Playing with wire.

I finally started playing with wire. I have been wanting to incorporate wire work in my jewelry for some time now and am so glad I took the plunge. Wire has a life of its own so it is taking some getting used to maneuvering it but in the few pieces I have done, I already feel like they are turning out better.


I bought a thing a majig today and some colored copper wire to practice. This is my first pieces and I think I went over board with the loops. I love how it turned out but I think they will be better next time after more practice.


This is the second design I did. I think it turned out much better. I also learned you need to press down on the wire after every loop you make to ensure that it stays together instead of pulling apart when you remove it from the pegs.
We are heading to Santa Cruz for the night tomorrow so I won't be able to spend more time with this until Thursday. Then baby sitting on Friday and a promise of GI Joe at the drive in Saturday so no beading for me for a few days.
The kids start school again on the 20th and I am really looking forward to having some free time to really get some things made up. I will hopefully be getting a table at the Holiday Craft Fair at Berryessa flea market in November and I want to be ready. It will be my first ever!

Slacker that I am

Wow it has been ages since I have posted. I wasn't feeling up to much there for awhile but things are much better now. We made two trips up to Oregon this past spring, one for my brother who came home and one for my sister who graduated high school. It was nice seeing family but also hectic and exhausting. 1200 plus miles round trip and twice in 1.5 months.
Mike and I are doing really well. We decided to give things one more try before we give up for good and get a divorce. I guess we both realized what we would be losing and that we do love each other still. The good news is we are getting along really well.
I am also getting in a ton more beading time.
Best of all, I finally learned to do viking knit. Yay me! I had such a hard time finding a tutorial on this so I ending up piecing together info from lots of different sources.

The top piece is my first ever attempt at single viking knit. Then I tried again with I think much better results.
The bottom one is double viking knit and I am in love with this one. I will be working on piece tonight to make into a bracelet. These were just short pieces so I could see how my tension was working out. Now I just need to figure out how to finish the ends and add the clasp.