The Last Air Bender

After William and Henry watched The Last Air Bender, and me surfing for pictures/images of the movie, it struck me that I can actually wire wrap something for each of them.
My mistake, I told them too soon.
From then on they kept reminding (pestering) me to make it like NOW!
I gave in and kept myself busy last two nights.
These are the results from.....The Last Wire Bender!..Opps! LOL.
How about that? Mmmm, don't really want to be he last though :)
William likes the Air Bender so this is his (left) while Henry wants the Fire Bender.

I can't get them to pose for pictures with the pendants.
They just want to hold them and show off to their friends.

Me? me want to make myself the Water Bender :)
Have a great weekend all and happy wrapping.

What Would You Do? | Fossilized Coral Pendant - Wire Wrapped and Woven

Today I would like to ask a question and I'd love to hear what you have in mind.
Do leave me comment if you have the time.
Here is the question.

What would you do if you discovered that a piece you just completed looks similar (maybe 95% similarities) to someone else's design?

However, you cross your heart and swear to die you have never seen hers/his design before?
Do you....

• remove all pictures of the piece you have posted? 
• give credit to the other person? If yes, how do you give credit in this situation as you have never seen his/her creation/design before hand? --- ehm..."thank you for the inspiration but I have never seen your creation before?" --- sounds very fake and insincere right?
• offer an apology?....for what ya?
• believe in coincidence and explain how you come up with your design?
• or accuse the other person for copying (if he/she is accusing you for the same)!
• or let me know your experience...........

Another question will be coming in the next post.
Meanwhile, here is sharing with you my recently completed wire wrapped fossilized coral pendant.

Thank you for your time.

She Did it Again! - Wire Wrapped Cross Pendant & TAW Bracelet

Hi all. I am back but been feeling tired for the last three days.
Not enough sleep and lots of work to catch up with.
Have not been touching my stones and beads for a couple of days and I am missing them already.
But weekend is very near.
Since I don't have anything to share for the time being, here is sharing with you what the very talented Emily of Emily Secret Passion been up to <3
This time around she made the Swirly Wire Wrapped Cross Pendant based on this Wire Wrapped Cross Pendant Tutorial.

and the TAW Bracelet based on the TAW Bracelet Tutorial.

Like many of us, Emily is self-taught and she is very very talented.
Just look at her pretties on her blog here - Emily's Secret Passion.
Thank you for sharing Emily and I am very proud of you.
Happy weekend folks :)

Wire Wrapped Flora with Hammered Edges

After the first one and after Shuku suggested more hammering for the petals, here is the new wire wrapped floral pendant.

I really hammered the petals off as you know 19ga stainless steel wire is quite tough.
VERDICT: I really love the outcome....LIKE! LIKE! Thanks for the suggestion Shuku.
This time around I added an additional petals, making them six instead, added a glass leaf  and tourmaline teardrop that looks like a leaf too.
This is mine for the keeping :)

Happy Sunday!

Revisited - Iza's Woven Bead Cap but (but flattened), Rose Quartz

There are many wire jewelry artists that I admire and get inspiration from since I got addicted to wire.
As some of you may have known, I admire Iza Malczyk tremendously and I dream (since 2007) to be like her one day (still daydreaming :)).
There are many pieces that I made inspired by her creations as well as her tutorials. 
And here is the most recent one. This is based on the Woven Bead Cap Tutorial but instead of a cap, its flattened to become a spiral.
Now that I am looking at it, I should have weave the spiral tighter i.e smaller gaps between the wires. Hm...but I think it still looks great this way :)

This is the wire wrapped pendant attached to it, giving weight to the woven spiral. Or else, the woven spiral by itself will be too light to hang nicely down the neck.
Its Cat's Eye with Cherry Quartz and dyed coral beads on both top and bottom.
I added some chain to the bottom of this pendant too because without it, the pendant look "incomplete". That is just what I feel :)

More chains for the back of the necklace, beaded clasp and wire wrapped 10mm Rose Quartz.
Somehow the pink of the Rose Quartz don't stand out in these pictures. They look too pale.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pictures and get inspired by this post.

