Took the Plunge - 1st Oxidised Sterling Silver Ring, Simple Steps, Hard Boiled Egg

Guess this is the natural progression in my wire jewelry journey - oxidizing my pieces. I have been thinking about it for a while. Actually since I purchased my first sterling silver wire few months back. When I reached home yesterday evening, I headed straight to the kitchen, took out an airtight container and start boiling an egg. So, here are some pictorials to show the whole process of oxidizing my wire wrap sterling silver sparkly ring...hmm, almost whole process except for the polishing part.

Items needed:

An airtight container.

An egg - hard boiled. Sterling Silver Ring in the container, waiting for the egg ***Yummy***

The Process:

Egg shell removed.

Smashed egg and place both ring and egg inside the container. The egg should be hot.

Covered the container tightly and left for about 15 minutes. Notice steam inside. Result after 15 minutes, golden brown. As the color is not dark enough, egg was reheated in the microwave and placed back into the container. Left it for another 15 minutes.

Tada!! The result after 30 minutes. Darker.

.....and yucky! :)

After cleaning it with water. No more shine! Now, I wonder how do I polish this ring? Someone suggested polishing cloth and another steel wool. The problem is, I don't have both...and not sure where to find them......duh! Any suggestion where I can find these two items or you have other suggestions on what can be used (household items?) to polish it. All suggestions are welcome.....Thanks in advance :)

Wire Wrapped Purple Bracelet - Again

Another purple themed bracelet. Kind of monotonous actually but it is still in demand :)

Bracelet, Gold Filled Wire

Just pix of a finished bracelet wire wrapped with gold filled wire.

Wire Wrapped Donut Pendants - New

These two donut pendants have been with me for the last two months. Finally got them wire wrapped yesterday. Just simple wraps and not too eye catching. Hope the owner like them.

Front View

Back View

Swarovski Crystal Bracelet and Rings

People here seems to like Swarovski crystals a lot. Here's a simple wire wrap bracelet and rings, all wire wrapped with stainless steel wires.

Pearl Necklace and Stud Earrings

A simple wire wrapped pearl necklace accompanied by a pair of wire wrapped stud earrings.

Triplets - Wire Woven Onyx Rings (Adjustable)

So I spent whole evening and night wire weaving these adjustable black onyx rings. I gave up to sleep at about 3 am and continued in the morning. I must say weaving wire is very addicting! :) Enjoy the pix.

Just Sharing - Alexander Calder's Jewelry

I stumbled upon this news and would like to share with you the creative and unique wire wrap jewelry by Alexander Calder. Some of his work looks rather familiar :) and I am sure you have notice this with other wire wrap artists as well. I guess its universal...human minds think alike sometimes. Something or idea you thought of about today may have been created before.....just don't be too surprise...:)

Rose Quartz Wire Wrapped Brooch - Herringbone Weave

Sometimes my brain don't want to work as I wanted it to be. A customer came up with a sketch for a brooch. Took me the longest time to figure out how to create it with wire....attempted 3 times and wasted some wires along the way. Somehow I couldn't wire wrap the rose quartz in place with my own design. It was not meant to be herringbone weaved initially but Delia's post gave me the inspiration. Herringbone weave is one of my favorite weaves and this is a very creative way of using the weave. So, I finally completed the brooch. And here is a simple wire wrapped malachite ring.

Seeing Double - Wire Wrap Tulip Brooch

No! Nothing is wrong with your eyes :) You are not seeing double :) This is my third wire wrapped tulip brooch. This one looks more like the second one here. Someone saw the second one and fell in love with it.....you know who you are..hehe! Must be the color. I love the color too... This one measures about 4 cm in length and took me shorter time to make. Getting better with it :)

Turquoise Set - Herringbone Weave

Its been a week since I last posted. Been busy for the last few weeks/months with works and they are clearing off slowly. Hoping to get more done this week. Wire jewelry front, still trying to finish some custom orders. Here is a set made last weekend......a turquoise set of stud earrings, herringbone weaved bracelet and necklace.

New Section in My Etsy Shop - Borneo Ceramic Beads

Today, I finally added a new section in my Etsy Shop - Borneo Ceramic Beads Supply. If you are interested with Borneo Ceramic Beads, check out this section. I am always in awe with these handcrafted beads and would like to bring it to you although in not very large quantity but enough for you to make some pretties out of them. I will be listing more from time to time. So, do drop by my etsy shop today.

