DIY Tutorial Wire-Wrapped Heart Pendant

Have you ever wanted to use a unique way of attaching a focal drop or pendant to a jewelry or craft design?  Well I found some pretty Swarovski crystal hearts in my great stash of beads and jewelry supplies.  Amazingly I had never used them for anything and they were just sitting in a little plastic bin - all lonely and just waiting to be put into some pretty design.

Now usually, I just slip a large jump ring through the hole at the top of beads like these, but I really was yearning for a more interesting and unique way to showcase these beauties.  So here is what I came up with using a bit of wire and an extra round bead to accent the heart.  Here is a picture of a finished focal piece with an emerald green heart and round bead:

This technique should work fine for any drop pendant or focal piece that has a top drilled hole from front to back.  Ready to get started?  Here's what you'll need:

Supplies needed:

• Focal pendant - I used a 14x14mm size Swarovski crystal heart.
• Round bead - I used a 6mm round faceted Swarovski crystal bead.
• Round jump ring - I used an 8mm size closed jump ring - but you could also use an open jump ring if you prefer.
• 10 inch piece of 24 gauge wire.

Tools needed:

• Wire cutters
• Flat nose pliers and/or needle nose pliers - you can get by with either one of these, but I find I like to use both.
• Round nose pliers

Now for a quick look at how to make this pendant, here is a photo collage tutorial.  For more detailed instructions, scroll down below the photo collage.

Instructions:

1.  Slide your heart or other focal piece onto the wire about mid way.  Then pinch the wire together just above the top of the piece to form a little triangle.

2.  Now slide your round bead through BOTH pieces of wire down to the top of the little triangle part of the wire.  This is why you need 24 gauge wire which is small enough to accommodate two strands of wire.

3.  Next you need to make a simple wire-wire wrapped loop above your bead.  This is a basic jewelry making technique that many of you might already know how to do, but I will review it here:

Grab the wire just above the bead with your round nose pliers.

Bend the wire away from you over the top piece of your pliers.

Reposition your pliers so that you can begin looping the wire over the BOTTOM of your pliers.

Begin forming your loop by wrapping the two pieces of wire around the bottom portion of your pliers.

Now if you don't want to add a jump ring - or if you plan to use an open jump ring instead of a closed one - you could finish the loop by just wrapping your wire down to the round bead.  But I like the stability of a closed jump ring so this is where I added one.

Slide your closed jump ring through the loop - you might have to open your loop a bit to accommodate it.  I find it helpful to use my needle nose pliers to pull the loop through - but you can just use your fingers.

Grab your loop of wire just below your jump ring using your flat nose or needle nose pliers.

Wrap the two pieces of wire around the "stem" of wire from below your jump ring down to your round bead.

Snip off the extra wire with your wire cutters.  After cutting the wire, remember to "flatten" the ends down using your flat nose or needle nose pliers - I did not take a picture of this but you should do it to make the piece more finished.

If your loop is crooked - which it often will be - use your flat nose or needle nose pliers to straighten it.

And here is what your finished piece should look like.

I liked this design so much I made two more in different colors:

You can use these as necklace charms, key charms - or in my case - I used mine for rear view mirror car charms.

I hope you found this tutorial helpful.  If you make something using this tutorial and want me to showcase it here, contact me and send me a picture!

Happy beading!

Irene

Rose Gold Eyeglass Lanyard

I'm expanding my line of eyeglass chains to include rose gold. Up till now I have offered my chains in bright silver, antique silver, antique gold, antique brass and gunmetal.  I also have leather eyeglass leashes as well.

But the hottest trend of late in the world of jewelry has been rose gold, so I thought I must add this to my inventory. I used a mixed metal design with a bright silver loop and swivel clasp.  I like it because it is simple, functional, versatile and beautiful - all at the same time!

Rose Gold and Silver Eyeglass Lanyard/ID-Badge Holder

Round loop detaches easily from the swivel clasp

The chain is a medium weight rose gold box rollo style. I used a bright silver swivel clasp and a round hammered silver loop on the end.  The detachable loop can be used to hold your eyeglasses with.  If you need to use it as an ID-Badge holder, simply detach the loop and use the swivel clasp to hang your ID-Badge onto.