The Spotty One (Leopard Print) - Double Abundance II

This is a rare (at least for me) spotty donut pendant as I have never seen a stone like this before.
Maybe you have come across this stone. Any idea what its called?
D likes it at first sight too, so this pendant is made for her. Now on the way to her.....

Our net connection was down last Sunday till Monday morning. Now, I have lots of catching up to do.
Just one day/night down and I am way behind in lots of things. This is like a full time job! Duh!
Must get organize again to reduce this dependency!!!
Have a great week all.

A Piece without Name

Took me many many hours to complete this one. This wire wrapped piece is still without a name.
Really dunno how to call or name it.
Maybe it will stay that way.
I am not good at naming my jewelry :(
A cross shaped pendant with combination of the following stones - turquoise focal, red dyed corals, garnet (faceted), tourmaline, and Swarovski Pearls.

Anyway, enjoy.

Wire Wrapped Floral Themed Pendant

Have you been seeing flora everywhere?
I am seeing them everywhere, not only around the house but also the web.
People have been creating lots of floral themed pretties and I don't want to be left out.
Here is my version of a wire wrapped floral pendant.

Inspiration: Kristin of KS Jewelry Designs and wire jewelry community.

Netted Agate Pendant and New Tuts

New Wire Wrapping eTutorials:
1. Twice Around the World (TAW) Wire Wrapped Bracelet (click this link)
2. Twice Around the World (TAW Wire Wrapped Ring (click this link)
Purchase No. 1 and get No. 2 for FREE.
Offer end 12:00am, May 31st 2010
******************************
Back to creating, here is a large agate pendant wire wrapped with the 28ga wire (lots of them), netted style.
Been a long time since I last wrapped it this way - Beautiful Rubies 2008 and its very therapeutic I must say.
Unlike other wraps, I like this as almost the whole stone and its pattern is visible.

Another Wire Wrapped Fossilized Coral Pendant, Large

Although it took less than 2 hours for this piece, posted 2 days ago, this one here took me the whole Sunday!
It doesn't look that complicated but I don't know why it took so long.
But, I admit a lot of time was spent massaging the piece and the wires and thinking how to wrap the wire so it will hold the Fossilized Coral in place.
Figuring and re-figuring, bending and unbending, wrapping and unwrapping the wires couple of times actually.

Hope it doesn't show here..hehe....
Clean look at the front right.
You wouldn't want to look the back of the pendant

Custom order for a special lady and I am running out of Fossilized Coral. 

How to Wire Wrap Irregular Shape Stone

This is faster than I thought.
Got this tiger eye pendant done within two hours this afternoon.

Last week, I spent few hours wire wrapping the same piece with another method, which I abandoned when I remembered how Danagonia wrapped her giant nugget bead. Thanks Camilla for the inspiration!

The irregular shape of this tiger eye makes it difficult to wrap with the normal cab wrap.
That's what I did initially and I failed miserably.

With 3 wires, I formed the frame, holding the stone in place securely.
Wrapped them with 3 different weaving techniques as you can see from the pictures here.

Problem is (but not really a problem actually!), you will end up with a bunch of wires at the top.

A bit tricky to tuck them all in neatly, leaving two for the bail and still make it look good.

Overall, I am quite happy with the outcome and I can see a lot of potential in this technique especially for irregularly shaped stones. If you would like to learn how to wire wrap in similar way, check out Camilla's tutorial here.
Have a wonderful and productive weekend dear readers. 

Airport and Donut Jade Pendant - Pipa Wrap

Here I am at the KKIA waiting for my flight home to Kuching.
Been here for the last 2 hours and I have another hour to wait.
So, here I am posting another wire wrapped piece which I have been wanting to post the last few days but interrupted by this travelling.

This is a very tiny donut jade pendant.
The donut jade itself is only about 1 cm in diameter.
A custom order by a close friend of MIL.
Had hard time figuring out how to wrap it and in the end decided that the pipa wrap would be the safest besides adding size to the tiny jade.

