This morning before work I put these lovely shell earrings together (and wore them out!):

I made the jump rings out of some brass wire and put 3 shells onto the bottom of 1, then used 2 per earring base. These ended up nice and clustered, just how I wanted them.

There was some differences in opinion about which side of the shell should be facing forward. I liked the shiny side out, but the back looks decent as well. Shiny side shown below on the left, the back on the right.

A few weeks back I made an onyx bracelet and finally got around to making the matching earrings.

This is a project I’ve had in my jewelry notebook for quite some time now (it’s dated 09.19.2008!). The idea is to make a wire hoop base and then wire wrap various beads around the base, all with one continuous piece of wire. These could be any size, really, depending on the beads used but I made a pendant sized one.

This is a great project for odds-and-ends beads as well as seeds that you want to get some use out of, but there’s no reason not to use high quality stuff; the pendants turn out very elegant and simple. Here are some of the beads I used. Brass wire with blue, bronze, white, and silver beads (including crystals and pearls).

Cut a long length of wire and wrap it around a few times, then secure the loops in place.

Start wrapping! Have patience, it does take some time. Sorry this photo is blurry, I had a hard time with only back lighting. I didn’t cut enough wire for this pendant so I only wrapped halfway around, but it turned out great.

I’ve been thinking about starting an Etsy shop for some time now. I loved making these and they turned out pretty nice. They may be a good starter item to test out the idea of selling some handmade jewelry on Etsy since I have the materials on hand to make several. I’ll have to give it some thought.

The first pendant turned out so good that I made another smaller one in silver, white, copper, and black, which I wore to work today (though the pic of me wearing the necklace is me in my jammies from last night).

I finally got my bead closet set up this past week. What is a bead closet you ask?

At the apartment I didn’t have a lot of room, and David hates messes, especially visible ones (the kind I’m best at!). So down to IKEA we went, and found this awesome corner closet in which I put all my crafting stuff. At our new house, I get a whole room to be creative in so this closet will be beading/jewelry only.

(Separate from this post, I also use this room for creating music, upcoming sewing endeavors, and other crafty things that catch my interest! And those are my inspirational composers all in a row up on top of the closet.)

So tonight, I was inspired to make something new after realizing I’m really lacking in chunky jewelry.

These etched onyx beads I picked up on clearance for $5 (steal!). All these other pretties are leftovers from previous projects.

I didn’t have enough of the silver spacers to make the earrings but the bracelet turned out exactly as I pictured. I’ll pick up some spacers soon to make the earrings.