Jewellery Tip - Sorting different sized crimp tubes

Like many designers in the craft industry I share my studio with a pet. Most of the time Kitty Kat is just happy to nap and occasionally she'll chase a bead or other embellishment that has fallen on to the floor.

But it doesn't always go like that.

Today we had a little incident when she jumped up on to the bench top. She landed awkwardly on top one of my boxes of findings, became unbalanced and then she and the findings tumbled unceremoniously onto the floor. Apart from darting out of the studio terrified with her tail between her legs, she was unscathed. But sadly the same can't be said about the 3 drawer box which broke and sent the contents scattering everywhere. Fun!

If you've ever had beads or findings scatter across the floor before then you'll know that the easiest way to clean them all up is to grab the vaccuum, wrap a stocking over the nozzle and secure it with a rubber band. It makes gathering all the findings easy.

Now all that's left to do now is sort everything back into its compartment. Unfortunately, the bottles of crimp tubes broke and all the crimps became mixed up.

So here's an easy way to sort them - it's a bit tedious but it will ensure that all the crimps are sorted correctly.

Grab a needle tool with a tapered point (a toothpick will work too!) and a bead mat or other soft surface to work on. Pick up each crimp with the point of the needle tool and note how far along the shaft it will go.

You should be able to easily identify the different sizes this way.

So now everything is back in order in the studio including Kitty Kat who is doing what she does best!

'Til next time....

A Ray of Sunshine - My Yellow Bead Drawer

Everyone has a system for organising their bead stash whether it be by colour, shape, type, or material, and it's usually influenced by the way they design and the kind of jewellery they make.

For me, I like to keep my go-to beads organised by colour - these are the beads that support the main element or focal point of the design. I also have a separate storage areas devoted to just crystals, one to pearls and gemstones, another to resin/acrylic/plastic, and yet another to large holed beads. There are of course more.... but you get the idea. This system works well for the way I design.

But recently, I was looking through my bead collection and noticed a glaring gap in the rainbow of colours that makes up my bead stash: I have practically no yellow beads!

Yellow is such a cheerful and uplifting colour. It sings with happiness.

And whilst it can be a bit overpowering on it's own, when it's combined with other colours it can really lift them from the doldrums. In Autumn and Winter, the richer amber tones fit well with fiery reds, chocolatey browns, gold and brassy metals.

Yellows can work with silver too.

The bright clear shades of yellow look fabulous with brown.

But they work equally well with the fresh colours of the Spring palette as well as Summer brights.

So I'm making it my mission to fill this yellow drawer with as many yellow beads as I can find. Here's some of my recent finds.

Let's have a look at that drawer now.

There's still a way to go but at least it's now starting to look like I have some good basic yellow beads to work with. To fill those empty gaps I'm going to keep my eye out for some focal beads to boost the collection. It will soon be like a ray of sunshine when I open that drawer!

'Til next time....

Jewellery Know How - Eye Pin Loops - the "glue" that connects your jewellery together

In my last Jewellery Know How post I showed you one of the common reasons why jewellery falls apart. Today I'm going to show you another one - poorly formed or poorly closed eye pin loops.

If you're a jewellery maker, then learning how to form a loop will be a mainstay of your jewellery making skills. Mastering this technique will ensure your jewellery is strong and secure.

There are a few different ways to make eye loops but today I'm going to show you the method I use and the two slightly different loop shapes it will give you.

Buy yourself a spool of inexpensive, 20 gauge copper wire so that you can practice without ruining all your eye and head pins whilst you're perfecting your loops. Copper wire is soft and malleable which will make practising easy. Avoid hard wires like steel as they can be difficult to work with. You can use 22 gauge wire if you have it on hand.

Here's what you'll need:

• Soft 20 gauge wire
• Flat nose pliers or Chain nose pliers
• Round nose pliers
• Flush cutters

Begin by cutting a 5cm (2") length of wire. It doesn't have to be exact.

Place the flat nose pliers approximately 1cm (3/8") from the end of the wire. In this photo, that's the left hand edge of my pliers which is 1cm from the end of the wire.

Bend the wire at this point at a 90° angle. I prefer to use the flat nose pliers because they give a sharper bend.

Switch to the round nose pliers. Hold the pliers in your dominant hand and grip the end of the wire in the pliers so that you can only just see the tip of it.

Rotate your wrist inwards as far as it will comfortably turn.

Release the wire from the pliers. Rotate your wrist so that it's facing upwards and regrip the wire at the same position in the pliers as before. Rotate your wrist inwards again until the loop is completed.

This forms a nice round loop. But you might prefer your loops to have slightly straighter sides. You can do that by making some minor adjustments when you're forming the loop.

Bend the wire as before but this time make a 45° bend.

Grip the end of the wire in the pliers making sure that approximately 1mm (1/32") is visible beyond the jaws of the pliers.

Make the loop following the instructions above. 

You can see that this loop is more straight sided.

Here's the two loops alongside each other for comparison.

If you close your loops really well, you're jewellery will be really secure and you won't have problems with pieces becoming unhooked.

