Making Wow Jewelry E-Book

Gay Isber

• Herausgeber: Fox Chapel Publishing
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Seitenzahl: 135

Beschreibung

Show off your skills and your fashion boldness at the same time! This book will teach you how to make spell-binding statement jewelry with a unique look and style. Making Wow Jewelry is packed with pretty, attention-grabbing jewelry projects that you can make yourself in one sitting. Award-winning jewelry designer Gay Isber shows how to create head-turning DIY fashion jewelry to special events, lively parties, and dress-up evenings. Using easy beading and jewelry-making techniques, each project includes step-by-step photos, expert tips and tricks, and gorgeous color photography. These are conversation-starting pieces that let you connect with someone. Whether you're in an elevator, on the street, or out on the town, it will inspire the opening question, "Wow, where did you get that?" Go ahead, say you made it yourself!·  

Leseprobe

TECHNIQUES AND PROJECTS

FOR MAKING A STATEMENT

GAY ISBER

WITH FASHION PHOTOS BY

CANDICE GHAI

© 2020 by Gay Isber, Candice Ghai, and Fox Chapel Publishing Company, Inc., 903 Square Street, Mount Joy, PA 17552.

Making Wow Jewelry is an original work, first published in 2020 by Fox Chapel Publishing Company, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright holders.

All photography by Gay Isber unless noted below.

Photography by Candice Ghai: cover, 2, 8 bottom, 9 right, 31 top, 42 right, 48 bottom, 49 right, 51, 56, 65, 71, 74, 82, 88, 98, 101, 107, 113, 120, 125, 130, 135, 140, 147, 151, 156, 163, and 167

Shutterstock.com images: 19 top right by Tatiana linni; 36 bottom by Picsfive

Flaticon.com images: skill level icon (first occurrence page 50) by Smartline; time icon (first occurrence page 50) by Smashicons; safety notes icon (first occurrence page 50) by Freepik

Pngtree.com images: gold texture pages 9 and 49 by venkatesh venky

Page 135: Dress designed by Sally Daneshjou (sallydaneshjoucollection.com)

Print ISBN 978-1-4971-0002-2eISBN 978-1-6076-5639-5

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019003290

To learn more about the other great books from Fox Chapel Publishing, or to find a retailer near you, call toll-free 800-457-9112 or visit us at www.FoxChapelPublishing.com.

We are always looking for talented authors. To submit an idea, please send a brief inquiry to [email protected].

Dedicated to my kind and patient husband, Kevin McMillan, who never seems to mind that our home is filled with sparkles.

—Gay Isber

Ready to WOW?

Whether you are already an experienced jewelry maker or are just familiar with the basics, this book will help you develop the skills you need to make some truly eye-catching pieces. Other crafters will beg to know what techniques you used to create glimmering gem window charms, beetle wing–embedded bracelets, and crystal-encrusted necklaces.

Some projects in this book will teach you how to use new products you may have never heard of to achieve effects you didn’t think were possible, and some projects will just use tried-and-true materials and techniques in creative and intriguing ways. You can customize many of these projects to be more or less attention-grabbing, but even a small ring or a single bangle can have the wow factor that this book is all about.

With projects ranging from earrings, necklaces, and rings to crowns, bracelets, and tassels, you’ll learn how to colorize crystals, incorporate feathers, create reusable molds, cast with resin, embed in clay, sew with wire, and more. Plus, throughout the jewelry glamor shots in this book, you’ll see a lot of extra pieces of jewelry that aren’t covered as step-by-step projects. But here’s the secret: by the time you learn all the techniques covered and make all the projects, you’ll be fully equipped to make these other pieces, too, or simply be inspired by them to make your own custom creations. You’ll be able to apply your new skills to create oodles of striking jewelry items and accessories.

So read on to learn how you can make stunning, wearable works of art that will really make people say, “Wow!”

Contents

PART 1: GETTING STARTED

My Story

Thinking about Color

Connecting Beads with Wire

Whipping Up with Wire

Customizing Cuff Bracelets

Adding Sparkle

Using Epoxy Clay

Playing with Bugs

Tricks with Nail Polish

Making Molds

Crafting Crowns

The Magic of Pearls

Photography Tips and Tricks

Sourcing Materials

PART 2: PROJECTS

Almost-Instant Molded Pendant

Aqua Crystal Drops

Bead Caps

Beetle Wing Bangle and Ring

Beetle Wing Fingertips

Beetle Wing Necklace

Beetle Wing Headpiece

Pink and Gold Crown

Beaded Cuff

Gem Windows

Boho Earrings

High-Shine Headband

Super-Shiny Dangle Necklace

Thermoplastic Cuff Collection

Magnetic Clasp

Mosaic Necklace

Lavender and Gold Drop Necklace

Beaded Wire Crown

Bead Nests Necklace

Bead Nests Headpiece

Embellished Shark Teeth

Colorized Crystals

Feather Tassels

Wiggly Wire Cuff

Ten-Minute Scarab Ring

PART 1:

GETTING STARTED

Before you start any of the projects in this book, you’ll want to review the variety of topics covered in this section. Some sections cover those basic essentials you may need a refresher on, like creating bead links; others focus on specific materials like epoxy clay or techniques like mold making; and still others give you things to think about while creating your designs, like the role color plays. Return to this part of the book as needed for more inspiration and guidance!

