Halloween

This was the Halloween choker in its early stages. I finished it recently and it came together quite nicely.

I also did a byzantine weave of orange, purple, and black. Purple is definitely the third Halloween color but doesn’t get the same amount of representation as orange and black.

Music: What’s This? By Fall Out Boy

Birthday Cake or Malibu Barbie

I’ve paired light blue, pink, and yellow in the past from one retailer and it had this delightful birthday cake vibe to it. I tried the same colors from another retailer. It’s less Happy Birthday and more Malibu Barbie but still pretty.

 

Throwing Back To: Barbie Girl by Aqua

Blues and Purples

I’ve had a few colors that I absolutely loved and have been able to do some fun things with them.

I found these charms at a craft store a while back and have been trying to find as much fun stuff to do with them as possible. Because they’ve got a bit of weight to them the help the box weave hold really well.

I’ve done shaggy weave with larger rings but I wasn’t sure how it would look with smaller rings. It moves a lot more since there are more rings to move. The earrings are more delicate and have less open space. The size makes the necklace look less chaotic but still has that same energy. And I ran out of the purple base color so I had to add the last few inches in the other colors. I’m planning on rocking these to a wedding later this month.

The Original Design

I have been less than stellar about sharing past projects even though I’ve been enjoying them. These are earrings I made in my original design on a recent lunch break.

 

Each of them has a mate that’s not pictured. I’ve been rocking the blue and violet one lately. It goes well with some other stuff that I made.

I'm not a huge fan of yellow but I wanted to experiment more with it. I think the shininess of the blue offsets the more matte purple. I love the trio. The colors are very eye catching. That one I saved for me. I've gotten several compliments.

Reminiscing To: The Kiss Off by Brooke Allison

Headgear

I’ve been terrible about updating. My social life bloomed and I went and got a boyfriend whose family likes me so I’ve been in demand lately.  Part of the trouble is the time involved in taking pictures. I have to set up all the backgrounds, get the lighting right, load the photos, move them around so I can upload them to Blogger. My photos won’t be Etsy perfect but here’s my latest project:

It won’t be a choker or a bracelet but rather a headpiece. I have a TARDIS costume but nothing for my head. When I was at the RenFest with a few friends recently they were perusing chainmaille headpieces when I saw a design I could easily execute. It’s light, simple, and the right colors. It’s not as cute as a tiny top hat but it will be far less annoying to my perpetually unburdened head. I'll post another picture once I'm done.

Current Jams: Moving in the Dark by Neon Trees

Taking a Step Back

I have seriously been neglecting this blog. That is because recent events have inspired me to devote less time to this hobby.

Bowiefest happened a couple of weeks ago. I book my spot 6 months out and was promised a table on the main path near the parking lot. Instead I got to spend my entire day with my back to that area and stare at stagnant pond water. All the forms I had promised vendor parking. All the forms lied. When I asked about vendor parking I was told to park on the street with everyone else.

I didn't sell a thing and did not earn enough money to get back the cost of my table let alone the stuff I bought to vend. Few vendors did much better. My experience as a vendor was completely negative. I would advise anyone against it and have no intention of returning.

I still haven’t sold anything on my Etsy store. I really enjoy making jewelry but I devoted a lot of time, energy, and money into something that has yielded little to no profit. I’m not stopping but I’m scaling back. I’ll still post things and make new pieces. I’ll try vending again in November. There are several church bazaars where I’m sure my stuff will be better received.

Contemplating To:  All You Wanted by Michelle Branch

Carded

Guess what came in the mail last week?

Aren’t they fabulous?I have no idea why the image loaded sideways since it was always the right way but you get the idea.

I’m obscuring my last name because it’s very distinctive. I’ll happily hand out my business card to anyone who will stand still long enough but anyone can read my blog.

Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you. That last bit is funnier if you imagine me saying it in a matter-of-fact-librarian tone.

Tunes Cranking: My Heart Will Go On by Bella Morte

Let's Go Shopping

Guess what’s up and running? That would be my Etsy page. I finally have enough stuff listed that I’m ready to link it here. I’ve had a few favorites but no sales yet. I’m hoping being a vendor in June will generate more interest in the store. I’ve already had to turn down a con in Philadelphia and helping a friend move. Apparently June 1^st is a busy day.

The con sounds amazing especially since we could crash with a friend of a friend for free but I found out about it two days before I had to say no. I need to make money rather than spend it. I have a really good spot so I now I just need to make LOTS of stuff and figure out how I want to layout my table.

I would have posted all this sooner but I’ve been a bit distracted this last week. I got apple picked on the 13^th/14^th. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, I was riding metro home after a fun day with a variety of friends when someone came up, ripped my phone out of my hand, and said thank you as he ran away. You can still sort of see where he cut my finger on the case.

Verizon made absolutely certain that it took almost a week to get a working phone again. They screwed up in ways I wouldn’t have thought of if I’d been trying. I was kind of impressed despite the mounting fury. Now I have a phone/camera again so I’ll be posting more pictures of shinies.

Making Shinies To: Real Girls by Chantel Claret

Inverting My Aura Again

I decided to try a few colors from a retailer recommended to me back a Wicked Faire. The same retailer taught me how to do inverted aura so what better way to use the rings? The large purple rings and all the small rings are from my usual retailer.

My regular supplier has a great variety of colors but the new one has incredibly vibrant colors. The small gold rings look similar so I wonder if my regular supplier is starting to use a similar technique…

Inverting To: The Crow, the Owl, and the Dove by Nightwish

So Charming It's Alarming

More fun with colorful byzantine and charms.

I tried two shades of pink for the hearts. I don’t think the pictures do them enough justice.

Insert lame ‘key to your heart’ joke here if you must.

