A blog about my life, knitting, and other stuff.

January 2, 2011

New Skills for the New Year



I've been trying to teach myself wire wrapping lately. My first efforts were pretty sad but with better tools I'm getting better results. These are just some cheap glass beads I got at Jo-Ann's and some cheap wire to go with them. I've gotten myself a few nicer gemstone beads and some silver wire for when I feel like I've got the hang of it. At least if I mess them up I can reuse the beads but it would be good not to waste a lot of the wire. Silver prices are going up! This book, Wrapped in Gems: 40 Elegant Designs for Wire-Wrapped Gemstone Jewelry, has been providing a lot of inspiration. It's pretty thin on instruction though but there is so much information online.

I was also trying to learn to do a little bead crochet. These tubes look so simple but I tried about eight times on Thursday night and could not get it right. Each attempt looked better than the last but they still looked like ass. The free "pattern" has virtually no instruction and no illustrations. I got frustrated and gave up for now.

3 comments:

Tove said...

I was just about to link you to a great site with photo instructions on how to bead crochet spiral ropes, but unfortunately all the images have disappeared due to something the webhost did. She says that you can email her if you're interested in the pictures, though.

The tutorial (in Swedish, but the pics are self explainatory (when they're there...): Stinta.se

The explanation: http://stinta.se/index.php/752191

I hope you get the hang of bead crochet, because it's very fun.

Barbara said...

A friend of mine loves to crochet and just got into beading. I found this book at the library and she liked it a lot. Maybe it would help you too?

http://www.amazon.com/Hooked-Jewelry-40-Designs-Crochet/dp/1933027770/ref=sr_1_16?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1294160541&sr=1-16

Tara said...

I love to do bead crochet! Check out this like for instructions with good pictures. http://www.beadersshowcase.com/profiles/blogs/2049967:BlogPost:3497

I definately recommend using multiple colors also. I tried making a bracelet with just one color and I couldn’t get past the second/third row. I kept getting mixed up with where I was. Also, the first inch or two will look like crap, keep going. Once you establish a “base” it gets better and once you have more practice your base gets better.