All through the making of this pendant, I was worried that I am going to break the jade.
Its so delicate but thankfully it didn't happen.
Ok, got to go...see you in Kuching :)

Dead Hard Disk and a Little Teardrop Pendant

I have been rather quite the last few days.
That was because my laptop's hard disk died last Monday.
Just got it fixed this pm and now I am halfway personalizing my FireFox, files, menu, add-ons, etc. etc.
Lots of work there and just hope it will not die on me too soon. Touch wood! touch wood!
All was not lost as our IT person managed to backup all my files, mostly work related.
Backed up my hobby related files somewhere else.
Haven't been making as much jewelry as I'd love to but here is one completed last weekend.
Similar wrapping technique as the Fossilized Coral earlier but wit more swirls.
A rather clear and small stone.....

Wire Wrapped Fossilized Coral Pendant

Fossilized Coral! Fossilized Coral! (proper name is Agatized Fossil Coral)
Not sure why but I kept forgetting the name of this stone.
Most of the time, I only remember the coral part :)
This stone comes is several shades of colors - brown, reddish, gray, yellow, red as can be seen here.
The beautiful part of this stone is the flower like patterns in the stone.  Just awesome!

This pendant measures about 1in long and 0.8in wide.
I wrapped it in this particular way so that the "flowers" are all visible because that's the beauty of the stone.

Further reading on Agatized Fossil Coral (Gem Select) here.

Still Playing with Wire Wrapped Number

After number 8, I was inspired to wire wrapped another number.
This time around another lucky number - the number 3.
In Chinese culture, the number 3, "saam" sounds like "birth", thus considered as very lucky - more info here
For this piece, I use the combination of stainless steel and copper wire, and pearls.
Copper wire is so easy to work with :) How I wish stainless steel wire is as soft as that :)

Avia's simple guide to spiritual meaning of numbers is very interesting. Here the meaning for number 3:

Three: The spiritual meaning of number Three deals with magic, intuition, fecundity, and advantage. The number Three invokes expression, versatility, and pure joy of creativity. Three is also a time identifier as it represents Past, Present and Future. Consecutive Threes in your life may symbolize the need to express yourself creatively, or consider your present directional path in relation to past events and future goals. Three may also represent promising new adventures, and assurance of cooperation from others whom you may require help. Three typically symbolizes reward and success in most undertakings - Source: Whats-Your-Sign.com

Looking forward to wire wrap more numbers :)

The Lucky Number "8" - Pendant

If you are a Chinese, then you know that number "8" is considered a very lucky number.
If possible, you'd want this number in your phone no., house no., account no., car plates, special days, etc! etc! Some people are willing to pay high price to get this lucky number.
Why is this number considered lucky?
Well, simply because the word "eight" in Chinese (Cantonese in my case) sounds like the word "fatt" (read as in "butt") which means "to prosper/ prosperity". This refers to prosperity in terms of wealth most of the time :)
In jewelry, there are lots that represent this lucky number.
Maybe when it is worn against your body/skin, it is more potent. Hope so!
OK, to the point of this post, here is a custom made wire wrapped number "8" pendant.
This pendant measures about 5cm from top to bottom.
Embellished with natural seed pearls and a large teardrop smoky quartz.
The white (pearl) and black (quartz) represent the Ying and Yang of life.

I wish the owner, all the "fatt" after she wears this pendant.
Throw some spillover, over to me...LOL!

Jade Donut Pendant, Chinese Pipa

The last time I made a similar pendant was in April 01, 2008 - look at this post.
Exactly 2 years and 2 days ago! just notice the date when linking the post :)
How time flies.
Revisited, with a slightly bigger jade, unakite, red coral and agate (because its a custom order).

If you would like to learn how to make the pipa wrap with wire,
or Chinese Knots with wire, Corra has the tutorial/s. 

Corra is an expert in Chinese Knotting with wire.

