I Now Have All The Tools I Need

I am such a firm believer in research and buying the tools needed for whatever project or obsessions I'm obsessing over. Right now, obviously it's jewelry. On Tuesday, everything was finally delivered: my 3.6 volt cordless screwdriver, my Centaur Wigjig, my nylon jaw pliers, and my steel bench block. We also went to Home Depot to get a chuck adapter for my screwdriver, and a ball peen hammer. I'm so ready.

I'm a little intimidated of the Centaur Wigjig. So far, I've learned to make spirals with the Spiral Maker. Once I got the hang of it, I made these fabulous earrings:

So I've resigned myself to making my own rings if I can help it. If I'm doing a chainmaille bracelet, I'll order them premade, but I'll make my ring findings.

Obsessed with jewelry making!

The bracelets, left, an Inca Puno for my brother, and right, my first Byzantine, for my sister-in-law. The crystal/pearl earrings are for my sister, the wooden/glass beaded earrings are for my niece, and the hoop crystal earrings are for my daughter. I actually made each link, each curly cue wire, and bent each hoop. I had so much fun making these earrings. I really have a knack for jewelry making. I love the beads, I love making the rings, I love it all. I made this black and red full Persian for my friend Gina:



The orders are slowly coming in. I just sold another Rearden metal bracelet (1st version). Such a gratifying feeling when someone wants to buy your stuff.

More Earrings!

Top left - Earth. Top right - Galaxy with Swarovski dangle.

Bottom left - construction of Galaxy. Bottom right - Galaxy.

I haven't loaded these up on my Esty page yet because I need to get some gold tone Euro lever wires. I like those better than the fish hook wires because they're more secure. I'm going to price these at $20. I love making jewelry.

I finally got a 2TB external hard drive (WD Elements). I've loaded my laptop, my desktop and my music hard drive on to it. I'm ready for the MacBook Pro transitition.

The First Batch Of Earrings Are Done!

I've been at it since 11:00am this morning! All of these are handmade. Once I got started, I couldn't stop. I even made my own earwires, out of copper (bottom right). Here are the results:

I've found my new passion. I had to physically push myself away from my work table. I'm supposed to be making the new Rearden Metal bracelets, but I'm scared to tackle assembling the jumprings (into chainmaille). I'm going to post these earrings on my Esty page. Some of them I've decided to keep (the middle picture, and the picture on the right - my mother's old pearls). Once I got the loop making down, I was off and running. I'm still having trouble with my wrapped loops, but today was only the first day... the first day. I'm not posting until I have enough to sell. I need more silver and gold euro lever earwires. I also need an anvil and nylon hammer (I slammed my finger today - still hurts). I need more pliers, at least a pair of bent chainnose and a pair of flat nose. At first, before I started, I didn't know what they were for, but after today, now I know!