Entry #10

This week, I came upon crimp beads at Michaels Craft Store as provided in the image below. Crimp beads are used for bending wire. I use crimp beads at the beginning and end of my beading work. The process is simple, all I do is slide the bead and use my pliers to crush it on to the string. With that process, the beads won't fall off of the end. It's basically like tying a knot but a lot easier. Using this new technique has been helpful because they assemble a strand of elements for wire wrapped jewelry creations. At this point, I have learned many new techniques and substitutions that make my jewelry last longer and stronger. Finding out about new tools that work efficiently with my jewelry has been pleasant and it has saved me lots of time. This week has consisted of trying out new things and in this case it's crimp beads. I'm having a great time and I am awaiting the final result.

Blog #9

I've been working on color patterns this week and seeing which shades of colors compliment each other the most. I find that I like to work with the more pastel shades over the primary ones. I think that color combinations are very important in jewelry making because it must appeal to the person who is wearing the jewelry. I usually stick to the light shades but I don't really have a preference. Lately I've been looking at color charts which is provided in the picture above. I really love http://www.brandigirlblog.com/ because she shares all of her color inspiration to the world. I realized from her which colors compliment different skin tones or anything basically. For example, on pale skin pastel colors would look fresh and for dark skin bright colors would complete the look.  Picking out which color combos has been a fun experience because I get to experiment with different shades of the rainbow. I've drifted away from actually wire wrapping the jewelry because I was so amazed about all of the different colors of beads I saw. It was definitely bead heaven. All in all, this week has been fun since I've changed my course of direction a bit. 

Entry #8

I found a really cool way to shape my jewelry without using pliers. Instead of adding pressure to the wire by pushing the flat nose plier, I used common household items. For instance, I grabbed a flashlight which was laying in my garage and I just wrapped the wire around it. It took less than three seconds and then the wire formed into a perfect circle. My newest method is shown in the image that is provided. This is one of the new techniques that I've been working with which has improved the pace of my progress. I save way more time by doing this since the shape is already formed on the flashlight instead of making the shape. Last week I realized that the pace that I was going with was kind of slow so changing it up this week is super relieving. Some things that have bothered me is that I need to restock on beads because I bought some that didn't have holes in it. The beads without holes are pretty much useless since the wire wouldn't go through. This week was filled with very interesting things and using items from home to assist in my jewelry making was definitely a life saver. Overall, the project is going smoothly and I'm excited to see the outcome.