Category: Jewelry

Coiled Friendship Bracelet

unikatissima Coiled Friendship Bracelet
Ages ago I found a tutorial on how to coil friendship bracelets and found it stunning.
Unfortenately this tutorial doesn’t exist any more and I haven’t found no similar, therefore I’m writing it myself.

 

That’s what to do:
unikatissima Coiled Friendship Bracelet Cut three threads à 180 cm (ca. 2 yards).

 

unikatissima Coiled Friendship Bracelet Braid a piece of appr. 3 cm (ca. 1,2 inches) on the half of the threads and lay as loop.
You have now six working threads hanging from the loop.

 

unikatissima Coiled Friendship Bracelet Select a thread and coil around the other five.
Pay attention to lay the coils near each other to hide the underlying threads.
Select afterwards a thread of another colour and coil again.

 

unikatissima Coiled Friendship Bracelet This is how the coil could look like after having finished it.

 

unikatissima Coiled Friendship Bracelet You can create another beautiful pattern by coiling two different coloured threads around the remaining threads.

 

unikatissima Coiled Friendship Bracelet Additionally you can lay two more threads of the same colour apart and after coiling you can lay them crosswise around the coil.

 

unikatissima Coiled Friendship Bracelet This is how the double coil and the cross pattern could look like.

 

unikatissima Coiled Friendship Bracelet Once I made a simple braid (at the end).

 

unikatissima Coiled Friendship Bracelet At another part I didn’t do anything at all but simply let lie the six threads near each other.

 

unikatissima Coiled Friendship Bracelet Furthermore you can divide the threads and make two coils side by side in place of one coil (here in red and grey).

 

unikatissima Coiled Friendship Bracelet This is the friendship bracelet I coiled for the tutorial
I even put a bead on the friendship bracelet on the first photo .

 

Needless to say that you can make other items in place of friendship bracelets, like necklaces, key chains and key rings and much more.

Have fun!

Needle felting with cookie cutters

unikatissima Cookie Cutter Needle Felting

Links of entry

Via craftzine I found a tutorial on how to felt a needle brooch using a cookie cutter.
She used flower cookie cutters, but now, where Christmas isn’t really far away any more, we can dig out the Christmas cookie cutters: stars, moons, Christmas trees, but also hearts etc.

I couldn’t try it yet, but I intend to. And if it works (what I’m assuming ;-)), I want to try to make my own ‘moulds’ from cardboard stripes.
I’m agog ;-)


Links:
How To Needle Felt a Flower Brooch
via craftzine – How to make a felted flower:

Freeform RAW

unikatissima Freeform RAW

Links of entry

I really love freeform (I know that I’m recurring, but I have to ;-))
Because of this and because I often find it difficult to know how to begin freeform items, I was glad to find the tutorial on how to make freeform RAW (Right Angle Weave) tutorial on how to make freeform RAW (Right Angle Weave).
I don’t work much with RAW, I don’t have any idea, why. On the photo you see one of the very few pieces I made with this technique.
Perhaps I should go about it once more ;-))


Links:
Freeform RAW
The original site doesn’t exist any more and is now available through webarchive: Freeform RAW

Google search result for ‘Right Angle Weave’: many tutorials
Google image search result for ‘Right Angle Weave’: lot of inspiration :)

Beaded Daisy Chains

unikatissima Beaded Daisy Chains

Links of entry

I found once a website with lots of beading instructions, amongst others several tutorials on how to make Daisy chains.
Take a look by yourself, there is so much to be learned and the results look so beautiful!

I haven’t beaded no Daisy chains yet, the only daisies I made where on a mezuza I once made.
But the Daisy chains look so delicate that I really want to try them one day.


Links:
At Eagle Spirit Designs UK: Beading instructions, e.g.
Daisy Band with 6 Petals
Daisy Band Arrow Head Weave
Daisy Band – 2 Coloured Stripe
But be sure to check out the other tutorials, too, they are great!

