Day 14- Made of Magazines

3/10/14

For my piece today I made some paper beads from magazine paper. See the accompanying DIY post on Making Paper Beads if you'd like to try making your own!

I started with magazine paper with some pinks and neutrals. I rolled paper beads in two sizes, but I only ended up using the ones that were about 1.25". To add a bit of glamour I lightly spray painted them gold. I love the effect on the beads because you can see the color and text through the paint but it gives them a great metallic sheen.

I flattened the beads with my fingers and threaded them onto Swarovski head pins. In order to thread the headpins I had to use a pin and needle to open up a hole through the bead. A small awl would be a convenient tool next time.

I used the headpins to affix the beads to two pieces of balsa wood. I filled in the spaces between the paper beads with gold tube beads.

I used the headpins to affix the beads to two pieces of balsa wood. I filled in the spaces between the paper beads with gold tube beads.

I knew I wanted to make a jewelry piece but I decided on a necklace because I was concerned with how delicate the piece would be on the wrist or hand. I thought it would be interesting as a piece that resembled a collar. I think it needs to sit closer to the neck so I may go back in a cut a piece out of the back and add a clasp.

To finish the piece I trimmed the headpins in the back and added another layer of balsa wood to strengthen it. I used an elastic cord with beads for the length of the necklace.

Necklace: Paper, Swarovski headpins, glass beads, elastic cord, balsa wood

I know it's been a lot of necklaces, I promise to change it up tomorrow! I am happy that this piece is very different than anything I've done so far.

xo,
Arielle

DIY for Day 14- Making Paper Beads

3/10/14

Paper beads are easy to make and a great way to use old colorful magazines for your projects.

I like to coordinate the colors of magazine pages that I use with my project. The best tend to be fashion magazines or anything with a lot of images. A page full of words can be fun too, especially if you'd like to paint the beads after making them. I like to use travel magazines for landscape colors, wedding magazines are great for pastels and neutrals, and you can usually get some good full pages of bright colors out of magazines like Real Simple.

Fold your sheet of magazine paper into segments as long as you'd like your beads to be. Cut from bottom right to top left corner of each strip. You can use a ruler and pen to get an exact line, but it doesn't matter if it's perfect so you can also do it by eye if you can get it close enough.

 Start by rolling the strip with the right side out on a small tool like a crochet hook or a small paintbrush. Two things to watch out for here: 1. Be careful not to pull it too tight or it will be very difficult to remove from the tool, and 2. Angle the strip slightly so the center of the triangle is lined up with the center of the bead.

Making sure the point of the triangle is lined up with the center of the bead

Once you have it wrapped twice around, apply a small amount of glue all the way down to the tip of the bead. You don't need to use much; the glue spreads out pretty evenly. You may have to add a small drop at the tip of the triangle if it doesn't stay down.

Wrap 2-3 times and then apply a small amount of glue

Roll the bead until it's complete. Remove from the tool, and if desired you can snip off and triangle points that are sticking out. Often, however, they aren't noticeable and it's not necessary.

When your beads are finished you can use them as is, spray them with a spray lacquer for more shine, spray paint them either completely or just a bit, or apply glue to the outside with a paintbrush and dip them in seed beads.

Paper beads lightly painted with gold spray paint

Have fun!
xo,
Arielle

Day 13- Crocheting On The Go

3/8/14

Please excuse the next two posts for being a little late; I was visiting Boston this weekend and had little time to type. I did bring my crocheting with me though, and did a lot of freestyle stitching.

Last night I began making small crocheted circles with an uncarded, undyed, and handspun yarn that I bought this summer for a few dollars from a woman spinning yarn on her porch in Lincoln, NM (Population 52. Actually.) That pretty much means that the yarn went directly from sheep to yarn without much treatment at all, and that you have to pick out the sticks and thorns from the yarn as you go. But it has its charm, of course.

I made a pile of circles only about 3 stitches deep, and stitched around them with a hand dyed yarn varied in color but that was mostly purple for the section I used. I crocheted all the pieces together to experiment with the shape, but even before I trimmed all the strings and finished it I didn't much like the shape.

I wanted the piece to be rounder and have the circles overlap more. I ended up adding a few more and stitching them together from the back. I made some smaller circles out of a finer yarn (the same one I used for Day 11's Chain Bib Necklace) and added them to the top of the center circles. 

I decided to use a few crystals for the center of the necklace to give it a little bit more bulk and some dimension. I used light amber and light grey crystals to blend. I added a twill tape tie to the back that can be tied at any length.

Necklace, untreated wool yarn, hand dyed wool/silk yarn, hand dyed wool yarn, Swarovski crystal, cotton twill tape

This piece is clearly very similar to Necklace with Concentric Circles  from Day 9, but I think would be less dressy. Something about unwashed wool just makes things casual, I guess.

