Copper wire wrapped jade necklace with Swarovski crystals

This year, most of my friends are turning 40. What can I say? 1974 was a great year. Anyway, it was recently the 40th birthday of my college roommate from sophomore year and I wanted to make her something special.

Though this friend is a doctor, she's also an artist -- and double-majored in bio and art back in school. Her specialty was doing sketches and still life drawings; she even once sketched a picture of our messy dorm room.

However, my favorite story has to be when she tried to steal a stuffed monkey from one of the guys who lived on our floor. She kept taking his doll and he kept taking it back; they were just joking around, but it turned into a whole thing where we were trying to help her hide it from him. Finally, she stuffed the monkey in a drawer and handed him back a perfect sketch of his toy. It was very funny at the time!

I knew she'd appreciate receiving something handmade so I created this necklace:

It's a simple design; the pendant is jade and it's wire wrapped with 20 gauge copper and Swarovski crystals. I really like how the spirals turned out, though. It looks a bit like an art-deco design.

My friend liked it, too, and called it one of my "masterpieces." This is high praise coming from someone who's so talented! Perhaps she was just being polite, but I think if anyone appreciates the work that goes into making something, she does.

Check out my jewellery at Naomi's Designs and MayaGirl Creations. And check out my novel REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD on Amazon.

New Project: Handmade Enamel Christmas Ornaments!

I know, I know, it's been a really long time since I've posted. Well, we were on vacation for a few weeks and it's been a pretty quiet summer in terms of my jewelry businesses.

Happily, things are picking up! So far, I have two craft fairs scheduled for the fall and class stars again in a few weeks.

In retail, September typically means the start of the Christmas season. Yes, it's realllly early, but I've seen many stores put out the beginnings of their holiday items along with the back-to-school stuff and Halloween costumes. I guess some people like to get their holiday shopping done well in advance so they don't have to contend with crowds -- and can enjoy Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, etc. without having to worry about everything else.

For this year's holiday, I'm trying something new: I'm making cute enamel Christmas ornaments. It seems like a natural thing to do with enamel, but I haven't made pieces this big. Anyway, my ornaments are all cat-themed:

Obviously, they are still unfinished. I won't have access to the kiln until class resumes next month so for now, I'm cutting out the metal shapes from 24 gauge copper. I drew those shapes free-hand, by the way, and then used each of my initial cut-outs as my pattern. I made angel cats, cats in stockings, cats with Santa hats and gingerbread cats. I think these Christmas ornaments will be colorful and fun, and when they're finished, I plan to hang them from a tiny Christmas tree.

From a distance, it looks like I'm making cookies or paper dolls, but working with metal -- even metal that's pretty thin -- can be dangerous. I'm using extremely sharp sheers and any rough edges of the copper can slice through your skin. I've actually spent much more time filing the ornaments because I want the metal to be smooth for the enameling process. I have a bunch of cuts on my fingers from my work, but that's okay.

This past weekend, my childhood friend Lani came to visit and wanted to try her hand at cutting out a metal shape. She thought it would be like cutting through paper and was surprised at how tough it is. With some work, though, she managed to make a little fish, which she called her "Sharknado" (after the movie, of course):

At first, she didn't want to file down the points, but gave in and let me do it after she poked herself. Her plan is to paint her shark and put it on her living room shelf.

As of now, I'm almost finished with Phase One of my ornaments. My plan is to make 20 to start -- and then make more if they sell well. I'm very eager to get to enameling, but I'll have to wait. Meantime, enjoy your Labor Day weekend.

Check out my jewellery at Naomi's Designs and MayaGirl Creations.

Mixed Metal Wire Wrapped Bubble Bracelet In Silver, Copper And Bronze

I was really pleased with how my wire wrapped silver and copper bubble bangle bracelet turned out, so I made a tri-colored version of it using silver, copper and bronze:

The challenge in making this mixed metal bracelet was to balance the three different colored wires. I didn't want it to have too much of one color -- which was a bit difficult since the bracelet's base is silver. But I played around with the placement and shapes of the spiral "bubbles" and like how it turned out.

I love the way that silver, copper and bronze look together and am already thinking of other variations: I'd like to make a copper and bronze bracelet with a copper base or one with a bronze base and silver bubbles. Or I'd even like to try brighter colors, like silver and blue wire.

