Creativity In A Nutshell

Although this week is all about working with bottle caps, I wanted to mention some of the over all fun stuff I am working on :)

I have created a brand spanking new necklace using the computer resistors and some silver plated jump rings. Sadly, I forgot a very important box when I left school for the winter break, and in that box were all of my gold and silver plated clasps. So... I will have to wait to complete the necklace until my emergency shipment comes in.
The bottle cap on the bottom is the first of a series of bottle cap charms I plan to create, connecting to my feminism studies... my plans are still very rough in that area, so I will blog more about then when I have a more solid understanding of what I want to do.
The woodchuck bottle cap is my current inspiration. Who doesn't love the refreshing taste of woodchuck?! Plus, I think the bottle caps are pretty nifty, so my plan is to make some funky earrings, using the bottle caps. We will see how that works out.

As I said in my previous post : It's Bottle Cap Week! This is the first of my bottle cap experiment tutorials. It's pretty sweet, check it out, make some modifications of your own and play around with this fun way of creating entirely unique pieces.


What's The Plan, Stan?

Ingredients:

• Bottle cap (for this toutorial, I'm using a basic crafting bottle cap)
• Sprinkles
• Diamond Glaze

Tools Of The Trade:

• Hammer or a rubber mallet
• Piece of scrap wood or a wooden worksurface
• Nail
• Fine grit sandpaper

Process:

• Step One: There are tons of different kinds of bottle caps to work with, and ways you can play around with them. For this toutorial, I'm choosing to work with a basic black bottle cap, purchased for crafting. If you are not working with a crafting bottle cap, for this toutorial you're going to need to gently flatten the edges. This picture shows you the difference between a regular bottle cap and a crafting bottle cap.
  

• Even though the bottle cap I'm working with already has somewhat flattened edges I am going to flatten them out a little more. Place the bottle cap top up on the piece of wood or your work surface. Gently hammer the cap so the sides are pushed out and down. Ok, so not sooo gently. These bottle caps are pretty tough, and trust me, they can take it. Later on, we'll experiment with taking it from a flattened edge, to a rounded edge. But lets not get ahead of ourselves... :)
• Step Two: Now we want to punch a wee little whole on the flattened edge we've just made. Use a small nail, and gently tap it on one edge. Don't push the nail through - you just want to use the small pointy tip to make the hole. Flip the bottle cap over and repeat to make it a clean and wide hole. If the edges are jagged or sharp, use a fine grit sandpaper to file it. (I started with a rough one, about 60, then cleaned it up with 220)

• Step Three: Ok, so now we're ready for the fun part: decorating! Since I've been wanting to play around with the sprinkles I bought for resin crafting, I've decided to use them for this tutorial. I sprinkled a layer of sprinkles :) in the bottle cap, then added the word yum. Last, I sealed everything with a coat of Diamond Glaze.

• Tip: Apply the diamond glaze thickly - you're going to want it to adhere the sprinkles in one go and you don't want to deal with reattaching things later. Once you've covered everything with the diamond glaze, you can still move things around using a pin. It takes quite a while for diamond glaze to set. Because diamond glaze is water based, the more you move the sprinkles around, the more likely it is the diamond glaze will get some of the color from the sprinkles in it. This can add a cool effect. Once you're satisfied with your charm, leave it alone until is solid hard.
• You Will Get Bubbles. It's a fact of life, or at least life with diamond glaze. I still haven't found a really good way to get bubbles out of diamond  glaze when you're working with a project like this. So, instead, I just break up the bubbles as much as possible and incorporate them into the overall piece.

• Another tip - if you're going to add anything into your charm... make sure it's waterproof. I guess I had a special moment when I wrote my 'Yum' with a waterbased pen. The result is a green blurry mess, but oh well.

C'est Fin!

More Similar Fun Stuff!

More Stuff on the Information Highway:

This week I'm jumping back into blogging, jewelry making and etsy-ing! It's been a crazy  busy month and I'm glad to have a month off from classes to get caught up with all the *real* fun stuff: jewelry!
And in honor of my return, this week is devoted to Bottle Caps!


What's The Plan, Stan?
For the day before the first of the week, I'm going to brainstorm some great ideas of upcycling with bottle caps. Check out these links for some sweet examples :)
Ingredients:

• Bottle Caps! There are so many options when it comes to your bottle caps
• You can buy some crafting bottle caps from a craft shop or a jewlery supply shop
• Do the good thing: Collect all of your (and your friend's) bottle caps. Save the interesting ones for some funky pieces
• Cruze around looking for some vintage bottle caps. You might find some cool ones at antique, consignment or second-hand shops. Or just search bottle caps on Ebay. I found some nifty milk bottle caps - you never know what you're going to find.
• Check out this sweet shop, Bottle Cap Co

• Step one: Start collecting your bottle caps. This can take a while, so multi task! Brainstorm your ideas. Sketch em out, then try em!

• Check out this sweet wall installation made with bottle caps, paint and acrylic

• You can drill upcycled bottle caps and use them as-is for earrings, pins, keychains, magnets
• You can sorta paper mache on them
• You can collage inside them, using resin to protect your work
• You can paint in them!
• You can stamp over them!
• You can draw on them with a permanent marker!
• You can drill all kinds of interesting holes in them!
  

First I want to apologize for my lack of super de dooper fun and excited tutorials. I have been quite sick in the past few weeks, and with two jobs on the side and full time classes - well, finding time to blog has not exactly been easy. This morning, I checked my email, prepared for the usual things, ads from beading websites, some crafting newsletters, maybe some spam. And all these things were in fact there, but I was also pleasantly surprised by a gem of an email, informing me I had sold a necklace on ETSY - and another saying payment had been made! I swear to goodness the Hallelujia corus was blasting from my ears! I jumped, I ran, I thundered down the stairs, banged on the door and whooped.

