Wire Wrapping Tutorial: Earrings

I made this tutorial on a lazy day some weeks ago and thought i would share it here.

We will be making these earrings:

These are the things you need:
- Beads of course, I used faceted rectange amethist beads but you can choose what you like best. It's also very cute with swarovski bicones 4 mm
- Sterling Silver head pins, I prefer dot headpins because of their look
- Earring hooks or posts, which ever you prefer.

1. Put a bead on a headpin.

2. Bend the headpin about 2 mm above the bead at a 90° angle.

3. Using Round nose pliers, make have a loop.

4. Finish the loop.

5. Put the round nose pliers in the loop and hold it in place with them. Take the end of the head pin with flat nose pliers and turn it around the rest of the headpin.

6. Voila! Your first finished bead!

7. Repaet steps 1, 2 and 3 on the second bead.

8. Put the loop of the second bead in the loop of the first one.

9. Repeat step 5.

10. Repeat for the third bead and until you think it it full enough. You can switch between making it longer and more filled. Just play around this you like it.

These earrings are made with the same technique

Have fun!

My first Give-Away!

Here I am again with some great news! First of all I added some new stuff to my etsy shop. I promised myself to put 50 items in there and then see how it goes. The first 50 weren't nice to do, I had to force myself to list them. But then I got my first sale and now I love it! I just love making better pictures, tagging better ( I even used all the tags on some!) and write a description.

Even better is what I got in the mail:

It's an order I placed a week or 2 ago and I'm so happy with it. I kinda didn't notice the measurements of the agate on the right, they are 3 cm, really big but I still love them. I've got: sodalite, jade, labradorite, howlite, moonstone, agate, amethyst, blue howlite, peridot and citrine. I really want to play with them!

To celebrate this great package I'm hosting my first ever give-away! Well the first on my blog I mean, here is another one, I made the earrings for it: http://woolies-woolies.blogspot.com/2008/08/earring-giveaway.html You can still participate for 2 days!

Well here is mine. I loooooooove making those charms with freshwater pearls and crystals. That's why I'm giving one away. Cause when I have one less, I have to make one ;)

This one is made with sterling silver components, a 11-12mm freshwater pearl and a swarovski crystal in the colour mint alabaster.

So how do you play? It's simple just leave a comment mentioning your favorite gemstone. It's that easy! Everyone can participate once and make sure I can reach you if you won (best is to leave your email adress).
This will end the 7th of September here in Belgium. If you aren't sure about what gemstones there are or which one you like, you could check out http://dellejuwelen.etsy.com/

Have fun!

Birthstone Charms!

Here I am again! Had a great night yesterday. My friends and I had spend the evening watching movies and eating. More eating than watching to be honest but it was so much fun.

Have you already seen my birthstone charms? They are all made with sterling silver. On a dot headpin there is a large freshwater pearl (they are 11-12 mm so really big). On top of that is a sterling silver spacer or bead cap. And the charm is finished with a swarovski crystal in birthstone colours or just a colour you love. Here is an example:
I made them for 9 months now since I didn't have the right colour for the others. But I ordered those and I hope they will be here in a few days. For some months, there will be a choice because they have more birthstones.

I also lowered shipping on a lot of items so have a look! Instead of 6.95 a lot of them are now 4,50.

When playing on the etsy forums I noticed this cute bag: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=14580069 . It really is the love it or hate it fabric and I love it! Check our her shop she has lots of beautiful stuff!

On that same game I also discovered Filiadavidus. Those prints are great! Only the Gusi isn't my thing but I would love to paint my wall black just to put them on it and make them stand out. Here is the link to the shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6038581

Whoops, my last post was 3 days ago, not so good :) But well, I'm back again and this time it didn't take me 2 years.

I send in the promos for the little black box. If they reach Arizona on time they will be in the september box I think.

I din't hear back from the blog with the earring give-away, I hope nothing serious happenend.

But the best new of them all!!! I had my frist Etsy sale when I woke up this morning!! It was such a great motivator. I sold these earrings:

I really loved the small leave charms and I hope their new owner all the way across in the USA will take care of them. This is only my second pair of jewelry that goes across the Atlantic Ocean. Most clients still come from the Netherlands which is rather funny because I live in Belgium.

