Gold Swarovski Crystal and Bali Silver Ring

In March, I began a journey to learn how to make my own jewelry.  Long story short, my sister encouraged me to try it while on a weekend trip to Las Vegas.  I took a couple of classes and bought a whole bunch of supplies, read some books and jumped on in.

Swarovski Crystal Cluster Ring

Making necklaces and bracelets are fairly simple at first.  Earrings are the easiest by far – I can make a pair of earrings in less than a minute now if I have the right materials in front of me.  After a few months I started to branch out and make some double strand bracelets and multiple strand necklaces as well as some chandelier style earrings.

Red Czech Painted Glass Flower and Swarovski Crystal Ring

Never one to keep it simple, about a month ago I took a stab at making my very first ring.  The first time I tried it, I used Stretch Magic which is a sort of thin rubber band material.  The end result is beautiful and I have worn it a few times, but tying the stretchy string took every ounce of patience in my being.  I don’t think I’ll be trying to tie one of those again anytime soon.

Swarovski Crystal Round and Blue Briolette Ring

Instead, I moved on to wire wrapped rings.  These are much easier to make and much easier to size, as I have quickly found.  I have three rings that I wear “permanently” and rarely take them off, so my only available finger is my right hand first finger.  It happens to be a size 10 which I thought was massive at first, but I have discovered that it’s much easier to fit larger beads on a larger finger, making the creation of the ring much easier as well.

For my birthday yesterday, Andrew gave me a real steel ring mandrel that can be used to shape metal.  Together with the anvil and hammer I picked up two weeks ago, I’m looking forward to trying out some shaping techniques I’ve been reading about in some library books.

If anyone out there reading has any ideas to save my fingertips from the wear and tear of working with wire, please leave me a comment and fill me in!