Ready for Spring Crocheted Earrings

It's starting to green a little. I even saw the first dandelion leaves on my yard today. Thread crochet in bright colors is light, summery and casual. These earrings work up really fast and I hope you enjoy the pattern.

Pattern written in US terminology.

You will need:

• Size 10 Crochet Thread (I used Aunt Lydia's Crochet Thread in Aspen because the colorway is one of my favorites)
• Size 7 crochet hook (1.5mm)
• Scissors
• Tapestry needle
• 8 rust proof pins
• piece of cardboard covered with a plastic bag
• Earring wires (mine are handmade sterling wires)
• Mod Podge*
• Water*

*I used Mod Podge to stiffen because I always have Mod Podge on hand and I know it doesn't yellow

Abbreviations used:

• ch=chain
• sc=single crochet
• dc=double crochet
• sl st= slip stitch
• st or sts= stitch or stitches

Make 2-

Ch 6, sl st to join in a ring

Round 1: ch 1 (does not count as first st here or through out), 8 sc in ring, sl st to join in first sc

Round 2: ch 1, sc in same stitch, ch 5, skip stitch, sc in next st, ch 5, skip stitch, sc in next st,ch 5, skip stitch, sc in next st, ch 2, dc in first sc to join (4 loops made)

Round 3: ch 1, sc in loop 3 times working toward sc from previous round, sc in sc, sc in next loop 3 times, ch 3 (picot made), sc in same loop 3 times, sc in sc from previous round., Repeat around until the last ch 3 picot, ch 1, dc in first sc to join.

Round 4: ch 1, sc in picot, ch 3, skip 3 sts, dc in next st, ch 5, dc in same st (V stitch made), ch 3, sc in next picot. Work in pattern all the way around, sl st to first sc to join.

Round 5: Ch 1, sc in same st, sc 2 times in first space, sc in dc, sc 3 times in ch 5 loop, ch 7, sl st to join at the 6th ch from hook, ch 1, sc 3 times in same loop, sc in dc, sc 2 times in next space, sc in sc, sc 2 times in next space, sc in dc, sc 3 times in ch 5 loop, ch 3, sc 3 times in same loop, sc in dc, sc 2 times in next space, sc in sc.  Repeat until you're at the first sc and sl st to join. Break off thread and weave in ends.

Now to stiffen!

I mixed the Mod Podge half and half with water in a small pill bottle, then soaked both earring pieces in that solution. Squeezed it out, and then pinned to block on a plastic covered piece of cardboard. As soon as it was mostly dry, I unpinned it and turned them over to let the other side dry more completely, then let the Mod Podge cure for 12 hours and put them on the earring wires. This stiffens it up nicely and still shows stitch definition and the thread very well. 

The earrings wires that I used are made with 20 gauge sterling wire that I shaped around a dowel for the hook, then used bail pliers to make the ring. After that I hammered the wires to harden them and add a nice bit of slightly flattened shaping to them. 

I'm planning to make more earrings, would you like more earring patterns?

Book Review : Making Fabric Jewelry

Marthe Le Van's Making Fabric Jewelry is the book for people who save fabric bits, buy Spoonflower swatches or have scraps from favorite clothes that are too small for quilts. Since some of the projects only use 2 or 3 square inches, they could also be made with charms.

It starts with nearly 20 pages of basic information for getting started. It covers fabric, sewing techniques and basic jewelry making techniques. It's written well for people who are learning new techniques such as basic jewelry making techniques. While some of the projects use a sewing machine, a lot of them don't, which I appreciate. I like small projects that aren't noisy while watching television with my family.

The projects are varied, showcasing fabric bits in a myriad of ways to fit the material and your personal style.  There are many designers for lots of looks and techniques. Every project in the book uses techniques that can be easily adapted. It's all in full color with well written and photographed instructions.

It's a natural for upcycling. Some pieces don't even need sewing. Like Deborah Boschert's Circles and Squares necklace which is done with fusible interfacing. That's one I plan to make using one of my Spoonflower swatches.

