November 26, 2010

Tetra Orb Shoulder Duster Earrings



Another pair of Tetra Orb earrings.  These are addictive.  Fun to make, goes everywhere!



These are super long, shoulder duster long, perfect for the holiday gathering or a holiday day shopping trip:-)



The orbs are super airy.  The stainless steel rings are doubled on all "ears" around the orb for extra sturdiness.  Inside each orb is a SW crystal.  The long sterling silver chains and blue sequins put the total length at 4 inches!  Oh they sway, they sparkle, and they just wanna have fun, like you:-)



Specs:



Stainless steel rings, 0.8mm, ID 4.76mm, from B3.  SW crystals are 6mm style 5000 in clear AB.  Fine chains are sterling silver.  Sequins are.... well whatever small, sparkly thingy will do.  I picked violet blue here to match the blue sequins on my blue sweater top:-)



So, what's the color of your sequins sweater? :-)

Barrel Earrings



Barrels weave is also known as Double Visions; it is the 2-ring brother of Rhino Snorting Drano, or (RSD).  Yes, that's right.  No, I don't know the origin of the name.  When I do invent a weave of my own, I'll get to name it whatever I want, too:-)

The material is anodized niobium rings; the color way is my mix of various earth tones. The ear wire are of sterling silver with gold filled beads.

The earrings measure about 2 inches long from top of ear wire to the last unit of "barrel", and  1/4 inch wide.

Here are the specs:

Anodized niobium rings are 1.2mm, ID 3.4mm, from C&T Designs.

November 25, 2010

'33' Watch Bracelet - BSG Inspired



'33' - As in, "Every 33 minutes, the Cylons find us."



'33' is the very first episode of BSG season 1, and my favorite!  Talk about being on the edge of my seat, feeling the extreme fatigue of having no sleep for 5 days straight running for your life....  I was exhausted just from watching it.



front view

When I set out for a design that captures the episode, in my head I had the scenes of multiple watches, clocks, digital, analog, flashing, all marked at 33 minutes.  Do you see it?



back view

side view

Made in European 4-in-1 in circular form with Persian edging.  The bright aluminum, copper, and bronze rings give this 'watch face' an interesting asymmetry.  It's clearly not half-half, but more of a 5/7 split.  The front and back sides are slightly different in looks because of the severe tension held by the double ring Persian edging.  I improvised the smaller rings on the outer rim to stabilize the plane.






Now comes the fun part, the watch band.  I want something that looks a lot like a common metal watch band, while still coordinates with the watch face.  I stayed within Euro family but this time in scale form as in 8-in-2, plus small double ring connectors running down each edge.



However, the rings used here are with much smaller ARs than required for typical Euro 8-in-2.  That's why the left strip slightly overlap the right strip, allowing the center strip to look more dominant.



Then comes the closure.  I tried so many, but none looked right.  They are either too tight, too loose, too flimsy, or too bracelet-like.






As this "watch" sat in idle for months waiting for a closure, I stumbled upon a box clasp on Rio Grande.  This simple box clasp not only is the perfect size, 2-connector style, but it has "cut corners', or octagon shaped!!  That's totally BSG!



btw, I had tried to make a box clasp myself using wire.  Not working, even with memory wire.  The spring mechanism is the key to a box clasp, and I still haven't found a way to duplicate that function with wire.  A bit disappointed... Well, no fear.  As a prototype in shape and size, I'm still pleased.




So, what do you think?  Does it look like a watch that's permanently pointing at 33?



Postscript:  Since the watch face has sat on my table for a while, it's starting to tarnish naturally.  Notice the slightly different colors of bronze and copper?  The large double rings are bronze and tarnish bit slower than copper in the back.  Didn't plan on it, but now I know:-)



Note to readers:

I create the BSG-inspired line of jewelry solely as a challenge to myself to design/create within a theme. I'm fascinated by the storyline and totally enjoyed watching the entire series from day 1 back in 2003. These jewelry pieces are not endorsed by anyone related to BSG, and are not intended to infringe upon
any of BSG rights. I'm just an admirer showing appreciation for the best TV program EVER! If any official BSG representative feels otherwise, please let me know; the last thing I want from this line is to upset the BSG creation.

November 24, 2010

Poinsettia Bracelet




A lovely holiday trinket for your wrist!



This single chain bracelet, done in Jens Pind Linkage 3 weave and its What-If variant, presents the perfect setting for spots of green and red, just like Poinsettia.



This is my second JPL What-If, after my "Are You Alive?" bracelet, which is a small-small-big pattern.  The Poinsettia bracelet spreads out the big rings farther apart, a 4+1 repetition here.



I had originally used only red rings, but the effect wasn't as good as "Are You Alive?".  But now, these spots of green and red pairs are perfect, aren't they?