'Til next time....

Wide vs Narrow - A resin disaster turns into a triumph!

Sometimes when you're working with resin you miscalculate how much resin you need and don't have quite enough resin to fill your mould. Disaster! Right?

So what to do?

Well you could mix up more resin and try to match the colour. Or top it up with a contrasting colour so it looks like it was meant to be multi coloured. Or you could do what I did with this one - work with what you've got.

The thing is, you don't always have to fill your mould to the top. With simple shaped bangles like the one below, you can get away with underfilling the mould.

Here's a bangle cast from one of my cuff moulds. It's a substantial 33mm across the widest part of the bangle.

And here's the same bangle, cast in the same mould but it measures just 19mm across the widest part!

 
You can really see the width difference when they are side by side.

So it's not always a disaster when you don't have enough resin to fill your mould. You will have some extra work to do to put the shape back into the top of the bangle but it makes your mould much more versatile!


'Til next time.....

Easter Egg Cake Pops

If you love Tim Tams, then you'll love these cake pops! They are simple enough for children to make because there is no baking required and you can whip up a batch in no time at all. Shape them into Easter eggs instead of balls and you have a yummy and easy Easter treat. Here's how to do it.

The base of these cake pops couldn't be easier to make: all you need is a packet of Tim Tams and cream cheese.

Place the Tim Tams and 1/3 cup of cream cheese into the food processor and pulse until they are almost smooth.

Then use an ice cream scoop to scoop out evenly sized portions.

Shape them in your hands....

..... until they are egg shaped.

Refrigerate them for about 15 minutes to firm them up.  You may need to keep doing this whilst you are working the mixture as it is quite soft in warm weather.

Whilst they are in the fridge, mix a drop of food colouring into some cake decorating fondant until it is well mixed. Make as many colours as you like.

Roll the fondant out thinly and cut it with a small flower cutter.

Next, melt some quality cooking chocolate. I used Cadbury Melts Real Dark Chocolate buttons because of its rich chocolatey taste and perfect dipping consistency.

Push a cake pop stick into the base of the "egg" and dip it into the chocolate, then add a few fondant flowers in pretty pastels to decorate the chocolate.

What could be easier!

'Til next time....

Jewellery Know How Video - Jump Rings

In my last post, we took a look at the humble but mighty jump ring. It really is the "glue" that holds your jewellery together.

The step by step photos and instructions show you how to open and close jump rings and talks about the magical "click" you hear when a correctly tensioned jump ring closes. But no matter how good the photos are at showing you how to do it, you will never be able to hear that click. To remedy that, I've uploaded a short YouTube video so that not only can you see the process but you can also hear that magical "click". Check it out below.

So if you want your jewellery to be strong and secure, just follow this simple tip and you'll have jewellery that never falls apart again!

'Til next time....

Jewellery Know How - Opening and Closing Jump Rings

If you've ever experienced that dreadful moment when your store bought jewellery has fallen apart and beads have scattered across the floor then today's post is just for you.

I'm going to take a look at the humble jump ring and how a simple trick will help you make (or repair!) jewellery so that it doesn't fall apart.

So what's the most common reason that jewellery falls apart?

Well, it's often a poorly closed jump ring!

Jump rings hold your jewellery together so it makes sense to pay special attention to them.

When you purchase round jump rings, they need to be, well...... round!  Mis-shapen jump rings will not close tightly and therefore won't make your jewellery secure. So you need to find a good supplier. And you might need to pay a little more for them. Or you could make your own..... you can see how to do that here.

The first thing you'll need are two pairs of pliers.  Or one pair of pliers and a jump ring opener that fits on your finger. I prefer to use two pairs of chain nose pliers.

To open a jump ring, with pair of pliers in each hand, grip the jump ring with the opening facing upwards. When you hold the jump ring, use the numbers around a clock to guide you - hold the jump ring somewhere between the 9 and 10 in your left hand and the 2 and 3 in your right hand.

Pull one hand towards you and one hand away from you. This keeps the jump ring in it's circular, but open shape.

To close the jump ring you will do the opposite action but as you are closing the jump ring you will use a small amount of inwards pressure to push the two open ends together slightly as they pass each other in the centre. Continue a little past the centre and then back towards the centre again.

You will hear a "click" as you bring them back together indicating that the jump ring is properly tensioned.

When you hear that click you can be sure that you're jump ring is closed and no matter how fine the chain or other connecting links are, they will not fall off. Now test it. You shouldn't be able to get your finger nail in that gap. In fact, there shouldn't be a gap!

Now this is not a special jump ring. It is just a well formed jump ring.

If you don't hear the click then you might feel the metal grinding as it passes the centre instead. That's OK too because you'll notice that you can't see a gap between the two ends. With practice, you will hear the click.

So now that you know how to open and close jump rings properly, you'll be able to fix all those jewellery pieces that have fallen apart.

Edited 26/3/13 - If you want to hear the "click", watch this short YouTube video.

In my next post, we're going to look at another way of connecting components together: making loops on eye pins and head pins.

'Til then....