Hagerstown Jubilee Days

Harmoniously Tangled was basically born April 5 of this year when I launched an internet store over at Storenvy.  My first debut in a public setting was the fourth of July weekend in Liberty, Indiana.  I am excited to say I will be setting up for my second festival this Friday in Hagerstown, Indiana as they celebrate Jubilee days.  I will have the good company of my sister Lisa with her crochet items from Creative Kitty Crochet.

One of the things I noticed from my first festival was the poor little boys who had to endure their moms or sisters stopping to look at my handmade jewelry.  My Attitude charms helped entertain them for a bit but I knew I needed to find something little boys might find more interesting.  While networking my business I came across a wonderful page, Dandelion Ivy.  Here I found little creepy, crawlers that might catch a boys attention.  Be sure to go into the photo albums and click on the Spiders.

After seeing these wonderful little crawlies I needed to know how one might create them. (wink; I had a pretty good idea but it never hurts to look for directions.)  It didn't take long to come across this helpful page, Create a Wire and Bead Spider.  So I spread my bead boxes on the table, grabbed my wire and got down to business trying to create these little wonders.  Here are a few that I finished.

Not as wonderful as the ones over at Dandelion Ivy but I think they will work and it helped to reduce my bead population as well. LOL  I did get a bit carried away and created these.

They are on the large size but if they don't sell I can always take them off the ear hooks and sell them.  This was a fun project.  You may want to keep these guys in mind for a rainy day project or for a birthday party.

Now with that project out of the way it is time for me to rest.  If you happen to be in the area of Hagerstown, Indiana on August 19 & 20 come look us up.  We would love to meet you.
Happy Crafting Everyone.

Getting back to what I had in mind.

When I started this blog my idea was to share the journey of jewelry making.  To allow you to come along as I learned to make different pieces of jewelry and let you know how I over come the problems I faced.  I should have known that I would probably not be able to follow that plan.  Mainly because I am the type of person who finds a solution and moves on.  I am now thinking that posting these small triumphs may be a way for me to see the progress that I am making.  This will also show I am not in the time warp I sometimes feel I am in.

First I want to say when I decided to start making jewelry it was a need to remake myself.  I left a very stressful job as a surgical technologist and my youngest daughter had graduated high school, married and left home. So faced with an empty nest and no career I needed to find something to do with my time.  I picked up a few odds and ends for jewelry making one day.  After creating my first piece I was hooked.  Not because it was so incredibly great but because it gave me a feeling of accomplishment and I enjoyed the creative process.

Naturally I started searching the internet for information on jewelry making.  I came across wire working.  I was amazed at the weaves and circles.  I watched videos showing people holding their wires as they created different patterns.  I gathered my supplies and jumped in.  I am not a strong or rough person but the first problem I came up against  when weaving was I would bend my support wires.  I was using 20 gauge.  Which is still the gauge I enjoy using.  I did what I always do when I come up against a problem.  I called my Dad. LOL  My Dad is 70 and I am so blessed to still have him in my life and close by.  He is someone who can come up with simple low cost answers.  I explained I would like to have a frame that could help hold the wires while I was weaving but I wasn't sure what kind of clamps to use.  His answer "How about a clip board?  Then you can cut the middle out."

Here is the outcome of that conversation.

 
I chose to use two clip boards so i could vary the length.  I cut out the middle and placed holes in the sides and used screws and wing nuts to hold it together.  The length can be varied by using the different holes.  The ends of the wires are slid under the clips which hold the wires straight and allow me to weave easily from front to back with out bending the support wires.  Note; I used mini clip boards.

This is one of the projects I have completed using my home made wire loom.

This is a journey of learning.  Sometimes self teaching is a slow painful method of learning.  Sometimes you surprise yourself and find you are more capable than you ever imagined.
Happy Creating to Everyone.