History finding its way into my work...

Many years ago, I was at the Stormville Flea Market and I spied a very old dressmaker's form. I had to have it. I bought it for $20 and had to carry it from the very far end of the flea market to my car, where I wasn't sure if it would fit in the back seat. It did and I have held onto it fiercely since my husband has never much cared for it.

It's made of metal, I believe the very heavy stand is painted iron. A brown cloth covers the mannequin portion and the size can be changed by loosening and tightening the wing nuts inside the form. A painted label on the metal neck announces that it's a Hall Borchert Dressform Company made in Hoboken, New Jersey. The form is an Empress 1. There is a paper label with dates beginning in August 1903 and ending in 1915. Seems to fit. The style of the dress form looks very Gibson Girl.

As a sewer, I was very attracted to the dressmakers form. I learned to sew at age 4. Yes, no kidding, I really did. I used to carry a needle and thread and fabric scraps around in a fabric covered cigar box to sew clothes for my Barbie doll. I sewed my first Maxi Dress in 1968 while in the 4th grade. I sewed all my own clothes until it became cheaper to buy them myself sometime in the late 1980's.

But my sewing background popped up in 2005 when I used my wire and glass beadmaking skills to make these miniature dressmaker's forms....

My history had found a way into my beadmaking. I'd like to do more of these just for me - maybe try to personalize the dresses a bit more. I can vividly remember that first Maxi dress. Hmmmmm.....

Has something in your history found it's way into your work?

Double Dippin' - Adjustable Ring

Inspiration hit and I took advantage of it. Out came this sweet little adjustable ring made of my favorite Double Dip - Tahitian Plum and Pink. I've sealed the ring so your skin is protected. Ring can be adjust for up to size 8. I haven't had time to put it up on my Art Fire but if you like it, it's yours - just use the Buy It Now below:

Live a Slow Life: Meandering

I love the Ivory Bling Links so I made the Silver Ivory Double Dips to coordinate with them. You can mix and match as you please!

To show them off, though, I made a set of earrings with just the Silver Ivory Double Dips. Another in my Live a Slow Life Series, this one is called, "Meandering." Remininscent of a seed pod you'd find while on a slow hike through the woods, I've named it "Meandering" to remind me to hike slowly so I can see everything around me and enjoy the journey.


Have you done any "meandering" lately?

Dreaming of Wire....

While I'm cleaning and pricing beads for the Open Studio on Sunday, I'm dreaming of what I can make next. I'm dreaming of wire today and the lovely Celtic Bracelet I can make from this book:


Jewelry Studio: Wire Wrapping

It will look great in copper with a nice patina on it and a few lovely art beads!

I like it BIG! Wire, that is

WireHeads have a favorite gauge of wire to work with. In the U.S., the higher the number or gauge, the thinner the wire. A pair of earring wires are typically made of 20 gauge wire. When I was first learning, all of the pieces I made were from 20 gauge wire. All of these are 20 gauge sterling wire:


The work of Eni Oken uses smaller gauage wire but because of the wrapping of wire on wire, you wouldn't want to start with larger gauge wire or it would be very bulky (although you might want that look for particular pieces or a style).

Now, I like it BIG! Errr, I mean, I prefer heavier gauge wire, 14, 16, 18. I think the heft makes a different statement and it's doesn't look out of place with lampwork beads. I make 18 gauge headpins and clasps such as this Spiral necklace:


I used 16, 18 and 24 gauge in this Collaboration Part Deux: Universal Truth to make the woven part of the pendant, the headpin and the bail.

The larger gauge wire balances the larger beads well.

You can buy craft wire at your local craft store but I suggest the hardware store if you're just wanting to play around with it. You can buy rolls of copper wire at a reasonable cost. Save all the wire that you don't make into jewelry, you can recycle it.

One last note, when buying wire, I purchase dead soft because I work harden it (I'll talk about that later) - but basically the bending and hammering will make the wire stiffer. If you're planning on making earwires, buy the half hard because you won't be bending the wire enough to work harden it.

It's fun to go to the hardware store - there's lots of things there you can incorporate into jewelry - rubber "O" rings, small fasteners and you can pick up a good pair of needle nose pliers too!

WireHead Makes Jewelry

Made this anklet after my first wire wrapping class in 1997. Done in 20 gauge copper and Czech pressed glass beads, druks. See? I'm loving greens and teals! Nicely done if I do say so myself, good wraps on the beads and look at those loops!

Wire got me into melting glass because one addiction leads to another. Books are another obsession and I started buying jewelry related books the moment I touched a piece of wire. I'm BeadLit-ing on my first book but here's what it looks like - I'm always taking the road not taken so it's a bit off the beaten path - found object jewelry before it was called that.


I didn't intend to keep these but somehow I did. I got tooo busy raising my son so they were saved only because I neglected to give them away. It makes me wonder - Have you kept the firsts of your work?

Confessions of a WireHead

Challenging myself to approach color differently made me think about the beginning. What brought me to glass as a medium? How did it all start?

It was a piece of wire. Yup that's right, wire.

That lead to making headpins, clasps, and chains. I started to haunt the local bead shop and take all their classes in wire - not bead stringing as most people did, it was wire.

I was becoming a WireHead.

Not the science fiction kind of Wirehead but an avid wire bender. But I wasn't alone, most of the bead shop employees were Wire-Heads too. They taught the classes, I took them. We looked at the pretty colors of the seed beads and said it was one step from cross stitch, we were too edgy for that! (But I spoke too soon because they caught me in their colorful spell later on.)

We made the trip to the glass studio and all agreed we had to stay away from it, it was an addiction waiting to happen.(How little did I know!!)

I bought copper wire in all gauges for practice, then I bought sterling wire and twisted my way into the beginnings of carpal tunnel. I couldn't put it down, it was a compulsion - just one more link!

So, I show you my very very very first piece of jewelry, an earring. I bought the pressed glass beads and made the loop in the headpin. I attached it to the purchased french wire.

Wow.

Not.

But I had to start somewhere and this is what I started with.

Wire.

How did you get started in your crafty endeavors?

The Green Studio: Antique Brass sans Chemicals

Do you love the patina of antique brass? Here's a Green Studio tip for giving your shiny brass wire a patina without harsh chemicals. Heat it! I heated brass wire in my kiln at 750 degrees Farenheit for 10 minutes. The heat gave the wire a nice matte patina. A little turn in the tumbler to highlight areas and I have lovely antiqued brass hand formed links to use in jewelry pieces.

Jewelry too!

Before glass beads and jewelry, wire jewelry took up most of my time. I was living in near Sabino Canyon in Tucson, Arizona at the time and I just couldn't find any jewelry I liked. A friend suggested that I walk downtown at the end of January to look around at the gem shows in town - if you don't know already - Tucson Arizona hosts the worlds largest gem and mineral shows in the world during the end of January. Of course, at the time, I didn't know that and was surprised to find out what all the traffic jams had been about. I bought a few beads and stones. I picked up a copy of Handmade Jewelry: Simple Steps to Creating Wearable Art by Carol Grape and made two sets of earrings. Hooked, I found myself a week later at one of the local bead shops signing up for a wire class. I took every class they had - I loved it!

I still love wire - you'll see it throughout my jewelry designs, in my stitch markers and in the bracelet above. I use primarily sterling silver as it has the best temperament for jewelry design.

What's your favorite material to create with?