Have you considered using metallic or fabric mesh or nets in your jewelry designs? You should as they add yet another dimension to jewelry making.


This gorgeous tulle necklace tutorial by Kelly Hicks (shown on the right) is one way to get the netted effect. She used marbles (ie no holes!) but I think pearls will look lovely too.

That trapped beads effect can also be achieved with spool knitting using fine gauge wire (28G). Beading Daily has a tutorial on how to spool knit. Viking knitting is another alternative  - more about it another time.

Shown below is the inspirational spool knitted necklace by Rosemary Hill from her book,Elements of Style: Knit and Crochet Jewelry with Wire, Fiber, Felt and Beads. One suggestion I have is to experiment with beading wire rather than the usual coated copper wire. The softer beading wire will result in a different look and a springier feel as you can see in this video which uses Softflex - the video is unfortunately out of focus for virtually the entire time but you`ll get the drift!


Metallic lace ribbon has a number of other names - wire ribbon, tubular mesh beading ribbon and so on.  You don't need to work in a tubular fashion. Treating the mesh like ribbon is another fantastic technique as you can see from the metal mesh necklace tutorial by making-jewelry.com. She used the tube to trap the beads only occasionally.


After googling, I found Beadedlily.com based in Florence, Italy as a source of Italian tubular wire mesh . Their site is worth a look because they have tips and tutorials on how to make ruffle mesh necklaces like this one below.


Don't discount fabric meshes either even if they aren't very open netted. According to Stylehive, earrings like this Black Mesh Disco earrings by Kou Ting jewelry are a take on Taylor Swift's silver mesh earrings.

Still prefer metal meshes in sheet form rather than fabric?  Check out the Stampington Company wire mesh sheets and Howacoglass' Copper mesh sheets.

One inspirational book I borrowed recently from my library is Chrissie Day's Wire Jewelry: Crocheted, Knitted, Twisted and Beaded. There are a number of projects using pre-knit wire fabric. There's a thought. Knit your own with knitting needles!!

______________________________
Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
Jewelry Making Tips - Jewelry Business Tips