Creativity In A Nutshell

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!
  

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

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."

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.

Whether you believe in Climate Change or not, most people will agree that we could all benefit from decreasing waste and our individual carbon footprint. After all, starting when we were young, we all learned and repeated the popular mantra, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. It seems, however, that modern artists and crafters are taking up this initiative to "Go Green" in their unique and Environmentally-Friendly work.

Interesting in purchasing some of their handy work? Better yet, interested in making some "Green" pieces of your own? Here are some new vocabulary words that have been added to the mantra since we were kids, and a refresher on the old ones:

Reduce: Cut down on the products you are already using, which are harmful to the environment. For example, I love to use the Alcohol Inks made by Adirondack. However, you have to apply the inks onto little bits of felt. Rather than throwing away the felt after every use, I hold onto them, and any time I use the same ink combination, I use the same piece of felt, thus reducing the amount of felt I throw away. 

Reuse: Don't just throw things away - find other ways to use them. For example, I am reusing an old type-setting drawer to hold beads and small inclusions for resin beads, rather than going out and purchasing a plastic organizer. The important thing to remember is, if you're reusing, the object is retaining the same exact appearance - it's function, however, may have changed. Many people feel this option is even better than recycling, since there is no additional process (which generally involves releasing chemicals etc into the environment) to make the products into some usable.

Recycle: Anything that can be broken down/melted down into something else. Plastics, generally, fall into this category. For a jewelry maker, bits of metal wire etc can be melted down, old plaster can be powdered and reconstituted etc.

Upcycle: This is a new term, and one which I am just getting the hang of using. It can be applied to any of the previous three "Green" actions, but only when they are used to create something artistic. So, if you are reusing a soda ring for a pair of earrings, you are not just reusing, but you have created an upcycled creative piece. For example, a while back I had ordered some beads, which were actually quite large and rather ugly looking seeds. There was no way I was going to work with them, but rather than throwing them away, I am going to cover them with paper and reuse them.The jewelery that I make from those new and improved beads will be upcycled. It's a very popular and catchy phrase.


Blog Posts of Interest:
http://artistic-elements.blogspot.com/2009/08/recycled-jewelry-idea-introduction.html


Additional Information:
https://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/tetani/upcycleart/htmls/about.html
http://jewelrymaking.about.com/library/weekly/aa010202.htm
http://etsytrashion.blogspot.com/2009/03/reused-news_02.html

What is the most difficult and challenging aspect to crafting? This is not a question I get very often, but if I did... the answer would be: ORGANIZATION!

Beads and bead making things tend to be small and numerous and everywhere! There are many, many solutions to these problems out there. I'll show you some of mine :)

I should also note that while it may seem easy to head out to the store and buy every sort of nick-nack bead and craft organizer, I have kept my eye on re-usable and upcycleable options. I find that most of these fun organizers look neater (since my crafting room is also my bedroom) and they tend to be much cheaper or even free.

For most of my bead making supplies, I am using an old jewelry box my Mom gave me several years ago. About a year back, one of my darling kitties managed to break one of the glass doors on the top. I didn't want to throw it away, so I stashed it in the back of my closet for a while and then it hit me - these little compartments were perfect for storing bead supplies! If you don't have an old jewelry box of your own, check out some second hand shops, or consignment shops. You might even find a good deal at an antique shop.

I found this beauty at a consignment shop - it's an old type drawer. Granted, it's also much, much smaller than the average ones, but this one could fit right into my desk drawer, and only rang in at a measly $8. I was thrilled with the find, and, as you can see, it fits all the little stuff - not to mention that it provides a use for this drawer that  Iwasn't using at all. You can still faintly see the letters makred on the bottom of each little compartment. I think it's pretty darn cool.
This is another one of my upcycled sort of organizational finds, altough, it clearly isn't all that organized, at the moment. This is an old cabinet, which was rescued from my Great Uncle's barn after he passed away. I actually think it's a very interesting peice, though it could use some sanding and a fresh coat of paint. Right now it serves to hold my larger art supplies. Hmmm. I really should take the time to clean that out. See what I mean?

Well, I am just as susceptable to the easy, affordable plastic organizers as the rest of the world. :-/ I store my smaller beading organizers on a shelf in my closet. These three plastic guys hold my organized "natural beads" "glass and ceramic beads" and "gemstones" (this one is fantastic, because each compartment is removeable, with it's own cover and everything). The top yellow one is actually and old tackle/bait box that someone gave me ages ago and now serves to hold all of my base metal, copper and brass findings.

Right next to the beads, I keeps this mini three drawer organizer, which holds all of my plated and stirling findings. Notice how each drawer is labeled (I was going throug a phase). Inside, I have little plastic containers - purchased from the Dollar Store - which further break down the findings into what type they are (jump rings, clasps etc). You can't really see it, but next to the three drawer organizer, I've stashed an old Mancalla board. Do you remember this game? I used to love it! Well, sadly enough, the wooden board broke, however, it is perfect to use when setting out your beads for designing a project. I happened to have one at home, but you may be able to find one at a yard sale or a used/consignment store.

So, I got my set of alcohol inks and finally had time to play with them yesterday :) Alcohol inks are fantastic!

(I know what you are thinking. What the deuce are alcohol inks?)
Welllll.... they are alcohol-based inks. This is great, because, unlike water-based inks (you average scrapbooking/stamping inks) these will not come off with water/soap etc. They're really beautiful too, translucent and brilliant. The inks will not mix together at all unless you add the handy dandy blending solution. (Which costs a whole 5 extra dollars.)

Things to keep in mind when working with alcohol inks:

• They stain. Everything. I used a trashbag to cover my art table, and wore gloves the whole time. You can pretty much get them off most things using rubbing alcohol, but for pourous stuff (like wood) good luck.
  
• The ink itself dries quickly, which is great when adding multiple layers of color and designs, but not so great if you've squirted a whole bunch of ink on your felt applicator and most of it dries before you can use it.
• Experiment! I quickly realized that the best results I got, happened when I just kind of went at it, rather than being careful.
  

Here are some of my results:
(From Left to Right, Up to Down) These first two were made using just the Wild Plum and Stram inks. Oh and I added in some gold as well. The last one was made with Wild Plum and Butterscotch. You can also see the inkstains on the trashbag underneath. :D

The next three were made with Stream and Butterscotch ( I had to admit I love the names of these inks!)