Swarovski Pearls are Pretty

If I have the choice, I would always go for the real/original/natural pearls.

However, I am beginning to like the Swarovski pearls.

They look so much like the real pearl and all of them are perfectly rounded :)

There are few colors to choose from but I am sure this creamy colored ones would be more popular than the other colored ones....this is based on my experience with natural colored pearls.

How about you? Which one do you prefer?

The first two pictures below are Sparkly Wire Wrap Rings made of Swarovski pearls.

This bunch below are a mixture of Swarovski pearls and natural pearls.
Can you tell the difference between them in terms of color?

Closer view :) Can't tell by the color but their perfect roundness would give them away :)

If you would like to learn how to make this type of ring, check out my Sparkly Crystal Ring Tutorial at Etsy.

Wire Wrap Rings, New Design

Sunday is almost gone and another busy week ahead.
I am not going to say a lot today.
Well, I haven't been talking a lot lately anyway :)
Just sharing two recently completed wire wrap rings.
One new dainty design, which is not that difficult to make if you have tried out my Sparkly Crystal Ring project. Instead of Swarovski crystals, I used 14k gold filed beads instead. Those in the pictures are all jade.
Needs more coordination though, while wrapping the wire around the ring shank to finish off the project. It gets easier the more rings you wrap :)
Feel free to ask if you have questions.

Here is another familiar ring, the Fruity one

Happy Mother's Day; Braided Wire Cuff

Today is a special day for me, my mom, blog readers who are mom, mom to be and mothers from all over the world.
I hope you have a great, wonderful and meaningful day celebrating your achievements and efforts.
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!
Here is sharing with you a braided wire cuff completed recently.
I have a tutorial for this at my Etsy Shop if you are interested.

Going Extinct Soon......

I may be wrong but with all the mobile trends, ereaders, smartphones, ebooks, tablets, pads, apps, etc.....less and less people are reading the good old fashion "physical' books, therefore the good old fashion bookmarks is going extinct sooner than you expected.

Here are a few last ones....kakaka...the last handmade wire wrapped bookmarks with beads and crystals at WireBliss :)

They are made of 16ga wires, half hard and hard.
I have to resort to the hard wire when I ran out of the half hard wire.
But duh, they are reeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaly tough to work with.
I was having a very hard time bending them (notice those with less bending and shaping - those are hard wire!).
I thought I'am going to break my pliers or fingers working on them.
Guess it is really going extinct at WireBliss as I can't find the half hard 16ga wire anymore and I don't plan to work on the hard 16ga wire again...too painful.
The only good thing about them for this project is that there is no need to harden them with hammering. Well, maybe just a little bit.

Now that I think about it, I forgot about my copper wire.
I guess I can try that out some other time.
Its way softer and I have some thick ones stash somewhere.

Have a great weekend folks.

How Many Round Beads on a 16" Strand?

Wonder no more.

The answer is between 34 to 203 beads, depending on the size of the beads of 2mm to 12 mm.

How big is a 2mm or 12mm beads? Well 2mm is tiny while 12mm is about the size of a peanut but this is only my guesstimate. To be exact, get the ruler or caliper.

Anyway, Szarka has a great article on the above at her site.

Head down to Magpie Gemstones and you shall find answers to these burning questions.

There are great conversion Charts by Dr. Karen Meador of Dreamcatcher Designs as well as Madeline Hoffman.

Here is a glimpse of the chart indicating the number of beads on a 16" Strand by Dr. Karen.

For bead strands of less than 16" i.e. 14" and 15", Madeline Hoffman has a chart workout for us.

For anything shorter, I guess we have to count manually....hehehe..just joking.

I actually do this sometimes...lol.

Thanks Szarka and Dr. Karen for sharing this informative article.

Happy Easter!