Find this lanyard and more eyeglass and ID-Badge holders in my Etsy shop: EyeglassChainsEtc.etsy.com!

As always, thanks for visiting!
Irene

New Stick Pins for Scrapbooking and More!

This week I made more of my beaded stick pins.  You can find them in my Etsy shop DJAjewels.etsy.com.

There are tons of uses for stick pins.  Use them in scrapbooking and other craft projects.  Attach them to greeting and Christmas cards.  Use them as lapel or scarf pins or corsage pins.  Or just place them in a pretty pin cushion and use them as a decoration!

In case you missed my past post on how to make your own beaded stick pins and want to know how to make them, click here.

The only thing I did differently from the original tutorial is that I used pre-made metal wire pins instead of making my own out of wire.  This saved a huge amount of time - just needed to pick out my beads and glue them on!  I got my wire pins from FireMountainGems.com - click here for the link to the specific listing.

Glass Heart Stick Pins

Jewel Tone Beaded Stick Pins

Cathedral Bead Stick Pins

Lampwork Heart Stick Pins

And of course, I had to go ahead and make some Christmas stick pins!

Christmas Themed Stick Pins

Set of Three Red and Green Multi-Color Stick Pins

Set of Three Holiday Red Stick Pins

Set of Three Holiday Green Stick Pins

Till next time!

Irene

irene@djajewels.com

DJAjewels.com

Pearl Wire Wrapped Post Earrings

A few weeks ago I wrote a tutorial on how to make wire wrapped pearl post earrings.  This type of design is also sometimes referred to as "caged bead" earrings.  This week I made several more of these pretty baubles to list in my Etsy shop.

In case you missed the tutorial, you can check it out here. For these earrings, I used different colors of Swarovski crystal 8mm pearls and 20 gauge wire.  I used several different kinds of wire - sterling silver, silver filled, 14K gold filled, rose gold filled, bronze and gunmetal.

White Pearl With Bronze Wire Wrapping

Cream Pearl With Silver Wire Wrapping

Black Pearl With Silver Wire Wrapping

Light Blue Pearl With Silver Wire Wrapping

Bordeaux Pearl With Gunmetal Wire Wrapping

Bright Gold Pearl With Silver Wire Wrapping

Lavender Pearl With Silver Wire Wrapping

Peach Pearl With 14K Gold Fill Wire Wrapping

Platinum Pearl with Silver Wire Wrapping

Rose Gold Pearl With Rose Gold Filled Wire Wrapping

These earrings are such fun to make!  As you can see I got carried away and made them in every color of pearl I had on hand.  My next project might be to make these with different color of crystals, so check back soon!  In the mean time, you can find these beauties at DJAjewels.etsy.com.

Wine Cork Ornament Tutorial

My last blog post showed how to make a basic wine cork ornament.  This week I took one of these wine corks and embellished it.

Here is what the basic ornament looks like before decorating it:

In case you missed my last post, click here to read how to put the wire loops on each end of your cork.

Here is the cork after decorating it:

For this ornament I used two of these round silver open links (I got these from FireMountainGems.com.)

You can use any component you like, but these worked well because they were a perfect size to fit on top of the wine cork and they have lots of little openings for attaching things.

In addition to the links, you will need some E-6000 glue, push pins, chain, and beads. The chain I used has links that open and close like jump rings.

I forgot to photograph wire which you will also need.  You will need this to place your beads onto and make wire-wrapped loops for attaching to your chain.  Alternatively, you can use headpins.

In order to attach the chain, I glued one of the round links to the top of the cork, then placed several push pins through some of the openings.  Then I attached several links of chain around the link.

I attached the second round link to the loop on the top of the cork with one of the open links from the chain - I used it like a jump ring - just open and close it with some needle nose pliers. Here is a close-up of the top of the ornament.

I then made several wire wrapped beaded loops and attached them to the bottom of the chains.

I finished the ornament by adding some beaded trim to the top round link for hanging the ornament - you could also use ribbon or twine.

Of course, there are lots of other ways to embellish these corks.  You might glue some pretty rhinestones or flat beads to the cork.  There are lots of possibilities.  I would love to see what you come up with.  Send me some pictures of your wine cork ornaments and I will share them here!

You can contact me at:
irene@djajewels.com