When Skills Collide

     I have been making jewelry since last June, roughly. I have made jewelry many times over the years but really got into it this time around in June. I mostly combine gemstone beads and charms, which are not necessarily complex, but not usually something that other people are making. But still, if you have the basic skills to bend a loop in an pin, you can probably do what I was doing. 

     So then a couple of months ago I decided I had to learn wire wrapping. I don't know why, but it came to me that it was something that I absolutely had to learn to do. So I asked Ethan for some help, since he had done some wire wrapping himself, I watched videos, bought supplies, and started wrapping stones. Every day. That was my goal, to do at least one every day. Because you need to do a thing every day to be really good at it. Then one day I had this picture in my head of a crystal with gold and silver swirl designs on it. I don't like mixing metals. I have had an aversion to that, and pattern mixing, my whole life. But the picture was really nice so I found a stone that fit the idea, got out gold and silver, and mixed them in the same piece. And boy am I glad I did! I really like how this piece came out. I am no longer against mixed metals and I have started doing with jewelry what I have been doing with dolls for years. That is, I am designing things, at least partially, in my head while I sleep, while I do other things that don't need much concentration, and they are coming together in the real world in a very nice way. I love that. 

    When I decided (or discovered) that I needed to learn to wrap stones it really was to fit into a larger plan I had. I want to make really unique jewelry pieces. I want to make things that other people can't make. And maybe they can, just like other people can make dolls, but most people are not going to be able to copy what I make and have it look just like one of my pieces. Art doesn't work that way. Everyone has their own style that starts to shine through when they start doing really custom pieces. That's what I want to do, I want to make really nice custom pieces. I want to combine the gemstone beads and charms with wrapped stones. So that's what I did. This was one of (not the first, just one of) the first pieces where I did that. I really enjoyed how this piece came together.

     One of my friends puts together these get-what-you-get bags of gemstones. As in, you can't choose your individual stones, you get what you get. And they are a bargain. They are the pieces that are sized wildly differently than the others in her stone orders and whatever random things she wants to put in them. I am obsessed with buying stones, and bargains, and have bought quite a few of these bags. I had a lot of quartz points, but not the cut and shaped ones that most people are familiar with. Like, really raw stones. So I learned how to do a wire net wrap. The problem was, I don't like the look of a bail made from thin wires. I think they look sloppy. But I thought about it and I wrapped the cut ends with some half round wire, which neatened up the entire look of the piece. They are still technically not as refined as the pieces I usually do, but raw stones have a lot of character. And I like the variety. 

     Another of the things I ended up with a lot of was kyanite blades. At first I really discounted them because I could not wrap them in the styles of wrap that I knew how to do. But that's silly, I should just learn a new skill if what I know doesn't work, right? So I did. I found another wrap style that is really excellent not only for gemstone points, but also for things that are an unusual shape, like these kyanite blades. I also mixed two different tones of copper and really enjoy it. 

     This necklace is another example of learning new skills to be able to make a piece work. I said I had a lot of the kyanite blades, right? Well, I wasn't kidding about it. And I had this idea that I wanted to basically turn them into beads and make a chunky necklace. I had to learn yet another skill to make this piece. The center stone has a double ended bail. I used the swirly wrap I have been practicing, modified to have the double ended bail, the wire net style wrap, and the point wrap that I can't think of what else to call it. I also did a fourth style of wrap on the dangling smoky quartz. This piece took quite a long time to make, but I do love how it came together!

     Earrings are the jewelry I make the most often. But the idea of making earrings out of stones and crystals was a bit scary to me because it is very hard to match natural stones. These earrings are not perfectly matched, but it is clear that they are a pair. The stones are close in shape and size, but not identical. The wraps are done in the same style, but they can't be identical, the stones are not. But similar to being OK with mixing metals, I am learning to be OK with jewelry pieces that don't have perfectly matched stones. 

      It also has been fun to make necklaces that coordinate with earrings. I have done a couple of these at this point. I don't list them together, as I know way too many people who either don't wear earrings or don't wear necklaces, or have very sensitive ears and need the lightest of light earrings. So separate. But I do like the option of having matched sets of things. 

     This last pair of earrings was another tricky thing for me. The stones for each earring are similar, but again, they are not identical. The wrap styles are as close as I could get, or as close as I chose to get (I could have tweaked a couple of things and made them a tiny bit closer), but these earrings are made from natural stones, not cut and shaped to pair perfectly. And I really love how these earrings are a mix of sort of rustic and pretty refined. Look at me, mixing all sorts of things now. 

     I got in a whole bunch of new charms, and bought several more bags of stones, and I have ideas swirling through my head on what I want to make. I am possibly going to do some more just plain wrapped stones, but learning to do that was basically a means to making very custom pieces. I am likely going to be putting together some new things fairly soon. I also have some things that need to be repaired (tool marks need to be removed) and then I will see about getting them on my website. Currently though it has been an amazing brain-break to design more than just dolls. For anyone who is interested in looking at more of my jewelry pieces, they are all on my website www.blessed-by-fire-designs.com including the Instagram feed (also Blessed by Fire Designs).