The Beading Gem

Judy Larson is a great instructor - I have shared many of her tutorials before.  She has a lovely tab style metal work pendant tutorial which shows you what learning some basic metal work skills can do for jewelry making!  She doesn't cover all the techniques - like cutting out the metal - in detail. But her tutorial is worth reading to understand the major steps needed like embossing and texturing the metal.

Have you seen these kinds of beaded wire mandalas?  They are often available as toys. The wire sculptures can be manipulated into different shapes.  I have actually seen someone wear a smaller version as a pendant and I have seen bracelets too. I think they could perhaps be great for fidgets who need to dispense some of their nervous energies! Here are some great tutorials on how to make wire mandalas.

Sea horses are a perennial favorite as design motifs. It is something about their pleasing shape.  I spotted this lovely steampunk polymer clay sea horse tutorial by Russian artist, Maria Gia. Her tutorial is clever in that she introduces faux metal bands and textures in the design by using metallic paints.

Lan Anh Handmade created this caged round cabochon wire pendant tutorial which is a must see.  The criss-crossed wires spaced out with crystals is lovely. It is called a lotus bud pendant because it does indeed resemble one.  You can use either gemstones or crystals.

Gears aren't just for steampunk jewelry!  Wire artist, Yvonne Williams shows how to make a wire wrapped cabochon pendant using a gear at the back. You can see why she calls the design a Fractal wire wrapped one.  The spokes of the gear are the anchor points.

I have often seen some  pretty paper napkins but never actually considered using them for jewelry designs. But Patricia Roberts-Thompson did. She picked napkins with water color flowers for her easy transfer tutorial.  She made some bookmarks and round pendants.

Long time readers will remember I have a particular fondness for elephants.  African elephants are being hunted for their ivory in unprecedented numbers so much so they may be gone within our lifetimes.  This beautiful steampunk polymer clay elephant tutorial by Maria Gia certainly celebrates these majestic creatures.

I was planning to do a resin clay wire framed pendant tutorial but Becky Nunn of Nunn Design beat me to it!  She demonstrated how to do this design in this Beadaholique tutorial  using one of her open pendant frames. I liked how she hammered round wire flat and cut the length into little pieces for the stalks.  The flowers were just crystals from cup chain, again cut apart.  Easy peasy!

When you've seen one Tree of Life design, you've seen them all, right?  Definitely not. The creativity of wire artists knows no bounds. I keep finding new design tutorials as well as writing my own (see links below). Here is a new one!  This lovely wire tree of life pendant tutorial  (link is no longer available) is not wire framed but sits wrapped around a pointed crystal pendant - a popular shape with the new age folks.

I've often picked up a pretty pebble or stone and thought it would make a wonderful focal.  I did write about natural stone jewelry and the tutorial for how to drill the holes. And that's the rub with real stones - they can be tough to drill and heavy to wear.  So this simple faux beach stone pendant tutorial will appeal because it uses lightweight material - polymer clay and of all things, dryer lint!

Liquid polymer clay is a great medium for creating faux glass effects.  In the hands of polymer clay artists the translucent results can be very beautiful.  Sandrartes is a Portuguese polymer clay artist who has shared some great liquid polymer clay video jewelry tutorials.  First up is her clever hollow bead pendants tutorial.

Christina Larsen of CSL Designs has a lovely wire woven Elvish Inspired pendant tutorial for those with some experience with wire.  She used 22G and 28G so the wire weaving is a little hard to see but the final effect is just lovely.  It does remind one of the kind of jewelry that Galadriel (Lord of the Rings) might wear.

This tutorial from Anna Taylor of the Potomac Bead Company is clever.  What she does is to turn a section of a beaded bracelet into a bail pendant!  What a lovely change from the usual beaded pendants. She added a little fringe at the bottom. A simple beaded rectangle at the top is folded over to form a bail.

Wire swirls are twice as splendid when they are made with double wires.  If you want to learn how to do this, then the swirling double wire pendant video tutorial by Liz is the one for you! It is a free form style so you can make it differently each time.  The wire coil bail is very cleverly hidden behind the top swirls.

The best thing as far as I am concerned about handmade jewelry is the freedom to do anything you want...within reason. So I like to make fun designs like vases of flowers. I've done this before. This time, I have adapted the tree of life design idea and made it into a wire vase of flowers pendant. Here is the basic tutorial.

The Best Beads Shop is back with another fabulous Czech beads giveaway!  They are based in Prague in the Czech Republic and specialize in traditional and genuine Czech beads.  Czech beads are fabulous for jewelry making because they come in a huge variety of sizes, colors and shapes. Whether you are into bead weaving, stringing, wire work etc, there are bound to be beads just for you!

Making your own wire woven cabochons means you will be able to have a spectacular focal for the handmade necklace you made.  The necklace can be strung, kumihimo, Viking knit, wire crochet, leather, cord, chains, chain maille etc.  So if you want to learn how, Dawn Horner's  Start Wire Weaving: Cabochon Pendants might be just the class for you.

I've been so bowled over by Christina Larsen of CSL Design's work as you can see from the feature I did on her work. She is also a superb teacher. These two amazing tree of life jewelry designs should remove all doubt! Both are for advanced wire or macrame workers. The first one is a truly unique wire woven and chain tree of life pendant tutorial (update : this is no longer available).

Some of the most creative projects come from those who work with polymer clay.  I thought this faux agate pendant tutorial made with polymer clay was very clever indeed.  It is by Francesca over on the Fall for DIY blog.