Did You Know?

Did you know the best stainless steel gauge for wire filigree is 16-gauge? Yes, 16-gauge stainless steel wire is sturdy and still strong enough to hold a soldered joint when your doing a stained glass ornament or sun catcher. 16-gauge stainless steel is our gauge of choice around Crystal Wand Creations.

It is an easy wire to bend into a nice filigree shape and it holds its shape remarkably well. If you heat it real well after applying a good amount of flux it will take its first round of pre-solder well; however, it really should be pre-solder twice in order to get a good bond on any solder joint.

This takes a lot of time and patients. This picture is of a piece I just completed for a local doctor. The size of this piece is approximately 14 inches tall x 18 inches wide. The wire filigree on the inside of this piece is all formed by hand. Each piece is cut and bent, and pre-soldered twice, then soldered on every joint.

Doing wire filigree is truly something you either love or hate. Because no one in their right mind would stand around all day long bending wire into "curly Q's" if they didn't truly love it!

What do you think about our new look?

We decided to try sprucing up our place a little bit, what do you think? You know it's hard starring at the same 'ole four walls every day, so you like to rearrange the furniture and paint the walls sometimes. I guess you might say that's what we just did, or are in the middle of doing. There are still a lot of things to be done before we can sit back and have that balls to the wall, let our hair down and "let's throw a party and trash this place" kinda feeling. Oops, I forgot my age there for a moment, I don't do those kinds of things anymore, I'd break a hip or something... Anyway, we're still working on it and plan on getting it done sometime before the next President comes into office! My next post will tell how our format for our blogs will be changing in order to make it easier and more informative to read. So check back soon to find out all the good news! Now if I'm going to make all these deadlines I guess I need to get back to work, after all I don't move quite as fast as I used to. So until next time - DON'T SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF, LIFE IS WAY TO SHORT!!!

Designing and Making Beaded Jewelry

Beaded jewelry making and designing is becoming more popular in the crafting community across the United States. This art form can be very frustrating but very rewarding as well. You may feel overwhelmed by the many patterns and designs that beaded jewelry making has to offer but stick with it. A dilemma can be your best friend. No truer words were ever said!
Remember to choose your colors ahead of time. This will save you valuable time later. Next, choose the beads that support those colors, or come the closest to those colors. When your supply is limited you may find a beautiful blend or variation of colors that you like as well or better than what you originally chose.
When you have finished choosing your beads, choose your findings. Your findings should compliment the colors of your beads. If you have mostly earth-toned beads, then go with earth-toned findings, it always looks better. One thing you might try in your findings is making your own jump rings. It is easy and a very economical way to incorporate various metals into your work.
Once you have all these elements done, then work up your design. Decide if there is any, what I call, prebeading that needs to be done. This is any bead or beads that need to be strung on wire with a loop on both ends. If any of these pieces are going to be connected to a clasp then connect only one side of the clasp, leave the other to be connected at the very end when you have the rest of the beads strung.
In the end if you take your time, observe how others have constructed their pieces, ask questions when your unsure about something and just have some patience and allow youself to make mistakes you'll be fine. There are many techniques and styles of beading, and which one you choose is up to you. My advice is to try them all. If you keep beading long enough, you will. Don't forget to add some decorative touches such as wire wrapping to your pieces too. Just be creative, you never know where your mind will take you!

Check Out Our Links!

Check out our links sections if you want to see some of our great jewelry and stained glass pieces. We also have our other website links listed there for you to check out as well. There's lots of beautiful and unique pieces for you to browse through. So go on and have some fun!