So, this may sound like an overreaction - but with the way things have been going lately, it is so wonderful just to know I have any kind of the smallest success in this whole jewelry crafting thing. Just one sale - one sale is enough to remind me that I am good at what I do, that this is worth all the time and effort.

So, thank you, mystery shopper. You have no idea just how much your purchase gave me.

Lately I have been preoccupied with... you guess it Birds! This fascination started when I noticed the increase of swallow charms, particularly in brass and copper jewelry. They're everywhere! At first I was a jewelry snob, "If everyone is doing it, it simply isn't for me" But then... I have to be honest, I fell in love with the simple, understated beauty of these birds.
I wonder what it is about the symbol of a bird that we all love and cling to so much. Maybe it's the idea of being free. Maybe it's desiring the ability to fly (away from, or to, something or someone.) Maybe this stage in my life just needs some birds. I don't know.
Whatever it 'means' I do intend to play around with some metal birdie charms, however there are other ways to add some birds to your jewelry art.



What's The Plan, Stan?

• I'm going to list a few non-traditional bird jewelry project suggestions. As I get to try them out myself, I will tell you about them in follow up blogs. Please, let me know what you think, or give suggestions for some cool bird jewelry.
  

Some Birdie Ideas:

• Feather jewelry is all the rage. You don't get any more bird-like than with beautiful feathers. Peacock feathers are especially beautiful, but they are also all over the place. Stop in your local crafting store (like Michaels) and see what they have for feathers. You may be surprised by the huge variety of feathers available. Are you worried that your new-found treasures were delivered via less than Kosher means? There are some farms, which will sell/give away bird feathers, which have been found, not... em... plucked. Peacocks will actually molt their long plumage (in the fall I believe). Do some research - and remember, if you sell your feather creations, it's great to mention if your feathers were found vrs... em... plucked.
• Paint it, baby! We all have artists inside us. Ok, well mine likes to jump up and down a lot and loudly proclaim it's existence, but the point is, you can create your own little painted charm, and cover it with Diamond Glaze, Glossy Accents, ICE resin or some other products. A couple weeks ago I made these cute bird charms with tiny water color paintings and scrabble tiles. I'm still learning how to use Diamond Glaze, but I think it's a great area to explore in creating jewelry.
• Go for the gold! Or copper. Or silver. Whatever! If you are going to use bird charms, like the majority of jewelry and bead artists out there, try to make your unique. I know it is tempting to see a necklace using that traditional flying swallow (see above picture) because it's beautiful, has classic lines etc... but then what are you? Just one in a million. Use different metals! Use different kinds of birds! Use dancing birds! Be unique! Or don't. The choice, my reader, is yours.
  

C'est Fin!

Bead Artist Showcase
Your work could be right here! Submit your own bird jewelry ideas to Creativity In A Nutshell via email to cagarp@plymouth.edu. Feel free to include pictures, anything new you tried and suggestions you have for improvement.

These past two weeks have been crazy busy for me, but I'm finally sculpting out some time for updating my Etsy shop. Here are some of my new treasures, available for purchase on Etsy.

Brass is all the rage these days. But, did you know there are all kinds of brass and brass finishes? As I said in my previous post, What Are All Those Metals Anyways: Brass is an allow of copper and zinc, so it's generally darker and not as brilliant as copper. The more zinc, the darker the brass. The more copper, the redder the brass. It tends to be pretty hypoallergenic.



What's The Plan, Stan?
I'm going to walk you through the process of making these simple, but really beautiful earrings, using gold finish brass butterflies, while also giving you a little information about working with brass stampings.

Ingredients:

• 2 Gold Plated French Earwires
• 2 Gold Plated 1 inch eyepins
• 2 5mm crystal quartz rounds
• 2 12mm Gold Finish Brass Butterflies
  

Tools Of The Trade:

• Needle Nose Pliers
• Bent Nose Pliers
• Round Pliers
• Wire Snips
  

Process:

• The actual process for making these earrings is really easy:
• First connect the eyepin to the butterfly. 
• Add your crystal quartz round and finish with a wrapped loop.
• Connect your earwire.

Some Extra Information:

• Gold Finish Brass is not actually gold plated. The brass has actually been treated with a chemical to make it bright and shiny - like gold. Vintaj brass has been treated with a different solution to make it look tarnished and antique. There are a wide variety of finishes in brass, and all of them are fun to work with.
• Although brass does tend to be hypoallergenic, I used gold plated findings and earwires for added protection.
  

C'est Fin!

Bead Artist Showcase
Your work could be right here! Submit your own brass earrings to Creativity In A Nutshell via email to cagarp@plymouth.edu. Feel free to include pictures, anything new you tried and suggestions you have for improvement.

More Similar Fun Stuff!

• Just What Are All Those Metals  
• Monday Madness: Weekly Earring Project 2
  

More Stuff on the Information Highway:

• Art Jewelry Forum 
• Want to try working with brass wire? 
• Making Jewelry With Brass Components

In my bead and charm-making adventures, I have often heard many people talk about working with Diamond Glaze. I have mostly been tampering with Glossy Accents, but I though, eh, what the heck?! Got ta try something new, right? Well... my first venture with Diamond Glaze was in my Artistry Beads Tutorial, and things could have gone better.

Problems:

• I found that the Diamond Glaze quickly began to set and harden, much like nailpolish lacquer. 
• There were literally millions of big and little bubbles, which were already in the bottle. I know that if you shake the bottle, you're going to get bubbles. I didn't shake the bottle. Still there were all these annoying little bubbles! Gah!

Good Things:

• I really like the nice, solid and hard finish with the Diamond Glaze. It's very shiny, and shiny is good :)
• It has no smell that I noticed
• It didn't take long to dry... but then again that's a good and a bad thing
• I have been told that you can mix watercolors etc into it, and it's water-soluble, so that adds other options, however, I have not yet experimented with that aspect of Diamond Glaze yet
  

What's the Plan, Stan?