My favorite project in the whole book is pictured on the cover, Miyuki Akai Cook's Kaga Earrings. They use a neat thread weaving technique and vintage fabric over a handmade paper core.

I also love Anika Smulovitz's Jelly Fish pendant which uses scraps in a whimsical, fun way.

There is a gallery of images for inspiration and eye candy throughout the book which show how many ways fabric can be used to make jewelry.

Just a wonderful collection of projects, and I do recommend it. The range of projects will appeal to a wide range of people, and making jewelry with fabric is a great way to use a small scrap of something with lots of sentimental value or that's just too pretty to wind up as stuffing. Imagine turning a favorite concert tee that's just too worn to wear into a bracelet, or possibly a pair of earrings, or using old baby clothes to make a special pendant for a grandmother. This book will have great ideas and instructions for doing just that in a stylish way.

Published by Lark Crafts.
I received a complimentary copy of this book to review, my reviews are always my personal and honest opinion. You can read more about my review policy here.

Farmer's Market and Photo Jewelry

This European photo bead bracelet has 4 photos each of my children. It was so easy to put together and you can find more information on BellaOnline Beadwork.

The Spenard Farmer's Market-
We have a lot of local farmer's markets on Saturdays. So many that I know we haven't made it to all of them yet. Out of the local markets we have been to, my favorite is the one in Spenard.

It takes place on Saturdays in the summer here in Anchorage, under the windmill that's in the parking lot of what is arguably Alaska's most well known bar. Saturday nights the place is jumping with young adults all dressed up to party and dance. Saturday during the day it's laid out with tents and tables for various vendors. I've seen this market grow a lot in the last few years.

The reason it's my favorite is the vibe. Each market has it's own feeling. The Spenard market feels like a neighborhood party. There's a hippy feel to it in some ways too. Lots of crafters have tables and booths. You can buy starts for your garden, cheese, honey, and all sorts of things.

When we got there, the first thing we did was get TG a bottle of blueberry kombucha. I would have taken a photo of her drinking it, but by the time I was going to, it was gone. She loves kombucha.

Then we ran into John, who owns Bosco's Comic Book store in Spenard. Since it was kid's day, he was there with leftover Free Comic Day comics and a big Death Star to destroy.

While TG was destroying the Death Star, Michael and I hit up Denali Dreams Soap Company. My daughter had pointed out we were out of soap. William, TG and I all use locally made soaps all the time. My husband uses Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Liquid Soap. So we've been using his soap for the last week. Since we are still pretty tightly budgeted, we bought bags of soap ends from them. Soap ends are the end cuts that just aren't as pretty. They bag them up and sell them for less than half of the cost of their full bars per ounce of soap. They also had a newer product. Soap shreds, the fine trimmings from bars, like a colorful soap confetti. The bags of these were 1.00 a bag, and we picked up 4 bags to use for soap crafting. Since they were giving away samples, TG picked up a blueberry one for herself.

Then TG and I decided it was lunch time. There were a lot more options than last year! I decided on Hawaiian BBQ.

Yum! My husband said he wasn't hungry, I think he took a look at all that food and knew I'd never finish!

I also grabbed a musubi roll for William which is in the fridge now until he comes over later.

TG decided on tacos. Her tacos were messy and tasty. Meat, cilantro, onions and tomatoes.

There was a bowl of sidewalk chalk on the table. Nobody had done any drawing yet, but she grabbed a piece. Michael said "I know what she's going to do."

He was right.

The last thing we got before we left was quail eggs. If you haven't cooked with quail eggs before, they are incredibly beautiful and tiny.

Paper Bangle Bracelets- Tutorial

I'm really excited about these super easy upcycled paper bangles because there are so many possibilities for them, using a strip of paper for the outside I could put images or type a quote using one of my typewriters on it. They are made very easily using things would normally be thrown into the recycling bin and a new kind of paint which I won from the weekly drawing at Craft Test Dummies.

Luminarte's Silks Acrylic Glazes makes the perfect paint for these because they are sheer but well pigmented. You can use them wet on wet or wet on dry. I thought of doing stripes or something more ordered, but I really like the look of the layered random effect of the paints.

