Little Light Barred

Recent Crochet Projects

Bear Claws

 Faux bear claws that is.

 We decided to recycle some antler tips.

And we know 2 little boys who might enjoy these for Christmas!

Little Bags

We've been doing some reorganizing and reevaluating of our belongings around here. I spent the afternoon yesterday helping my daughter go through her jewelry. She has a ton more than I have! Of course that normally means I end up with a clutter on my counter, how does that happen?

That hasn't kept me from crochet projects though. I have an idea for these cute little bags. This one's 2" wide and 2 1/4 high with a 24" strap.

Peas

Many jewelry artists are making really cool pea pod necklaces. I love these and had to try making my own.

This pea pod is made with sheet copper cut into the shape of a leaf. A hole is punched through each end. I used a dowel to gently round it in half long ways and lightly hammered the ends. I strung colored fresh water pearls on green coated copper wire and strung this through the hole at the ends. A little bail work and spirals finish it off. I'm pleased with my peas!

Copper Kitty Continued

The next thing is filing and sanding.

It's amazing the results you get from some simple, inexpensive items from the hardware store. I don't mind the imperrrfections, they add character to the piece.

Some copper chain, assorted jump rings and a lobster clasp finishes the piece.

Cute as a Kitten!

Pearl, over at the Beading Gem's Journal, suggests keeping your metal jewelry in plastic zip lock bags in order to keep them shiny.

Copper Kitty

My dad had sent me some sheet copper and today I felt compelled to do something with it. Since I have a house full of kitties now I figured that was a good place to start. Let me take you through my process. Drawings, ya gotta make drawings. It didn't take long but here is where you want to make your mistakes.

After making my drawing satisfactory I needed to think about were to put a hole for hanging for a necklace. The above photo shows a hole that doesn't balance.

This hole is better and gives me an idea of correct positioning.

So I mark my holes on my template and then cut it out.

I use a glue stick to put my template on the metal.

Ok, in between gluing my template on and cutting out the kitty is a story in itself. A story of broken blades and frustration so I'm gonna give you a web site that addresses this. I will be studying it myself!!!

http://www.jatayu.com/Education/Tutorials/SFDtut.htm

I found it by Googling, ya'll gotta Google stuff you'll learn so much!

With uncountable broken blades I cut out Copper Kitty.

Now it's hole punch time. I ordered a hole punch on Ebay. All I'm gonna say about that is that it was broken before I received it. I bought one at Michael's afterward figuring that I could return it if there was a problem.

No problem, this puppy works!!!

Ain't she pretty!

More to come.

http://karenmakesstuff.blogspot.com/2011/04/copper-kitty-continued.html

Beads in the Mail Saturday

I ordered some cool gemstone beads on Amazon and they came in today...

and the other day Daniel went with me to the craft store and he gave me a lot of cool ideas. He also picked out a lot of stuff I wouldn't normally buy. He likes all the metal stuff!

So with his metal stuff and my gemstones I came up with this. Of course with Ro's approval.

How about a pair of earrings to go with.

Finished Creation

I finished what I was working on over the weekend and so did my husband.

And now the pigeons are finishing his grass seed.

I'm loving these magnetic clasps.

And how about some matching earrings?

I tried to get a bit fancy with the head pin.

I Need A Simple Solution

The girls at my husbands work suggested I start making jewelry sets. I started last night but it leads to a complication. You can stick a bracelet into a cute little bag but a set like this needs to lay flat and not move around. In stores they use boxes with foam and tabs and such. I'm not a store but I need to figure out a way to do the same thing simply.

That's something I'm going to work on today, presentation. I'll probably need to head over to the craft store too, don't tell Daniel.

I added this shot so you could see how the necklace hung. I'll let you know how I did.