• Well, I am going to continue to experiment with the Diamond Glaze to see if I can't get something to work. As I find solutions, I will post them to keep you all updated!
• If you have any tips or tools of the trade to use with Diamond Glaze, please, share! Email me at cagarp@plymouth.edu
  

Where can you buy some Diamond Glaze of your own?
Art fire

There's a lot of beautiful jewelry out there. I can get caught up on Etsy for hours and hours, just engrossed in all the wonderful ways people create jewelry. It truly is an art. That word right there, art, is the key to what I aspire to with my jewelry. I believe any necklace, earrings, ring, bracelet should be a unique and inspiring work of art.
One way to reach that goal, is to create interesting and innovative designs. Another way, however, is to create my own little art beads and charms. I have been working towards that with my scrabble tile charms and pendants. My next new idea is to create miniature watercolor paintings, which I will epoxy onto a shape and create a miniature mounted painting, which can strung on a necklace, or dangled from an earrings.
I am just in the beginning stages of this technique, but I am so excited about it, I just had to share the idea! I have a great deal of experience with watercolor painting. To see a collective gallery of my watercolor works, skip over to my art website.
On a side note, I will also be testing out Diamond Glaze for this tutorial. Since this is my first time using it, I have come up with a lot of problems and am searching for solutions. Stay posted to learn more about my adventures with Diamond Glaze!

What's The Plan, Stan?

• I'm going to walk you through my initial process of creating these fun, original works of art, with additional information on paint and paper.

Ingredients:

• First of all, you will need watercolor paper
• A note about paper: you will quickly notice that realm of artist watercolor paper is vast, and rightfully so. Different kinds and qualities of papers will have different affects. Here are the basics:
• Cold press paper will have a more rough, more visible texture to it. This can be good or bad, depending on what you want.
• Hot press paper is the opposite, which a much smooth surface, and minimal visible texture.
• To begin with, student grade is fine, at least until you know if you like this idea or not.
• You will also, of course, need watercolor paints
• A note about paints: while I would not suggest buying a crayola watercolor paint pallet  you should not spend a gazillion dollars on the firt project. Try a cheap boxed tube set for $6-$7 at Michaels
• For this adventure, we are going to work with two scrabble tiles to mount our pictures on. A - because we are (hopefully) already familiar with them, and we already have some (again, hopefully)
• If you have something else you can mount your paintings onto, by all means, try it out, and feel free to let me know how it went via cagarp@plymouth.edu
• Epoxy - there are tons out there but E9000 is a good one
• Mounting bail 
• Diamond glaze, or similar
• Modge Podge to seal the painting

Tools Of The Trade:

• Fine round point watercolor brushes - synthetic work just fine
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Masking tape
• Watercolor pallet (you can get one for $.99)
• Art cloth - any clean old rag will do
• Mechanical pencil

Process:

• Carefully trace the scrabble tile on the watercolor paper, using a mechanical pencil. Make sure the lead is pressed right up against the tile.

• Next, keeping an extra boarder of about 1/2 inch, cut out the square.
• Tape down the paper, lining up the edge of the masking tape with the edge of the traced scrabble tile. Watercolor paper gets distorted as the fibers expand and soak up the pigment, but if taped down, it will shrink back to its normal shape.

• Paint your design/picture using whatever variety of watercolor techniques you know. Allow to dry completely. Remove the tape gently, so not to rip.

• Trim off the extra border around the painting. 

• At this point, you may want to prep the scrabble tile. You could paint it, stamp it, do anything at all. Be creative! You may want to seal the scrabble tile with a coat of Modge Podge or lightly watered down craft glue.
• Attach the painting to scrabble tile using Modge Podge, or basic crafting glue. 

• Turn the scrabble tile face down and trim off the extra paper.

• Seal top of painting with a coat of Modge Podge.
• Don't use watered down glue, as the water will cause the painting to smear.
• Epoxy the bail to back of the scrabble tile.
• Coat one side at a time with Diamond Glaze or Glossy Accents and allow to dry completely.

C'est Fin!

Bead Artist Showcase
Your work could be right here! Submit your own artwork beads to Creativity In A Nutshell via email to cagarp@plymouth.edu. Feel free to include pictures, anything new you tried and suggestions you have for improvement.

More Similar Fun Stuff!
Project: Scrabble Tile Jewelry
Tutorial: Scrabble Tile Pendants and Charms

Even jewelry and bead artists with some experience behind their belts can have a hard time figuring out just what kind of metal it is they're dealing with. Jewelry buyers generally don't know either, and this can lead to a lot of confusion. 


What's The Plan, Stan?

• I'm going to break down the basic details of the various metals you may come across in your jewelry travels.

Beading Metals:

• Stirling Silver is softer and more malleable than most metals. It is prone to oxidization, when the metal begins to turn somewhat black.
• Gold
• When you work with gold, you will work with different gold carats. The carat measures the proportion of gold to other metal alloys, which make up the actual metal. The higher the carat, the higher the gold content, the higher the cost.
• There are a few different colors of gold:
• Yellow: pure gold with copper and zinc
• Rose: pure gold with copper
• White: pure gold with white metals such as silver and palladium
• Rhodium 
• A white metal, very similar to Platinum and is often used to enhance the color of white gold
• Platinum
• A very pure white metal when used in jewelry. It is dense and heavy and wicked expensive.
• Titanium
• A silver-grey-white-ish metal and has a wide array of colors. It is very strong, and very lightweight, however, it cannot be soldered.
• Surgical Steel
• Refers to a stainless steel, of the same grade that is used for surgical implanted or tools. It's an alloy of iron and carbon with chromium, molybdenum and a wee bit of nickel. It's actually pretty similar to Titanium, but not nearly as expensive.
• Copper
• A reddish-goldish metal, very maleable and inexpensive. It's recently very popular in jewelry, but you have to worry about oxidization.
• Brass
• An allow of copper and zinc, so it's generally darker and not as brilliant as copper. The more zinc, the darker the brass. The more copper, the redder the brass. It tends to be pretty hypoallergenic.
• Base Metal
• May be gold or silver colored, and thus all the more confusing
• Plated Metals
• Plated metals has a base of a non-precious metal, such as pewter or brass, which is covered in a thin layer of a precious metal, such as silver or gold. 
• The good thing is, plated metals are cheaper. However, you risk wearing through the layer of plated metal. 
• Vermeil
• This is a type of plating process, however, rather than using a non-precious base, it uses a sterling silver base
• Gold Filled
• AKA : Gold Overlay or Rolled Gold Plated
• Has several mechanically bonded layers, in which a non-precious base is covered with the outside layer of at least 10 Karat gold.

