I've been busy making changes to both Craft Cove and Flower Cove. I'm changing every page over to photo gallery elements. This will take me a while to do. But once it's done it will make it a bit quicker for me to list things. The way it is now, I have to individually add heaps of elements for each and every item, then fill each one individually. This new method means I just add the images of the jewellery then add the descriptions.
It will also be easier to see all the handcrafted items, there won't be so much scrolling down the page to see everything. They're small thumbnail images at first, but you can hover or click on an image to see the item larger and the information about it.
I will no longer list when an item is sold, because I can always make a new one from scratch anyway. So I will let you know if it's sold when you add you're order, so you can either have a custom one made, or choose another item.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Basic Jewellery Making
Basic Jewellery Making
This basic jewellery making article is a wonderful place to begin to learn all about the art of working with beads. It explains types of beading, and tools needed, perfect for a beginner.
Types of Basic Jewellery Making
Stringing: beads of all sorts of types and colours are strung onto a beading thread using pleasing designs and colours.
Beadweaving: this is sometimes known as seed beading. This includes a wide variety of weaves, including herringbone weave, brick stitch, peyote, netting, pondo stitch, right angle weave and square stitch. With the exception of two-needle right angle weave, these all require a needle and thread, and you weave in a similar way to sewing. Two needle right angle weave is usually not done with needles at all, a stiff thread is used, and the beads can be strung onto it without the use of a needle. There are also a huge range of spirals that can be made in all of the above weaves, as well as a few particular to spirals only. These include: Spiral rope, double spiral rope, triple spiral rope, flat spiral, Russian spiral, Dutch spiral, herringbone spiral, embellished right angle weave, Cellini spiral, Aussie spiral, netted spiral and African Helix.
Loom Beading: seed beads are woven into fabric using a loom. Some very intricate designs can be made.
Wire work and wire wrapping: This is where wire is used to created pleasing shapes and designs using wire.
Victorian Beading and French Beading: these methods ore often used to make beaded flowers. Wire is used, as well as seed beads. Victorian beading, also known as Continental Beading, is worked horizontally with both ends of the wire going through the row of beads. French beading is worked vertically with rows of beads worked around a central row of beads.
Chainmail: also known as chain maille. This is created by joining jump rings into intricate patterns.
What is a Bead?
Basic jewellery making usually includes beads. Basically a bead is a small decorative object that has at least one hole in it for threading. Beads have been used for jewellery for hundreds of thousands of years.
Beads can be made from all sorts of things, including: natural materials- such as bone, coral, seashells and nuts. They can also be made of synthetic materials such as: ceramics, glass, crystal and plastic.
Bead Types
Seed Beads: seed beads are the very tiny beads used in basic jewellery making and beadweaving. These are usually measured in either mm or aught sizes, eg. 11/0, which means number of beads per inch.
There are three main types of seed beads available:
* Japanese: these have a cylindrical shape and are very uniform in size. They have a large hole.
* Czech: these have more of a rounded shape with smooth edges. They’re sometimes described as being donut shaped.
* Chinese: these are the cheapest type of seed beads, but can be very uneven in shape and size. They are usually more Czech-shaped.
Bugle beads: these are long cylindrical beads, made in a range of lengths.
Shaped beads: these are made in any sorts of shapes.
Faceted beads: these have been cut and polished to give lots of reflection and shine.
Tools and Materials Required for Basic Jewellery Making
The tools needed for basic jewellery making vary with what is being made and the technique used.
Some basic tools and materials are:
Thread: some available types are: tigertail, aculon, monofilament thread and Nymo.
Crimp beads: these are small soft metal beads with a large hole that are used to squash the thread together to hold the finding in place.
Findings: these are all the components used in basic jewellery making to make things into jewellery, includes clasps, earring hooks and key rings.
Pliers: these are need for many things in basic jewellery making, including closing crimp beads. Two are usually needed to close jump rings.
Specific tools and materials:
Stringing: generally you don’t need much at all. Just your beads and thread, you’ll also need a couple of crimp beads and a couple of jump rings. You’ll need pliers to close the crimp beads and jump rings. You’ll also need clasps or other findings for your basic jewellery making, depending on what you’re making,
Beadweaving: For this you’ll need fine thread, beading needle, seed beads. You’ll also need the crimp beads and other findings the same as with stringing, depending on what you’re making.
Loom Beading: loom, thread and seed beads, and findings as required.
Wire work and wire wrapping: The wire can be craft wire, artistic wire, copper wire, or sterling silver wire. They are available in different gauges that measure the thicknesses. You will need pointy nosed pliers, and round nosed pliers to create spirals and loops. Wire cutters are required to cut the wire.
Victorian Beading and French Beading: Seed beads and wire are required for these. Pointy nosed pliers will be needed. If it’s going to be a flower, you’ll need a stiffer wire for the stem and some floral tape to wrap it.
Chainmail: This just requires lots of jump ring available in different sizes and gauges, as well as 2 pairs of pliers to close the rings. You’ll also need the findings as required.