Wikipedia: Mezuza (english)

Make Your Own Spacer Bars

unikatissima Spacer Bar

Links of entry

When stringing bead jewelry you sometimes need spacer bars to keep beads or strings of your jewelry items apart. You can buy them as a matter of course, but I like much better making the needed spacer bars myself.

On the photo you see a first attempt.
Both middle spirals are meant to pass strings of a necklace through, the outer spirals are ‘nothing but’ decoration.
Not bad for a start, isn’t? ;-))


Links:
Making Your Own Spacer Bars

Make your own Wire Jig

unikatissima Make your own Wire Jig

Links of entry

A Wire Jig is a kind of board with pins where you can wind the wire. It is used for making jewelry.

And now I know how to make my own wire jig.
As you can see on the photo I gathered the pins already, I only have to find a wooden plate ;-)

And when you gathered all the elements of the wire jig, you can begin to make beautiful wire jewelry.


Links:
Make your own Wire Jig
WigJig University of Making Jewelry with Wire and Beads

Weave a Ring

unikatissima Weave a Ring
As said before, I like to play around with weaving.
The other day I thought: Why not weave a ring?
I think that it worked out amazingly good ;-))

 

unikatissima Weave a Ring
Material:

  • Yarn
  • Needle
  • Finger replacement ;-)
    That is a roll of firmly rolled paper, it must be a little broader than your finger.
 

What to do:
unikatissima Weave a Ring
Wind the yarn around the finger replacement and knot.

 

unikatissima Weave a Ring
Then wind the next round, in doing so pass the yarn under itself.

 

unikatissima Weave a Ring
Repeat the last step as long as you reach the ring’s width.

 

unikatissima Weave a Ring
Now begin to weave: pass the yarn over and under the threads.

 

unikatissima Weave a Ring
And that’s how the rings can look.
You have now a ring that you can embellish, e.g. with buttons or beads.

 

This technique surely can be enhanced, but it is fun already :)
Have fun!

Bead Intertwists

creadoo Perlenschlingen-Bead Intertwists

Links of entry
English tutorial

During my ‘beading time’ I wrote a (German) tutorial for bead intertwists as on the photo.

 

Here is the English translation:
Material:
for the bracelet:

  • selection of beads (here: various seed beads)
  • colour matching thread
  • needle

additional items:

  • pins
  • styrofoam or cork board
 

What to do:
unikatissima Bead Intertwists - Material
First make a selection of beads and place them at your disposal.

Tip: Uniform colouring connects visually; different forms, sizes and transparency makes it more vibrant.

In this example I used eleven different sorts of blue seed beads, some transparent, some with silver lining and some opaque.
More variety in sizes brings more vitality. The border between vitality and disquietness is to your liking.

 

unikatissima Bead Intertwists - step 1
Thread beads and make a frame of approximately the right size.

Connect the bead strings from time to time to the borders of the frame.

 

unikatissima Bead Intertwists - step 2
Weave more bead strings into the frame, connect them from time to time to other strings.

Tip: On the photo the inner bead strings are sometimes multi coloured.
During the work I found out, that this isn’t necessary and that one coloured strings mostly look better.

 

unikatissima Bead Intertwists - step 3
Continue to weave in bead strings: long strings, short strings, lengthwise, crosswise, over and under.

Tip: When the ‘fabric’ gets tighter it’s easier to work in the bead strings in sections.

On the photo I append about half a dozen white beads to a white string.

Pay attention to make a ‘fabric’ of consistent denseness.

 

unikatissima Bead Intertwists - step 4
When everything is finished attach any closure, e.g. a bead loop and a colour matching button.

I didn’t make any closure, because the item on the photo wasn’t meant to be a bracelet.

 

Notes:

  • If the bead strings are carefully woven the ‘fabric’ keeps quite good its form.
  • I used simple cotton thread for the example and wove in the ends with some glue. I could do it this way, because the item was intended to be glued onto a sturdy surface and there would be no strains to the threads.
  • At the beginning it can be difficult to keep the form. The styrofoam or cork board can be of great help when pinning the item to the board.

Have fun!


Links:
Bead Intertwists (Perlenschlingen) (German)