On October first, I re-opened my jewelry shop on Etsy: Callie's Creations! Of course, my computer promptly crashed right after. I am back home this weekend, getting caught up on all things jewelry. Here are some neat and beautiful things you can find in my Etsy shop. Take a look around and let me know what you think!

African Inspired Necklace


Computer Girl Necklace


Autumn Necklace



Maple Leaves Dangle Earrings


Upcycled Pink Computer Fuse Earrings


Purple Days

Don't you hate it when you discover a great necklace or bracelet, and you wear it all the time in the next couple days... and then! Boom! It's broken!

What's The Plan, Stan?
Well, there's no use crying over spilled milk! Rather than saying audios to your new find, either fix it yourself, or get it fixed by someone with the know-how and supplies. My professor/advisor/boss (Ann)  purchased this really great necklace a little while back:

I'm going to walk you through the process for fixing this particular necklace, and in doing so, give you some tips on how to fix your own (or someone else's) jewelry.

Ingredients and Tools of the Trade:
For every fix you're going to need different things.

• Generally, you will need your usual tools (needle nose pliers, wire snips, possible round nose pliers)
• You may need to replace some beads that were lost. You can either purchase beads as close as possible to the remaining beads, or chose to replace all of the beads. For this necklace, I replaced all of the delica seed beads.
• Depending on the style of the necklace you may some findings - jump rings, a new clasp, crimp beads, crimp bead covers etc

Process:

• First, identify all of the problems: If you look on the top right, the jewelry artist didn't do a great job securing the ends of her tigertail beading wire. This is very important anyways, but with this particular piece, which has three separate strands, it becomes even more important that you make sure all three strands are secure. It turns out that only one of the three on the right side were nice and snug, so the other two broke and the little seed beads were lost. Also, Ann mentioned that she wasn't a big fan of the extender chain on the necklace - and I agree - it takes away from the overall aesthetic of the necklace.
• Next, take some pictures. You don't want to start attacking the piece you're supposed to fix and then forget what it looked like to begin with. I took just one picture, since this is a fairly simple piece, but if you are working on something more complex, you may want to take a few more detail shots. 
• Measurements will be key if working with tiny beads, like these seed beads. I measured the sections of seed beads between the little green chip beads, just to make sure all the spacing would be correct in the final product. 
• Next I disassembled the necklace. AHHH! This can be chaotic and crazy if you are not careful. I know I have mentioned using a bead board before, but now I must really stress the importance of having something to keep all your beads organized and in order. 
• Once everything is laid out, restring the necklace. Remember, there were two problems:
• The loose wire ends - I used a crimp bead to connect the three strings together just one inch after the last large bead. Then, I separated the middle string, and trimmed the other two as close the the crimp bead as possible, thus taking the three strands down to one, further away from the clasp. This will put far less stress on the crimped wires, making it less likely to fray or slip out of the crimp. Of course, I covered it with a lovely crimp bead cover :)
• The extender chain was ugly - so I just made the last section of seed beads a bit longer, and because it was narrowed down to one strand, rather than three, it should be more comfortable on the neck anyways. One crimp bead on either side secured the clasp. 

More Similar Fun Stuff!
Upcycling Vintage Costume Jewelry

I love the unreserved sparkle of vintage costume jewelry. It's so beautiful and reminds me of playing princess when I was younger. It's easy to find some vintage costume jewelry of your own. I got my pieces from a yard sale ages ago and just recently had the time and inspiration to play around with them. Keep your eyes open for broken or incomplete pieces that you can modify.



What's The Plan, Stan?
Using a few different vintage costume jewelry pieces and some lovely Swarovski beads, we are going to create an entirely new necklace and set of earrings to show off some lovely sparkle.

Ingredients:

• For this specific necklace, I used an old necklace with these really pretty metal flowers set with Austrian Crystals and tiny pearls in the middle, as well as an old clip on earring. I took the necklace apart, using just one of the flowers for the pendant, and the main earring piece is also going to be used. There were great crystal dangles on the earring as well, which I will use on the necklace to accent the pendant. Oh also, I used the lovely chain from the necklace, complete with the clasp. to complete my new necklace. If you can't find vintage pieces quite like this, you have a couple options:
• Modify the design! You're a crafty individual and I have faith in you! (Please send some ideas, I'd love to hear them!)
  
• Look around on the various beading sites to see if you can find something similar.
• Peach colored fresh water pearls
• 6mm Swarovski Crystal Silk faceted rounds
  
• 4mm Lacy agate rounds
• 3mm silver plated jump rings
• 6mm silver plated jump rings
• 4 silver plated crimp beads
• 4 silver plated crimp bead covers
  

For the Earrings:

• 6mm Swarovski Crystal Silk faceted rounds
• 5mm Swarovski Colorado Topaz roundells
• 4mm lacy agate rounds
• Silver plated headpins
• Silver plated french earwires
  

Tools Of The Trade:

• Bent nose pliers
• Needle nose pliers
• Round pliers
• Wire Snips
  

Process:

• First, I created the pendant for the necklace. This process will totally depend upon what sort of fun findings you have found. I created a nice dangley chain using jumprings from the upcycled vintage earring and attached the great crystal dangles. Then, I attached the earring to a headpin with a beautiful Swarovski faceted round, connected to my upcycled flower finding. I'm really pleased with the affect.

