New silver wire wrapped bangle bracelets with square crystals

I've been getting back into the groove of making jewelry by creating some new silver wire wrapped bangle bracelets. I have a craft fair coming up in two weeks and these always sell pretty well. My plan is to have a whole bunch of these in different colors.

Each of these is pretty minimalist. I use 18 gauge silver plated wire and 8mm square crystals. They look so pretty, though, and I think that's why my customers like them: they're a simple, classic design.

I haven't sold at a craft fair for a few months so I feel like I'm a bit out of practice. Hopefully, these bracelets will get my stand some attention and I'll have a great start to the spring craft fair season. Meanwhile, you can purchase my jewelry on Etsy at Naomi's Designs or MayaGirl Creations.

Stud earrings wire wrapped with crystals and pearls

My latest jewelry experiment involves making something pretty simple: stud earrings. I've gotten many requests for stud earrings, but haven't yet tried to make them. This weekend, I decided to try my hand at it and am happy with the results.

Most people who've had their ears pierced have started out with simple stud earrings before moving on to hoop or dangle earrings. I personally like studs because they don't weight your ears down as chandelier-type earrings sometimes can. Plus, they just look very chic and elegant.

I figured that these would be pretty easy to make; after all, I'd just be wire wrapping a stone, right? Well, not really. The challenge comes in making the post part of the earring, the portion that you actually stick into your ear. For one thing, you can't make the post too short or long; if it's too short, the earring will fall out and if it's too long, the post will poke into the side of your head. So I had to keep trying post sizes until I came up with a good length, about a half inch of wire.

I also had to angle the post correctly so that the earrings hung nicely. You don't want the earrings to droop or to stick up too far. Plus, you need the post to remain stable as you put on and remove the earring. So I had to arrange the post in the right way to do all of this -- and it took a few tries.

That said, a simple stone or pearl works best for this design. I tried to make stud heart earrings, but the design was too flimsy to work; the wire kept bending as I manipulated the post into my ear. I think the stud design would work, though, if I kept the stud portion simple and then attached something *below* the stone. It would be an interesting alternative to my typical chandelier earrings which I attach to a French hook, so I'm planning to try it sometime soon.

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

Colorful wire wrapped bracelets with spiral design

My work for MayaGirl Creations is coming along very well! This morning, I heard from next week's event organizer and she said that she's really looking forward to the affair, and to working with me. I'm excited, too! This is going to be the first time that my jewellery is featured in a fashion show, so that's going to be a lot of fun.

I'd like to have at least 100 pieces ready for the fair; so far, I've made about 70, most of them earrings. But for the past couple of days, I've been making this colorful wire wrapped spiral bracelets:

The design is pretty simple, but looks really cool, especially when the spirals are made in different colors. Because I'm going to be dealing with kids, I made these with adjustable chains that can go from about four to seven inches. This way, they'll be small enough to fit little wrists, but can also fit an adult. I have a feeling that there will be at least a few adults at this event who want my jewelry for themselves!

Right now, I have about a dozen bracelets ready, but I plan to have about 20 altogether. Between that and my other pieces, I should be all set.

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

Big News! Fire Mountain Gems' Jewelry Contest

I have some exciting news to share! Two of the three pieces that I entered into Fire Mountain Gems' jewelry making contest have been accepted into the final round for the wire and metalwork category!

The two that made it into the finals are my Middle Eastern inspired wire wrapped bib necklace and chandelier earring set, Nefertiti's Kiss:

And my modern art-inspired necklace, Try, Tri Again:

My wire wrapped earrings, Pretty In Pink, did NOT make the cut:

I'm SOOOOO happy about making it this far!!!! I was hoping to get one entry into the finals and was banking on the wire wrapped jewelry set to make it. So I'm thrilled that two pieces of mine have made it. Obviously, I'd love to win in my division because the prize is sweet: a $1000 gift certificate for Fire Mountain and a lot of publicity. But I can honestly, honestly say that I'm overjoyed just to be at this stage. Jewelry making is still a fairly new part of my life; I haven't even been doing it for two years (it'll be my two year anniversary as a jewelry artist in August), so this says to me, "Hey, you're legit. We take you seriously in this world." It means that my probably crazy decision to work full time in this art and on my business isn't THAT insane -- and that I'm good enough at it that people appreciate my work.

I have no idea what will happen next, and if I even have a shot at winning. I've seen the work of past winners and it's pretty amazing! So to be in that company is an honor in itself.

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

Wire wrapped bracelet daisy flowers in blue, turquoise and aqua

Yuck, it's so hot out today in New York City! It's supposed to reach a sizzling 98 degrees so I'm hiding out inside where we can crank up the A/C. I'm also trying to think of cooling thoughts ... like snow-covered mountains and the North Pole.

