Coloring Embossed Metal Jewelry Components (Part 2) - Tutorial

Metal earring components - embossed, cut out, painted and riveted.

I don't know about you, but it seems that when I work on my jewelry designs, I tend to do so in an assembly line fashion.  Overall, it saves me time in completing several projects, however, it also takes awhile for my finished pieces to come to fruition.

True to form, I have several pieces of metal embossed and painted for up and coming jewelry designs; several of these are still waiting to be incorporated into necklaces, earrings and bracelets.  For this blog post, I want to share some pictures of my process with you.  I hope it helps to get your creative juices flowing.

The designs shown in the first picture of this post show earrings components that I riveted together. I embossed metal pieces, cut them out, sanded the edges, domed the "flower" pieces, painted them and riveted them together.  (I used 22 and 24 gauge metal pieces, in case you were wondering.  :) )

For this post, I will focus on the earring components shown in the upper right hand corner.  First, I embossed my metal, then I cut it into the desired shapes (circles) and sanded the edges.  I also punched holes in the spots where I want to attach my flowers with rivets. These pieces will serve as the base of the earrings.

Embossed, cut, sanded and punched metal pieces - these will serve as the base of the earrings.

I painted the metal circles with Vintaj Patina colors (Verdigris, Marine and a touch of Onyx around the edges.)  After painting, I sanded over the tops of the bases to give them extra depth.

Painted metal earring bases.

 Next, I took metal flower stampings and punched holes in the center of each flower.  I then domed each one with a dapping block set.  The flowers were painted in complementary colors with Vintaj Patina paints and alcohol inks, as shown in the photos below.

Painted metal flowers.

Painted metal flowers.

Last, but certainly not least, I attached the flowers to the round metal bases with rivets.  The rivets, which serve as the centers of the flowers, were also painted to complement the overall design.

Wa-la! The assembled design!

The assembled design.

 As an added bonus, I want to show you the earring components (before and after assembly) of another pair of soon-to-be earrings:

Painted metal pieces prior to assembly.

Metal pieces after assembly.

In my next blog post, I will share several completed painted metal jewelry designs.  Please be sure to check back regularly!  "See" you soon!

Coloring Embossed Metal Jewelry Components (Part 1) - Sunflowers DIY

Sunflower (metal) jewelry components - cut, colored and sanded.

Long before it became all of the rage to color metal jewelry components, I used to color my metal jewelry pieces with things such as Sharpie markers and acrylic paint.  I would then seal the pieces with a glaze to make them more durable for everyday wear.

These days, it's much easier to color jewelry components, particularly metal, thanks to products like Vintaj Patina for Metal and Tim Holtz's Adirondack Alcohol Inks (both are products of Ranger Ink.)  Recently, I had the chance to experiment with these products - in combination with some others - on some of my metal jewelry creations. The products alone are fun to work with, but they take on a whole different level when they are mixed together and used with other paints on the market.  Due to the sheer number of items I created that I will be sharing here, this topic will be split into two blog posts.  (Please be sure to come back later and check out the second post.)

I will be heading to Europe this fall, visiting Italy, Germany and France.  (It is my gift to myself for graduating "with high distinction" from college this past May.) :)  One of the things that always reminds me of Italy are sunflowers which are so prevalent in the fields of Tuscany.  That inspired me to make some sunflower-themed jewelry components.   The set shown below is one that I have made for myself.  The larger center piece will be made into a long, boho-style necklace; the smaller pieces will be made into matching earrings.  I plan to wear these on my upcoming vacation.

Since I was on a roll making sunflower-themed pieces, I thought it would be fun to share my process here with others who may be interested in trying this technique.  The pictorial below is for sunflower earring components.  I cut out two oval shapes from Bead Landing's pre-embossed metal sheets I purchased at Michael's.  (Of course, you can always emboss your metal yourself in order to create a truly one-of-a-kind piece of jewelry art.) I punched holes in the top for the ear wires, as well.

I used the sunflower sheet shown at the bottom of the package to make the jewelry designs.

First, with a small  paintbrush, I strategically colored my metal pieces with Adirondack Acrylic Paints in the colors Sunshine Yellow and Red Pepper.  (Don't worry about being messy; the pieces will be sanded at the end and the look will come together.)

I took Vintaj Metal Patina in the color Earth and dabbed on the color outside of the sunflowers and around the edge of the components to make them pop.

This is a close-up of how they look after the Patina was applied:

I applied a light touch of Butterscotch alcohol ink to the flowers to give them a golden glow and to add depth to the image.

