A Mini Project for Non-Wizards

Math problem: if you have a craft project that takes a person familiar with the technique at least 4 hours to complete, how might you conduct a class of newbies to finish a project in under 2 hours?

When I was invited to teach a class on Viking Knit at the my local arts center, I didn't think it could be done. The smallest thing I usually create is a bracelet, which would take way too long for a single class. I'd have to be a time-condensing wizard to make that happen. Since I'm not a wizard, I needed to get creative.

Solution: invent a different, smaller project for the students.

I was inspired by the necklace below, first found on Pintrest, created by the woman who posted it to this web page.

First, I have to say, her technique is lovely, and the pearls are a really great accent. Thank you for creating this, Necklace Maker!

My students will not have time to double knit or to add accent beads, but I figured a pendant like this would be an excellent beginner project.

Here is my prototype:

I think this will look great on a suede necklace cord. It took me about 45 minutes on my first exploratory try. It only needs about 4 of 5 inches of VK chain, a jump ring, and a necklace to hang it on.

I'm super excited to teach my first class in a couple weeks!

Fun New Material... Or Not

It has been over a year since my last post, but it's time for me to get back into it!

Look at the photo below. What do you think it is?

Yes, it is a VK chain. Look closely. What do you think it's made with?

Imagine a hook and a worm dangling at one end.... Yes, fishing line.

I'd heard of one woman using hemp to make VK, and ever since I've kept my eye open for unusual materials to experiment with. We had some fishing line hanging around the apartment, so the next step came naturally.

Some things that I thought would be interesting were the subtle color and translucence of the line. I also thought that maybe it would make for a chain that couldn't be squished, which is one drawback to standard wire.

However, as soon as I began making it on the dowel, it proved unruly. Keeping the first rows of loops from un-looping nearly gave me carpel tunnel. While it got easier after I established a few rows, you can see in the above photo that the resultant length of VK also didn't want to keep a straight shape.

I couldn't resist at least trying. I don't regret it in the least. But I certainly won't be making any jewelry with.

Tapering (and Getting on My Soap Box About Good Photography)

Hello, fellow adventurers! Here's a new necklace -- copper with wooden beads. (Looks quite a lot like a previous bracelet I've done!)

While I was finishing up the chain, pulling it through the draw plate, I felt as though it would benefit from some tapering at the ends near the clasp.

Here's the necklace that I modeled it after.

A side note here on the photography. For anyone who is thinking about selling anything online -- even on eBay or craigslist -- make sure you get at least semi-decent pictures, because it makes a world of difference how your item is perceived. Yes, I got a bit lazy with my necklace, as you can see. And whoever shot the other jewelry (possibly their creator,  Jan Raven) is a superior photographer. But it goes to prove my point -- good photography makes things look very attractive. Bad photography.... Well, I apologize for not taking better photos before sending this piece off to its owner!

Back to my point: this was the first piece in which I used the draw place to achieve a long taper. I am mostly satisfied with the result, although when I first looked at it, I wished my draw plate had more holes that were less drastically different sizes from one another so I could make a more gradual taper.

On the other hand, looking at Jan's jewelry, I rather think she had the same process. Instead of a slowing decreasing diameter, there is an illusion of gradual tapering where in fact there is one diameter for the most of the length of the chain between the beads and the clasp.

I have learned enough about design to know that it is the illusion that matters, not the reality. So, I think I can declare my experiment a success, and move on to the next piece!

Crafter's Block

I have no finished pieces right now, as I have hit a slow period in my crafting progress. However, I am never without something exciting in the works! I have a few pieces that are almost done or still in the middle of production. This two-tone bracelet is "almost done."

"But looks finished to me," you might say.

It is indeed finished enough to be wearable, so, in a way, you are right. I had hoped that at this point it WOULD be done. However, I am not at all satisfied with its overall form. Do you see how it makes a sort of teardrop shape? I would hope from a simple design like this that it would be more circular when laying on a flat surface.

On a larger wrist, this may not matter much. But on a smaller wrist (like mine), it lies awkwardly, weighed down by the clasp.