• Once I was satisfied with the pendant, I attached two 4mm jumprings to the flower petals, allowing me to attach wire for the necklace on either side. String the wire through a lacy agate round before crimping, in order to protect the necklace from getting too worn and breaking. Crimp and cover with silver plated crimp bead covers.
• Now just string the beads following the same pattern for both sides of the necklace:
• 3 freshwater pearls
• attach your crystal dangle using a 4mm silver plated jumprings
• 3 freshwater pearls
• 1 lacy agate bead
• 1 Swarovski faceted round
• 1 lacey agate bead
• 2 freshwater pearls
• Crystal dangle
• 2 freshwater pearls
• 1 lacy agate bead
• 1 Swarovski faceted round
• 1 lacey agate bead
• 2 freshwater pearls
• Crystal dangle
• 2 freshwater pearls
• 1 lacy agate bead
• 1 Swarovski faceted round
• 1 lacey agate bead
• 2 fresh water pearls
• 2 lacey agate beads
• crimp bead
• 1 lacy agate bead
• String your wire through a 4mm silver plated jumpring, then back through the agate bead and crimp bead. Crimp and cover with the crimp bead cover.
  
•  Attach jumpring to upcycled chain. If the clasp is still intact, use it! If not, attach another one using a 4mm silver plated jumpring.
• For the earrings: Place first a Swarovski faceted round, then a roundel, then a lacy agate round. Finish with a wrapped loop. Attach to the silver plated french earwires.
  

A note about lacy agate : agate is a natural gemstone that comes in a million different shapes, colors etc... I happened to have to really lovely, but also very pale, blue lacy agate rounds in my bead supplies. For this set, I wanted something that was light in color, which would enhance the overall light feel of the necklace. If you can't find any light blue lacy agate, go with something light in color and you'll be good to go.

C'est Fin!





Bead Artist Showcase
You work could be right here! Submit your own upcycled vintage costume jewelry to Creativity In A Nutshell via email to cagarp@plymouth.edu. Feel free to include pictures, anything new you tried and suggestions you have for improvement.

More Similar Fun Stuff!

• Aztec Secrets: Jewelry Set Project  
• Sparkling Wine: Necklace Earrings Set Project  
• Classic Decadence: Vintage Inspired Earrings Project

Create the look of funky foreign ephemera stamps with these post-office inspired earrings.



What's The Plan, Stan?

• Use two postage stamps (either real, or not :) to create twin scrabble tiles charms, which will be used to make a simple, yet distinct pair of earrings.
  

Ingredients:

• Two scrabble tiles
• Two stamps (I bought a small pack of scrap booking stamps - made to look like they're from all over the world, however, there are literally tons of options out there. You can use some stamps you have in your own collections, you can buy some real exotic stamps online, you can make your own...)
• Tacky Glue
• Glossy Accents (or similar)
• Two eyepins
• Two ear wires
• Four large jumprings
• Two small jumprings
• Two pyrite rondelles
• Two shell 4 mm rounds
  

Tools Of The Trade:

• Drill with small bit
• Scrap piece of wood
• Paintbrush
• Needlenose pliers
  

Process:

• Measures and mark two holes on each scrabble tile - one on top, one on bottom. Drill :)
• Cover blank side with think coat of lightly watered down glue. Place postage stamps on top, then add another coat of glue. Allow to dry. Repierce the holes with a thumbtack, safety pin etc
• At this point you can add further decoration to the tile with Pearl Ex Pigments, sharpies, colored pencils etc. I left mine as it is. Allow to dry completely.
• Cover each surface with glossy accents.
• Once the tile is completely dried, add the jumprings. Attach the earwires to the top jumprings by linking them with the small jumpring. 
• Connect the eyepin to the bottom jumpring. Add the pyrite rondelle, then the shell round. Close with a wrapped loop.
  

C'est Fin!

Bead Artist Showcase
You work could be right here! Submit your own BLANK to Creativity In A Nutshell via email to cagarp@plymouth.edu. Feel free to include pictures, anything new you tried and suggestions you have for improvement.

More Similar Fun Stuff!

• Tutorial: Scrabble Tile Charms and Pendants  
• Project: Scrabble Tile Jewelry 
• Classic Decadence: Vintage Inspired Earrings: Project
  

More Stuff on the Information Highway:

• Recycled Crafts
  

It is such a pleasure to be able to work with Swavorski crystals. They glisten! They shimmer! They radiate! This set of jewelry is inspired by Aztec treasures, in delectable hues of copper and teal.



What's The Plan, Stan?
We're going to use some lovely copper Swarovski beads, mixed with subtle turquoise hieshi beads and delicate fresh water pearls to create an Aztec Treasure of our own.

Ingredients:

• Necklace
  
• 12 6mm Swarovski Copper Faceted Rounds
• 4 12mm Swarovski Copper Cosmic Crystals
• 6 4mm Swarovski Silver Plated Smoked Topaz Ring Channels
• 21 6-8mm Turquoise hieshi Beads
• 12 4-5mm peacock fresh water pearls
• 11 2inch silver plated eyepins
• 24 4 mm silver plated jump rings
• 22 5mm silver plated jumprings
• 2 sections of silver plated chain, about 2 1/2 inches long
• 2 5mm oval silver plated jumprings
  
• Bracelet
• 8  6mm Swarovski Copper Faceted Rounds
• 18 6-8mm Turquoise Heishi Beads
• 2 silver plated crimp beads
• 2 silver plated crimp bead covers (about 4mm)
  
• 1 silver plated toggle clasp
• 16 iris fresh water pearls
• 2 4mm silver plated jumprings
  
