Project 016: St. Patrick's Day Bracelet

Jake and I had the opportunity to see our favorite Celtic punk rock band on St. Patrick's Day this year. So I totally needed some bling for the show.

I new I wanted to do something with chainmail. I tried several different weaves, but nothing was working.

Then I decided to stop and re-think it and went back to something I had done way back when I first learned to mail and hadn't done since then.

Euro 6-in-1. It makes a lovely bracelet. Nice and flexible, but not so flexible that it falls out of shape. I did it in orange, dark green, and plain aluminum (as close as I have to white). It also mimics the Irish flag.

And check out that super cute shamrock charm I found in my collection.

Just wonderful.

Project 012: Steampunk

Have I ever told you how much I like Halloween? I have some friends that stay decorated for Halloween all year long; I'm  not quite that in love with Halloween, but any excuse to make lovely things is good to me.

I bought a tiny hat, removed the terrible flower that was on it and replaced it with clock hands, gears, and a peacock feather.

Some medals. I made more, but these are the only ones I photographed.

I knew those extra cameos I bought ages ago would come in handy!

The full costume, the first time I wore it

And the 2nd time (at work this year). I also made some sweet earrings.

I love making things with a theme!

Project 011: Fairy Party Garb

So, since I suck at posting, some backlogged items.

Back in the spring, Jake and I were invited to a fairy themed party. Since I had a done a fairy costume for a Mardi Gras party only a couple months prior, I decided to do more of a generic nymph/tree spirit type costume for myself. I made myself some jewelry.

Leafy earrings! I've gotten a lot of use out of these other than just wearing them with the costume. There's a "matching" necklace that I don't have a picture of. The necklace also has wooden beads and bronze bells.

Leafy, flowery ear cuffs. I didn't wear wings with this costume, so I included a wing shape on my ear cuffs instead.

A jingly, jangly anklet. It fit wonderfully without my shoes. With the shoes I wore, I had to add a chainmail ring to make it just a tad longer.

 I also made a shredded bottom shirt decorated with wooden beads. But it needed just something a little more. Since Jake's been puttering with leather working, I asked him if he'd make me a leather bodice. He agreed, if I'd make him a mask.

Challenge accepted.

I started by making a paper mache cast of Jake's face. Then I built the horns with paper cups, wire, newspaper, tape, and more paper mache. Here we're trying to decide which way the horns should face. Up and back... 

  ...or down and forward?

We decided on up and back. I did some more touch up painting and glued everything together.

And then I glued on some leaves, attached several ribbons to hold it on someone's head (the horns are heavy and it wants to fall back), and then took a terrible selfie to send to Jake for his thoughts.

He put it on when he got home that evening. And wanted more leaves.

Here's his finished costume. See more leaves on the mask. Also, I made that leafy tunic/tabbard.

All in all, it was a pretty fun project and I learned a lot about making paper mache masks. I haven't used any of it since then though.

2011 Projects 001: Bracelets

Since everybody knows I love bracelets, I figured I'd show off some that I made last year, without going into detail (because I really don't remember for a lot of them).

Stripes and Stretch.

Green anodized aluminum with white EPDM rubber and bright aluminum in Euro 4-in-1

Spiraled Mess -  I was trying to make Half Persian 3-in-1, but I screwed up and this happened.  

Magenta anodozied aluminum with black and white EPDM rubber in Spiral 4-in-1. 

Future that Never Was

Typewriter key pendants with green acrylic cubes on a black and sliver chain.

Earth in Cages - lovely earth toned beads in silver bead cages

Spirals in Spirals

Spiral links in hammered gold, silver, and copper plated wire.

Original Helm

Untreated copper and silver plate wire in Helm Chain.

Project 009: Wind

Have I mentioned how MUCH I love bracelets?

They're easy to wear. A good one will go with so many outfits. Crazy bracelets never seem to go out of style.

Have I mentioned how much I love chain maille?

Inspiration: Bastardized Byzantine Bias

New Technique Learned:

• Bastardized Byzantine Bias weave

The results:

Wind

When I first started making chain maille jewelry back in college, I made myself a red, orange, and silver cuff using a Japanese variation weave, which I called fire. My thought then was to do a set of elemental inspired bracelets. A few years later, I did another bracelet in two tones of blue and green in aura weave, which I called water.

This is wind, in yellow and blue, with silver accents, in a byzantine variation. I wish the AR was a little tighter on this; the silver rings don't hold the weave well unless stretched.

Like this.

Oh well. Either way, I'm pretty happy with it. It's lovely and shiny.

Shiny is good.

I haven't made earth yet. I'm still trying to decide on a good weave. I want something that feels heavy and chunky. <3

Project 008: Braids and Chains

I love bracelets.

The only type of jewelry that I have more of are earrings. I've actually slowed down on making earrings, because I've already got way too many.

Friendship style bracelets have been super popular this year, which is great, since I've got a huge  bag of embroidery floss left from when I was in high school and my friends and I made TONS of braided friendship bracelets.

I also discovered Pinterest, which enabled me to find a few hundred bracelet styles to try.