A good beginners tutorial can be found here:
http://craftcove.blogspot.com/2009/04/free-star-tutorial.html
This basic jewellery making article is a wonderful place to begin to learn all about the art of working with beads. It explains types of beading, and tools needed, perfect for a beginner.
Types of Basic Jewellery Making
Beaded Reindeer |
Stringing: beads of all sorts of types and colours are strung onto a beading thread using pleasing designs and colours.
Beadweaving: this is sometimes known as seed beading. This includes a wide variety of weaves, including herringbone weave, brick stitch, peyote, netting, pondo stitch, right angle weave and square stitch. With the exception of two-needle right angle weave, these all require a needle and thread, and you weave in a similar way to sewing. Two needle right angle weave is usually not done with needles at all, a stiff thread is used, and the beads can be strung onto it without the use of a needle. There are also a huge range of spirals that can be made in all of the above weaves, as well as a few particular to spirals only. These include: Spiral rope, double spiral rope, triple spiral rope, flat spiral, Russian spiral, Dutch spiral, herringbone spiral, embellished right angle weave, Cellini spiral, Aussie spiral, netted spiral and African Helix.
Bugle spiral |
Loom Beading: seed beads are woven into fabric using a loom. Some very intricate designs can be made.
Wire work and wire wrapping: This is where wire is used to created pleasing shapes and designs using wire.
wire work jewellery |
Victorian Beading and French Beading: these methods ore often used to make beaded flowers. Wire is used, as well as seed beads. Victorian beading, also known as Continental Beading, is worked horizontally with both ends of the wire going through the row of beads. French beading is worked vertically with rows of beads worked around a central row of beads.
Victorian beaded spider |
Chainmail: also known as chain maille. This is created by joining jump rings into intricate patterns.
Chainmail |
What is a Bead?
Basic jewellery making usually includes beads. Basically a bead is a small decorative object that has at least one hole in it for threading. Beads have been used for jewellery for hundreds of thousands of years.
Beaded Bead |
Beads can be made from all sorts of things, including: natural materials- such as bone, coral, seashells and nuts. They can also be made of synthetic materials such as: ceramics, glass, crystal and plastic.
Bead Types
Seed Beads: seed beads are the very tiny beads used in basic jewellery making and beadweaving. These are usually measured in either mm or aught sizes, eg. 11/0, which means number of beads per inch.
There are three main types of seed beads available:
* Japanese: these have a cylindrical shape and are very uniform in size. They have a large hole.
* Czech: these have more of a rounded shape with smooth edges. They’re sometimes described as being donut shaped.
* Chinese: these are the cheapest type of seed beads, but can be very uneven in shape and size. They are usually more Czech-shaped.
Beaded Brooch |
Bugle beads: these are long cylindrical beads, made in a range of lengths.
Shaped beads: these are made in any sorts of shapes.
Faceted beads: these have been cut and polished to give lots of reflection and shine.
Tools and Materials Required for Basic Jewellery Making
The tools needed for basic jewellery making vary with what is being made and the technique used.
Some basic tools and materials are:
Thread: some available types are: tigertail, aculon, monofilament thread and Nymo.
Crimp beads: these are small soft metal beads with a large hole that are used to squash the thread together to hold the finding in place.
Findings: these are all the components used in basic jewellery making to make things into jewellery, includes clasps, earring hooks and key rings.
Pliers: these are need for many things in basic jewellery making, including closing crimp beads. Two are usually needed to close jump rings.
Flower Brooch |
Specific tools and materials:
Stringing: generally you don’t need much at all. Just your beads and thread, you’ll also need a couple of crimp beads and a couple of jump rings. You’ll need pliers to close the crimp beads and jump rings. You’ll also need clasps or other findings for your basic jewellery making, depending on what you’re making,
Beadweaving: For this you’ll need fine thread, beading needle, seed beads. You’ll also need the crimp beads and other findings the same as with stringing, depending on what you’re making.
Loom Beading: loom, thread and seed beads, and findings as required.
Wire work and wire wrapping: The wire can be craft wire, artistic wire, copper wire, or sterling silver wire. They are available in different gauges that measure the thicknesses. You will need pointy nosed pliers, and round nosed pliers to create spirals and loops. Wire cutters are required to cut the wire.
Saint Bernard |
Victorian Beading and French Beading: Seed beads and wire are required for these. Pointy nosed pliers will be needed. If it’s going to be a flower, you’ll need a stiffer wire for the stem and some floral tape to wrap it.
Chainmail: This just requires lots of jump ring available in different sizes and gauges, as well as 2 pairs of pliers to close the rings. You’ll also need the findings as required.
Chainmail earrings |
A good beginners tutorial can be found here:
http://craftcove.blogspot.com/2009/04/free-star-tutorial.html
Monday, July 26, 2010
Wedding jewellery
I'm not a very social person, so when I received an invitation for a wedding, I had absolutely nothing to wear! Finally I found a nice black dress with a tiny black jacket over it. The jacket has a lovely sequin trim, so I found a small clutch bag with sequin trim as well.