• Earrings
• 2 12mm Swarovski Copper Cosmic Crystals
• 2 2inch silver plated eyepins
• 2 silver plated french earwires
  
• 2 2.5mm Swarovski indigo bicones
  

Tools Of The Trade:

• Needle Nose Pliers
• Bent Needle Nose Pliers
• Wire snips
• beadboard (not required but highly recommended)
  

Process:

• First, you want to set out your beads on the beadboard. This necklace will have two main sections, each on eyepins. The first section: freshwater pearl, Swarovski cosmic copper bead, freshwater pearl. The second section: Swarovski copper faceted round, 3 turquoise hieshi beads, Swarovski copper faceted round.
• Over all Pattern: Section 1 in the middle. Either side of necklace: Swarovski Smokey Topaz Ring Channel, Section 2, Swarovski Smoked Topaz Ring Channel, Section 1, Swarovski Smokey Topaz Ring Channel, Section 2, Section 1
• End with a third section: fresh water pearl, Swarovski copper faceted round, freshwater pearl
  

• Take all of your sections and place them on silver plated eyepins. Close eyepins with loop. Do not use a wrapped loop, since it will not match the opposite end.(Note that you will need to be extra careful, making sure that all of your loops are entirely closed so the necklace doesn't fall apart).

• Attach a 4mm jumpring to either end of each section, including the Swarovski Smokey Topaz Ring Channels
• Attach a 5mm jumpring to both 4mm jumprings on each section
• Attach each section together using the 5mm jumprings

• Attach the chain sections to either end of the necklace using two 4mm jumprings
• Attach clasp with two oval jumprings
• For the bracelet, follow this pattern:
• Working left to right: 
• 3 freshwater pearls 
• 2 turquoise hieshi beads, 
• 2 fresh water pearls, 
• 1 Swarovski copper faceted round, 
• 3 turquoise hieshi beads, 
• 1 Swarovski copper faceted round, 
• 2 freshwater pearls, 
• 1 Swarovski copper faceted round, 
• 3 turquoise hieshi beads, 
• 1 Swarovski copper faceted round,
• 2 fresh water pearls, 
• 1 Swarovski copper faceted round, 
• 3 turquoise hieshi beads, 
• 1 Swarovski copper faceted round, 
• 2 freshwater pearls
  
• 1 Swarovski copper faceted round
  
• 3 turquoise hieshi beads
  
• 1 Swarovski copper faceted round
  
• 2 fresh water pearls
• 2 turquoise hieshi beads
• 3 fresh water pearls
  
•  End with a crimp bead, attaching a 5mm jumpring to either end. Use a silver plated crimp bead cover. Attach small toggle clasp to jumprings
• For the earrings, first place a 2.5mm Swarovski dark indigo bicone on a silver plated headpin. Then the Swarovski cosmic copper bead, lastly the freshwater pearl. Close with a wrapped loop, attaching the silver plated french earwire.
  

C'est Fin!

Bead Artist Showcase
You work could be right here! Submit your own version of Aztec Secrets to Creativity In A Nutshell via email to cagarp@plymouth.edu. Feel free to include pictures, anything new you tried and suggestions you have for improvement.

More Similar Fun Stuff!
Sparkling Wine: Necklace Earrings Set Project 

Have you ever toured a vineyard in the autumn?  The colors are nothing but inspiring. The leaves are still that lovely green, twinged with the gentle turning of yellow autumn. Every vine is heavily hung with clusters of purple and green. This vineyard-inspired necklace is simply stunning.



What's The Plan, Stan?

•  We are going to use Swarovski crystal beads to create this necklace and earrings set, combined with delicate amber chips and soft green freshwater pearls.

Ingredients:

• Necklace:
  
• 12 sage green freshwater pearls 6-8 mm
• 67 amber chips 4-6 mm
  
• 26 4mm Swarovski Olivine faceted Bicones 
• 13 5mm Swarovski Light Colorado Topaz Roundels
• 5 6mm Swarovski Olivine Faceted Bicones
• 1 27mm Swarovski Silver Plated Amethyst Filigree Sunflower
• 1 1 1/2 inch Gold Plated eyepin
• 8 4mm Gold Plated jumprings
  
• 1 8mm Gold Plated jumpring
• 1 8-10mm Gold Plated spring clasp
• 2 Gold Plated Crimpbeads
  
• Earrings
• Pair of ball post earring findings
  
• 2 9x6mm Swarovski Amethyst Teardrops
•  2 4mm Swarovski Olivine faceted Bicones 
• 13 5mm Swarovski Light Colorado Topaz Roundels
  
• 2 Gold Plated 1 1/2 headpins
  

Tools Of The Trade:

• Chain Nose Pliers
• Needle Nose Pliers 
• Angled Needle Nose Pliers (optional, but helpful)
• Bead Designing Flockboard (also optional, but also very helpful)
  

Process:

• First, set up your bead board with all your lovely ingredients. Admire them! There is nothing like the pleasure of working with wonderful beads! The pattern for this necklace is fairly simple.

• We are going to start with the pendant part. The Filigree Sunflower goes in the center. Attach the Gold Plated eyepin to the sunflower. Add first the 6mm Olivine Bicone, an amber chip and a Colorado Topaz Roundell. Create a wrapped loop at the end. 

