Stef's Jewelry

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The Journey of Beading and Wirework

I've been slowly ramping up on learning beading and wirework for the past four years or so. The projects are presented in more or less chronological order.

Wirework Bracelet

The wirework bracelet is an old Etruscan design and a standard beginner wire-work project; I learned it from the book Making Wire Jewelry by Helen Clegg and Mary Larom. This practice version is made from base metal.
Full bracelet from the front
Detail of back

Glass Bead Necklace

This necklace is made mostly of glass beads and strung on tigertail.
Detail of glass necklace

Earrings


Buddha Earrings. Plastic beads. Displayed on pink flamingo mug.
Cats and Flowers Earrings. Glass.
Monochrome Earrings. Hematite, white cubes, and window beads.
Elephant and Stars Earring. Fake ivory and ceramic.
Cat and Mouse Earring. Glass and polymer clay.

Two Jetson Earrings and Grape Cluster Earring

The Jetson Earrings are based on a design in the book All Wired Up by Mark Lareau. They are made of glass and fiber optic beads, and silver colored base metal wire. The Grape Cluster Earring is based on a design called "Clusters of Pearl" in the October 2003 issue of Bead and Button magazine. It is made of seed beads, glass beads, and copper jump rings.

White and Purple Necklace

This necklace is made of white cubes (they were a gift, and I don't know if they are fiber optic glass or stone) and purple seed beads.
Detail of necklace
Matching earring with red glass dangle.

Seed Bead and Copper Bead Bracelet

This bracelet is strung on Stretch Magic cord and has a surprise bead or two.

Alphabet Bead and Plastic Bead Necklace

This girl's necklace spells the name "Eirawen Dyan" in alphabet beads.
Detail of "Eirawen" necklace
Another detail

Wire and tiny bead bracelets

These bracelets are made of mostly glass beads and base metal wire and findings.
Closeup of art glass bead belonging to another of these bracelets.

Copper Chain Bracelet

This is a detail showing the clasp. The copper chain bracelet was meant to be Byzantine Chain, which I learned from my friend Kylee, but it turned out different from Byzantine Chain for some reason. I made it from hardware store copper wire.

Brick Stitch Bracelet

This was my first attempt at Brick Stitch. The photo shows a detail of the loop end of the clasp. Five squares of brick stitch are strung together with short lengths of seed beads. The bracelet is based on an article in either Bead and Button or Beadwork magazine. It uses size no. 11 seed beads and Nymo B thread. I found using such small seed beads to be really painstaking work!
Full bracelet Bracelet
Detail of bead end of clasp

Peyote Stitch Bracelet

This bracelet is made from size no. 8 seed beads. I got the Peyote Stitch itself down, but I also tried figuring out increasing and decreasing without any instructions to refer to, which yielded less than ideal results...
Full bracelet

Earth Tones Wire Loop Necklace

These beads were part of the first wire-loop necklace I ever made. I wasn't very good at the wire loop method at that point, and the wire I had lying around was particularly ugly. So after I'd had some practice and had some nicer wire, I decided to remake the necklace. The necklace has stone, glass, and wood beads and copper wire.
Another detail of earth tones necklace
Full view of necklace

Triple Strand Necklace, Grape Cluster Earring, and Cat Feet

The necklace has two strands of freshwater pearls and sodalite chips, and one strand of random beads, with an art glass bead in the center. The Grape Cluster Earring is the same as the one shown above, with a few more beads added. The feet belong to my kitty Biscuit.
Another full view of necklace and earring
Closeup of three-strand necklace, showing the clasp
Closeup of center of necklace and earring
Another closeup of necklace

Beaded Star Cluster Necklace and Spiral Neck Strap

The clusters are made out of small round beads surrounded by a seed bead net. They are based on the article "Woven Star Clusters" in the November/December 2003 issue of Beadwork Magazine. This was my first attempt to make the clusters, and I had some problems understanding the instructions, so each cluster is slightly different. I made a neck strap for the clusters out of size no. 8 seed beads using a spiral weave. I learned it from an article in either Bead and Button or Beadwork magazine, but I can't find the article. Here is another web site that gives instructions for making it.
Detail of clusters and neck strap
Detail of neck strap

Yarn and Beaded Fringe Necklace

This necklace was made out of a kit I bought at the 2003 Bay Area Bead Extravaganza. The kit contained six-foot strands of multiple kinds of yarn. I used my own beads -- mostly glass -- for the fringe. (The Earth Tones Necklace also appears in the photo.)
Closeup of the fringe

Fetish Necklace

This necklace is made of shell heishi, stone bears, dyed mother-of-pearl birds, a stone thunderbird, and a cloisonne jointed fish pendant.
Detail of inlay bear fetish bead
Detail of stone thunderbird bead
Detail of fish pendant

One-Strand Floating Necklace

This and the similar Three-Strand Floating Choker are made of imitation pearls, seed beads, and monofilament cord. The cord is wrapped twice around the three-bead clusters, anchoring them so that no gluing, knotting, or crimping is necessary. Technique is from the tip column of Bead & Button Magazine.
Detail of one-strand necklace

"Vines" Bracelet

I based this on the "Victorian Ivy Leaf Charm Bracelet" in Art of Seed Beading by Elizabeth Gourley, Jane Davis & Ellen Talbott. The book project (see photo) calls for charlottes; I used size 11 and size 15 seed beads. The project calls for peyote stitch (base), square stitch (leaves), netting stitch (ends), and edging, so it's a good way to learn or brush up on several techniques. It took me a while to figure out how to keep track of the peyote-stitched pattern, but I think the mistakes worked out to a nice "semi random" effect.
Full bracelet
Base before addition of leaves

Cube-Bead Bracelet With Turquoise Rondelles

This is based on "Diagonal Lines" by Anne Nikolai Kloss from the August 2003 issue of Bead and Button. I made up my own color pattern, and I used turquoise rondelles instead of pearls around the edges. This bracelet doesn't take long to make.
Cube-bead bracelet

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Last updated: 03 Mar 04
Created by: Stef
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Copyright 2004 Stef Maruch