Fish tooth for Wire Jewelry

Have you ever seen this fish before? Look at the teeth. I think those teeth will make very nice beads for a bracelet! Oh well ... a bit yucky though! This is what they call Parrot fish. Hubby went out fishing last weekend but he didn't catch this one. This was given to him by the boatman who caught it. It weight about 3.5kg. So the teeth are just the right size for a pair unique earring...:-) According to Wikipedia, Parrot fishes are named for their oral dentition; their numerous teeth are arranged in a tightly packed mosaic on the external surface of the jaw bones, forming a parrot-like beak which is used to rasp algae from coral and other rocky substrates. Other article on Parrot fish is also available at National Geographic.

Wire Jewelry Magazines

Actually I wanted to jump up and down when I saw these but I kept my cool. These were brought back from Canada by my sister in-law last few days. Just love it when my sister in-law comes back to Kuching for holidays. She knows just what to get for me (LOL...actually I requested them from her...). There are some beads as well but that will be for the next postings. Back to the magazines, they are full of information and tutorials of some of the wire wrapped techniques that I have been wanting to learn. My favorite is the Step by Step Wire Jewelry and the projects by Dancing Feathers's Weave a Bezel and Lisa Nevin's Entangle Wire Bezel. That will keep me busy for a while. p.s. Tried to fix the positioning of these pictures but failed. Excuse the "all over the place" look.

River Rocks that I Found

These rocks were collected from a river located outskirt of Kuching City - about an hour drive from Kuching to be exact. I wonder if they could be used for my wire wrap jewelry. In the water and while they are wet, the colors are beautiful especially the biggest one at far right of picture two. Guess I would only find out tomorrow morning as I am dead tired at the moment from our jungle trekking trip (walked for about 2 hours, to and fro) turned into swimming trip, this afternoon. We were actually out jungle trekking at Bengoh, the starting point to four villages upriver that can only be reached on foot. The nearest village is about 3 to 4 hours walk, or maybe longer for city folks who are not used to walking in the jungle. Our aim was not to reach any of these villages but searching for a nice spot for picnicking by the crystal clear river. Unfortunately, we didn't find any opening that can lead us down to the river as the slopes are just too steep and covered with vegetation. We turned back after about an hour walk and decided to head on to another picnic spot further away (still with crystal clear water-see picture below), where I found these rocks.

New Stones

These stones were purchased last weekend from the Sunday Market. I like them because of the natural and calming colors. Funny right. Some of you may find it to disturbing!..LOL. However, I am not very sure what stones are they. Can anyone help me here? I suspect the top two are agates. As for the bottom green one, according the man who sold them to me, they are jade...*scratching my head*. Never seen jade that look like this. But if they are, they must be very low grade jade as I didn't pay a lot for them. As for what I am going to do with them, I still have no idea yet. It is just one of my addiction, can't resist buying.

Spools of Stainless Steel Wire

Are those fishing lines?....LOL. Stainless steel fishing lines! Wonder what type of fish I will catch with them? Actually, those are my spools of stainless steel wire of different gauges. That is how I keep my wire for now. There were only 3 spools at first but now I have nine. That will last me for a while. These colorful plastic spools are from the tackle shop. The wires that I bought came in individual loose coil as shown in the second picture here. Took me few hours to coil them all. The green spool at the top has about 70 yards of 19ga wire on it. That'll give you some idea how much I can do with them. A lot I hope.

Jewelry - Metal File & Ring Mandrel

Still about my tools. Today I am showing my file and ring mandrel. Well actually the file belongs to hubby. I "borrowed" it from him. He seldom uses it, so now it is more like "mine" rather than "borrowed"....LOL. The ring mandrel is from Penang. Can't find them here in Kuching and it is not something you can find in the supermarket here. Let's just say I got the right connection in Sabah .....that's how I got it.....LOL. Hmm!..now that I mention it, I think I did mention somewhere in another posting how i got this mandrel. I better stop here, otherwise I will be repeating myself.....(shy..shy...)..

Jewelry Tools - Wire Cutter

And here are my wire cutters........Huge and tiny. There are few more which I didn't show here because i seldom use them. These two I always use. The Stanley wire cutter really is huge and heavy but I have no complaint when it comes to cutting wire. It gives me a clean straight cut. Well, the look may deceive as it looks more suitable for a carpenter?, or mechanic? or electrician? Oh well, actually i can't find a good wire cutter and my hubby insisted that i must give this one a try as it works like a scissor only that it is more heavy duty. It can slice through 19g stainless steel wire without problem..... So, there goes....

Jewelry Tools - My Favourite

Continuing from my posting on jewelry tools, here are my favorite and they are the ones that I use most often. Personally, i use a lot of the round nose, bend nose and flat nose plier. Round nose because i make a lot of loop with it and bend nose to hold the loop while i secure the loop. The flat nose most of the time is for straightening the wire or close the jump rings (i haven't got myself a crimp plier yet)...that will be my next purchase.

Jewelry-A Peek at My Tools...cont.

Not enough with the two sets of pliers (posted yesterday), i get myself some of these from the local hardware shops and supermarkets. Oh well, you get what you paid for. I purchased the first three pliers (three round nose pliers (GLOTOOL)) because i wanted to get the smallest round nose that i can find. Ended up with three.....then more, look at the second picture.....talking about kiasu.