• Next, lay out the elements for the actual necklace. I am going to list the beads for one side of the necklace. Repeat the same exact pattern for the other side:
• Amber Chip
• 4mm Olivine Bicone
  
• Colorado Topaz Roundell
• 4mm Olivine Bicone
• Colorado Topaz Roundell
• 2 Amber Chips
• Pearl
• 2 Amber Chips
• 6mm Olivine Bicone
• 2 Amber Chips
• Pearl
• 2 Amber Chips
  
• 4mm Olivine Bicone
  
• Colorado Topaz Roundell
• 4mm Olivine Bicone
• 2 Amber Chips
• Pearl
• 2 Amber Chips
• Pearl
• 2 Amber Chips
  
• 4mm Olivine Bicone
  
• Colorado Topaz Roundell
• 4mm Olivine Bicone
• 2 Amber Chips
• Pearl
• 2 Amber Chips
• 4mm Olivine Bicone
  
• Colorado Topaz Roundell
• 4mm Olivine Bicone
• 2 Amber Chips
• Pearl
• 2 Amber Chips
• 4mm Olivine Bicone
  
• Colorado Topaz Roundell
• 4mm Olivine Bicone
• 5 Amber chips
• 4mm Olivine Bicone
• 3 Amber Chips
• 4mm Olivine Bicone
• Gold Plated Crimp Bead
• 4mm Olivine Bicone

• Next, finish the strand by looping through a 4mm gold plated jumpring, stringing back through the 4mm Olivine Bicone and crimping. Add 3 more gold plated jumprings.
• Once you have done this for both sides, attach the gold plated spring clasp to once side and the 8mm gold plated jumpring to the other. Now the necklace is done!
• The earrings are super simple. Place the amethyst teardrop beads on the headpins. Next, add the Colorado Topaz Roundell, and the 4mm Olivine Bicone. End the headpin in a loop (or a wrapped loop if you have enough room), attaching it to the ball post earring findings.

C'est Fin!


Bead Artist Showcase
You work could be right here! Submit your own version of Sparkling Wine to Creativity In A Nutshell via email to cagarp@plymouth.edu. Feel free to include pictures, anything new you tried and suggestions you have for improvement.

More Similar Fun Stuff!
Necklace of Intrigue: Project

More Stuff on the Information Highway:
Swarovski Color-Changing Crystals 

Since I decided to relaunch my jewelry making business with new vigor, I have been intrigued with two ideas. The first – to make eco-friendly, recycled jewelry. Whether you believe in climate change or not, most people agree that everything we do impacts the environment. I feel that there are many small (and some big) things we can all do to help reduce this impact. I have been experimenting and researching various ways to explore this in my jewelry designs.Check out 'Recycled Jewelry: Idea Introduction."

What's The Plan, Stan?
Well, this is a bit of a complex one, folks, but we are going to make some incredibly unique and super cool charms and pendants by semi-melting old and used CDs.

IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTE:
Semi-melting these disks gives off potentially dangerous fumes. I am sure the State of California would have warning labels ALL OVER this tutorial. The point? Be careful, please. I did this project in a spray booth - - a small room with a massive fan/vent, sucking all the harmful fumes away from me. Despite this, I did get a slight headache. Ok, the headache could have been caused by the annoying sound of the massive fan the the whirr of the heat gun, but all the same... If you are sensitive, take extra precautions!

Ingredients:

• Old and used CDs 
• NOTE: You can use all kinds of CDs and DVDs. Different brands and types will have different effects and colors once you heat them. I just rummaged through my ever growing stack of burnable CDs that I no longer need or use. Play around. I would not, however, go out and buy some CDs for this project. For goodness sake, just use the old ones.
• Glossy Accents (optional)
  

Tools Of The Trade:

• Heatgun
• Pliers (you are going to want at least two pairs for easy maneuverability)
• Pushpin
• Scissors or wire snips
  

Process:

• To begin with, you should note that a CD or DVD has two layers. One is a sort of metalic layer, and the top layer is like a thicker plastic coating. You can separate the layers, and work with the metallic layer alone, or you can fuse them together. The metallic layer on its own is a little weak, however.
• If you want to fuse both layers together, which I suggest, start by cutting a CD or DVD in half. Hold one half over the heatgun with a pair of pliers. Obviously, don't get your hand in the way of the heatgun. No one likes burns. 
• Every CD or DVD reacts differently. Here are some general rules. Keep the metallic side towards the heat, the plastic side away from it. The plastic has a tendency to bubble in cool ways, but it will also crack and may fall off the piece. You don't want that to happen. The metallic side and the edge of the disk will go through a unique and interesting transformation as they heat. Remember to be patient, but also take it slowly. Allow yourself to get to know the process and become familiar with what the heat gun does to the CD. It may take you a few tries to find something that you like.
• Once the metallic side is nice and melted, and the plastic side is fused, turn off your heat gun and cut out some fun shapes in the CD. You will notice that the CD cools down relatively quickly, but still, please be careful and don't burn yourself. Make sure you gently trim your edges with a pair of scissors to make sure they aren't sharp. Use the heat gun once more to further round the edges and add any more fun bumps and bubbles to the design.
• At this point, you will want to make your holes so you have delightful, string-able charms and pendants. I just used and pushpin and worked it through. You may be able to heat up a straight pin over a tea light and work it through that way, or perhaps a wood burning tool.
• You may wish to protect the plastic side of your charm/pendant, especially if it has become very cracked. I used glossy accents, but you could try a coating of resin, or diamond glaze.
  

C'est Fin!


Here's an example of a pair of earrings I made using charms I made from a DVD. These earrings, called Purple Days are available for sale on Etsy.

Bead Artist Showcase
Your work could be right here! Submit your own upcycled CDcharms or pendants to Creativity In A Nutshell via email to cagarp@plymouth.edu. Feel free to include pictures, anything new you tried and suggestions you have for improvement.

More Similar Fun Stuff!
The Heatgun's The Boss! Embossing Technique
Recycled Jewelry: Idea Introduction

Making jewelry is expensive. There is just no way around it. So, I'm going to start handing you tips and tools for making it much more affordable, and in some cases free. Remember, the goal here is saving a dime, but also saving the environment.


What's The Plan, Stan?

