Jenny's Neck Piece

When Jenny Rohrs of Craft Test Dummies asked me to lend a hand designing a neck piece to wear to a wedding, I was both flattered and slightly intimidated. I mean this gal knows EVERYONE in the art jewelry world! But in my favor, she's a good friend and knows how easily I can be persuaded to drop everything for the opportunity to play with wire. That and a cupcake bribe will work every time! :-)

So, we came up with a basic plan & color scheme and agreed on an asymmetrical look. I started by  making a "dahlia" focal and wiring it to a silver neck collar. Adding some randomly spaced beads and wrapping a strand of twisted wire through the piece completed the look. One final adjustment of the coils to create the illusion of a vine and voila! What do you think?

And she wears it so well!

Bead Soup Bangle

Speaking of bead soup projects, here's a free tutorial I wrote for Consumer Crafts a while back, and it is also currently up at favecrafts....enjoy!






Materials: 

• Bead Soup * (this one has tiger eye chips, pearls, copper beads, and blue seed beads)
• (1) roll 24 ga. copper wire
• Pre-made Cuff
• Wire cutters

Instructions:

1. Make a *bead soup by mixing miscellaneous beads ranging in size from 2 – 6 mm in colors that coordinate with copper wire.
    
2. Wrap the entire cuff with 24 ga copper wire.
    
3. Cut approx 2'  of 24 ga copper wire and anchor one end of the wire near the center of the cuff by wrapping it around the cuff a few times.
    
4. String beads randomly, a few inches at a time and begin wrapping back and forth in a random pattern on the cuff. Take care not to let the wire pull the top and bottom of the cuff together.
    
5. Keep wrapping and adding beads as desired. Add more wire when required. Stop when you are happy with the result. Enjoy!