RingBling/WireGenius - Making Chainmaille/Jump Ring + Wire Sculpture Jewelry

Well, I finally got off my behind and set up my new crafts site. I hope you'll forgive me; having just recovered from pneumonia, I only have two intro entries (at the time of this writing). However, because I've broaden the range of topics, and will include advice on setting up your own arts + crafts website/ weblog, I'll be able to post more frequently. More information at WireGenius/ RingBling V2.

Here's weird serendipity for you. Just now, while I was debating whether to link to the fabulous Orchid gallery of jewelry artists at Ganoskin, I was watching Mad TV. A "Blind Kung Fu Master" skit came on in which the Master tries to protect a jewelry store from his own former student, Blind Joe Mendelstein. Of course, in true Blind Kung Fu Master form, they trash the place and beat up the victims.

Pretty darn funny stuff, but the timing was quite odd. I wasn't going to post here anymore so that I'd be forced to start my new arts/ crafts/ antiques and jewelry site. But I've always thought of jewelry designing and making as extremely relaxing and therapeutic. And now I'll also think of it as a source of humour.

It's been a very long time since I posted anything. I still have loads of wire (particularly jump ring) jewelry designs filling a few sketch books that I'd love to share with all of you readers.

I've had a domain name registered for nearly a year now, but wasn't sure how I wanted to set it up, and whether or not I'd have time to write for it and maintain it. I've re-thought my strategy and will go through with setting up this domain after all. However, I will not be the only writer for the new site.

More information on the new site soon.

For those of you that have been checking here in the past week, I'm still planning to post dozens of wire/jump ring jewelry sketches here. I just have to transfer all of them from numerous sketchbooks. But as my previous note says, I won't be posting until after my "vacation". [I'm just reworking some of my blogs.]

cheers

Here's the first pattern out of my sketchbook. As I said in the last post, I have a number of recent pendant and brooch jewelry designs that were influenced by a wire-working book published in 1917. The original version of the sketch above was a bit more detailed, but I'm using a new sketch tablet and I couldn't quite get the hang of it. But choose the right materials, especially for the beads, and you'll have a lovely heart-shaped pendant.

As I haven't actually made the above item, I can't give you exact details. However, I'm suggesting the following materials (get extra, just in case):

1. Carnelian beads with a hole drilled through two sides. Don't go by the number in the diagram above. You may need more if you're using small beads.
2. 6 jump-rings of about 6-8 mm. These are the visible circles above.
3. 8 jump-rings of about 3-4 mm. These are the double vertical lines joining the large jump-rings.
4. Thick silver wire or silver-plated wire, probably 12, 14 or 16 gauge. This wire forms the skeleton of the heart shape and must be able to hold its shape.
5. Two long strands of thin silver or silver-plated wire, plus a few bits for the two dangling beads at the bottom of the pendant. You might actually need a long head pin to attach the bottom two beads to the bottom vertex of the heart shape. Experiment to be sure.
6. You will either need wire or chain to attach to either side of the topmost large jump-ring.

Start by forming a symmetric heart-shaped skeleton with the thick gauge wire and twist together at the top - but do something attractive to the top, or wind it onto the top of the 4th large jump-ring from the top. I think you can figure out how to attach the jump-rings. The first piece of thin wire will string all of the carnelian beads together, and will attach to the third jump-ring from the top, as well as the heart skeleton. The second piece of thin wire will be wound around the skeleton but over the thin wire between each bead. This will hold the beads in place. My guess is that unless you're an experienced designer, you may need to try a couple of times before you get this pendant. But I do know enough about wirework to know that the above pendant can be made. Just make sure you have enough thin gauge wire.

Feel free to use this pattern. If you reprint the pattern and/or the instructions, please give me credit.

(c) Copyright 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://ringbling.blogspot.com

Technorati : chainmail, chainmaille, heart-shaped pendant, jump-ring, pendant, wire work

If you're a jewelry maker or designer and you're running a website or a blog, here's a little-known potential source of income: repackaging public domain books. As an "Internet Solutions" consultant, it's my business to learn about all manner of opportunities for earning income on the web. One such opportunity is taking books whose copyright has expired (usually so if they are published before 1937), rearranging the text and graphics, then republishing it under a new copyright, usually as an e-book (electronic book).

After I found about how popular this activity has become, I went to my local university library and signed out a couple of books from the early 1910s. Now I have not yet verified with the United States Copyright office whether the books I have had their copyright expire, but it is very likely since they were published before 1937. However, only one of these books is worth the effort of repackaging. It has some incredible instructions for wireworking that I have yet to see in any modern day book.

The book title is "Jewelry Making And Design" and is written by Augustus F. Rose and Antonio Cirino, B.S. The book was originally published by Metal Crafts Publishing Co., Providence, R.I. (United States) in 1917. Now I just don't have the time to repackage this book, and don't want to spend time verifying its copyright status, but you're welcome to do it. Just a word of caution: Dover Publishing republished this book a couple of times, in around 1922 and 1937. Don't repackage their copies: their copyright has likely not expired. Get the original edition. [In future posts, I will provide links to some e-newsletters that offer information about the public domain.]

While I'm not repackaging this book, what I have done is made several pages of sketches of original wire, bead and jump-ring jewelry designs that are highly influenced by the wonderfully detailed instructions in the book. The result, of course, is that my designs look like they were from the early part of the last century. And wirework is such that there is always someone who will like it. There's something about creations of twisted wire that appeal to people. And if you are already selling your work at weekend markets, you may want to add some new creations to your repertoire.

That said, I'll be posting all of my designs here. Feel free to use them as you will. Just forgive me for the time between postings, as I have to re-sketch numerous designs digitally with a sketch tablet, then manipulate them in graphics software to clean them up. I'll try to post at least one per week, probably on Monday or Tuesday nights. Once I have all of the sketches complete, I'll compile them into a PDF file and post that here as well. You can use any or all of the designs, but if you republish the actual sketches, you'll need to give me copyright credit. Stay tuned.

(c) Copyright 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://ringbling.blogspot.com

Technorati : chainmail, chainmaille, copyright, earning opportunities, jewelry design, jewelry making, jump-ring jewelry, public domain, wire jewelry