiches, but my absolute favorite was making organic jewelry.

Here's a bracelet that I made which is an example of the kind of work I enjoyed.  It's made mostly with size 11 seed beads, but I also utilized size 15 and size 8 in places.  Oh, and turquoise chips here and there as well.

I always got tons of compliments when I wore it, but when people would ask the price, they would flinch since I'd quote $100.  It takes so long for me to make a bracelet like this, that I wanted to earn at least minimum wage, after the cost of the materials.

I also delighted in making organic watch bands.  My biggest problem was trying to find the right style of watch, so that I could make bands that would attach and detach (in case something happened to the watch itself.