Creations By Dawn Gallop

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Tutorial for Wire Wrapped Charms, Shells, Sea Glass, Rocks with Beads and hanging charms, A DIY Wire Wrapping.

Last year I did a workshop with the Tidewater Artist Group where I taught how to make these easy fab wire charms for the summer, or anytime. See link HERE also you can see other ones I have done at other times...just more pics HERE and again HERE they are really nice big pics.

So before the workshop I created this fabulous tutorial handout for the group. I wanted to share with you finally.....I started off with supplies.

SUPPLIES

-Wire Cutters, Round nose pliers, flat nose pliers, chain nose pliers (these can be purchase at AC Moore, Michaels, or Any jewelry supply place. I originally bought all mine from http://www.ornamentea.com/

Last year I was lucky enough to get a new set at BeadFest I bought the Tronex from Beaducation they had a booth at BeadFest.

If you have never done this before start off with the least expensive set its all you will need for this.

-20 Gauge wire silver (you can use sterling once you get the hang of it but just start off with the inexpensive 20 g craft wire...you can use gold, copper, or even colors if you like. I use Artistic Wire when I use the color wire. The wire can be purchased at the jewelry supply stores, or the chain craft stores.

-Small e-beads glass ones or any kind of beads that fit on your wire, test them first.

-Charms if you like I use several charm shops on Etsy like http://www.etsy.com/shop/winecharms

and http://www.etsy.com/shop/gabyschiccreations

-Any kind of small pebbles, rocks, shells, sea glass, corks, cabochons

-file such as a jewelers file or even a fingernail file, or even one you have in the garage

-Ruler

Start with the charm of choice and gather your tools

measure your charm then round up to the next number (so if its 1 1/2 inch charm round it up to 2)

then the number by five to give you 10...so you will need approx. 10 inches of wire. Cut two 10 inches of wire from the wire of choice. Using your wire cutters. Then put both pieces of wire in your index finger and bend over it should look like this...see pic below

Now using your other hand twist one side of the wire then using your tip of your finger or the glass, cork etc. as a template twist the other side of the wire.

It should look like this now. If you need to open the space up with your flat nose pliers. Now insert the charm of choice whether it is the cork, glass, shell, etc..

here the charm is sitting nice in the opening

Now take the wire and bring it up, bring one piece of the wire to the front or the charm and the other wire to the back, do this on both sides. Twisting again.

it will begin to look like this, this is where you can add charms, beads, etc.

Continue twisting from front to back until you reach the top of your charm now using your round nose pliers bring the wire up and around the see the pic. Then wrap the rest of the wire around the neck of the charm...or get creative and add circles, etc.

Cut the extra wire off and now file smooth you don't want any rough spots on the wire. If you are using copper cored wire be careful when filing or you will take the silver to copper. Same goes with the colored wires. If you need to flatten some of the wire you can use the flat nose pliers now.

this is where you can make bends and grooves in the wire adding shape and also tightening up the wire. It also adds to the look.

I recommend a lot of books by artist on wire wraps that are very helpful, in fact I own these:

1. Making Wire & Bead Jewelry by Janice Berkebile and Tracey Stanely which I have met both and are wonderful people, I even have had a class with Tracey who I adore!

2. Inspired Wire by Cynthia B. Wuller

3. Wire Art Jewelry Workshop: Step By Step Techniques and Projects by Sharilyn Miller

4. The Missing Link: From Basic to Beautiful Wirework Jewelry by Cindy Wimmer
now Cindy's book just came out this September which I had her sign at ArtBliss

I have known Cindy for almost five years now and she is the sweetest most creative person you could ever meet!!! Cindy is the BEST! Her new book is totally awesome!! A must have for any wire work jewelry artist.

Here is Cindy Wimmer and I at ArtBliss

Cindy Wimmer signing my copy of her book

I love this one of Cindy Wimmer signing the books I put this one on Instagram (see my link on side of blog) that night at ArtBliss.

Also wanted to share a few pics of the grand babies and the boys.....

Abigail and Cooper painting up in our spare room/part of the studio

Skylar edited this on my IPhone

Dusty catching a fish. He loves to fish.