I dabbed Vintaj Patina in Rust to the center of the flowers.

With a very dry paintbrush, I picked up a little Vintaj Patina in Onyx and applied it sparingly to the center of the flowers.

The painted components before sanding.

Last, I brushed a light coat of Vintaj Glaze over the top of both pieces and let them dry.  Once dried, I sanded the tops and sides of the painted pieces with a fine grit sandpaper.  As you can see, this really adds texture to the design. Simply gorgeous!

Completed pieces - painted, glazed and sanded.

I will be sharing other metal component designs in Part 2 of this topic later this month.  Please come back and join me at that time. I'd love to have you visit me here in blog land.  And as always, please don't forget to join me on Instagram, where I often share pictures of jewelry projects in process.  "See" you soon!

Pebeo Fantasy Paint Jewelry

Pebeo Catholic Jewelry by Wanda Maria Designs.

I recently became addicted to Pebeo's fantasy paint, particularly the Prisme version.  I "discovered" it in the clearance section of my local Hobby Lobby store.  After pouring through the pamphlets in the area regarding this paint, I was amazed that I did not know about this magical paint before.  How is that possible?  I'm not sure what the situation was concerning the paint, however, on the Facebook Pebeo group page which I belong to, someone mentioned that Hobby Lobby was clearing it out because of lack of interest/ineffective marketing.  I'm not sure how true that is, that's just what I found out through the online rumor mill.  Since my initial discovery and purchase of this paint, I have purchased several additional bottles online and from a local art store in my area.

I have been experimenting with applying different color combinations of this paint on different materials, such as on metal, glass, wood, stone and other things.  One thing is certain - regardless of which colors I use - the designs and patterns which form within the paint as it dries are simply beautiful and interesting.  I added a coat of resin over the top of the paint on the jewelry pieces in order to better preserve them during wear.

Below are some of the jewelry items I have made using cross bezels I had on hand; the images were borrowed from my Instagram page:

Pebeo Catholic Jewelry by Wanda Maria Designs

Pebeo Catholic Jewelry by Wanda Maria Designs

Pebeo Catholic Jewelry by Wanda Maria Designs

There are additional pieces I have made which I have yet to make into completed jewelry designs.  I hope to share more photographs here as I complete those pieces, as well as other new designs.  Be sure to check back here for upcoming posts on my latest polymer clay jewelry pieces and how to market/package jewelry pieces on a budget.

Jewelry Made from Coloring Books Tutorial - Part 3 - Boho Floral Earrings

On my last two blog posts, I shared jewelry tutorials with you of a necklace and charm bracelet that I made using adult coloring books as focal points of the designs.  These were made based on a challenge I participated in which was sponsored by C&T Publishing featuring one of their coloring books. 

This post features a tutorial on how to make Boho Floral Earrings.  What I love about these earrings is they are bright, cheery and fun; they are also very lightweight and won't weight down the ears.

BOHO FLORAL EARRINGS TUTORIAL

Supplies needed:

2 - round wooden disc blanks, 1" inch in diameter.
1 - Adult coloring book page.  I used Modern Elegance.
5 - Sharpie markers in complementary colors (I used yellow, orange, light orange, light pink and dark pink/fuschia.)
1 - pink acrylic paint (I used Apple Barrel Pink Eraser)
6 - 8mm pink crystal beads
8 - 6mm orange crystal beads
6 - silver seed beads
28 - filigree-style, silver-colored beads caps to fit the beads (optional)
6 - 2" inch long, silver-colored head pins
8 - 6mm silver colored jump rings
2 - silver-colored ear wire components

White glue
Diamond Glaze by Judikins
Water-based varnish  (optional - please see #4 for information.)

Tools needed:
Paintbrush
Drill
Basic jewelry tools - chain nose pliers, rosary pliers, wire cutters
1" inch round hole punch

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Paint one side of the wooden discs with pink paint.  Set aside to dry.  Repeat.

2. Color the coloring book page with Sharpies.

 3. Using the round hole punch, punch out 2 circles from the colored page, ensuring that interesting (and matching) images are captured with the range of the punch.

