Wire Wrap Jewelry Website Recommendation

I happened upon this website awhile ago and wanted to pass it on. It is called Jewelry Lessons by Eni Oken and friends. There are lots of tips, tutorials, and photos of some beautiful wire wrap jewelry made by students of Eni Oken. And if you are familiar with Eni's work, which is gorgeous, you will also be very impressed with her students work. There are even free tutorials there too. Just checking out the site is very inspirational.

If you like beautiful jewelry and like wire wrap in particular, take a look. You will be inspired too. http://jewelrylessons.com/jewel/

New Necklaces

These are 2 recent creations. These necklaces were inspired by the beautiful wood beads that are in both. When I received this order from my supplier, I knew I wanted to create SOMETHING from them. This is it.



For more information, just visit my Etsy jewelry store.

Beginning Holiday Sale

I just finished new listings in my Etsy jewelry store and I am beginning a Holiday Sale. Take a look when you have some time.



These are a couple of the earrings I finished recently. They are sterling wire and pretty, shiny pearls, and sterling beads. Very lightweight and very comfortable to wear.

A Group Posting of My Jewelry

2 Necklaces, 3 Pairs of Earrings

I had a pretty good creative day today. I made 2 necklaces that incorporate some of my new wood beads, beautiful gemstone beads, and sterling silver chain. I like the combination of the different elements together. As soon as I get photos, I will share them here.

I purchased a new tool called a bead reamer that enlarges bead holes. It is battery powered and works a whole lot better than the 2 other hand tools I have for the same purpose. I have wanted this tool for a long time so that I could use the beautiful pearls I have in a new way. Usually I wire wrap pearls. Their holes are so small only a very thin wire will go through it. Now I have more of a choice in how I can use the pearls. Hooray!

I made 3 new pairs of earrings, with pearls, that I will also share as soon as I take photos.

A Commission

One of my customers asked me to modify a pair of earrings she saw that I made. She likes pineapple quartz so this is what I made for her. We were both very pleased with how they turned out.

More New Earrings

If you have not been to my jewelry site lately, then you have not seen these 2 new pair of earrings. This is not an original design of mine. The choice of stones, chain and beads were mine. I like this design. They look really nice on.

This first pair is and with purple metallic pearls, sterling silver chain and other parts, and a light blue chalcedony briolette.


This second pair is made with sterling silver chain and findings, lime green pearls and african jade briolettes.

New Wire Wrapped Earrings

Sorry I've been gone so long. I have been busy lately with my new kitten and integrating him into our home. You can find out more about Motor the cat on my new blog.

I FINALLY have taken photos of new earrings I have made. This first pair, all handmade of course, has garnets wire wrapped to the outside of the larger ring, and rhodonite beads wire wrapped to the inside of the smaller ring. The ear wire was also handmade and has a spiral on one end.




If you are interested, these earrings will be listed in my Etsy store by next monday at the latest. Hope you like!

A New Pendant, Antiqued

I have all ready shown this pendant but I decided to go ahead and antique it. It's a subtle difference, but I like the change. I just wanted to share it again.




I'm always trying new ways to photograph my pieces. I like these 2 with the rock background.

New Wire Wrapped Pendant

This is my latest. I call this piece "Isabella." A beautiful name for a pretty piece of jewelry. Sometimes the name just comes to me for a certain piece. That is how this pendant was named.


Believe it or not, this pendant was going to be an earring. When I wired the green beads to the outside of the design, I knew it was too big for an earring and so it became a pendant. The design also became more elaborate at that time.

I wanted to use green and purple as my colors because that is a favorite color combination for me. So on the outside we have green adventurine beads and 2 different green pearls. On the inside of the inner "leaf" shape, there are pearls, garnets and crystals. There is a marquee amethyst and a amethyst briolette in the pendant. And all of the wire is sterling silver. When I was all finished with the wiring, I lightly antiqued the pendant.


"Isabella" is available right now in my jewelry store, Testagrossa Designs Jewelry.

New Earrings

This is a new pair of earrings I just got through photographing. Once again, the technique is wire wrap with sterling silver wire. The wire is shaped into the teardrop shape and the ends are coiled and hammered. Thinner wire is wound around the teardrop. Faceted amethyst briolettes are hung within the teardrop, and peridot rounds are sewn to the bottom. The earrings measure 1 3/8" long by 1/2" wide. The amethyst brios are approximately 10.5x7mm and the peridot beads are 2mm.

Finally..........New Jewelry to Share

Sorry I've been away so long. Since coming back from vacation, I have been regrouping and slowing down a little since it is summer. I started taking photos again yesterday. I need to take a lot more to share my jewelry and lots of goodies for my bead store.

This is one of my latest. This pendant is wire wrapped, all in sterling silver wire. The pearls are freshwater and are 4-5mm in size. The red briolette is a ruby and is 14x14mm or 1/2" by 1/2" . The whole pendant measures 2 1/4" long by 1 1/2" wide.




I like how the ruby is centered like a heart, surrounded by the pretty pearls. This is my original design and was lots of fun to make.

Yellow, White or Rose Gold? Why are they Different?

I have a ring at home that is three colors of gold. Just the other day I was wondering, what makes the difference in the colors? Even though I do not work in gold, I thought I wanted to find out and share it in my blog.

Just as I had suspected, the difference lies in the metals mixed into the gold alloys.

Yellow gold is made by mixing metal alloys such as copper and zinc to pure gold.

Rose gold is made by mixing pure gold with alloys such as copper, which creates the rosy reddish color.

White gold is pure gold mixed with metal alloys such as silver and palladium.

Often times, white gold jewelry is coated with rhodium, another white metal, which helps the gold look whiter. In its pure state, white gold is actually a light grey color. Over time, the rhodium wears away. When this happens, the jewelry needs to be recoated (plated) with the rhodium. This may need to be done every 12-18 months and is a fairly common practice with jewelers.

The higher the carat weight of your yellow gold jewelry, the richer the yellow color will be. By that I mean that a ring that is 18 carat is yellower than a ring that is 14 carat. The higher the carat weight in rose gold, the more subtle the rose tone will be. And in white gold, the color will look the same because of the plating.

The one last difference is more in terms of the carat weight. The higher the carat weight, the better your jewelry piece will age because the piece will be stronger and hold up to everyday wear better.

Very interesting information.