(disclaimer - Corra's PIPA knot tutorial is for earrings and not this pendant

don't want to be blamed for misleading later on. Need a bit of modification for this piece)

Happy weekend and creating :)

Rewired Necklace, Braided Ring, Lala Clams

Today is for relaxing.
Just taking my own sweet time and not worrying about the long list of "todo"
Went out for lunch with the family then off to Bako - as usual in search of fresh fish and seafood.
Got some little fish and lala clams for dinner tonight. Yummy!

Here's what I completed today.
Re-wiring of this Chinese bead necklace.
Added the two Labradorite (on top of the brown stones) for its "labradorescence".
Hope the wearer will benefits from the Labrodorite - strength, clarity, perseverance and integration.

Pretty heavy and plus size.

This braided ring is an experimental piece....again!
Not so successful as the wire, 23ga is too thin for this design.
Can't do much as the size of the hole does not allow bigger wire :(
Will look for alternatives.
Have a great remaining weekend.

TAW Bracelet Tutorial and Deliciously Flowing

my Sixth sense whispered to me that I should start doing the tutorial for TAW (Twice Around the World) Wire Wrapped Bracelet.
If you feel like laughing at me :D ;D, go ahead and laugh all you want but I listen to my sixth sense all the time :)
I think you do too :)

Don't you? Don't you?...LOL....LOL

******

Will start working on it tonight.

******

Meanwhile, here is another deliciously wrapped
piece/s for your viewing pleasure :)
When was the last time I made something for myself?
Can't remember exactly but this one is for me :P

Why I love them so much?
* There are 5 individual necklaces here.
* No clasp! Yay! Slip on just like slip on slippers
   and I am ready to go.
* Easy and no fuss and suitable for any occasion.
* As there are 5 of them, I can choose to wear
   just 1, 2, or 3, or 4 or all 5 at once.
* The are very light weight. The chain are really tiny!
   If you look closely, the smallest wire loop that I made are
   still like 3 times bigger the the chain link.
* The stones, they are mixture of all my favorite gems,
   pearls and crystals - tourmaline, peridot, garnet,
   agate, pearls, moonstone, amethyst, fluorite,
   rutilated quartz, citrine, aquamarine, prehnite,
   cherry quartz, Swarovski crystals, etc.
***Have a wonderful weekend!

Double Abundance and Time

How time flies. I didn't realize that its been a week since I last posted.
Office work been keeping me busy these days including weekends :(
Although I tried to keep work within the confine of "office hours", Monday - Friday, sometimes its just impossible. Not that I like to, but got to, as my line of work involves deadlines all the time.
Maybe my time management is not good enough. But I only have so much time right?
Will I do it better with a citizens watch?
That also explains why I have been a bit slow in the wire jewelry creations department.
By the time work is done, the mood for creating is not there anymore. Not only that, I have been out of touch with facebook friends and tweetering as well.
Most of the time, I'd be surfing here and there, aimlessly.
It is during one of these surfing session that I came across this site - of all sites, a watch site, gold mens watch, you name it, there is a long list there. Guess they know I have been thinking about time a lot these days. Not that I am planning to buy watch but I was attracted to the jewelry and the site layout.
You know I have been working on my site layout.
There are items and links I want to put up there but still no time to work on it.
This watch liquidator site is an inspiration.
I'd like my site to be like that one day - minimum clutter, easy and fast navigation and their shipping info, payment terms, F&Q are clearly explained in straight forward fashion.
Yeah! Lots of work needed there and clutters to clear up. What more, blogger now allows you to create your own templates design. Now I need more citizens watches!
Hopefully after this week, I'd be 'freer' to create.
I have said this hundred of times but its mid-March now and I am still behind.

Ok! not to bore you more with my rambles, here is a wire wrapped double donuts pendant I managed to complete after a long long time. Sorry Bi to have kept you waiting for a while :)
This is really a special pendant and the feeling it gives me is - ABUNDANCE!
Isn't it great?
I wish for abundance of time.
How about you?