4. Use finger to apply a light layer of glue over the unpainted side of the wooden disc blanks.  Carefully place the coloring book piece over the top of the blanks, smoothing it out with your finger and removing any wrinkles and/or air bubbles.  Set pieces aside and let them dry.  Once they are dry, use your finger to apply a thin coating of Diamond Glaze over the tops of each piece.  The key is to use a very light touch here, so as not to smear your images.  If desired, once dried, the discs can be left as is, however, I noticed that items sealed with Diamond Glaze can be somewhat tacky.  To alleviate this, I add a coat of water-based varnish over the top.  This takes away the tackiness of the Diamond Glaze.  I do not recommend using the varnish without the Diamond Glaze, though, as it may "lift" the color off of your pendant.  The Diamond Glaze is used as a protectant.  When applied lightly, it will help to prevent the coloring from smearing or lifting off of the page.

 

5. Use drill to drill one hole near the top of each disc, and 3 holes along the bottom of each disc, ensuring the the enter hole of the bottom is evenly aligned with the hole at the top of the disc.

6. Thread 4 headpins with a silver seed bead, bead cap, one orange bead, bead cap, bead cap, one pink bead and bead cap.  Thread the remaining 2 headpins with a silver seed bead, bead cap, orange bead, bead cap, bead cap, pink bead, bead cap, bead cap, orange bead and bead cap.  See photo for placement.

7. Wire-wrap each beaded headpin into a loop and clip off excess wire.  Attach to wooden discs with jump rings.  Attach ear wires with jump rings, as shown.

 And there you have it!  Your beautiful new earrings!

Here is another version of these earrings.  (I couldn't stop at just one pair...):

They perfectly complement the cross necklace I made to go with them:

Here are some other designs I made using adult coloring book pages as my inspiration:

Adult coloring book Boho Cross Earrings

Adult Coloring book Boho mini wall cross

I hope I have offered you a little inspiration over the last several blog posts on using adult coloring books in your jewelry (and home decor) designs.  If you decide to make your own designs using this technique, please share pics of your creations with me.  I'd love to see them - and share them with other readers here on my blog.  As always - have a creative day!  See you next blog post!

Polymer Clay Chocolate Bunnies and Peeps Easter Jewelry!

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been working on some brand new Easter jewelry designs - all made from polymer clay.  (Yes, Easter is early this year - it falls on March 27th - next month!)  The designs include little "chocolate" Easter bunnies, white "chocolate" bunnies (as not everyone likes chocolate) and "marshmallow" Peeps. For a sneak peek of these items in process, please check out my Instagram page.

Here are some of my latest designs - all of which will be posted to my Etsy shop this week:

Chocolate bunny and roses Easter bracelet.

Chocolate Easter bunny necklace.

Chocolate bunny Easter necklace and earrings set.

Chocolate bunny Easter bracelet.

White chocolate Easter bunny bracelet.

White chocolate Easter bunny bracelet.

White chocolate Easter bunny earrings in two sizes.

Peeps Easter jewelry.

Peeps Easter jewelry.

Hand-Painted Filigree Necklaces

I have shared my love of hand-tinting and hand-painting metal pieces for jewelry on past blog posts.  I recently had the chance to play with coloring metal jewelry components again.  This time, I took various-sized round filigree stampings, hand-painted each one and fashioned them into necklaces and earrings. Some of the filigree pieces were further embellished with metal stampings (which I also hand-colored); mini aluminum roses or mini crosses.


Here are some of my latest designs:


Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Necklace.  I colored the filigree pieces with mint, white and aqua blue colored acrylic paints.  After base painting the pieces, I dabbed over each with a sponge that was dipped into complementary paint colors.  Once the paint dried, I sealed the filigree pieces with a polyurethane sealant. 

Saint Rose of Lima necklace.  This one was a lot of fun to make.  Since St. Rose is usually pictured with roses, I thought it would be nice to give her necklace a shabby chic look.  To achieve this, I used a base color of white paint on the filigree pieces, then sponged over each with green and medium pink paint colors.  Little pink aluminum roses adhered to the filigree pieces add extra interest to the overall design of the piece.

Our Lady of Guadalupe necklace and earrings set.  Once again, I tried to complement the colors from the image along with the colors used on the filigree pieces.  I used a rich shade of metallic copper, along with bluish-green and rusty brown paints as highlight colors.  Please note the roses along the bottom edge of the pendant utilize the same colors to bring everything into one cohesive design.

I should note that on all of the jewelry pieces shown here, I started off with plain silver-colored filigree pieces.  Once the pieces are painted, no one can tell what the original color was.

All of these pieces (and more) have been posted in my Etsy and EBay shops.  These are all one of a kind pieces and will not be duplicated.

Stay tuned for more new designs to be shared here later in the week.  And - as always - please be sure to join me on Instagram where I often show pictures of my work in process.