The boys recently had spirit week at school and this day was Rock N' Roll T-shirt day.

Coop is really jamming with his air guitar.

Hope you enjoyed the post today.

Have a great week!

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

An UnDeR The SeA PaRtY with and UnDeR The SeA CaKe

The Under the Sea Party for Dusty's fifth birthday....was a lot of fun I handmade this cake using fondant from Wilton. I dyed most of it by buying the 5lb box of fondant. I also used a lot of molds that I had and ones I bought from Wilton. The jewelry fondant mold, the sea life mold. I also hand shaped a lot of the pieces. I used the pearl dust to color the pieces. The cake board is also Wilton. It was a lot of fun, if you are making a fondant cake prepare your pieces about a week in advance so they can harden....makes applying them to the cake easier and there is less breakage.

Hand made the large flowers.

The seahorse was a mold I had.

Love the blow fish with the toothpicks...lol!
I also got the eyes from Wilton

Love the turtle too....again a mold I had.

Happy Birthday Dusty.
I found on Etsy this custom made Printables which I love to use...it makes it so EASY!!!
This theme came from Its All About KIDZ Annie was absolutely amazing to work with...I would tell her what I needed and DONE!! She had it done within a very short time like minutes and I was back to printing for the party. This year was not as big as the Shark Party but time is always of the essence. The printouts were perfect and coordinated well with the party.

I bought this big banner at Party City

The party sign also came from Party City

These are the buckets that I got from the Dollar Tree, the stuffed animals also came from the Dollar Tree, we also put fishing poles and crab toys that came from the Dollar Tree, there were also sea urchin balls, water guns, and the hard plastic sea creatures. Beverly brought out bubbles for everyone which also became a party favor. Of course Swedish Fish for a party favor too. I also put out a large bowl of them and of course they were all gone....talk about a yummy snack.

Samples of some of the party favors for the buckets....most came from Dollar Tree.

The suckers were bought from Birthday in a Box which they are so awesome and FAST!!! The personalize things and I have used them many times and of course you can find more ideas from our shark party.

All the animals we had that the boys collected from their toys to make up decorations....we used Ty Beanie Babies, Disney stuffed toys, pool toys, plastic sea creatures, etc. The nets are from the ones I used last year at the Shark party where I dyed the nets to match the theme. The nets came from Dollar Tree.

Again another sea creature from Dollar Tree the swim goggles came from both Dollar Tree and Dollar General which Dollar General has a coupon day which the coupons are on their website. The star (fish) glasses came from Dollar Tree which they also have a Wal-Mart if you can't find them at Dollar Tree. Dollar General has a great selection of plastic outdoor serving plates, platters, bowls, and baskets. The ones shown came from the Dollar General.

The hats came from Michael's in the clearance section for .50 cents....which I was going to add a turtle cut0out to the hat using either my Cricut or Silhouette. Which would have been so cute....but time was of the essence. The plates, napkins, table runner, banner, cups and many other items all came from Birthday in a Box.

This was how we did the plastic ware wrapped in the napkins I used jute and used the fun foam ocean shapes that I purchased in the craft store during the summer. Used plastic Tervis cups with a lobster on them to put the plastic ware in. Which my dear friend Beverly gave me....we LOVE you Beverly!!

Just a pic of the wrapped plastic ware so you could see not in the cup. These could be made days in advance of the party.

The labels from the Etsy store with Annie. Its All About Kidz .
We used the Deer Park 8oz minis for the water bottles. We kept them in the refrigerator up until the party started.

Of course every party needs gummy worms.

And the sour octopus.....there are so many of these type of gummies that children really like and I do recall a few adults enjoying them. LOL!!!

You can really see the Tervis lobster cups here.

Of course thanks to Pinterest I was able to find some pretty creative food ideas. Annie at Its All About Kidz made the labels for the food....again thanks Annie YOU are totally awesome to work with!!!

This was in a Pillsbury Cookbook, they have mustard eyes and mouth. I just thought of a name to fit the party that Annie made at All About Kidz the sign for Squid Dogs

I made the noodles from a package of Ramen noodles

and then once cooked added several drops of green food coloring to create a seaweed look.

