I kicked off the year by sharing some goals and dreams for 2015. One of the most important of these was to get back in touch with my artistic roots, which I quickly decided would be much more fun to do with friends. And so began the Creative Challenge— a way for creatives from around the world, to come together online and tackle one artistic project per month.
Challenge #11: Jewelry Making
I had grand plans to grab that challenge by the horns, and make myself a few of those trendy tassel necklaces, to wear over the holidays. I headed to Hobby Lobby, armed with a long shopping list of materials that I sourced from a few different tutorials I found online. I spent almost an entire hour in the jewelry-making aisle of that store trying to locate all the little pieces that I needed. There were rows and rows of clasps and hooks and hoops and beads, yet I had the hardest time locating these really specific items like an “adjustable ring bank with loop”. Exasperated, I turned the corner and saw a display with boxes of pre-packaged jewelry making kits and without thinking twice, threw one into my basket.
So yes, I somewhat cheated. The only items outside of the kit I needed to purchase (as indicated on the back of the box) was a set of jewelry pliers and some glue. Easy!
When I got home and opened the package, I laid everything out to snap this photo, only to discover that there was a piece missing from the box. The “lobster claw” clasp that was supposed to hold bracelet #3 together was nowhere to be found. At this point there was no way I was going back to Hobby Lobby, so I settled on making 2/3 bracelets and calling it a day.
The process was very simple. Basically just wrapping some gold wire around a looped piece of string on one end.
And then threading the anchor charm they provided to the other end, before doing the same. I repeated this for bracelet #2 (which was the same, just using white string instead of the pink/gold striped). The only other step was to add a dab of glue to the little bits of string end, to make sure it wouldn’t fray.
The bracelets just wrap around your wrists and the anchor attaches to the loop on the other side to hold it in place. My only complaint is that I felt like I had to compromise between borderline cutting off my circulation (white bracelet), and it being too loose (pink bracelet). For as easy as they were to put together, I can’t complain, and think they look super cute paired with my beaded Alex & Ani + my Cape Cod bracelet that I wear every day.
Talented artist Regina from our Creative Challenge Community joined me this month in creating these fantastic necklaces.
And, here’s a late entry from Karen, for our sculpture challenge. You can read about her entire creation process for this project, along with a few other lovely pieces she created, in this blog post.
Our twelfth challenge (dessert decorating) is already underway! If you’d like to join in on this challenge, or any of the other challenges planned for the year, we would LOVE to have you on board. Until next month…#gocreatives
