Tag: gunmetal

Craft Projects, Jewelry, Quick and Easy Crafts

Gunmetal and mint necklace

Jessica Smith

How was everyone’s Easter? My weekend was filled with three different dinners, a birthday brunch and simply way too much delicious food. Basically, it was awesome. My older sister came into town, and it was the first Easter and birthday we’ve celebrated with her in a decade (or so it seems). My mom, little sister and I took her to brunch in Baltimore at Cafe Hon to celebrate her birthday. It was a ton of fun.

{A Smith of All Trades} Easter Pic

Sunday was dinner at my dad’s house with my stepmom’s family and her brother’s partner’s family. I’ll give you a second to figure out that relationship 🙂 We only get to see them at Easter, which makes the holiday even more enjoyable.

My Easter craft was pretty simple, and I’m only just sharing it now because the weekend was SO busy and yesterday I had a killer headache. I even missed trivia, so you know it was crummy.

Anywho… I needed a new necklace for Easter. Yes, needed.

I had this old chain that I’d been hanging onto. I liked its chunkiness, but the length was awkward. You know what I mean…. long enough to occasionally disappear  under your shirt and just the right length to get stuck in cleavage… basically, the worst length for a necklace!

{A Smith of All Trades} Gunmental and Mint Necklace1

I cut the necklace in half using really strong pliers, then added a new section to the necklace of bright mint beads.

The beads were a gift from my bestie, and were a totally sweet thrift store find. To add them to the chain, I used beading wire and a crimp bead. I looped one end of wire around the end of the chain, then flattened and crimped the crimp bead so no beads would fall off.

{A Smith of All Trades} Gunmental and Mint Necklace2

Then, I strung the beads with gunmetal spacers in between, closing the wire at the other end with a crimp bead.

In about four minutes, my boring, awkward-lengthed necklace was transformed into the perfect necklace. My sister really liked the whole thing hanging asymmetrically, too.

{A Smith of All Trades} Gunmental and Mint Necklace

AND, it is also the perfect length to wrap around my wrist to become a chunky bracelet. #Winning.

{A Smith of All Trades} Gunmental and Mint Necklace3

I hope you all had a great Easter. The weather is finally getting warmer in Maryland, so hopefully I can start to tackle a few larger projects I’ve been wanting to do.

Oh, and our doors are supposedly in! Joyyyyyyyy 🙂 I’ll make sure to show you when they are all installed and beautiful!

 

Craft Projects, Jewelry

Geometric necklace

Jessica Smith

Update: I pretty much wear this necklace every day. I love it.IMG_0560

Ever have a project that starts out one way and ends completely differently? I wanted to make a pair of earrings that were inspired by something I saw on Pinterest a week or so ago, so I pulled out my beads and supplies and started fiddling with the beads. The further I got into my project, the more I wanted to create a necklace. I started with one color of bead and a small geometric shape, and I ended up with two tones of gunmetal and a wider pendant.

Onto the tutorial.

{A Smith of All Trades} Geometric Necklace

I started this project with one long eye pin, and 11 head pins (eye pins hav a loop at the end so you can connect them to other things; head pins have a flat or round end meant to stop beads from falling off).

{A Smith of All Trades} Geometric Necklace

On each head pin, I placed a specific number of beads. The number was important because it would help make my geometric shape later on. Here’s the pattern I ended up using (it’s not what I started with). 3: silver, 5: gunmetal, 6: gunmetal, 7: gunmetal, 8: gunmetal, 10: silver, 8: gunmetal, 7: gunmetal, 6: gunmetal, 5: gunmetal, 3: silver.

When each head pin had the correct number of beads on it, I twisted the end into a loop to stop beads from falling off the open end.

{A Smith of All Trades} Geometric Necklace

Next, I grabbed my eye pin and started threading the head pins on the order I specified earlier. In between each head pin, I place one gunmetal bead.

One the entire eye pin was threaded with head pins, I closed the other end using round-nosed pliers.

{A Smith of All Trades} Geometric Necklace

Time to add the chain. At first, I added a long chain so this would hang low in my chest. I later went back and added a clasp so it would hit above my chest (I told you I changed my plans a ton!).

To add the chain, I simply cut the amount I wanted, then opened each end of the eye pin and placed a link in the wire. For the clasp, you can attach it in the same way using a jump ring.

{A Smith of All Trades} Geometric Necklace

I really like this necklace a lot. Now that I have a good pattern to follow, I think I’ll try to make it again in funkier colors.

{A Smith of All Trades} Geometric Necklace

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!

{A Smith of All Trades} Geometric Necklace