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Bead And Button Show 2016 | Jewelry Making
7/18/2016
There was this huge hall,
With many many exhibitors and hundreds and thousands of Beads , Buttons and Jewelry,
What I didn't know before was,
Bead and Button Show in Milwaukee is the Biggest Consumer Bead Show in the world!
And I was volunteering for it,
So I got tickets to be part of it..
That's when I got to know that its popular here..
That people from many places in US and all over the world,
Come here to be part of either weeklong classes on Jewelry making,
or be part of the open public exhibition for anyone to buy..
For the first time, I saw plethora of Beads in wholesale rates,
Pendants for 10 cents to rings for 25 cents.
To metals, to loose beads, to strings of beads, to tassels, to weaves , to patterns to what not.
If only I had known how to combine all of them into making jewelry,
Things would be so easier. I wondered.
So as I walked past the stalls in the hall, that took me 6 hours,
I thought of enrolling in free classes of the day.
I had always seen pattern on metals wires as necklace or earrings,
And I always thought 'That looks easy but how could anyone do it'
I got my answer when I joined,
Brenda Schweder’s Now That’s A Jig Session.
Brenda told us, that when she started, she had no tool, they were twisting metal wires by hand to create patterns. Later she created a tool which was like accessory pegs that were fixed to the table to create shape and twists and turns in the metal.
We took a roundabout of the metal wire around the pegs and twisted it to create collar shape for our neck. I don't have a video of this as I was on my own, but if you could imagine, the big screw like thing on the right was where the metal was tightened and twisted round to create twisted round at the bottom of the necklace and the same was repeated on the left side with the left peg. After which pliers where used to inward the pointed edges.
So this method below uses a tool called jig and how do we make the kind of necklace that I made. This can be created by leftover scrap wire (preferably steel) wires that we have in our garbage, or men use in their repair work. These are first cleaned with a cloth, and then rotated around the tool to create pattern after which it is hammered evenly to create flat surface , cleaned again with a cloth and then varnish is applied. It just takes 20 minutes to make one!
Here she explains how to make Bangles
There were many types of loose bead strands
The weaving equipment I used in the above video to create my first bracelet.
Look how easy it is to do that!
I made this on my own.. the leather string was for 50 cents, tassels for $1 and the stone loop in between for $8.
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