A Book-Along Challenge

Acorn Headpin by BayMoonDesign

During the month of March Heather Powers of Humblebeads is hosting a book-along challenge. The challenge is to create a piece of jewelry inspired by a project or technique in Powers latest  book. Beautiful Elements.   Entries can be submitted until March 25th on the Humblebeads VIP facebook page.  She will  randomly picked winners from all the entries on March 26th. Prizes include a $100 and a $50 gift certificate from Humblebeads.com. 

Beautiful Elements by Heather Powers

Beautiful Elements is a mixed-materials jewelry-making project and technique book that teaches simple techniques using wire, metal, and polymer clay to enhance and personalize beaded jewelry. There are thirty projects that teach how to create natural shapes from metal, “sketch” with a hammer to create clever designs, and transform bits of polymer clay and wire into adornments. The book covers how to make simple findings like handcrafted earring wires, chain, and toggle clasps. 

Dark Annealed Steel Wire

I am working my way through Beautiful Elements and I want to share what I have learned so far and what I am working on in the book.  Heather uses dark annealed steel wire in a number of her projects.  I never used it before and I love it now.

Beginnings of ceramic earrings by BayMoonDesign

I am working on a pair of earrings now.  I absolutely love how easy it was to wrap the ceramic for this earring with the dark annealed steel wire.  I also love the rustic and earthy look it gives.

Beginnings of Acorn earrings by BayMoonDesign

Once again I used the  dark annealed steel wire for making headpins and wreaths.  Heather's book shows how to make acorn headpins and turn them into earrings. I love acorns so I zeroed in on this project.  I took a brave step for me when I mixed my own version of the acorn color.  I didn't have the Spanish moss that Heather recommended but I had an emerald green color and yellowish green.  Using the photo of the acorn, I created my version of the green color and I used bronze PearlEx that I had on hand for the caps of the acorn.  I made the headpins and turned them into the acorn earring above by following the directions in the book. Heather also shows how to make your own ear wires.  I still need to add my handmade ear wires to these cute acorn earrings.

Copper Oak Leaf and Acorn Pendant on Wreath by BayMoonDesign

I also used the dark annealed steel wire to make the wreath for the pendant pictured above.  You can see I made some more of the acorn headpins and turned them into charms.  Once again the directions are in the book.  There are patterns in the book for use with metal.  I used the oak leaf pattern from the book and copper to make the oak leaf.  I am not done with this pendant yet.  I may change some things a bit and I need to add some chain, but I am close to completing this project from the book.

I am pleased that I have been able to add to my skills with this book.  I hope you will join the challenge or stop by the Humblebeads VIP facebook page to see what others have created.  Which project do you think I should enter in the challenge?