Hello again,

Welcome to Junes issue of The Jewelry and Poly news. You will find my latest tutorials, this time on polymer clay, chain mail and Macramé. Inspired by the enameling techniques I wrote about in May’s issue, I have tried to make faux enamel with polymer clay. Although the Plique-a-jour was not too successful, I have chosen to put it out as a tutorial anyway, as I believe you may develop it into something better, and perhaps use it for other purposes than for faux Plique-a-jour.

You can also read the fascinating stories of two of the most famous and cursed diamonds in the world. Whether they are truly cursed or not I don’t know, it is however fascinating reading. I have also written an article about Macramé, it’s history and what it actually is. Knowing the basic knots, you can create wonderful jewelry with or without beads.

I hope you will enjoy this issue. Please let me know if there are things you would like me to write about, or anything you miss on my site. All the best!

Anne Cecilie

In This Issue

• Macrame - Knot Your Way To Beautiful Jewelry
• Famous Jewelry, Gemstones And Pearls. Sparkling Valuable, Deadly Or Cursed
• Koh-i-noor Diamond - Cursed or Victim Of The Violence In Mans History
• The Hope Diamond - Beautiful And Mysterious

New tutorials

• Macrame Knots - Part I - The Basics
• Use Links To Build An Elegant Charm Bracelet And Earrings
• Chain Mail Bracelet With Polymer Clay, Bone And Freshwater Pearl Charms
• Faux Plique-a-jour Earrings
• Faux Enamel With Liquid Polymer Clay And Mica Powder

News

Did you know that you can knot your way to lovely jewelry? Macrame Jewelry is done by using several decorative knots often combined with beads. It is very addictive and not difficult at all. I must admit that I spent some time lurking around the technique, a bit unsure about what it was and how it actually was done, but when I decided to give it a try, I was hooked. read more

Famous Jewelry

Famous jewelry triggers our curiosity like never before. With a world full of beautiful jewelry, gemstones and pearls some naturally becomes more, let’s say “in the spotlight” than others, known to the world because of their size, sparkle, color or history, or because they are considered to be cursed. read more

Koh-i-noor Diamond - Cursed Or Victim Of The Violence In Mans History

Jewelry, gemstones or pearls become famous for various reasons. Some like the Koh-i-noor diamond (The Mountain of light) reach the hall of fame not only because of its size or color, but because it has a bloody and horrible history, and therefore is said to be cursed.

An old Hindu text from 1306 is the first authentic mention of the diamond, and spells the curse – “He who owns this diamond will own the world but will also know all misfortunes. Only God or a woman can wear it with impurity”. And males that have had this diamond in their possession have all had tragedy befall them in violent and bloody ways. Although warfare and killing or disposal of kings and royalty is not exactly something rare in mans history, Koh-i-noor may have had its share indeed. read more

The Hope Diamond - Beautiful And Mysterious

Some jewels are said to be cursed and that everyone that possesses it or is in touch with it will have bad things happening to them. The Hope diamond is such a diamond. This large, very rare and valuable blue diamond has a long trail of owners, tragedies and deaths behind it. But is it truly cursed, or is it just myths created to make the gem more interesting and increase its value?

To find out, let’s take a look at its history.

The beginning, as Tavernier Blue: The story about the diamond begins with Jean Baptiste Tavernier, a French merchant traveler and smuggler, who purchased a blue diamond of 112 carat in India. read more

New Tutorials

Makrame Knots - Part 1 - The Basics

Macrame knots can be both very easy and simple but also very complicated and difficult to make. You can however create very beautiful macramé jewelry using only the simplest basic knots in various combinations, so do not despair.

When learning the different knots, I would recommend you to start with a thick cord, like yarn or hemp, and use a light color. The knots are easier to see with light cord than with a dark one. Also practice each knot many times until you know what it is supposed to look like, and how the knot behaves when you are knotting it. see the rest of the tutorial

Use Links To Build An Elegant Charm Bracelet And Earrings

This charm bracelet is made by connecting several jewelry links and then add charms. It is easy to make and looks kind of elegant and sophisticated. How many links you use, depends on the links you have and on how long you want the link chain to be. There are many very nice links to buy, so you can use the same approach to make several bracelets, but make them individual by using different links and different beads or charms.

Jewelry links also makes it easy to make some lovely earrings. All you have to do is to add some beads, an ear wire and you have a pair of elegant earrings. Do you want to give it a try? OK, let’s start. see the rest of the tutorial

Chain Mail Bracelet With Polymer Clay, Bone And Freshwater Pearl Charms

Chain mail can be a real challenge sometimes. Getting all the jump rings fitting into each other the right way can be really tricky, as you have to hold them in a certain position in order to slide the next ring through. Luckily not all the techniques are equally difficult, like the technique used for this bracelet. If you are in need of a chain, you can use jump rings to make one, and you do not have to solder them.

The most important thing with making chain mail jewelry is to close the rings properly. If they are not, the rings may slip apart or the charms you add may fall off. If you buy jump rings, they should close just fine, but if you make your own by using a wire cutter, the slanted edge may cause the rings to close poorly, unless you pay extra caution. see the rest of the tutorial

Faux Plique-a-jour Earrings

Plique-a-jour is an enameling technique where there is no backing or base to hold the enamel. The result is like a glass painting in miniature. I found this technique so lovely that I wanted to try to copy it in polymer clay, something that proved to be quite challenging.

I tried different frames for the “enamel” and added silver leaf, but the leaf crackled and didn’t cover the frame properly. It was also difficult to add metal paint so I landed eventually on mica powder.

Creating the frame presented more challenges. I first tried using a clay gun to make “jewelry wire like” snakes. But that did not look nice as it was difficult to get the joints smooth. It was also difficult not to distort the roundness of the snakes. I also found that the frame must be solid, not too thin or light. The “enamel” is liquid polymer clay, and if not in a solid frame, the whole piece will be very soft and can be bent like rubber.

see the rest of the tutorial

Faux Enamel With Liquid Polymer Clay And Mica Powder

Faux enamel made with polymer clay cannot compete with the real enamel, but you can make some pretty good imitations that are very nice to look at. Using clay you can easily make “engravings” on the base, like the Basse-taile enameling technique, and to achieve the glass like look you simply use liquid polymer clay. The challenge is to have the base look as metallic as possible. You can use metal leaf, but it is very difficult to apply it onto both the razed and the lower parts of the base, and the “engraved” patterns often disappear under the metal leaf, leaving you with a more champlevé like look than Basse taille. After having tried both metal leaf and paint, I eventually landed on mica powder, as it came out with the best result, and was the easiest of the three to handle.

see the rest of the tutotorial