Silver wire wrapped enamel butterfly necklace

Last month was my niece's 8th birthday. She's starting to become more interested in clothes and fashion, so I made her a double-sided enamel butterfly necklace:

Her favorite colors are purple and blue, so I used them in the pendant. She's modeling the side that has more purple... and her elephant (a gift from her best friend) is showing off the other side. She loves to dress her stuffed animals and dolls, and is constantly changing and switching their outfits -- so I take the elephant wearing my work as a huge compliment!

Like me, my niece is into drawing and crafts, and I hope she'll continue to have this interest as she gets older. Making her a necklace was not only my way of giving her a gift from the heart, but was also my way to show her what you can do if you work hard and have patience. These days, it's pretty easy to get what you need; I can go into most stores and find an inexpensive and pretty piece of jewelry that was mass produced. But it's so much more satisfying for me to make it myself. I hope I can teach her that she doesn't always have to take the easy way out and buy things, but can find the enjoyment in learning how to cook or sew, or make jewelry.

When she's older, I'll see if she's interested in learning some jewelry-making skills from me. Meantime, I'm happy to have her stuffed animals model my work!

Check out the rest of my handmade wire wrapped and enamel jewellery at Naomi's Designs and MayaGirl Creations.

Silver wire wrapped necklace with rainbow enamel butterfly pendant

This enamel and cloisonne butterfly pendant took sooo much work to make! There were a lot of mistakes made, and a lot of trial and error involved, but huzzah, it's finished! This thing gave me so much trouble that I nicknamed it "My Damn Butterfly" (like Madame Butterly, geddit? Haha).

I did not actually saw out the butterfly shape. I used a ready-made 24 gauge copper stamp. I figured that I could save myself a step in the process and make a few at once. I was wrong.

My first challenge involved balancing the butterfly on the trivet that's used for firing the enamel. I chose the smallest sized trivet, but when I tried to fire the pendant with a torch, it kept slipping off the trivet ... and the enamel kept cracking. I had to chip it off and reapply.

After three tries, I gave up and fired the pendant in the kiln. Happily, it stayed on the trivet and the enamel glossed over evenly.

Next, I had to add the cloisonne wire. I *almost* had this, except a piece fell off during the firing in the kiln and I had to do it over.

Finally, I hand painted it with colored enamel. Meanwhile, I also made a circular pendant with a cloisonne flower that took less time and was coming along great. And then I overfired that in the kiln. Dammit! The kiln usually fires low, but only three people showed up to class yesterday (guess most were not interested in spending a 95 degree F day working with a 1500 degree F kiln). Therefore, it was firing at a normal temperature and I didn't take much time. I should've left my flower in for 60 seconds, but I left it for 90 ... and the entire thing melted into an ugly mess. Anyway, I was determined to NOT melt My Damn Butterfly, so I carefully counted seconds and checked in after every 30. And it came out (though it stuck to the trivet and I had to carefully detach it)! Woo hoo! Here are some more views:

That silver wire wrapped chain is made from 18 gauge wire. I made it adjustable since I'm offering this necklace for kids. If it's adjusable, a child can wear it for a while since there's room in the chain for some growth.

You'd think that I've learned my lesson about enameling odd shapes, but I do like the look of this butterfly. It's cute, right? Only next time, I think I'll make my own.

To purchase my jewellery, head to Naomi's Designs. To purchase my children's jewelry, head to MayaGirl Creations.