You will need:

• Thin cardboard
• strips of paper- I used newspaper for the one above.
• White PVA glue- I used Aleene's Tacky Glue 
• Silks Acrylic Glazes- I used Sky Blue, Watermelon Mist and Solar Gold
• Acrylic Spray Sealer
• Scissors
• Paint Brushes
• foam brush

This made much like paper mache, but using straight PVA glue instead of a paper mache mix. 

The base of the bracelet is a strip of cardboard from a cereal box or something similar. The easy way to size it is to cut a strip and wrap it around your hand at the widest part, then add an inch for the overlap.

For a quick reference though-

8 inches for a small bracelet (7 inches in circumference, 2.22 inches in diameter)

8.5 inches for a medium bracelet (7.5 inches in circumference, 2.38 inches in diameter)

9 inches for a large bracelet (8 inches in circumference, 2.54 inches in diameter)

Cut the cardboard the width you want the finished bracelet to be, and measure a 1/2 inch in from both ends. Cut slits on both ends to overlap them together on opposite edges.

Glue the overlapping pieces down. Cut lots of 1/4 inch wide strips of your paper. Put a thin layer of glue on the base, an inch at a time, and wrap on a slight diagonal, overlapping the edges. Apply more glue, and keep wrapping. Do at least 3 layers of paper, and set it aside to dry.

After it's dried, decide what you want the outer layer to be, and apply that. You can either cut a strip that's the same width and circumference around, or you can do what I did and cut more 1/4 inch strips to wrap around it. Apply with a thin layer of glue. Let dry.

Then the fun part, painting! The glazes are gorgeously pigmented, and work on a lot of different mediums. I wish I could properly photograph how they look on black rubber! They are very sheer and add a nice sheen of color to the rubber. On paper, they look a lot more like they do in the jar, but in sheer layers. Just paint, have fun layering colors. I put on the pink first, then put the blue on the outside. Let that dry, and added more pink and gold in spots. The end result is a lot of subtle shades of purple and green on the blue.

Let the glaze dry, and spray with an acrylic sealer. The end result is a lightweight, inexpensive bangle bracelet.

Spiral Wire Ear Cuffs

I posted instructions for these spiral wire ear cuffs at Beadwork at BellaOnline.

My wire came from my copper stash, but I stopped and checked the price of copper wire in the same gauge at Rings and Things and found out they charged less than the hardware store I bought my wire at.  *adding copper wire to her next order from Rings and Things*

This is a good thing. My son has learning to work with copper. They carry 14, 16, and 18 gauge which are really nice sizes to work with. 

Turquoise Donut Necklace

I love turquoise. It's the alternate birthstone for December which when my son was born. The greenish blue color of it goes with jeans, to the office and with some dressier clothes. It's down to earth. 

Auntie's Beads sent me these to use for a project. They have a wonderful selection of gemstone beads in all sorts of colors and shapes. The beads used for this project are 

Blue Turquoise Rondelle Bead Strand

Blue Turquoise Medium Nugget Strand with matrix

and the Turquoise Pendant Grab Bag

I also have to admit right now, I have a weakness for grab bags. The wonderful surprises in them. This one had 2 donuts, a pink pendant, a cross, and a blue round pendant. The round pendant has a bail on it that I made from wire for part of another project.

Instructions assume basic wireworking skill like wrapped links and making simple bails.

You will also need chain,  10 inches fine chain and 20 inches of heavier chain, sterling was used in the example. 22 gauge wire, headpins and a clasp. I used a toggle.

Cut 1.5 inches off the heavier chain.

If you take a look at the example above, I attached the clasp in the front of the necklace making it a design element, as well as having it in a place it won't get tangled in my hair. The clasp is attached with wrapped links  to the long chain ends. One side on each end. Then the smaller piece of chain is attached to the jump ring that came with the toggle to the circle part of the toggle. I like the asymmetric look of having the polished smooth rondelles on one side and the nugget on the other.,plus it makes it easier to close the toggle. 