“Fashion fades, only style remains the same.”

— Coco Chanel

My Story

I have been teaching jewelry design, jewelry making, and entrepreneurial skills at Austin Community College since 2012; I love teaching others how to create beautiful things. It is a passion for me, and this book is a continuation of those classes and that passion. But I didn’t start out in jewelry.

I remember the first time I added “artist” to my tax return. I was twenty-eight years old, and it was a eureka moment for me, because I was finally putting a stamp on what I was and had been my entire life. Ever since I was a little girl, I had been a maker of things. By the time I was twenty-eight, I had gone through my glass period, my ceramic period, my collage period, and my copper period, and was smack dab in the middle of my painting period.

The fateful design from Project Dingle Dangle!

Due to a twist in life and a new marriage, I moved from Texas to Waterloo, Ontario, with my sons. For the first year, I couldn’t legally work, but that allowed me the free time to rehab our house, work on paintings, and begin dabbling in jewelry making, despite no training in the craft. At one point, I gave an early bracelet I made to a friend, who showed another friend, and pretty soon I was designing a necklace for a major company! I designed a velvet ribbon with a barrel clasp that had three lobster claws with color-coordinated beads dangling from them. I needed to make 9,000 of these necklaces, so I quickly put an ad in the local newspaper for workers. I bought wire, beads, ribbon, and commercial-sized cookie sheets to keep the beads organized on my dining room table. I called it Project Dingle Dangle. At this point, I still did not know about head pins, eye pins, or how to make an earring. Some of my workers knew more about making jewelry than I did. We all worked hard on those necklaces for three intense weeks and had a lot of fun.

After that, I kept on making jewelry independently, and not much later, I happened upon a sturdy 1920s electrical switching building for sale. It was so dirty, wrecked, and ugly that my friends thought I was crazy to buy it, but I saw the potential. I sold my house and bought the building. I had great ideas for revamping it but a tight budget, so I hired talented but down-on-their-luck men from a local soup kitchen line to help me. In just six months, we created my vision of a happy and creative store/studio/home, a space full of light, beads, happiness, color, and joy.

The interior of the building served as my store and studio and home.

I called my new home The Sugar Factory and Gay Isber’s Design Lab. All the jewelry we sold was handmade by me or my helpers. The first floor was the store and my office, featuring an open floor plan with plenty of room for bracelet-making parties and jewelry displays, and I lived on the top floor. The bracelets we made at the bracelet-making parties here were called Sugar Springs. Guests would make memory wire bracelets using a color-grouped mix of vintage and new beads while sipping their drinks and nibbling on their snacks.

Bracelet-making parties held at my studio/home were always a blast.

The millions of beads were set out on long tables on cookie trays and grouped by color. It was very therapeutic to run your hands through all those beads. I loved those parties.

A few years later, when I outgrew the space, I relocated to a two-story penthouse in downtown Toronto. I adored the floor-to-ceiling windows that flooded the rooms with light, the catwalks, the white marble floors, and the mirrored walls. It was as if Zsa Zsa Gabor and I had designed the space together. It was a perfect place for jewelry making, hosting parties, and living large. I called it The Sugar Factory in the Sky. I will always cherish my time there in the core of a wonderful city.

A few years later, my sons returned to the United States for jobs and the military, so I decided to open a third shop in the creative city of Austin, Texas, closer to my hometown and to my family. I found a large, dilapidated store with an older home attached to the back. I knew I could transform it like I had my first building; I wanted to continue working and living under one roof. I called this third home The Sugar Factory on Koenig. I transformed it with glittering artworks, fanciful chandeliers, and a large white studio that looked onto the street through giant windows.

I recently made the switch to simply working from home with no storefront space, but through all these moves to different homes and studios, there is one thing that has always been true: I love making jewelry, teaching people how to make jewelry, and sharing the beautiful items we’ve created with the world. So hold onto your hats and let’s make some jewelry together!

P.S. Are you hungry for more photos and inspiration? Join me on social media; you’ll find me as Sugar Gay Isber and Making Wow Jewelry on Facebook, Instagram, and many other sites.