Because of this sale I added some more earrings. I also listed some earrings that are perfect gifts for the holidays. They are only 14 and 15 dollars each pair. This is an example. You can find them at my etsy shop: http://dellejuwelen.etsy.com

I also want to give you this link. A friend of mine who lives in the Netherlands makes these tiny food charms out of polymer clay. I just adore her strawberry croissants. They are entirely made with coloured clay, they aren't painted. They are also scented. http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5246444 She is very talented and very patient and her charms looks like you could eat them.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=11462820 Here is a picture of the croissant.

Yippie I finished my entrance for the little black box and I will be mailing it tomorrow!

These are 77 little gifts with coupons attached for 15% off. Hope people will like them!

I even made a to do list today for the first time ever. Listing on etsy was on it so I added a few lower-priced earrings, you can find them here: http://dellejuwelen.etsy.com

There is also an opening sale on my shop! Until this friday shipping is only 1 dollar to everywhere in the world!

I've been making a lot of pictures today. They are all different angles on pictures I made before and I think it looks a lot better.

Today is kin of a lazy day. You know those days that you have to do a lot but nothing gets done because you are too busy surfing the net?

I was awake until 1 a.m. this morning making those mobile phone straps for the little black box. I ran out of supplies when I had 78, quite good I think?

Of course this doens't look very good but I will pack them in organza gift bags. I'm writing the cards to go with them right now. On the back of my business cards I'm writing to link to my etsy shop: http://dellejuwelen.etsy.com/ and a coupon for 15% off on first purchase. I hope people will like it.

I'm also participating on a blog give-away. These are the earrings I will give.

They are made with sodalite gemstone and sterling silver components. If you want to join you have to check out my shop and comment on what you like about it. You will find this give-away here from wednesday 20th august: http://woolies-woolies.blogspot.com

Hehe made it to the second day and I'm still writing here. Today I have three clients to have their nails done but I think it is important to be active here and on Etsy as well.

I showed my shop http://dellejuwelen.etsy.com on the forum and got lots of great tips. I used to have a picture of myself as avatar but now I have a bracelet picture.
I also asked someone to make me a banner.

Surfing on Etsy, I found this listing: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=9538315 I thought they were figurines made of stone but they are felt! So wonderful that someone can make such a thing! She also makes them to look like your dog.

I also found a cool website on the etsy forum called the black box. You provide up to 150 samples each month that get distributed across everyone who buys a box. Buyers are people looking for new and interesting shops to buy from. Since I make jewelry I was thinking about providing glass earrings. But I rememberd I still have a lot of cell phone lanyards laying around so I decided to make those. Wonder how much I can make and if it pays of. I also bought a bunch of orgaza bags a while ago but made a mistake, they are too small for my jewelry so they are perfect for these samples. Will update you with pictures!

Oh and here is the link for anyone who is interested: http://thelittleblackboxes.com/index.html

I've been looking a bit around on Etsy and ... wow. Such cool things people make. I came on this shop called Quiltyasin: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=108088 those card cozies are so great and I want one for myself.

I've also been listing on the dutch advertising site http://www.marktplaats.nl/ this morning. At noon we went out for a meal with the family and when I came back, this pair of wonderfull earrings had sold to someone in the Netherlands. It is made with sterling silver, freshwater pearls and swarovski.

I still love it everytime someone buys one of my beauties. I like the thought that others like what I make too.

Wow it has been a while since I made my last post here. It's almost Septembre, school will start again in a few weeks so it's the perfect time for a new beginning.

Unfortunateley, my keyboard isn't working correctly so it takes a lot of time to type this, guess it's a test to see if I'm commited enough. Like most people, I plan to write everyday, let's see how that goes in a few weeks.

Yesterday I made a shop on the online mall for handcrafted beauties, Etsy. My shop there is still in development but there is a lot more to see and discover. You can find my place through http://dellejuwelen.etsy.com/ I hope I typed it right, it's all very new.

I also made this wonderfull sterling silver and amethist bracelet. I had the nuggets in my stash for quite a while but it all came together in this design. I showed it to a few people and they all liked it, so nice to hear people enjoy what you made.