Craft Ideas

Creating Jewellery with Silver Wire

Sterling silver jewellery can be crafted from silver wire to create interesting designs and effects. Most silver jewellery wire available for crafting jewellery pieces will be sterling silver which is 92.5 percent pure silver alloyed with 7.5 percent other metals. Quite fine silver wire is generally used for jewellery manufacture as it is easy to bend and work with. As well as the silver wire other materials can be used in your jewellery creation such as precious gemstones, polished stones, glass or crystals.

Before you begin working your materials to create your own designs of jewellery it is advisable to put some design ideas on paper first. Even if you adapt your design while your creative juices are flowing a design on paper gives a good basic starting point for your jewellery design. Fine silver wire can be used for threading drilled gemstone beads and other interesting materials but silver for making jewellery is available in many different shapes for you to work with. Thicker silver wire can be twisted or wrapped into various forms and shapes to create your final piece of jewellery. Flat pieces of silver can be hammered out into exciting designs and given a textured finish surface to make bangles or wide necklets.

If you are new to making your own jewellery you may want to start with a lower cost alternative to silver wire initially. Silver bonded wire is available at many craft websites on the internet and in good local craft stores at a lower price than sterling silver wire. This will be a base metal wire that has been plated with silver, so your resulting jewellery piece will still look like silver but will only be silver plated and may be less hard wearing than sterling silver. And rather than using more expensive precious stones in your jewellery you could begin with lower cost beads made from glass crystal, that can still give outstanding results.

The equipment required to start making your own wire jewellery can be as simple as a pair of pliers and some wire cutters. Simple designs can be made without the need for soldering using simple twists to secure beads onto your jewellery. Sooner or later you may require an oxyacetylene torch to enable you to solder high melting temperature metals such as silver. Once you get the hang of soldering your own jewellery the options for designs and artistic creations will be practically endless.

As well as using silver or silver bonded wire many people create their jewellery from gold wire. Gold wire can be used to great effect in combination with other materials such as pearls or polished semiprecious stone beads. After you have become proficient at making your own wire jewellery you may wish to go on to sell your creations at a local fair or craft show. Many people that started jewellery craft as a simple hobby have progressed to making a part time or even full time income from sales of their jewellery. The appeal to the public of handmade wire jewellery is that they will be wearing one off designs that may be unlike any other jewellery available in the stores.

Making your own Unique Bead Jewellery

You can have great fun creating your own bead jewellery and can start with very little financial outlay. All that you require are your choice of beads that you wish to use and some kind of thread or jewellery wire to use to string your beads. There are various different combinations of beads and design that you can try to make your bead jewellery really stand out.

First you will need to decide on how your beads will be presented. You can simply string them in one long necklace or more complicated designs can be created using jewellery wire or other methods of combining your various beads together. Simple thread can be used for stringing beads as well as cord, nylon, and even mono filament fishing line can be used to great effect. Almost any type of string or thread can be used and some people like to use a more rustic looking fibrous string to give a different appearance to their designs. With jewellery wire you can make almost any type of bead jewellery such as earrings, bracelets or more complicated necklace designs.

Beginners do not need to spend a great deal on bead supplies and can still create brilliant designs. Purchasing beads made from materials such as coloured glass, shell, and plastics will help keep the cost of your jewellery fairly low. Once you get the idea of how to create attractive designs you can start to use more expensive beads made from pearls or precious and semiprecious gemstones. The selection of bead colours and textures available to you is enormous. Beads can be obtained in various different forms from the classic round bead to unpolished free form stone chips. By using different colours, shapes and stones in your bead work you can create interesting designs that are unique to you.

Make A Loom Out Of A Simple Cardboard Weave

In many parts of the world, people make their cloth by weaving on a hand loom. This way of making cloth is thousands of years old.  It is still used by craftsmen everywhere who want to make something especially fine.  Weave a coaster, place mat, doll blanket or rug, scarf, belt, or all hanging.