Jewelry - A Peek at My Tools

Today I am shwoing you tools that i have in my quest to create wire jewelry. This red set is my first set and its from Canada. Was so happy when my sis-in law took i back but later i discovered they are not that user friendly. I use the flat nose plier more often while the rest just sit in the box. This black set is a different story. This is a birthday present from beloved hubby last year just when I was starting out with this addiction of mine. This is a mini set as the pliers are all mini size, about 4 in from one end to the other. So, I use them a lot when I am making pieces with finer wire - 22g to 26g. The flat nose, bend nose and long nose is my favorite as can be seen from the missing (broken) spring of these three pliers. All due to heavy usage. The cutter is a bit fragile due to its size and i dented it once when i tried it on memory wire. Big mistake and regretted it. Now I only use it for wire smaller than 23g.

A peek into my Wire Jewelry Tools & Workstation

If i remember correctly, i started wire jewelry sometime in April last year. So, i can say that i am into my second year this month. Been buying lots of tools and beads/stones since then. Some good and some not so good. Also sold some of my pretties along the way. Being a hobby, i do not have a proper work bench/table/corner. So, i am going to let u have a peek at how i keep my tools, etc. etc. In fact, most of my tools and beads (but of course there are some more beads/stones hidden in another box) are packed into this box here (Toyogo box...hehe) measuring about 1.5ft in length and 10 in in height and width. I put this box next to the bed every night, and on weekend or holidays or whenever i feel like making some pretties, I take it downstairs. My regular workstation is a roundtable just behind the counter that divides the main living room from the smaller living room. Didn't hv any picture to show this. Nx time maybe.... The box is getting fuller each day and its difficult to reach items right at the bottom of the box as i need to take everything out first. So, next task is to reorganize the content of the box...... Happy wrapping.

Earring Stand

What a frustrating week and weekend. My broadband connection was down and still is until today so I can’t check my emails and do posting for the last few days. I am doing this now from the office….sigh! and I have to do it fast as its late.

Didn't manage to do a lot of inter netting for last few days due to work commitment. I will be on traveling to KL in the next few days to attend a very "stressful" meeting. My hair is already falling thinking about it. Maybe can tell u all about it later...or maybe not...depending on the outcome.

Well, weekend was busy as usual but I managed to do my first earring stand. Not that great but seems ok so far. I made this with a 19g wire.

After that I decided to make a very bold color earring….bold for my taste, at least. Its made of dyed shell and black agate.

My Blissfull Evening at Sunday Market

Well, i did mention somewhere that i will be going to the Sunday Market/Satok Market this evening and i did and what a blissful evening, all by myself looking at the stuff i like.....No "mommy i want this, mommy i want that".....haha....not that i am complaining but....well lets just leave it as that. Anyway, here are the "things" i got from the market....again its pearl.....can't resist them. And a beautiful stone...not sure what it is but the "flowers" within is so beautiful. Anyone know what it is? Pls enlighten me.

Salvaging Copper Wire

 

February is spring cleaning on most weekends because Chinese New Year is just around the corner, next Saturday to be exact. One of the things I have wanted to do is to recycle this copper wire from a car part (before somebody throw it out into the bin). Finally did it this afternoon. Not sure what its called (this part) but hubby said it’s the "armature" (sounds like that but don’t know how to spell it). I am not a technical person when involving all these parts.

To shorten the story, I managed to salvage about 12 meters of copper wire. So happy....yah! but again, wonder when I can use them for my pretties. Hope it is soon….....

January Purchase

January was not very productive in terms of number of pieces made but I bought quite a lot of gemstones/pearls and other beads. Wonder when I can use them for my pretties…..

Unknown Beads, Ring Size & Stick

And this is also from Sabah. It looks like some kind of seed or fruit....did ask the salesgirl but unfortunately she didnt know what it is also. And this is what i have wanted for a long while - ring sizes and ring stick..mandrel? My sister's father in-law got it for me from Penang. Now i can start with my first ring project..... These are also from Sabah - they call it "pearl skin", literally translated from Bahasa Malaysia. Going to wire wrap them.

From Sabah - Pearls

Happy belated Xmas and a very Happy New Year 2007 - Finally manage to post tonight/this morning-wow its NEW YEAR already. Came back from Sabah yesterday/day before yesterday and have been busy with the two boys….both not feeling well at the end of the trip. Sad to say I didn’t manage to do a lot of the things I have planned for the trip --- my two boys were not feeling well and secondly due to the weather…raining all the time while we were in Kota Kinabalu. We went to the Filipino Market but in our rush forgot to take photo of the market. Just managed to grab few strands of pearls which I have uploaded here. While the boys were sleeping in the afternoon, I managed to sneak out to the mall adjoined to the hotel and found these two pliers at an electrical shop – long nose and round nose pliers. Tried them this morning and I love them.

Round Nose Pliers

I bought this Round Nose Pliers from Kuala Lumpur two days ago when I was there for a day trip – was there for a meeting at our client’s office in Bangi, near Putrajaya. We (me and another colleague) didn’t have much time to shop (actually we were not there for shopping…my boss will certainly agrees) after the meeting as we have to catch our flight home at 5:50 pm. So, we headed for Alamanda, a shopping mall at Putrajaya as it is the closest to KLIA…. just to make sure we don’t miss our flight home.

This round nose pliers is all metal & black in color, about 7 inches long. The packaging didn’t show where it’s made but I suspect it is locally made. Tried to look for other tools but didn’t find any suitable one. Anyway, I tried it last night and not bad except the handle is quite rough as the handles are not wrapped with rubber grip or things like that. I think it will hurt my hand if I use it for long period of time. The tips are fine enough (about 1.5mm diameter) to make very small loop but it doesn't grip wire finer than 23g. It's not a Lindstrom but for now I am quite satisfied with my buy as it only cost me RM7.90….LOL.