Wire Wasting 101

Let me begin my telling you... I AM EXHAUSTED! Tuesday's take so much out of me. Ugh. With the crazy few days I have had on top of a killer Tuesday, I have wanted nothign more then to take a nap all day today. LOL! But it is all for good reasons and ones I am happy to have. I am so excited to tell you... I have been asked to teach. Studio 34 (our local jewelry arts and learning center) has asked me to be their new Wire Instructor. I am so thrilled to be asked and even more excited about the oppertunity to get to teach others what I do! I am rather nervous though. Being a "self taught" artist I can be rather insecure... (am I doing this right? is it really supposed to turn out like this? how do you make that?) but I am going to approach this with the attitude that says "this is how I do it... start here and then figure out what works best for you!" I don't know all the details yet, I still have to come up with a class schedule, class descriptions, kit costs and all that. But like I said, I AM SUPER EXCITED!

About the "Whirl Wind" bracelet. This is the one I was telling you about on Monday. It turned out so cool. The "Tornado Beads" are a design by Lisa Niven Kelly, her work is amazing and she has the most incredible kits. I have her "Say It On Your Wrist Kit". I didn't purchase a kit for this though, I just kidda figured it out. And to put my own "spin" on it I wire linked the beads instead of straight stringing them. I had a lot of fun with the antiquing on this. I did it with a hard boiled egg. The piece was brilliant sparkling sterling silver til I put it in a ziplock page with two hard boiled eggs. The sulfer in the eggs blackened the wire. I then tumbled it for a few hours, hand scrubbed it with steel wool and followed that up with hand polishing. The effect is amazing, though time consuming. The bracelet took only an hour to make but the finish took 4 hours. I love it though. I am planning make one with a blend of tornado beads and lampwork beads. The lampwork is going to have sterling silver in them... so watch for that!

I submitted my site for review to become a member of SIJA (Society of International Jewelry Artisans). I will let you know if I am excepted! I am also considering joining ISGB (International Society of Glass Beadmakers). I am off to relax with the kids and watch Narnia!