Jewelry Blog

Gucci chose Claire Danes to be the face of its Fall, 2008, ad campaign. I’ve always admired Claire’s chameleon-like ability to change her appearance and demeanor drastically to suit the role, more so than many other actresses. It will be interesting to see how that characteristic plays out in Gucci’s promotions.

_{Brad Barket / Getty Images}

I was very nervous about using some gold metal clay given to me for a gift, but I finally got up the nerve and realized that you don’t need a ton of gold metal clay to get a lot of bang for your jewelry buck. For these earrings, I used less then 3 grams of metal clay to make the star charms (actually, they were made from my leftover clay after I had made another jewelry piece with it).

You’ll need:

*PMC gold metal clay

15mm Star-shaped cutter

Olive oil

Roller

6 playing cards

Non-stick surface

Corsage pin

Sandpaper or emery board

Hot Pot

Burnishing brush

**2 – 5mm Golden Shadow Swarovski crystal beads

2 – 22-karat gold ear wires (#625722 from www.riogrande.com).
4 inches of 22-karat 22-gauge gold wire
Wire cutters

Round-nosed pliers

Chain-nosed pliers

*You can use the Art Clay equivalent, but you’ll need to fire it with a torch rather than a hot pot according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

**They came from JSbeads.com, crytal no. 5301.

From Tammy Powley,
Your Guide to Jewelry Making.
FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now!

Art Bead Scene

Economy Gone Bad? Read ABS Editor Cindy Gimbrone’s series Beading on a Budget to keep you beading in style!

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles

Melanie’s Studio Tour continues with a look at the skeletons in her craft closet, and in a new magazine!

Jewelry & Beading

Cyndi has been working on her wire skills, and she’s collected her favorite sites for learning the basics!

Katie’s Beading Blog

Katie presents an easy wedding jewelry set this week. Check it out!

Make It Mine Magazine

Spread the word: Make It Mine’s on MySpace.

Naughty Secretary Club

Jen has a fun DIY project showing you how to make a Tom Binns style No Time Watch in no time at all.

PearlEsq.

Contest! Contest! Keep Robin busy while she recovers from her knee surgery and send Bandanna Technique Cards-You may win a full set of Ranger’s new Adirondack(r) Pigment Ink Stamp Pads and Re-inkers! Bandanna on, Sister (or Brother)!

Savvy Crafter

Candie shares a project for Ornament Thursday that she crafted with her mom.

Snap out of it, Jean! There’s beading to be done!

Jean explains why she is so proud of her wabi sabi compliment (concerning a ring she made) by the great Eni Oken, wire worker extraordinaire.

The Impatient Blogger

Madge takes matters in her own hands and collages an imperfect and quirky new bio photo. Just because.