I found these at the grocery store and thought these were perfect for the theme, plus the kiddos love them.
We also found the Goldfish in rainbow colors to use.

I made Jell-O then put the Reddi-Wip (which my boys LOVE) on top before serving and added a gummy shark. We had the hardest time finding cups but we did find these at Food Lion. I just wanted the plain small clear cups....but I guess everyone else did at the time too....LOL!!! These turned out cute. The children enjoyed them.

The sign for the Oceans of Jell-O see above pic.

Bruce cooked turkey hot dogs, hamburgers and of course vegan bean burgers....which everything was gone!! I also made vegetarian baked beans. We had chips and French fries too.

I bought these fabulous streamers from Party City they really added a fun look to the party.

We got this cute whale piñata at Amazon.

Dusty thought it was so nice.

Beverly brought out this really fun bucket full of bubble wands and bubbles galore....talk about FUN!!! Thanks Beverly for the awesome idea and fun you brought!!! She got everything at Michael's.

Cooper here with the fun bubble wands.
Look at the starfish glasses on.

Look at all those wonderful fun bubble wands that Beverly brought.

Michelle's little boy Kaleb who also enjoyed the bubbles tremendously.

Cooper was running thru the bubbles....again a lot of bubble FUN!!

Dusty the birthday boy enjoy the bubbles too and so did the adults.......

I made the cups using a turtle cut from Silhouette of America on my Silhouette Cameo

the Dusty is 5 on the straw are from Annie again at Its All About Kidz

I found the cups this time at Dollar Tree.

The vinyl is from Vinyl Village Mario has the best vinyl and I purchase all my vinyl from Vinyl Village.

The banner came from

http://www.birthdayinabox.com/

The turtle I made with the boys and cardboard. It is all paper Mache' we were going to use that as the piñata but once we had made it the boys didn't want to crush it...lol!

I found a recipe on YouTube
see video below

This worked perfect for the piñata

I started off making the turtle piñata with cardboard and regular strips of newspaper that I cut with a old style paper cutter. A balloon for the head. Using tape to hold it all together. You will need a bucket of warm water for your hands. I made the mix inside the house and then began the piecing outside since the heat would help dry....yeah even with the humidity here. Then starting from the top down was able to cover majority of the top before I had to quit until dry. I took it in once I was done and began the next day until it was all covered. I would just make a new batch using what was in the bowl each day.

Almost covered, the boys were really interested in the gluing part...LOL! I quite enjoyed it!

The eyes are a ping pong ball cut in half. I painted the whole thing with acrylic paints.

Finally time for some cake.

Dusty blows out the candles......YAY!!!!! Dusty is 5

I am FIVE years old!!!

Skylar my granddaughter (Crystals baby) and Dusty.
I think Sky bear really enjoyed the chocolate cake.

Look how adorable she is!!!

Of course more pool fun...this was going on the entire party.

Abigail enjoys herself at the party.

Cody and Skylar, I love the Minnie Mouse bathing suit I had got her from K-Mart at the beach.

Bruce had got the ladybug floatie toy from Dollar General, Skylar really got to enjoy that off and on this summer.

The famous whale floatie again from Dollar General, Michelle, Kaleb, and Jamie having a good time in the pool.

Cooper and Cody soaking up the rays.

Dusty had a blast of course and the alligator came from Dollar General, I told you awesome pool toys every year!

Cooper loves to swim.

Dusty jumping off the pool, that he is not supposed to do....lol!

Sky bear was getting sleepy in all the festivities.

Oh yeah the time Dusty had been waiting for.......PRESENTS!!!

Crystal got him this Glow Pet

which he had been asking for every since he saw the commercial.

Tara got Dusty the shark pool board which Dusty loves anything shark related!!!

I think Skylar wanted in on the action.....

We had got him a drum set so Beverly covered his eyes until we let him pull the sheet off.

He is ready now......

Go Dusty!!!

I bought the drums from Amazon.

This is my first video upload other than YouTube....so we shall see.....

Cooper playing the drums......

Skylar was even playing the drums.

The Piñata of course was a huge hit.....always make sure you keep everyone in a certain area away from the swinging piñata bat. I got the piñata at Amazon