I am not sure of the answer to this problem. Should I attach some charms along the length of the chain? Should I get some different end caps? Should I change the design entirely?

For now, I am at a standstill. Feel free to make suggestions in comments, even if you are not an expert jewelry maker. I will update you as soon as something happens on this front!

Matching Madness

This bracelet came about when I noticed that I had some beads that matched a an outfit that I planned on wearing for a wedding this summer.

First, here's a close-up of the copper chain (which, if I do say so myself, turned out great).

And here it is! I was so excited to make this bracelet -- just look at how well the greens and blues match! I only had 2 days to whip this one up, but it was worth the effort.

I can proudly say that this bracelet is well-balanced, which makes it feel nice on my wrist, and also just looks fabulous. I'm so glad for the spark of inspiration my outfit gave me!

Hoops and Loops

You know what makes things take forever? Procrastination and fear.

Making my circuit board necklace took the span of a many weeks. Weeks! It took me so long because there were two things that this piece was missing that I had trouble making, and was timid about trying. One was end caps for the VK chain. The other was a bail, a thing that would hook the pendant onto the necklace.

Thanks to the magic of the internet, I found two tutorials that helped me fill those gaps.

There's this one on the Katrina Lum Designs blog on end caps.
And this one on bails made with head pins,which is a small length of wire with a flat knob at the end to keep things from falling off.

As I was making my copper necklace for the circuit board pendant, I knew I wanted silver end caps to go with the silver in the bits of the circuit board, but I didn't really like the style of either of my purchased end caps. The end cap tutorial was awesome for the look I wanted, but after a failed attempt at making a pair, I was discouraged and it took me a while to get up the guts to try again.

You can see in this image below that it didn't come out perfect (there is a gap in the loops).

Then, when I saw that the circuit board pendant didn't come with a bail to attach it to my necklace, I thought "No bail? No problem."

But pride comes before the fall.

I thought maybe I could just put a silver ring through the hole, but the pendant is almost a centimeter thick. I tried to make my own bail with some 20 gauge wire that I ordered especially for the job, but I had no idea what I was doing, so nothing I made turned out very nice-looking. I was starting to get really irritated, so I gave up for a few weeks.

Then I finally got the bright idea to check out some online tutorials. (Why hadn't I tried that before??) I found one that was pretty easy, sticking a head pin through the hole, curving it up and around and making a little hook with itself behind the head. Presto!

After all that hemming and hawing, I eventually finished.

Maybe the time it took was part of the process. Maybe I needed time to recharge after each roadblock. I'm open to that idea. But I'm glad I wasn't stopped indefinitely. This necklace delights me so much! Thanks be to the infinite creative energy that keeps projects moving along -- even at a snail's pace!

Balance and Weight

Have you ever had a piece of jewelry (or clothing) that just refused to sit on you the way you wanted? Did you fidget with it to set it straight, only to have it shift again and again? Sometimes things do this because they are improperly balanced. Balance is one distinguishing factor between a good piece of jewelry and a bad one.

This may sound snobbish, but I've made enough less-than-stellar bracelets to be convinced of the difference.

Imagine how a simple piece of yarn feels around your wrist. Say that you want the little knot facing up, sitting on the top of your arm. It probably stays there fairly well, with only some shifting.

Now, imagine putting a heavy glass bead on the yarn. Because of it's weight, it will always swing underneath your wrist. If you wanted it on top, then that's bad design, since the bead is not sitting where you want it.

But let's say you DO want it down there. Fine. But now the yarn is kind of tight around the top part of your wrist, and it is uncomfortable. That's bad design. A piece of jewelry should both look and feel just right.

While I'd love to pretend to always make perfect jewelry, I just don't.

Most of my first bracelets did not have heavy things attached to them, so all this balance stuff was not a problem. My first piece to be heavily accoutered was this one:

It feels great on my wrist. While the bead cluster does tend to fall to the underside of my wrist, it happens slowly, and the VK portion is stiff enough that it keeps the distribution of weight spread out. Yay for me!

