Making Beaded Butterflies With Little Butterflies

I've been extremely busy this past week. Managed to work on one pendant and then put in most of my time in the private after-school lessons I've committed myself to. The two young girls I have lessons with have been asking me and asking me to have a lesson in jewelry-making with them and I finally succumbed to their pleadings last week.


I found this real easy and beautiful Beaded Butterfly project in Craftbits and used it for the lesson. I prepared the beads (plastic and some glass bits I have in my bead collection), copper wire (20-g) and some glitter thread I found in a small school supply shop near my house.


I modified the Instructions and re-wrote them with simpler words so the girls can have some reading practice. Then I used the illustrations in the site to make a worksheet on sequencing using pictures and a blank chart I made for the kids.


We spent about an hour making the Butterflies. They asked that it be made into pendants they can use. I didn't argue.


We spent another hour completing the worksheets. I had to make it look like it was serious educational business. Lol. They seemed to like the activity and asked me when we'd do this again. Though I said I wasn't sure when, I do have another completed project for them to work on - Worksheets included!


*If you're a teacher and would like to see the Worksheets I prepared for this lesson, send me a message and I'll e-mail them to you. =)

All Done Up

I spent most of yesterday afternoon and this whole morning organizing my jewelry shelf.

It has 4 shelves. I used the first to showcase my handmade pieces. I bought the jewelry organizer in a local steel shop. They have such a selection to choose from! I saw revolving organizers, floor stands, shelf bars and these cute ones I got! Each organizer has 3 rungs which can hold 16 earrings. I modified it a bit to accommodate my necklaces, pendants, bracelets and rings.


The second shelf was for my beads, silver components, stored pieces and reference books on stones and jewelry. I was inspired to organize my beads by color by Craftstylish' Susan Beal in her post: "Organize Your Beads and Charms." The beads are stored in Krisbow containers. Each has 18 dividers. Imagine my surprise when I found out I filled in most of the 5 containers! That means I have 90 different beads - and I haven't even added my glass beads into the collection! I'm buying more containers later so I can store my glass beads and silver findings.


The third shelf holds my tools and spools of copper wire. I use the copper wire for practice as they're cheaper than silver. I have spools and spools of different gauges of these beautifully colored wires.


The last shelf holds another Krisbow container which I've had since I started beading in Bali. Currently it holds odds and ends which includes some forgotten projects, glass and plastic beads and other whatnots. I'm going to go through them later and see which ones I want to keep. I might eventually use that container (bigger than the ones I bought recently) to hold my silver wires.

I'm glad I finally organized that hobby shelf of mine. It looked horrible when I simply stashed stuff into it and was quite an eyesore. A sad statement when we know how beautiful the beads and jewelry pieces are. Now, it looks real nice and tidy - plus I know exactly what I have and where everything is at!

Mothers and Daughters

Mothers and Daughters

I made a few gifts this morning.

I was invited out for lunch by a mother of two of my students. (I teach when I'm not twisting and bending and wrapping wires.) Her two beautiful girls were coming along, too.

I thought I'd make them pendants.

I made the same piece for the two little girls. You know how sisters are sometimes. I made "Eggs in a Nest" pendants on pink leather necklaces for them. I used silver as my main wire for the nest and embelished it with a bit of copper; for eggs, I used pearls.

For their Mom, I made a Tree of Life with Eggs in a Nest. I used silver (20-gauge for the frame and 26-gauge for the tree and branches), rutilated quartz for the leaves, copper and silver wire (28-gauge) for the nest, and pearls for the eggs.

You will notice that the pendants for the children have three eggs. It's not merely for design. They come from a brood of 4. I thought it would be nice to make the three eggs signify their sibling. They're the fourth egg all hatched and in the world. The mother has four eggs in the nest on her pendant. She is the mother tree making sure that all the four eggs in her shelter are safe and protected.

I carefully chose the stones for the energies they exuded:

Pearls are calming and centering. They give purity and promote faith, charity, and integrity, truth and loyalty.

Rutilated quartz is reputed to diminish fears, depression and issues with decision-making.

Silver is mystically considered to improve speech, bring eloquence.

Copper is said to facilitate mental agility, and quick wit.

Tree of Life has a life of its own!

What's your contribution?

Apparently, the Tree of Life has more impact than I thought it did. I was just asked by a school to make a few pendants as award gifts for their English competitions. The school wants to encourage their students to be more pro-active in caring for the environment and wants this message sent in most of their activities - whether or not it is directly connected to environmental awareness. Ofcourse, I gladly agreed to work with them and gave them discounted prices for the pendants.

I used stones and minerals which encourage mental health:

Aventurine is said to benefit one in all areas of creativity, and imagination, as well as intellect and mental clarity.

Fluorite promotes spiritual and psychic wholeness and development, truth, protection, and brings peace.

Copper is said to be the metal of the God Hermes, who facilitates that mental agility, and quick wit.

Silver is mystically considered to improve speech, bring eloquence.

I think of it as giving a percent away to my favorite charities (education and the environment).

It's Time We Say Someting for the Trees: Tree of Life with Egg in a Nest Pendant (Unakite, Aventurine & Copper)

Was quite inspired by some bird's nests I saw recently. I searched for tutorials on eggs in a nest and managed to find one free one on You Tube (Tutorial Diary: Nest Pins). As far as free goes, this one didn't give much information - although it gave loads of room for creativity, imagination and common sense.

My first try for the nest turned out quite smaller than what I wanted (26-gauge copper wire & 4mm unakite beads) but I wasn't going to let that worry me. I decided to place the nest in a frame to make a pendant. I decided to make a Tree of Life to nestle the nest in.

I used 20-gauge copper wire for the frame and 24- gauge copper wire for the tree and branches plus bits of aventurine for the leaves.

Not contented, I made a necklace for the pendant using 26-gauge copper wire, more bits of aventurine and the crochet technique.

This is what I made with all that put together:

Tree of Life with Bird's Nest

Quite appropriate for Environment Enthusiasts, the stones used in this pendant collectively makes for wonderfully creative green thumbs. It exudes positive energies in gardening, healing and in creating a harmonious environment for the wearer.

A Jab at the Wire-Crochet Technique

I'm looking into making bracelets and trying the wire crochet technique. I'm not very satisfied with my silver one but this copper piece is a worthy starting point, I think.


I used a tutorial from Diane Gilleland: How to Crochet a Bead and Wire Bracelet. I worked with copper wire, Unakite, Goldstone, and Peach Aventurine. When I looked into these stone's properties I found out that collectively they exude energies to help the wearer be more creative and more adept in making decisions.

I'm not sure if I want to make more crocheted pieces, I'm thinking of reverting to actual wire-wrapping and making pieces using those techniques instead.

Caught in the Web

I was thinking of making some rings yesterday and web-searched for the proper gauge sizes. I was pleasantly surprised to find a listing for a tutorial on Spider Web Pendants in that search. My jewelry session took a detour and instead of making rings, I made spider webs instead.

Silver webs are made with 18-, 24-, and 28-gauge silver wires with an insect charm to accent.

Copper webs are made with 14-, 22-, 26-gauge copper wires.

These are available for sale.