Creative Day Today

I stayed up all night to finish a necklace I started weeks ago. The painting had turned out so well, but when I baked the plastic, it deformed as it shrank. I decided to try filing the edges and wow, it worked! So, since I am out of the wire I would usually use, I tried something new -- a triple strand of glass e-beads in pastel colors. Even my husband liked it and he is pretty non-commital about anything except my PMC jewelry.

I designed a new kind of toggle clasp to go with it. It really came out pretty and feminine, yet still personifies the Nebraska Sandhills where I live. The tutorial for this pendant can be found here: http://http//www.jewelrylessons.com/jewel/node/19874

I am considering writing a tutorial for the toggle clasp, as it is so easy to customize it to any piece of jewelry I am making and other people might like it for that very reason too. Who knows -- not all things appeal to the people we think they will appeal to. :)

I also made a few bracelets using my tutorial for a wire-wrapped bangle bracelet, thinking "masculine thoughts" because the challenge at http://www.jewelrylessons.com/, where my tutorials reside, is to use existing tutorials to make jewelry for men, since Father's Day is coming up. That tutorial can be found here:http://http//www.jewelrylessons.com/jewel/node/22724

I found that square stones don't work as well as round ones and need something across them to keep them from "flipping."

On the other hand, I found that drum beads look very masculine and they don't "flip." The wrap comes out looking more square than with round beads, and therefore, more masculine.

I'd best be off to write that tutorial while I have peace and quiet (the house is actually empty right now).

Happy creating!