• Raid your (and your friends') recyclables and trash
• Ok, I don't necessarily want you to go dumpster diving, but keep and eye out for:
• Soda and beer cans
• Bottle caps
• Plastic water, soda, juice etc bottles
• # 6 recyclable plastic - it will shrink when you heat it up (a fun tutorial to follow in the near future)
• Go through your magazines
• Most magazines have some pretty sweet pictures (after all, most of us only look at the pics anyways! Use 'em to make some beautiful beads, like the Tutorial on Scrabble Tile Pendants and Charms
• Keep your eye out for cool text and stuff (a sweet tutorial using these little treasures is sure to show up soon)

• Rummage through your drawer of miscellaneous hardware
• Look for cool string-able stuff, like washers. Or look for funky little stuff that you can glue on to make fantastic designs, like steampunk jewelry.
• Broken Technology
• We all have broken or old technology around. Take it apart and find some really sweet stuff to make nifty, geeky jewelry with
• Calculators
• Keyboards
• Ancient computers
• Those annoying broken remotes
• Ancient and broken phones (if you have ancient but working phones, you really should donate them to people who need them)
• Broken Watches
• How many of us have stupid non-functioning watches just kind of hanging out in our dresser drawers in the blind hope that one day they will miraculously begin ticking again. I'm not saying you should destroy your Rolex, but old and not especially valuable watches have some really nifty parts in them.
• The glass
• Rotart parts, hands etc
  
• Chips etc, if a digital watch
• Old Board Games
• What happens once you lose one of your game pieces? You can't exactly play the game, so it ends up collecting dust in some closset or cupboard. Instead, raid 'em for some wicked sweet jewelry
• Dominos
• Mahjong tiles
• Checkers
• Scrabble tiles (of course)
  
• Use your imagination!
  

Do you have any cool recycling/upcycling ideas? Let us know! Leave a comment below, or email me at cagarp@plymouth.edu.

While you may think embossing is for cardmaking and scrapbooking, it is actually a powerful tool to add to your bead making repertoire.



What's The Plan, Stan?
We're going to go over the basic technique of heat embossing. Try out your skills on one of the many projects and tutorials listed below. Come up with anything fantastic? Share it! cagarp@plymouth.edu


Ingredients:

• Embossing powder (I suggest using clear, but there are a wide variety of colors available out there)
• Pearl Ex Pigments (optional)
  
• Ink (there are literally tons of kinds of inks out there. I recommend using Stayz On)
• Stamps (these can cost you lots and lots of money. I search through the $1 bins at Michaels, Dollar Stores and I make my own)
• Object to emboss on (such as a pre-drilled scrabble tile, or domino)
  

Tools Of The Trade:

• Heatgun (there are some good and some not so good heatguns out there. Having only worked with one, I'm not in a position to recommend a specific one. Check out different websites and read the reviews)
  

Process:

• Clean the surface of the object you are going to emboss on. (EX: if you're making a domino pendant, wipe it down with rubbing alcohol)
• Ink your chosen stamp (don't use too much ink, especially on a non-porous object. Try blotting your stamp on a tissue etc before stamping it.)
• Stamp your image! Lay the stamp down on a table and press the object on top of the stamp, rather than the other way around. This way the image will be placed exactly where you want it.
• Sprinkle with embossing powder over a piece of scrap paper. Tap your object to get off extra powder, and sift back into container.
• Heat the ink/embossing powder - - don't hold the heatgun too close so it doesn't actually burn it :) You'll see powder transform into bubbles and voila!
  

A note about Inks:

• Many of the projects bead artists will create use non-porous objects, such as dominoes, glass slides, etc. Regular dye-based inks, while still great on porous objects like scrabble tiles, won't stick on these surfaces. Also, if you intend to use alcohol inks with a stamped image, the alcohol will bread down dye-based inks and ruin your image. Remember these simple rules:
• If you're working on a porous surface, and not using alcohol inks - use regular ink.
• If you're working on a porous surface, and using alcohol inks - use "Stayz On" or "Metallic Inks"
• If you're working on a porous surface using alcohol inks and you want to create a resist image, use regular ink.
• If you're working on a nonporous surface, alcohol inks or not, use "Stayz On" or "Metallic Inks"

A note about Colored Embossing Powder:

• As I mentioned above, there are tons of beautiful colored embossing powders out there. However, why spend the extra cash (which many of us are so short on!) when you can make your own?
• Mix a small amount of Pearl Ex Pigment into your embossing powder and you have created your own unique color :)
  

C'est Fin!

Bead Artist Showcase
Have you made something beautiful using an embossing technique? Your work could be right here! Submit your stuff to Creativity In A Nutshell via email to cagarp@plymouth.edu. Feel free to include pictures, anything new you tried and suggestions you have for improvement.

More Similar Fun Stuff!

•  Childhood Checkers Earrings: Project
• Monday Madness: Weekly Earring Project 2  
• Classic Decadence - Vintage Inspired Earrings

Go Buy Some!
Embossing Powder
Addicted to Rubber Stamps

In the age of Walmart and Amazon, we have gotten used to the idea that the lower the price tag, the better the deal. I know I'm guilty of this - I buy my books at the cheapest website, search out the best deals on clothes and coupon clip my way through life. So why then should we, as bead and jewelry artists and jewelry buyers (equally important) bother with more costly Handmade jewelry and beads?


What's the Big Deal?

• Jewelry handmade by jewelry and bead artists weren't made in some underground sweatshop. You can wear it completely guilt free.
• You are supporting an artist, doing your part to help the creative community.
• Unlike the stuff you buy at New York & Co etc handmade jewelry is exactly that --Handmade. Someone took a great deal of time and effort to m ake something entirely unique and beautiful for you to wear. That should be celebrated. In buying a bead/jewelry artist's piece, you are, in a way, buying a piece of them.
  

Bead Artist Showcase
Do you make handmade beads and/or jewelry? Your work could be right here! Send me a pic and some info to Creativity In A Nutshell via email to cagarp@plymouth.edu.

More Similar Fun Stuff!
Check out one of my fair trade necklaces

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Pledge Handmade
Craftism
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