Here’s how to make your loom, first you will need medium-weight cardboard and yarn. Tools needed are a ruler, pencil, scissors and paper punch. Now decide how wide and how long you want your woven material to be. Draw a rectangle on cardboard 1 inch wider and 2 inches longer than the finished material. Cut out the rectangle. Draw a line across the width 1 inch from each end.

Make an odd number of marks along the top and bottom edges, 1/4 inch apart. Cut notches at the marks.  Punch a hole near the top left corner and bottom right corner.  On cardboard, draw a rectangle 1/2 inch wide and 4 inches long. Cut it out, making one end rounded. Then punch a hole near the other end.  This is your shuttle.

Tie one end of a piece of yarn to the top hole of the loom. Wind the yarn up and down between the notches. There are two ways of doing this.  The first method is easier, but it wastes yarn, since the yarn on the back is later cut off and discarded.

Tie the yarn at the bottom hole. This yarn forms the warp threads of your material.

The crosswise threads are called the woof. For these, you will need a long piece of yarn. Thread one end through the hole in the shuttle and tie it in place.

Now you can start to weave. Start at the line you drew 1 inch up from the bottom of the loom. Pass the shuttle under-over-under-over the warp threads until you reach the other side. Pull the yarn through carefully until there is only a 3-inch long end sticking out where you started.

For the next row, weave back under the threads wherever you went over in the row before, and go over wherever you went under before.

Continue weaving new rows until you reach the 1-inch line at the top of the loom.

Cut the warp thread at top right and tie it to the end of the woof thread. Then cut the next warp thread and tie it to these two threads.  Now cut the remaining warp threads two at a time, tying each two together as you go. Repeat at the bottom. Trim off the fringe and your woven material is finished.

The kind of weave you have just made is called plain weave. Another kind, called twill weave, is made by weaving over and under two warp threads at a time. Try it the diagonal pattern may surprise you.

Making It Personal with Scrapbooks

For people that have never scrapbooked before, the mere thought of the hobby brings to mind images of albums that are overflowing with papers and souvenirs. While this can be the case if the scrapbooker is not particularly skilled at the craft, it doesn’t have to be.

If you are someone that would like to get involved in scrapbooking but is afraid you will just end up with a big mess on your hands, you might want to look into professional printing. If you create your scrapbook pages with a digital medium, for example, you can take your digitally saved scrapbook to a professional printer and have the book created with a clean and slick design.

Professional Printing and Binding

In many cases, if you wish to enlist in the services of a professional publishing and binding company, you can actually receive free software from the company. With this software, you can design your scrapbook layout with ease while still creating a unique look and style that fits with your personal taste. Then, using the digital scrapbook that you created, you can take the saved work to the professional printing and binding service company and have the book created.

In many cases, you can have a book professional bound and printed at a pretty low cost. One of the additional perks to having your scrapbook design professionally published and bound is that you can create multiple copies if your budget allows. This can be a great idea for family gatherings. For example, for your next family reunion, you can put together a scrapbook that will be meaningful to all of your family members. Then, have the book professional bound and published and give away a copy to each family that attends the reunion. This is a great way to share memories while also allowing family members to leave the reunion with a meaningful and special memento.

Creating Your Own Professional Look

If you do not have the funds to enlist in a professional printing and binding company, you can still put together a professional looking scrapbook on your own. You can accomplish this by purchasing your own software and developing your own pages. While this will be somewhat costly as an initial investment, it will be worth it if you intend to create scrapbooks on a regular basis.

Even if you do not have the software it takes to create digital scrapbooks, you can still create a scrapbook with a professional look that contains real life memorabilia rather than digitally created items. In order to do so, be sure to avoid overcrowding your pages and to not allow items to hang out the sides of your album.

While creating each scrapbook individually rather than mass producing them with a professional publisher and binder is a time consuming process, it can make the scrapbook even more meaningful as you personalize each one for the person you will be giving the book to. Therefore, you need to weigh the pros and cons of each method in order to determine which one is right for you.