Of course even though my business is in selling jewellery, I don't actually wear jewellery very much. I'm usually at home crafting, gardening, parenting, housework and looking after pets, this stuff just doesn't lend itself to jewellery. So I decided to make something new for the jewellery. It took a lot of thought, but I finally decided on a beaded bead necklace with a chain. The beaded bead being all white and silver, with crystals, pearls and seed beads, to offset all the black. Then I decided a tassel of chain would also look nice hanging off the bottom. Here's how it looked.
My next issue was the earrings. I thought it would be great to make earrings to match, but the same beaded bead would be a bit big for the earrings. I tried using less beads and using small beads and a couple of variations until I came up with a design I liked. I put the same tassels on the bottom, and used the same colours. I was quite happy with the design, it's wuite a bit narrower, but about the same length as the pendant.
Of course I could have made a new dress as well, but since I'll probably never even wear this dress again, it wasn't worth the time and expense. It's much more costly to make your own.
While I was at the wedding I saw another guest with the most beautiful crocheted handbag. I thought "why didn't I think of that?" I could have incorporated some beading into the crocheting as well, and I love crocheting!
Of course even though my business is in selling jewellery, I don't actually wear jewellery very much. I'm usually at home crafting, gardening, parenting, housework and looking after pets, this stuff just doesn't lend itself to jewellery. So I decided to make something new for the jewellery. It took a lot of thought, but I finally decided on a beaded bead necklace with a chain. The beaded bead being all white and silver, with crystals, pearls and seed beads, to offset all the black. Then I decided a tassel of chain would also look nice hanging off the bottom. Here's how it looked.
Beaded Bead |
My next issue was the earrings. I thought it would be great to make earrings to match, but the same beaded bead would be a bit big for the earrings. I tried using less beads and using small beads and a couple of variations until I came up with a design I liked. I put the same tassels on the bottom, and used the same colours. I was quite happy with the design, it's wuite a bit narrower, but about the same length as the pendant.
wedding jewellery |
Of course I could have made a new dress as well, but since I'll probably never even wear this dress again, it wasn't worth the time and expense. It's much more costly to make your own.
wedding set |
While I was at the wedding I saw another guest with the most beautiful crocheted handbag. I thought "why didn't I think of that?" I could have incorporated some beading into the crocheting as well, and I love crocheting!
Monday, July 5, 2010
Instructions for following 3d chart patterns
Instructions
for following 3d patterns in chart form
Every now and again you may come across a 3d beading pattern
that is created in a chart form. They
are usually written in Chinese or Korean.
Here are the instructions for how to follow them written in
English.
There are also some variations to this, but this at least
gives a good starting place.
If anyone knows of any errors or things to add, please let
me know.
Techniques:
·
Right angle weave, stringing
Difficulty:
·
Moderate
Note: These images
are just examples and not an actual pattern.
You work one circle at the time, marked by the number in Row
A. Start with row B, then work row
C. Then cross the LEFT thread through
the last bead to make the total for row D.
The whole 4 rows of the chart create one circle of beads.
The images below show the exact same instructions using the
more common pattern method.
This first
table shows the very basic information that is sometimes seen in the first part
of the pattern
This section above the table will give information like size
of beads, colour to start with, etc
A
|
1
|
This just states the number for the circle of beads being worked on
|
B
|
0
|
This is the number of beads for the LEFT thread to go through, unless otherwise stated
|
C
|
5
|
This is the number of beads to be added to the RIGHT thread, unless otherwise stated
|
D
|
5
|
This is the total number of beads made in this circle. Crossed with
the LEFT thread
|
This shows
some more advanced entries that are found in the B row
B
row almost always means you need to go through beads already there, and almost
always on the Left thread. A “-“
in between two numbers means both threads are used.
Note: Sometimes characters are used for LEFT and RIGHT or
for the colours
B
|
2-1
|
The LEFT thread needs to go through two beads already there. The RIGHT thread needs to go through one
bead already there
|
B
|
R1
|
The RIGHT thread needs to go through one bead that is already there,
instead of the usual LEFT thread
|
More
advanced entries in the C row
The C
row tells what needs to be added, usually to the RIGHT thread, unless otherwise
stated.
C
|
3-1
|
Three beads need to be added to the RIGHT thread, and one bead needs
to be added to the LEFT thread
|
C
|
L2
|
Two beads are added to the LEFT thread instead of the usual RIGHT
thread.
|
Working
with colour
Colours are shown by either a character or a circle in a
particular colour. Usually there is a
key at the start of the pattern.
To sum up:
B means to go through beads already
there, and on the LEFT
C
means add beads, on the RIGHT
D means cross left thread through last
bead, to give this total number of beads.
Created by Jenny Lawson
For any questions, email me at: craftcove@gmail.com
Please do not distribute, lend or copy.
Do not mass produce.
Copyright 2010
Jenny Lawson
Saturday, June 26, 2010
More Tutorials
Don't forget about all the wonderful tutorials on the 3dbeading website. There are many free tutorials and some paid ones starting up now. There are many in all sorts of categories, including, flowers, animals, jewellery. There is also a wonderful forum that has many great people who can help you out and sometimes post other tutorials.
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