Going to get today's piece up tomorrow and then I'll be back on track. 

xo,

Arielle

Day 12- Hopeful Spring Florals

3/7/14

I’m kind of hoping Spring is going to happen soon… I think I heard some birds chirping yesterday and it’s starting to be sunny.  Todays piece is an ode to Spring. Pink and floral and sparkly.  

I started with a black plastic cuff and wrapped it with a salmon pink grosgrain ribbon. I wrapped it all the way around and stitched it in place. 

Originally I started by crocheting multiple flowers in yarn to create an asymmetrical pattern, but it started to look really crafty so I started again. I made 3 layers for the flowers using different weight string and yarn and used vintage crystal beads to fill the center three.

I attached the flowers to the cuff and added a chain wrapped back and forth around each flower. I think this style would work well for a necklace or headband as well.

I'm on a crocheting kick at the moment so expect to see more of that soon. 

xo,

Arielle

Day 11- The Chain Bib Necklace

3/6/14

Today's project was based on a crochet and chain combo technique I saw once at a street fair several years ago. Simply, crocheting into a metal chain by using it as the first row. The challenges include making sure the links are all facing the same direction as you go, and using a hook small enough to fit easily through the chain.

Crocheting into the chain, single stitch

I began with a large brushed copper chain and a hand dyed yarn in a variation of mauve shades which blended nicely with the copper. I crocheted my first row into the chain, and then made a scalloped edge with eyelets equidistant from the chain links.

I cut even lengths of a much finer gauge copper chain and strung them between crochet eyelets. I finished the piece by adding copper chain for the length of the necklace attached to the heavy chain. 

Bib necklace, copper chain, hand dyed wool blend yarn

In junior year of Parsons I designed a blouse that had chain crocheted into the collar, and I'd definitely like to try that soon. I really ought to learn to follow a crochet pattern. 

Have an inspired day! 

xo,

Arielle

PS- This item is now available for sale in my Etsy shop! https://www.etsy.com/shop/SalkinAccessories

Day 10- Totally Nailed It

3/5/14

It's amazing how much you can do in a day.
Today was the hardware challenge, based on the poll that was up for the last 2 days on the blog. I've always enjoyed any reason to go into a hardware store because I love looking at the variety of things, be it paint swatches or rolls of vinyl or even bolts.

This morning I went to the hardware store to collect some items for today's piece. I had some ideas about what I was going to do, but I got fixated on the wall of nails once it came time to make decisions. I purchased a variety of nails and tacks, as well as a handle for a drawer and some corner braces. I got such a random collection of things I'm certain the guy running the store thought I was a bit crazy.

I was really interested in the idea of using the nails as a sort of fringe. I love that as individual pieces they are rather unremarkable and utilitarian but all together they have such a rich texture. I attempted to crochet some thread and insert the nails as I went to make a chain of nails but it wasn't consistent and was far too time consuming.

I pulled out a ball of 2 ply yarn and attempted to insert the nails at every twist. To my amazement it worked. Perfectly. So I cut many strands of yarn to the same length and began to insert the nails at approximately 1/4" intervals. I started with the dark steel grey tacks which were the shortest pieces I had, and then made a few strands of different length nails in silver. I had to go back to the store and buy more nails and in addition to buying more dark grey tacks, I bought a variety of lengths in a medium grey color. I decided not only to do a gradation of length but also of color.

The most painstaking part of this process was hand stitching the lengths of yarn in between each nail to the fabric. I made a fabric out of lengths of black strap ribbon sewn together at the sides. The strap material is very strong and can hold the weight of the nails (which ended up being pretty heavy.) I sewed the yarn/nail combo strips on from bottom to top. I'm grateful that I loved the way it looked as I went or I would've lost interest along the way. But it looked so cool that I was hooked. This is also why I have so many progress pictures...

Notice the slight gradation of color from top to bottom. There are three shades of silver.

Canvas handbag, strap ribbon, assorted nails, alpaca yarn, velvet ribbon

I edged the top with a 1/2" velvet ribbon to give it a little bit more of a polished edge. Honestly, the materials I worked with to build the bag itself weren't as great as the nail-fabric treatment really deserved so I will likely go back and reassemble the piece in a little bit more of a structured way. I toyed with the idea of using some of the corner braces painted black along the top, but the structure of the bag made them look sloppy. I will definitely consider adding some more hardware components the next time around.

I've also found in the process that the nails on yarn makes a fantastic necklace. Expect to see that one another day.

This was a project where I was so inspired the whole way through that it made me appreciate the time I am taking to complete this 30 day project. Thank you, SO much, everyone who voted on this project (I hope you love the result!) and everyone who keeps up with this blog! If you have ideas for another challenge, leave me a note in the comments.

xo,
Arielle