New Funky Wire Wrapped Earring Designs!

Happy New Year! Hope your 2014 is full of love and joy!

While I come up with plenty of designs on my own for Naomi's Designs and MayaGirl Creations, many times it will be the customers who give me ideas. I've been receiving more and more custom orders, mostly where the requests involve using a different wire or colored bead in my designs. Still, a different colored metal or bead can completely transform the look of a piece -- and I'm grateful to these customers for helping me to expand my merchandise.

I recently had a big order from a self-described "earring fanatic." She gravitated toward my abstract wire wrapped earrings with spirals, but asked to see them in many different shades and with different colored Swarovski crystals. In the end, I created nine new earrings for her -- plus a bracelet! Here is my latest gallery:

Out of these new earrings, my favorites are the mixed metal diamonds with the silver beads and the gold spirals and squiggles with the red crystals. It's funny because I've been selling the silver squiggles and spirals for years and though the earrings have gotten many views, no one has actually purchased a pair -- online or in person. This woman asked if I could add beads and then make the same pair in a few different colors. I did and really like how they turned out. Plus, I not only sold some to her, but ended up selling another pair of the gold ones the next day.

The diamond mixed metal earrings came from this woman asking if I could make something abstract that used gold-colored and silver wire (the gold-colored wire is bronze, by the way). I played around with a design based on other earrings of mine that she liked and came up with this funky pattern. She likes that they're so "out there" and unique.

I love working for myself and having so much creative freedom, but it's also fun to work with another person once in a while. I'm always open to trying new ideas and techniques and am honored when a customer chooses me to turn their jewelry vision into a reality.

Patterns With Handmade Wire Jewelry Patterns

It's interesting how certain items of mine seem to be popular at different times. By no means do I consider myself to be a trendsetter -- not yet, anyway -- but still, various items are becoming best sellers for me at different points.

Last spring, I was selling a lot of my chandelier heart earrings. Every other purchase made was for those earrings and I even had a couple of co-workers buy pairs.

This summer was all about the infinity ring. I sold dozens of infinity rings, both online and at fairs. People just couldn't get enough of this item!

Lately, I've been selling many gold and silver abstract pendants. I've sold several of these in the past, but the sales are now coming in waves. I'm also selling more chandelier earrings, too. Meanwhile, September was a successful business month overall, but I didn't sell one infinity ring!

I like to study my sales patterns because it's important for me to know what my customers like and what's attracting buyers. But to be honest, I can't really figure anything out! Both the chandelier earrings and infinity rings get a lot of views on Etsy. So you figure that more views equals more potential buyers. I'm wondering if perhaps I sold so many infinity rings over the summer is because they're an item that's popular with teens ... and it's over the summer that teens would buy them. Many teens have summer jobs, so there's some extra money or they're looking for back to school items ... and a sale is made.

However, the sales of my abstract necklaces baffle me a bit because those don't get many views. I sold two necklaces this week, a silver and a gold, which had 12 and 7 views, respectively. That's it. My silver infinity ring has thousands of views.

The most logical theory that I can come up with is that the people who buy my abstract necklaces are lookintg for something very specific. Perhaps it's attracting buyers who aren't coming online to browse; they're there to buy a certain type of necklace and when they see mine, they just buy it. The infinity ring, though, is catching people's eyes when they browse. They'll stop and say, "Oh, cute!" but won't necessarily purchase it.

I don't know if I'll ever really figure out these sales patterns. As long as business is good, I'll accept whatever comes my way!

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

Copper wire wrapped rings with Swarovski crystals

For the longest time, I avoided making rings. When I first began making wire wrapped jewelry, I watched some ring tutorials online and attempted to make some --and failed miserably. My rings were so unfortunate looking and I decided to concentrate on other pieces, like earrings instead. Rings seemed to be boring, anyway. I mean, how intricate could you really make them?

Well, my mind has been changed and I take back ever thinking that they were boring to make! Over the past year, I've gained a new respect for them and find that some of my most creative pieces have been rings. I've, of course, designed my line of infinity rings and funky coil wire wrapped rings, but I wanted to try making something a little more intricate. So I returned to my mandrel and played around with it -- and you know what? After two years of wire wrapping, I CAN, in fact, make some interesting and nice looking pieces.

The following pieces are from my new line of abstract copper wire wrapped art rings. These are all one of of kind and are a size 7 or 7 1/2 (I went for the most common sizes). Basically, I created a ring base and then let my imagination guide me as I designed the rings' center. I twisted and looped the wire, added some Swarovski crystals and really didn't know what to expect until I'd finished! I think that these are cool, though. Here are the pieces I've made so far:

These designs were somewhat random as I'm still figuring out how much wire I need for certain patterns, but I'm getting better at gauging these things. They're so much fun to make, too! I can't believe I waited so long to work on rings, but am glad that I finally "discovered" them.

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

Cute Wire Wrapped Rings For Kids

As I add more items to MayaGirl Creations, I'm playing around with more colors and shapes. Sometimes I feel a little like a balloon artist, twisting my materials into familiar-looking items.

That said, here are some more of the wire wrapped rings in my collection. This is my monster ring:

Here's my eyeball ring:

And this is my hot pink high heel shoe ring!

My friend Karen, who is an elementary school teacher gave my designs her stamp of approval, so I feel like I'm on the right track. Meantime, it's nice to relax a bit this summer and try to *think* like a kid!

To purchase my jewelry, 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.

Colorful rainbow wire wrapped bracelets

Great news! I made my first sales at MayaGirl Creations -- and in under a week. Yay! Plus, the woman who's hosting that charity event at which I'll be selling my children's jewelry told me that the kids and their moms loved my sample piece.

But I'm not letting it get to my head. I have so much work to do to make my latest shop a place worth checking out. And as always, I'm trying to create fun and unique items.

My latest designs are these colorful wire wrapped bracelets:

I've made both design before: the daisy links and the filigree clovers. But I had a good time using the colored wire and arranging the links like a rainbow. I'm imagining my future stand at craft fairs and just envisioning an explosion of color. I mean, when you were a kid, weren't you drawn to colorful things? Heck, I still am!

When it comes to kids, I'm also thinking in terms of safety, so I'm using ready-made hypoallergenic ear wires and am double checking pieces to make sure that there are no sharp edges. It's a new kind of challenge, but as you know, I always welcome that when it comes to doing something creative.

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

Colorful Wire Wrapped Ring Designs

I recently got some wire in electric blue, purple and black. It's really cool! So I made some of my favorite funky designs, only this time they're in technicolor:

Here are infinity rings in blue, purple and black:

Here's a black daisy flower ring:

And here are blue and purple double spiral rings:

I've made all of these designs before (you're probably sick of seeing the infinity symbol rings), but it's amazing to see what a little color can do! I'm brainstorming some more intricate designs that incorporate these colors. Sometimes it's just fun to play.

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