This bracelet has already gotten a lot of views and a few sales; I think it stands out because it's fun and funky -- but is still a pretty simple design. Moreover, I have a great time making them, so look for more to come!

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

Next project: enamel and cloisonne cat pendant and hamsa pendant

For most of my enamel jewelry projects, I've been working with squares or circles, but I'm ready to move on to more complicated shapes. Next, I'm going to make an enameled and cloisonne cat pendant and hamsa (a Judaic/Middle Eastern symbol that's shaped like a hand and wards off the evil eye) pendant.

This afternoon, I cut the shapes from 20 gauge copper sheet metal. In the past, I've cut metal using a jeweler's saw, but that can take hours. This time, I used super strong Joyce Chen scissors and they ripped right through the copper! It wasn't easy as I had to put a lot of force into it, but they worked. Now I'm eager to try these scissors on 22 or 24 gauge copper because they'll probably cut through the metal like butter.

I spent about an hour filing my cat and hamsa and crafted copper cut-outs that look pretty good:

You can see the outline that I drew on the hamsa. I plan to put the traditional (evil) eye in the center of the palm, but cover the rest with an abstract cloisonne design. I think I'll use bold jewel tones for this so it looks a little like stained glass.

I also plan to do an abstract cloisonne on the cat pendant, but I'm going to use "cat-colored" enamels: browns, black, ginger and white. I'm basing this a little on my kitty, Maya, who's multi-colored so my enamel cat will have those hues.

I have to say, I really got a kick out of using the Joyce Chens. I felt like a superhero as I cut through that metal! I'm also enjoying my enameling class this semester. I'm getting to do some more complex pieces and we have a good group of people. So far, no one has dropped out and everyone seems to be more engaged than in some of my former classes. In my first jewelry class, we went from about 12 students to three over the course of the semester, so it's nice to be a part of a group where everyone is interested in the craft.

On Tuesday, I hope to get as far as setting the cloisonne. I'm going to see if I can buy some studio time after class so I can finish my projects. We'll see. But now that I have my copper cut-outs, I'm eager to get started!

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

Wire wrapped jewelry patterns: make a wire wrapped copper bracelet

Good news! I am now sharing my jewelry making secrets on HubPages.

As I explained in my earlier post, I am now freelancing/designing jewelry full time. That said, I'm combining both of my skills and am writing instructional articles for simple wire wrapped jewelry projects.

The first project is a copper bracelet made of four-leaf clover links. It's really cute and easy to do. For more information, head to my HubPages article.

To purchase my jewelry, head to Naomi's Designs on Etsy.

Mixed Metal Copper And Silver Jewelry Pieces

Now that I'm taking a metalsmithing class, I have so many more ideas for pieces. Being able to saw and drill jewelry is a useful skill and gives you so much more room for creativity. That said, I'm now making a series of mixed metal jewelry pieces made of copper and silver.

One is this copper heart that's wire wrapped with silver. I decided to combine my skills and created an industrial looking heart that hangs from a silver chain. That chain is handmade, too, by the way, and took a million years to make. Sawing the heart was a challenge because you have to get that top curve and the indentation, but I like how it came out:

The next piece I made consists of a small silver square hanging over a larger copper square. I turned each on an angle to make them look like diamonds and hammered each to give them texture. This chain is also handmade. One thing to note: silver is harder than copper so it takes longer to saw. It also takes much more force.

This piece is very abstract, but I love the combo of the metals. I plan to get some brass sheets, too, so I can play around with those.

To purchase these pieces or my other jewelry, head to Naomi's Designs.

Wire wrapped copper chandelier triangle earrings with blue Swarovski crystals

As I said in a previous post, I've been trying to design more challenging pieces of jewelry. This weekend I finished these wire wrapped copper triangle earrings.

These earrings weren't technically hard to make, but were very labor intensive. Altogether, I had to make 42 little triangles -- 21 on each earring -- so that took a few days to complete. I think they look really cool, though, almost like a waterfall. My original plan was to weave the blue Swarovski crystals throughout, but I think that would have been overkill. I like how they turned out with just the little pop of blue at the top of the triangle cascade.

These chandelier earrings are pretty long at about 3 1/2 inches, but are surprisingly light-weight. I test drove them today while I was cleaning and almost forgot I had them on.

To purchase my jewelry, head to Naomi's Studio or Naomi's Designs.