The bracelet is made with bright aluminum, sectioned by green and red anodized aluminum rings.  I added an extension for adjustments between 7 to 8 1/4 inches, and a little red/green mobius flower knot at the end to keep the bracelet from rolling around the wrist.



Not much else can be so dainty and festive at the same time, if you don't mind me say so:-)

Available for purchase now in my online studio at DaisyKreates.com.

November 23, 2010

Tetra Orb Earrings


This is a pair a earrings you'll want to wear everyday! They are light weight, fun, and swaaaag along with your every step.



I use bright aluminum jump rings to construct the Tetra Orbs and the short chains.  Inside each orb, I placed a 6mm Swarovski crystal in Capri Blue.  The ear wires are surgical steel.  The pair measures exactly 2 inches long from tip of ear wire to bottom of orb, and each orb is 3/4 inch across from ear to ear.



Specs:



All bright aluminum rings; any small rings will most likely do for the chains; the orbs will require rings of AR 6.5 and up.  The gauge used here is 18swg, so 1.2mm.  The inside bead can be fairly big, so long as it will fit.  I won't use beads that are too too small, cuz they'll fall out, obviously:-)  However, if you string several small beads onto a wire or large AR jump ring, you could stuff the rings of beads inside just as you would with one large single bead.  Cool, huh?!






The Kimiko Sisters








Asynchronous Orbits Earrings




Cute and fun!  My Asynchronous Orbits Earrings are one of a kind; well, for now, until I get my hands on some more anodized niobium rings and a few pairs of big and small silver rings:-)



The earrings are a study in Mobius weave.  You get a chainammille mobius when you keep threading the next ring thru the common center of all previous rings.



Most mailler use the same size rings to construct a mobius.  This simplest form of weaving can create fantastic chains and sheets.  But I was thinking, what if the rings are not the same size, or not even the same gauge?  Can they still form mobius?  If so, what would it look like?  It's often this kind of thinking that gets me in trouble; or in this case, stumble into an intriguing pattern.






Not obvious at the first glance, the silver rings may look like stylized rose buds.  Since these are earrings, those who are wondering can't easily see close enough to dissect the weave.  Unless they look real close; but then, like my beading teacher Liz Smith said, "If you're going to look that close, you'd better be buying me dinner first!"



Specs:



Anodized niobium rings from C&T Designs, WD 1.0mm, ID 3.4mm.  Sterling silver rings are spares from Spiderchain's Serpentine necklace kit, WD 1.6mm for the big one, 1.2mm for the smaller ones.  The actual ID doesn't matter much here; the key is they must not be the same sizes while they're not too far apart either to maintain a mobius' center.

November 22, 2010

Kimiko Necklace




Kimiko, name of a lovely little lady in a lovely little city in a lovely little colony.  Yep, if you're a die hard BSG fan like me, you'd know what I'm talking about:-)



In case you're not, I won't hold it against you, just maybe a little sad that you missed out on the best story ever on TV...



OK, anyway, let's start over.






Kimiko is a lovely little pendant, in all shades of fuchsia strung on a lovely little sterling silver chain.  Done in Japanese weave pattern, this sphere shape is also known as Japanese Dodecahedron 5-in-2.  Its large inner chamber is perfect for a little hidden treasure, such as a clear Swarovski® crystal that, when light passes through it, sends out sparkles of pink, violet, and purple. Additionally, I mixed in a few sterling silver rings on the surface of the sphere, to echo the sterling venetian box chain.  This is one lovely little trinket you'll want to see and be mesmerized every time you wear it!



Specs:



Anodized niobium rings in fuchsia mix, WD 1.0mm, ID 3.4mm from C&T Designs.  Sterling silver rings are also 1.0mm, ID 3.2mm, hand cut by me with my trusty jeweler's saw.  Inside the sphere is an 8mm Swarovski® crystal, faceted rondelle (5040) in clear 2xAB.  The chain is a US-made, 24", 1.2mm venetian box chain.



Thank you for stopping by. See you again soon!







p.s. Just in case you're still wondering what I was babbling about BSG: I'm designing a line of BSG inspired jewelry.  I was fascinated by the storyline and
totally enjoyed watching the entire show.
These jewelry pieces are not endorsed by anyone related to BSG, and are
not intended to infringe upon any of BSG rights. I'm an admirer,
showing appreciation for the best TV program EVER! If any official BSG
representative feels otherwise, please let me know; the last thing I
want from this line is to upset the BSG creation.


 

So, starting from the pilot (see "Are You Alive?"), with each episode, I create a piece of daisykreates-original handmade jewelry with inspirations taken from the name of the episode, a line in the episode, a scene, an act, or whatever.  The Kimiko necklace is a tribute to the little satellite from "Water" of Season 1, where Boomer found the precious, although frozen, water hidden deep in layers of ice.  Crashdown named the satellite "Kimiko, after a lovely little lady in a lovely little city in a lovely little colony!"  Now you know:-)