Jewelry

" There's lots of fun making your own jewelry."

Jewelry Making is simple, fast, and you can make several pieces in one firing. Small kilns can make tons of pieces in one firing.

There is a multitude of art glass, such as textured glass, dichroic , iridescent glass, and an array of colors to pick from. Dichroic glass is my favorite type of glass.

The look is spectacular, and the pieces seem to just shout for attention. With a kiln and some glass you can make some very spectacular pieces. Want a real attention grabber, try mixing some dichroic and silver.

The first thing you will need to do is pick your glass and make your cuts. Decide if you are going to make a cabochon or pendant, earrings, or bracelet.

You could even try using some adorable jewelry fusing molds to make your pieces. These are tiny molds that you can use with frit or small pieces of glass. These fusing molds are sometimes sold separately, or in what is called a cube tray. A cube tray usually has two or more mold forms in the same mold. Please check out the glass slumping supplies for a list of items needed for this procedure.

You can use stringers, noodles, frit, powder, and paints to add texture and depth to your piece. You can also fire a cubic zirconia into your glass piece.

If you are making cabochons or pendants, you will need a way to attach a chain. There are several ways you can accomplish this.

put a hole through the piece while fusing

glue a bail to the back

drill a hole in the glass after fusing and attach a bail

insert a high temperature wire bail into the glass when you are fusing

wire wrap the piece after it has been fused

If you are going to attach a bail, drill a hole, or wire wrap the piece after firing, you can go ahead and fire your pieces. If on the other hand, you want to put a hole in your piece, then you will need to see the hole in pendants page on this site for more information on how this can be accomplished.

If you have decided to put a bail on your piece, wait for it to completely cool after fusing. Fused glass findings can be purchased on line or through a glass store. These are usually silver or gold plated bails. You can also purchase sterling silver bails for this purpose. These can be attached using a two part epoxy, or E6000 glue.

You can also decide to wire-wrap your fused piece. Wire wrapping can add dimension and texture to a piece. There are many sites on the internet with instructions for wire wrapping pieces. You can actually put a groove in the edge of your glass using a special grinder bit.

You could make your jewelry using some silver, such as PMC, or just add some silver to your piece.

If you are making pendants, you might want to make a special necklace to go with your piece, or just combine some fancy beads with your chain. Make your own glass beads to go with your pendant.

This doesn�t even begin to deplete the ideas for ways you can display your fused glass. There are so many techniques and styles. Hopefully this page has given you some ideas on where you can begin.

Jewelry Craft Sites

For some more crafty ideas on jewelry making, selling your pieces, or purchasing please check out the following sites:

Arful Crafter - This site is full of ideas for making and selling original crafts.

Be*Jeweled Beads and Gifts - Fabulous handcrafted artisan jewelry for all ages, tastes, budgets, using semi-precious gemstones, precious metals, our own lampwork beads and other quality materials.

Crafters Love Crafts - Whether you are new to crafts or have crafted all your life, you'll find what you need here. There are free craft projects for everyone.

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