Friday, April 10, 2009

Birds Nest or Bling, Very Pretty Rings

I spent part of today making rings. Dwyn showed us how to wrap them last night at lampwork class. The Birds Nest ring is one that Jen has been teaching at Beadfx. It's called that because the way you wrap the wire creates something that looks like a birds nest, with the bead like the egg sitting in the nest. It's very simple and Jen has been talking about making a video and posting it on the Beadfx website, so stay tuned for that - it will be worth the wait.

Today I tried it with both lampwork beads and a jumble of other beads, which The Dixon Chick calls Bling Rings. The ones I made weren't too fancy in the bling department but I did make two rings that will go nicely with my new glasses, with blue and green beads and silver wire. Then I made a couple with gold wire, which I also liked. Stephanie recommended 22 gauge and that seems to work really well. Dwyn tried it with 24 gauge last night and found that she preferred the 22 overall. I was having a lot of fun experimenting with different colours and types of beads and varying the wrapping method. I ran out of time before I ran out of ideas.
Funny thing though - so far, all of the rings seemed to turn out just the right size to fit my own fingers. I have a ring mandrell and I did try to make them larger but they all just seemed to end up a size 7, no matter what I did. Wonder if that means I get to keep all of them??

1 comment:

The Dixon Chick said...

They look amazing! Congrats! I think I'm going to get new glasses now....just to make more jewellery!