Borneo Ceramic Bead Earrings, Sterling Silver

For a long time now, I have been wanting to wire wrap some of my Borneo ceramic beads and list them in my etsy shop. Finally last night I made a pair of earrings. It is now listed in my etsy shop if you are interested. This pair consist of two unique handcrafted Borneo ceramic beads wrapped with sterling silver wire and 4mm bicone Swarovski Crystals. Each bead measures about 10mm. The handmade nature of the process and the natural individuality of the clay and colors result in variations from bead to bead. As you can see here, the sizes of these two beads vary. One bigger than the other. So, if you are looking for perfection, you will not find it in these beads. I shall be listing more soon in the form of other Borneo ceramic beads. They are really lovely and unique.

Another Cherries Bracelet

Lately I have been remaking similar pieces again. Ah well, they are custom orders so I can't really decline right? So, here is another Cherries Bracelet. Made two bracelets today actually but I am just showing one as they look similar :)

Sparkly Pearl Ring & Mackintosh Wire Wrap Ring

Arrrrg! Having internet connection again. Been trying to post for the last hour but the pix don't want to upload. Is it my computer or is it blogger?...........stress. Anyway, here are two rings I got done today. Both are commissioned pieces. Was planning to finish more pretties but busy with errant whole morning and looking for beads in the afternoon. Basically been spending money today :)

This is a commissioned piece made based on a tutorial by Jim Mackintosh. Making this ring is very challenging as I use round stainless steel wire while Jim recommended soft square wires. No choice here for me. The end result is ok and just hope the owner will like it too :)

Rings Made Last Night

These are rings I made last night. I seems to have a following for the Black Onyx wire wrap ring. Been making a number of them :) Same with the sparkly crystal rings here. Made these two with 20ga Sterling Silver wire and donut shaped swarovski crystal and sterling silver metal beads. Love them, will make one for myself soon. If you are interested to find out how I make these rings, I have a tutorial for it as well. Check out the right hand top corner of this blog or my etsy shop.

My Tutorial got Featured

This happened yesterday (US time). Leslie of No Stone Unstrung choose my Sparkly Ring Tutorial to be featured in her blog last Monday. Go ahead to her blog and read what she has to say about my tutorial.

Spring Cleaning for My Blog

De-cluttering and Revamping my Blog After blogging for more than two years, I think this is a disease - revamping the look of my blog and decluttering :). So, I did just that last night and my blog was not accessible whole of last night as I can't put it back to "anybody" can view when I am done about midnight....Duh! And now, this morning, I discovered that my 3 column layout is now 2 column in Firefox (it looks ok with my PC at home!) but 3 column in IE...duh! duh! duh! Migraine coming liao! How am I going to fix that....HELP! anybody with html knowledge....need your kind help please. (edit July 9, this issue is settled, thank you everyone). Blog Traffic/Views Another good news for my blog and me and thank you to all my readers and visitors. I don't know when I reach this total but I only noticed it last night while working on my blog. My blog has more than 100,000 views/visitors. Yey! Is that a reason to celebrate? Ah well, treat myself to Big Apple Donut afterwards. :) Testimonial for my Sparkly Crystal Ring Tutorial This testimonial really makes my day. It is from one of my Sparkly Ring Tutorial customer. So, here goes:

Hello everyone! I hope this is allowed by the moderators. I am usually just a lurker here, but I wanted to say a little testimonial for Mei's Sparkly Ring Tutorial. I purchased her tutorial from her Etsy shop in May and I have had so much fun with it. The directions and pictures couldn't be any more perfect. My 13 year old daughter jumped on the bandwagon and now we have rings all over our fingers and our toes! My girlfriends have all put in their requests (they know they always get jewelry for bithdays and such) and I even had a woman offer to buy one right off my finger in a restaurant! This has been a great way to keep my teenage daughter happy and busy during these boring and hot summer afternoons. Plus I got an unexpected bonus, my 3 year old daughter who has been giving me FITS with potty training, finally had success when I dangled a ring as the carrot! Whoowhee, Mei, I love you! LOL

Today is a wonderful day but I better get back to work.....back to deadlines..:)

Aquamarine Weaved Cross

Yeap! Another one inspired by Iza's wire weaved cross. Don't you just love the aquamarine? New owner will be coming soon :) Hope she likes it.

Purple Crystal Pendant

Itch and runny nose is here to stay :( At least I got this one done. This one goes together with the purple bracelet I made the other day. Another cross (ala Iza) is on the way. Got to get it done before noon tomorrow. So, will post pix of it tomorrow.