I love tutorials! :0)

Hi all!

Today i am writing about tutorials. Well I couldn't do that without sharing with you all a fantastic site called JewelryLessons.com. Jewelry Lessons is mostly about wire working, but there are also a lot of jewellery artists on there who work in other Media such as metal clay and bead work. Take a look through their gallery so see many different types of work.

I love this site!! It is chock full of tutorials and tips. Most of the tuts on there you pay for, many are $10 or under. There are also a number of free tuts on there that are perfect for beginners in the world of wire work. This site was set up by a wire worker so there is an abundance of wire tuts. There are also other tuts. There are some basic metal smithing tuts, bead weaving tuts, metal clay tuts and poly clay tuts. There are hundreds of them!

I recently bought bobbiewireds Charming hearts tut. This is what I made.

I used 0.8mm sterling silver wire to make this heart. Then I hung it on a fine sterling silver curb chain. I love it. It was perfect for valentines day.

Bobbies tut was clear and easy to follow, with good instructions and a bit of humor. She also had some great ideas on variations we could try to make it more of our own piece. What is really great though, is that, if I had run into any problems with this tut then all would have to do is post a Q's about it on the site and Bobbie would be there to answer it. Or if for some reason she couldn't answer it, there are hundreds of other people on the who can. Now that is a great service! lol

So next time you are looking to create something but are lacking in a little inspiration, check out jewelrylessons.com and I'm sure you will find something there to get you going :0)

Kaylie x

Metal clay adventures

OK so a little while ago I tried my hand at Silver Art Clay. I have to say that I LOVED it! I made a cute little earrings and necklace set and a pendant. I used two 7g packs to make these and I have a tiny amount left. I am going to get some more at some point, as I have a few ideas, for a doughnut bail. I don't think that I will creating with this exclusively, but its fun to play with.


Here is the necklace that I made. I first rolled out the AC to 1mm thick, then I used a skeletonized leaf to add the texture. I then used a little heart utter to cut out the shapes before I put some holes in.

I then dried them in the oven and used my torch to fire all of the hearts. When they were cool I buffed them up to a high shine and LOS them. Then I polished them up again and made them into the earrings and the necklace. The ear wires and the chain are sterling silver. The earrings hand at about 2inches and the necklace is 17inches long so that it sits nicely on the collar bone.

I had so much fun making these, and I think they are quite good for a first go, but then I would! lol :0)

Here are some excellent Metal Clay artists that are awesome!

Lisa Barth

I love Lisa, she is so kind and generous with her knowledge. I love to look at her work, It is so full of detail. She is a level 2 Cert AC instructor.

Agnieszka Hopkowicz

I love Agnieszka's style. She has some really cool and interesting ideas. I know about her work from JewleryLessons.com I love this site as you get to see so many different artists creating a huge variety of stuff. Its an eye candy feast over there! lol So go and check it out!

Hugs Kaylie x