A great way to "think cool," too is to envision cool colors, like blues and greens. So here is one of my recent designs, this wire wrapped daisy flower bracelet in blue, turquoise and aqua:

Once upon a time, purple was my favorite color, but as an adult it's all shades of blue. I think it's because blue reminds me of the ocean and I love the water. That probably has something to do with my birth sign being Aquarius.

From a distance, this wire wrapped pattern looks almost as if it were knit, but that's all wire. It still amazes me sometimes that I can take a strand of wire and turn it into a complex object, like a daisy. I like making as many parts of my pieces as I can from scratch and working with wire allows me to do just that.

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

Wire wrapped rings in hot pink fuchsia

I haven't been working with colored wire for very long, but it's always a thrill to come upon a new color that I haven't yet used. It reminds me of when I was a kid and would draw with crayons or sculpt things with Play-Doh. Probably the best part was when I first removed that crayon or clay from its package and I could admire the color, all perfect and shiny and pristine. That's how I feel when I get a brand-new coil of colorful wire. Or maybe I'm just attracted to shiny objects...

I recently got this hot pink wire. It's so bright and fun ... and makes me think back to my youth in the '80s when I was obsessed with neon clothing. I have no idea if neon is back in style, but I had a good time playing with this color wire and made these two rings:

This is a neon pink version of my wire wrapped heart ring for girls:

And then this is a new style that I came up with, hot pink kissing lips!

I love being creative and having fun when I make pieces. Having cool, new colors to play with is a surefire way to keep me happy!

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

Funky Wire Wrapped Heart Earrings

Often an idea for a jewelry piece comes to me simply based on the materials I have on hand. These days in particular, I'm trying to be more frugal when it comes to purchasing jewelry making products. I still buy new things if necessary, but I'm trying to refrain from stockpiling beads and crystals.

I had some leftover colorful wire and I still have about a million billion Swarovski crystal hearts in every color imaginable, so I created some earrings that used both materials ... and came up with these wire wrapped heart earrings with dangling Swarovski hearts.

Here they are in pink:

And in purple

I plan to eventually make similar heart earrings in red, blue, black, green ... all of the colors of the rainbow. Since I'm now designing a line for kids, I have to think in terms of bright colors -- and in terms of collections. I remember that when I was a kid, I liked to have entire sets of things, so if someone made heart earrings in various colors, I would've wanted them all.

As a random side note, I'm finding that it's very hard to photograph purple jewelry. It tends to look black on screen, even if the light's good. One of my bracelets had purple and black links placed next to one another and I had to move them around because they just would not photograph well. I've solved the problem by photographing purple against a black backdrop, but it's a weird problem that I never expected to encounter. I have a reputation for being a horrible photographer (and even worse videographer) in my family; I even get made fun of for my awful photos. But I'm practicing and am learning how to make my Etsy pics look at least well, decent, if not great. It's funny how many skills you actually need to know to successfully run an Etsy store -- writing, business, knowing keywords, photography... it really is a lot of work, but so far, it's been worth it.

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

Funky rainbow multicolored wire wrapped bracelet with filigree design

This rainbow filigree bracelet is one of the first items I made for my new Etsy shop, MayaGirl Creations. I've been invited to sell my jewelry at an upcoming charity event, but the woman in charge asked me to make children's pieces. So I took my basic wire wrapped filigree bracelet design and used pink, blue and purple to create this multicolored version of it:

I made this using 18 gauge plated copper wire, which was a little difficult to work with, especially since I was trying to make smaller versions of the filigree clovers. I find that the colored wire is tough, so I ordered some in 20 gauge. I think the slightly softer wire will have more flexibility for creating this type of looped design. Still, I like the colors in this bracelet.

Yesterday, I gave a bracelet and two rings to the charity organizer so she'd have some samples of my work to show around. I hope that the kids (and their parents) like my stuff and will be interested in buying my pieces when the time comes. I guess I'll hear of their reactions when I next see the organizer at the bus stop on Tuesday. But for now, I'm having fun making bright, colorful children's jewelry designs.

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

Wire Wrapped Geometric Earrings With Black, Blue And Purple Spirals

Since I have all of these differet colored wires, I decided to make something fun and funky with them. I played with the wire for a bit and came up with these colorful earrings in black, blue and purple.

What surprised me is that the colored wire has a much different texture than the silver or copper. The blue bends and twists pretty easily, but the black is pretty tough. I had to put a lot of force into it to get that little spiral. I guess the plating adds some weight to the wire, making it heavier to work with.

I'm tempted to buy some more colors, but I'm holding back. I already have these, plus all of that anodized aluminum. What I really need to do is make something that combines the metal and wire. Talk about being colorful!

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