I've been trying to get into jewelry making/beading/metal work stuff for awhile, but its going slowly. Stores around me have squat for selection and are expensive. The internet, while it has everything I could wish for pretty much (at a cheap price), does not let me grab a few pieces and put them together to see if they'd match. I also have a hard time gauging... gauges. Or I did. Now that I have a pretty wide spectrum of wire and head/eye pins and sheet metal, I know what I should be shooting for.
I've only made one "real" piece and it wasn't that impressive. Simple swarovski crystal bracelet for my sister. Its pretty simple in design and looks easy, but I swear getting the crimp beads (
) (the ones you use a special tool to squish on the end to close the loop) took ages because I was working with such small stuff.
Right now I'm pretty much just doing bead stuff. I do have some supplies to do metal work, but what I'd really love is to do lost wax casting. Obviously I don't have the supplies to do so, but I'm hoping that maybe my school's studio arts building offers to do them. Maybe. I'd be willing to pay :\
I picked up a couple neat things online from another store while living here in MD, and have a great design in mind, but I left my tools at home. I guess it would only take a minute to find a round-nosed pliers at the store, but I'm waiting.
I can take pictures of some of the stuff eventually. Hopefully when I get a better camera (that is, one that's primary purpose isn't as a phone).