Then the fun part. Make a bail for the donut using the wire and attach it to the end of the 1.5 inch chain. Then cut the 10 inch fine chain into 4 equal length. Cut a piece of wire 2 inches long and turn a small spiral on one end. String on one rondelle, 2 of the chains, 1 rondelle, the other 2 chains, 1 rondelle and turn another small spiral on the other end. This can be modified if the center of your donut is larger. Just add more rondelles to the ends. Thread the 4 chains through the donut. Now, add beads on head pins to the ends of all the chains. Because of the size of the nuggets, they won't pull through. I used nuggets on 2 chains, and rondelles on the other 2. 

The holes on these are a nice size, they aren't drilled impossibly small like a lot of gemstone beads are. Which makes them great for stringing and other projects, but if you find the hole is a little big for the headpin, just put a seed beads or a 2mm round bead on the headpin first.

It's done. A nice necklace with a lot of visual and textural interest that's still very wearable.

Delicate Wire and Chain Earrings

If you look at the right hand side of my blog, you'll see a fairly short list of links to sites I like. More links are under the links tab at the top of my page. 

One of those links is Auntie's Beads and it's been there for almost as long as this blog has been up. Because the site has good prices and some of the best "How to bead" videos I've seen on YouTube. Look on the side bar of their page under resources for those. 

So when they asked if I wanted to use some beads and post a project made with them, I jumped on the chance. 

They sent 5 sparkly strands of faceted crystal beads. 

3x5 mm white linen rondelles

4x6 mm crystal ab rondelles

6x8 mm crystal ab rondelles

4 mm crystal ab bicones

6 mm crystal ab bicones

The first thing I made was the pair of earrings above. They are very simple to make, have a ton of sparkle and shine, and the design can be changed up to suit other looks very easily by changing the metal and color of the beads. So if you used gunmetal with jet and metallic plum it would be very dark and gothic. Copper with bright colors would be a great Bohemian look. The earrings are very light to wear and have a lot of swing.

I work with my wire right on the coil or spool so I have less waste. Check out their glass beads page for lots of colors and options.

You'll need:

5 inches of chain

earring hooks

15 inches of wire- I used 24 gauge sterling

2 head pins

beads! 

I used 

4 6x8mm rondelles

6 4mm bicones

4 6mm bicones

10 3x5 rondelles

4 4x6mm rondelles

-basic wire working skills-

making a wrapped loop 

Cut the chain into 8 lengths, 4 at 3/4 inches, 4 at 1/2 inch 

On a headpin, string on a 6mm bicone, 3x5 rondelle, 4mm bicone. Make a wrapped loop on top. Repeat for the other headpin

 Cut off 2.5 inches of the wire and make a wrapped loop. String on a 3x5 rondelle, 6x8 rondelle, 3x5 rondelle, Make just the loop part for the bottom, don't wrap it yet. Add on 3/4 inch chain, 1 decorated head pin, 3/4 inch chain. Finish loop.

Cut off 3 inches from the wire. Start a loop on the end, slide that on one 3/4 inch chain, and finish the wrap. String on 4 mm bicone, 1/2 inch chain, 4x6 rondelle, 6x8 rondelle, 4x6 rondelle, 1/2 inch chain, 4 mm bicone. Hold the beads in place while putting a soft curve in the beaded wire. Because of the shape of the beads, you need some "slack" in the wire or extra space. If you wrap the second loop without curving the wire first, you might not be able to curve it. Start the loop at the end, slide the other 3/4 inch chain on the loop, finish the wrap.

The bottom piece is done with a 2 inch piece of wire. Make a small loop on one end. Slide the half inch chain on the loop, finish the wrap. String on 1 3x5 rondelle,1 6mm bicone and 1 3x5 rondelle. Make loop, slide the other chain on the loop, finish the wrap. Repeat for the other earring.

The basic technique is pretty adaptable and makes a great project while watching tv. If you wanted, you could skip the head pin entirely and add more layers of chain sections for longer, even more sparkly earrings.

The cup I displayed the earring on is part of my personal collection. I love my no handle cups for tea or chocolate on cold days! This one was made by Ember Haynes of Silverbear Sundries.