Thinking about Color

Color is a very important and inspiring part of the jewelry-making process.

I love color; I was born with an artist’s eyes, and color has always mattered to me. If there were such a thing as perfect color pitch, like with sounds, I would have it. If you are like me, then welcome to the club. But even if you’re not, you can learn some basics about color that will serve you well in your jewelry making.

When I first started making jewelry seriously, you could buy great aqua quartz beads. I bought so many that it filled a five-gallon (19-liter) bowl. Now when I try to buy these beautiful beads, though, they are hard to find. Colors are cyclical. One day my aqua quartz beads will be available again, but even in my travels to China and India I only spotted a few handfuls. I am hopeful that this color will make a comeback. Remember this when you find beads in a color you adore. Stock up, because you may not be able to find that exact shade or bead again for a while.

Does this necklace make you hungry?

Blue sells great.

Purple is quite powerful.

Yellow is attention grabbing and often provides high contrast.

Another thing to keep in mind when choosing colors for a design is that color can powerfully affect our perceptions and moods. Companies spend plenty of money studying how color motivates us. For example, McDonald’s uses red and yellow for specific reasons: red to make us eat quickly and yellow to make us feel happy. Read up on the studied effects of various colors so that you know what your jewelry might be evoking in people. Ask your friends and family to tell you about their favorite colors. Ask them why they like what they like. Colors can tell you a lot about individuals. If you’re making a piece for a special someone, consult them about what they like and why.

If you don’t know your favorite color—or even if you think you do—look into your closet, visually remove all of the black, and notice what color you see most. The answer might surprise you. I wear a lot of black because it is easy, but I love many colors. Aqua is my absolute favorite color—I get distracted watching movies or TV shows when anything aqua or teal shows up. Blue is, in fact, the most liked of all of the colors, and men especially like blue more than any other color. It is the color of our sky and water, so we are surrounded by blues in the natural world. In the jewelry world, blues sell great. I have seen women crawl over things to get their hands on aqua jewelry.

Another popular, powerful color is purple. Purple is a combination of blue and red (a power color, meaning stop, pay attention, and the color of blood, which is life). Purple-loving people will buy almost anything in their color. I always try to work a purple piece into a collection, as I know it will be a good seller.

Yellow is a very interesting color. It’s not a common color, because it is harder to sell. Think about yellow cars, other than taxis. When was the last time you saw one? Yellow and black are the two most contrasting colors; that is why caution road signs are in yellow and black, as they are the easiest colors to see together from far away. Yellow is nature’s combination color; you might see many colors in your garden, but yellow is almost always present (such as in the centers of flowers). Even one or two yellow beads will make your piece pop.

Metallics, like other colors, often trend cyclically.

When do you think this necklace would sell best?

And then you have metallics: mainly gold, copper, and silver, plus fun alternatives like rose gold and bronze. For the longest time, I created almost everything in silver and forgot about copper or gold. Don’t do that—use everything you have available to you. Currently, the style pendulum has swung back around, and gold is back in style. Rose gold and copper are becoming ever more popular. People need to have a reason to spend their money on new things, so we are often influenced by what is trending. Some of my clients resist the trends and are stuck in the silver era. That’s okay, though—silver will be a trending color again soon enough. It is also a good idea to blend metallics. There really is no rule against adding a gold lobster claw and gold jump rings to a silver chain. It is just part of your design. Embrace trying new things. You might hit upon a truly mesmerizing combination!

I’m not going to exhaustively analyze every color, but hopefully this examination of a few key players has made you think about the role color plays in your jewelry. I’ll leave you with one last word of advice: remember that colors are seasonal. It is hard to get people to buy red and green combination jewelry unless it’s Christmas. Pastels are mostly sold in spring. Neon colors are great for summer. Browns, mustards, burgundies, and forest greens all sell better in the fall. Try tailoring your designs to the season you’re in.

Don’t be afraid to mix different metals like silver and gold.

Connecting Beads with Wire

Stringing beads onto a wire or thread is pretty self-explanatory, but also somewhat limiting. It’s not that you can’t make beautiful things that way; you’ll see things strung in this book. But creating bead links is more interesting and requires a bit more effort. A bead link is simply a bead (or beads) collected on a short piece of wire, usually with a wire loop rolled on each end. Connecting beads by creating bead links is one of the most basic jewelry-making skills you will learn. This includes bending and looping wire as well as using jump rings. You’ll often need to use this skill to connect your clasps to your finished pieces. Once you have mastered the skill of creating bead links, sometimes called the rosary style of linking, you can make anything. It really is as relaxing as knitting once you get the hang of it. Follow along with the tutorial on page to learn all the basics you’ll need.

Keep in mind what you are connecting the bead link to, as this will help you determine the size of the loop