On the bracelet below, however, the pearl cluster drags itself down on the wearer's wrist.

An otherwise attractive piece, it is not balanced well.

So here is another lesson on my way to actually making perfect jewelry. Or so I hope.

Serendipity Put to Work

It screamed at me: aqua blue wire and aqua blue beads. I had been searching for two separate supplies, wire and clasps, and here were two that matched perfectly. How could I leave the store without them?

Well, when I got them home, I had a problem. I only had 2 clasps and enough wire for two bracelets. This meant that I only had two chances to make something out of my good luck.

No pressure. Not.

For a little while, all I had the courage to put together was a bracelet with no extra adornments. Then when I was only faced with one more option, I became a bit paralyzed. I didn't want to mess up my last shot, but I also didn't want to settle for making another plain bracelet. 

The end of the story is that I realized I was being silly, and I just went for it.

Below are photos of the two bracelets sitting on my wrist. 

As you can see, I chose to compliment and expand on the dark brown of the clasp with the variations of brown in some wooden beads. Here are some close-ups of the chain itself.

An additional lesson: in a past bracelet (see here), I introduced beads into the weave without damaging the chain. In that bracelet, the beads were visible between the wires, which I think was successful for the design. In the blue bracelet above, the beads are starting to "hide" in the weave. This was not what I had planned on. Whether or not it makes for a successful design is up to you to decide.

Taking a Chance

After trying beads once before on a piece (see the copper bracelet from this post), I wanted to try a different look. I aimed for a more elegant and flashy design.

Here is the product, a bracelet made with 24-gauge silver colored wire and black and red czech glass beads.

I read somewhere that it is inadvisable to pull the wire chain through the draw plate when you have woven beads into it. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, see the terminology bullet points.) However, I have done exactly that with this piece. I was nervous to do so, because, it IS in fact, a bit inadvisable.

Why? The beads could have warped the wire mesh, making it messy-looking. (That may have been OK, or it may have been just ugly.) There was also a slim chance that I could have broken the chain trying to pull it through the draw plate.

But what brave Viking doesn't take some crazy chances once in a while?

Learning Length

In making my second necklace (single knit, without a pendant), I had to overcome an error -- I had made the knitted section too short. As I have said, VK is a fairly forgiving technique, but there is a point past which you cannot add more material to the end of a length you have already made. 

So, I had reached that point of no return when I realized my mistake. What to do? It was too long to be a bracelet, and too short even for my skinny neck.

Thankfully, I had some beads on hand. The brown wooden beads coordinated fairly well with the bronze-colored copper wire. As you can see in the photos below, I simply strung a few beads on a single length of wire at the end of the knitted portion.

This is not the most symmetrical solution, but it serves its purpose. The asymmetry might in fact be a useful (and purposeful) design element in future pieces. Nonetheless, in the face of a piece that I have made too short, I think that this isn't a bad answer.

Further Creations, New Designs

It is my misfortune on this adventure not to have all the proper tools of visual record-keeping. Not only do I lack a fully-functioning digital camera, but I also am still learning how to photograph my work well. So we will all have to bear with some blurry pictures, I am sad to report. But that is part of the adventure! So, onward!

I am pleased to present to you my next four pieces (made in summer 2011). These pieces are not especially magnificent, but I was quite excited to have completed them. I was just starting to get the hang of things, and I even got to experiment with some new elements.

In this image there are four new creations, as well as my first bracelet (the green one). The silver one with the pendant is a necklace, and the others are bracelets made of copper.

Here is a close-up of the pendant. Those who know more about jewelry-making than I will see how clumsily I attached it to the necklace. I am still searching for better ways of doing this, as I intend to make more pieces with pendants. If you have ideas, feel free to suggest in comments.

The copper bracelet below is made with the double-knit technique. It's quite a different look than the single-knit used in my other works, and it cannot be made quite as small in diameter as single with wire of the same gauge.

I am rather proud of this next bracelet; not only did I craft very it quickly, but it also represents the introduction of beads into the loops. The winds were strong in my crafting sails that morning! The beads are wooden; the wire, copper.