I tried to do the elephants in colors that reminded me of saris: bright, vibrant, and complementary in their contrast. If that last bit doesn’t make sense, you may want help dressing yourself for formal occasions. The pictures aren’t doing justice to the purple and orange. I may have to retake them.

Being Charming To: Paint It Black by The Rolling Stones

Brace Yourself for More 4-in-1

I’ve an so glad I figured out a painless way to do European 4-in-1s. They go quickly and look great. I’ve made a bunch of bracelets as of late and will probably add a few more soon enough.

I even found a handy little model to show how they’ll look on your wrist. Necessity is the mother of invention.

I may start trying a few necklaces in this weave just to see how they all look together. I’m optimistic, for once.

Weaving To: Dreamer by Elizaveta

Make Lemonade and Earrings

When ordering chainmail supplies you really have to watch your fractions. When order supplies for simple chains, I clicked the wrong box. That wrong box lead to several rings too sizes too large. I’m stuck with them and they’re too big for almost all the major weaves. What’s a girl to do?

She’s going to try an idea she had a while back and find it works perfectly, that’s what.

I had the idea of a rosette inside a ring for earrings and I’d figured out the major logistics but was still mulling over what size ring would work. I tried the error order because why not? Now, I give you a Jesse in Chains original design.

I included the last one to give you an idea of the size. I have more made but need to do another photo shoot. 

Making Lemonade To: Only If for a Night by Florence + the Machine

Hail to the Redskins

Some of you may recall the Redskins choker I did in the limited edition burgundy color. That ended up being part of a custom order that included inverted aura earrings

and a bracelet

Using this size ring for the bracelet is a little larger than I usually do but it was the only size the color came in and my supplier isn’t even selling it anymore. It’s bolder so it all depends on the look you’re going for. I’ll have to make a few more and see how they do.

Current Music: Million Dollar Man by Lana Del Rey

Busy Bee

Sorry if I haven’t been updating much lately. I’ve been working with weaves I’m more familiar with so I haven’t had to do too much new stuff. I also have left such a consistent craftermath that I haven’t been able to do a photo shoot for the new stuff.

I’m thisclose to done on a customer order. I have the inverted aura earrings, the choker, and the European 4-in-1 bracelet. I just want to look into different clasps since the order was in a custom color (burgundy) so I only have it in one ring size (16 5/16). The clasp on the bracelet is pretty small so the rings like to move around and twist and I’m hoping to find a clasp large enough, but light enough, that they don’t do that.

For those of you who don’t know what craftermath is, is the mess that’s left over from whatever craft project you just finished. I’m hoping to clear the mess and take some pics this weekend since I’ve started doing some stuff with charms.

Current Jams: Closer by Tegan and Sara 

Jesse and the Technicolor Byzantine

I’ve been doing some work on the Byzantine weave. I know how to start it from scratch and how end it. What I needed to learn was how to do accent colors. If you look up images, accent colors on this weave are usually done in a certain way. If the colors are color A and color B, the rings that loop over and the rings that link are usually where that relationship comes into play.

You start with three sets of two rings. I thought the linkage was ABA but quickly realized it was AAB. Since the rings flip over on each other, you need the flipping rings to match. I think I’ve got the concept down. I used a couple of different colors for short links and added some charms.

Now I need to learn to do double byzantine for a friend of mine. I told him I’d never done the weave before so I needed to learn how to do it, how to do accept colors, and how to double it. It’s a process. Fortunately I have a double bracelet to learn off of. If I can see the piece in front of me, I can usually figure it out.

Rocking Out To: Titanium/Pavane by The Piano Guys

I Got 99 Problems

…but 4-in-1 ain’t one.

After a few bracelets, I’ve mastered the single strand of European 4-in-1. I’ve seen several pairs of earrings that start as 4-in-1 but narrow as they go out and down creating a lovely triangle effect. I figured the best way to figure out how to do that was to start by figuring out how to connect a single 4-in-1 to another.

I’m not repeating the initial insanity of joining one set to another. I stuck with the one loop at a time. I just had to figure out the necessary order and way to connect the rings. It ended up being quite simple. You do one side same as ever and on the next side you connect the center ring through two rings on the side and one on the bottom adding a new fourth ring.

I was originally going to do a bracelet but as I watched I wondered how this would look as a choker. See for yourself: 

The outer row lays a little differently than I expected but it turned out pretty well. I’d show you a picture but I couldn’t find a model and it’s kind of hard to snap a pic of your own neck.

I used the midsize rings which made it time consuming and it used plenty of rings. If I had to charge money, it would be at least $55. I might try this again with the larger rings. That I could put in the $40 range which is reasonable.

Current Jams: Bones by MS MR

Inverted Aura Part 2

I did a few more in this weave whilst messing with different color combinations. I like a bit of drop to my earrings so I added the smaller rings. If I'm ever feeling conservative on materials I can always hook the big ring through the wire.

The violet, black and sea foam ones ended up having a bit of a cyber punk sort of feel.

I liked the cyberpunk feel so much that I decided to use that for my necklace experiment. I field tested it and I think it turned out rather well. It was a somewhat time consuming project and heavy on materials so I won’t be doing it too often but I wouldn’t rule it out.

Listening To: False King by Two Steps from Hell

Scales and Rosettes

While making a rosette necklace, I wondered how they would look as drop earrings. Since I have a plethora of small scales, I decided to add one to the bottom. I stuck with two color combinations (mostly because that’s what was out) but I like the end result.

Three rosettes was as long as I could make it. Right around three or four the weave starts to rotate. I’ve messed with this weave many times and, for reasons unbeknownst to me, it just twists around after a certain point.

I haven’t field tested these so I don’t know how much movement the weave has but since the scales are colored on both sides, the effect shouldn’t be lost.

Tunes Crakning: Skyfall by ADELE