Here's the first.

Inspiration/Pattern: Woven Chain Bracelet

New Techniques Learned:

• Braiding on chains

The results:

Bright and sunny! 

I'm really into orange and yellow right now...

Still love green and purple though!

This one's a little small, however. I might need to add another link or two on the bar end of the toggle.

These are stupidly fun to make. Both of these were made with up-cycled chains. I'm really having trouble finding nice chains to make more of these. It might be time for another around of thrift shop hunting. I really want to make one with green and pink floss and then put watermelon charms on the other side... a future project, perhaps.

Project 007: As American as Apple Pie

More jewelry!

When I ordered the supplies to make the Blue Sparkle bracelet, I received a free gift of acrylic baseball beads. How they knew I loved baseball, I'll never know. With this awesome free gift in hand, I decided to make myself something to wear during baseball games. At first, I planned to make hair bobbles.

Then I made this instead:

Chainmaille and baseballs!

And it's stretchy!

I combined some simple European 4-in-1 in 16 gauge anodized red aluminum and white EPDM rubber with the acrylic beads for this one. 

New Techniques Learned:

• None. Euro 4-in-1 was the first weave I learned, which really spawned my love of jewelry making and over all renewed interest in crafting.

Project 006: Blue Sparkle

Finally, some jewelry!

I've made jewelry for my sister for all of her formal dances since 8th grade, so when she asked if I would make her a bracelet to go with her prom dress, how could I say no?

Inspirations:
Cats Eye and Celestial Crystal Bracelet

The dress. Sorry it's blurry; this was taken with a cell phone.

New Techniques Learned:

• Stringing pattern (Not sure if it has a name)

The Results:

Sparkly!

Matches the dress pretty well, I think.

Lin liked it, so I suppose that's all that matters!

Project 004: Rainbow I-Pom

A few months ago, I was looking through various knitting techniques online and stumbled upon I-cord. I instantly wanted to make something with it, but couldn't figure out what. My first thought was to make a really long I-cord and then join it together at the ends and wear it looped about my neck multiple times like a t-shirt necklace. This may still happen.

Instead, this happened: 

As modeled by my faithful crafting partner, Pretty Pretty Princess Miachu.

Please excuse crappy self-photo, nobody else with thumbs was home!

Long scarf is long.

A beautiful, long, variegated rainbow I-cord, paired with two huge white pom-poms. I shall call it I-Pom! XD

New techniques learned:

•  I-cord knitting

I already knew how to make pom-poms from a scarf I made last year for my sister, which I'll post here sometime if I ever get photos (or just make one for myself, which is way more likely).

Next? Maybe jewelry. I have a bunch of things that need repaired, plus a repair job for a coworker, and the supplies I need to make my sisters jewelry for prom will be coming on Tuesday...

Project 003: the light shines in the darkness

So, I was totally making a Valentine's Wreath and then got really close to the end and didn't finish it. Now that Easter's past, I don't think I'm going to be finishing it anytime soon.


Oh well.


So I made some art work instead!

View "the light shines in the darkness" at my DeviantArt page

To be honest, I didn't try anything new this time. I did use the colored and weighted line art again. I'm still undecided on it; I need to play with it more, I think.

Next project? Ehhh... I've got some old artwork that needs matted and framed, a couple of sketches that can be cleaned up and finished, a few knitting projects that I've been wanting to tackle, some jewelry pieces to mix, upcycle, and make. So I guess it'll be something, and hopefully soon!

Project 002: Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy

I made an art! XD

View "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy" at My DeviantArt Page


New Techniques:

• Colored Line Art
• Weighted Line Art

I'm still not sure how I feel about the colored line art. I think I like it. I need to play with it more before I can make up my mind.

Project 001: Black and White Scarf

Finally, my first project is complete! :D


The Inspiration:

Fluffy and polka dots...

and heart shaped with sparkly bows! <3

These are some totally ridiculous earmuffs that my lovely mother-in-law got me for Christmas. Heart shaped and they have sparkly bows on them!


But, oh noes! I have no scarf to go with them. Good thing I can knit!


The Pattern: Drop Stich Drama Scarf


New Techniques Learned:

• Drop/Elongated Stitch
• Knitting with multiple strands

The Results:

The full scarf, stretched out on my couch

Close up of the stitch work

This was FUN to do. It took me at LEAST twice as long to complete as the estimate on the pattern, but then again, I'm easily distracted by the TV, facebook, words with friends, deviantart, looking at other patterns on ravelry, and pretty much anything else shiny, colorful, or furry that passes in front of my face. Also, I'm not a fast knitter. I'm definitely getting better the more I do it though!


I'm very excited to wear this set to work tomorrow, just to see what my coworkers say. As a group of (mostly) older ladies, it's always interesting to get their opinions on my knitting and jewelry escapades. :p


So, with one project behind me, it's time to move to the next one on the list. I think it's gonna be another knitting project. :D Then there will be an art project. And then a wreath project. If I'm not too lazy, I may pull photos off my phone and camera of some of the projects I did last year, just for kics.