The End of All Things

The maker movement is one that existed for much longer than anyone had expected. Originally, it began as a retaliation to the rising popularity of industrialization and the mechanization of labour.  However, there were many obstacles that prevented the movement from growing stronger than mass produced items. Nonetheless, it still is considered an important method of asserting your own identity. When I began my project, I also went through a long process of learning the true difficulties of being a maker.

            When I had first started this project, I knew that it would not be easy. Jewellery by nature requires a steady and precise hand due to its minute size, even before you consider the difficulties in more intricate jewellery making techniques such as cutting gemstones or molding metals into intricate designs. For this reason, I chose to exclusively work with bead and wire, as metalworking seemed to be a potentially dangerous process that needed proper supervision. Even then, it was still quite difficult. My first project was a bracelet, and it resulted in a failed product but many a learnt lesson. Lesson number one was that relying on just picture instructions were not enough—the tutorial I used was in French, and I made the grave mistake of trying to navigate my own way through the project with images. Lesson number two is that just because I chose not to use metal wire did not mean other tools were unnecessary; it turns out that the vast majority of threaded projects use special beading needles. Yet I assumed that only metal based jewellery needed special tools. Lesson number three was that the quality of the materials have much more of an impact than I had expected. Unlike painting where a hobbyist can find satisfactory student grade paints, low quality beads hinder projects greatly since their holes are often incorrectly aligned, or are sometimes chipped in the interior, making it extremely difficult to thread your wire even with the right tools. This first attempt demonstrated the importance of choosing your supplies carefully, and also that you must read your instructions thoroughly.

            The other two projects were not free of difficulties, but neither one had the massive learning bump that the first project did. Despite the fact that I am going into graphic design, I believe that learning a skill that involves my hands is important to my overall identity as a designer. Jewellery making involves several different steps that combine multiple disciplines: the first way is drafting, where you would design the look of your project, and illustrate your desired result, just as an artist would; the second way is that you would consult your client in what they would like, just as a designer would; the third way is that you would sit down and create your object, just as a craftsman would. All of these aspects are the traits of a maker. When I compare this traits to what I have learned as a designer, I realize that the two have much more in common than expected, especially if you aim to be successful in your respective practice. It is easy to be tricked into believing that all there is to design is to simply create a beautiful design for your client, but just as makers do, there is an extended process necessary to both designers and makers.

            Despite this, there are many negative attributes associated with being a maker, showing the troubling divide that exists between art, design, and craft; it is common to hear people from all three fields. If people were able to accept that the three are more similar than initially expected, than it would open up a pathway between the three worlds. Unfortunately, there continues to be discrimination amongst them, and it hinders any progress that may be made. Due to the different fields of expertise, each group would benefit from collaboration with other groups, as it adds the voice of a person that is outside of what they do. Even though there were not any people in my class that chose a choice of study similar to jewellery making, they were still able to offer valuable pieces of advice and insights that were made possible due to their outsider’s perspective.

            The importance of a maker is often overlooked in our society. However, we have the power to change that misconception by taking the role upon ourselves. Making is an essential part of our daily lives. If people took the time to learn about subjects outside of their own craft, then we would be able to achieve new creations that we would not be able to create had we chosen to remain in our own world.

Everything Goes According to Plan (…not)

            My final iteration was unfortunately hindered by a couple of repeat mistakes! My idea was to make a necklace with a pendant, except what was different about this one was that they would be tubular, meaning that they are 3D, instead of the flat shapes I’ve been making so far. However, for the pendant, I misunderstood the instructions, in the very first line! It called for an “armspan” of thread, which I took to mean the length of an arm, but it really meant the length from the tips of one hand to another when the arms are held horizontally…everything else, I did correctly, despite the fact that the instructions were not helpful at all—I only understood them because of experience from the first two, and even then, I needed to Google terms for the knots because I had no way of knowing what a “tension knot“ could possibly be. The result was that I made it all the way to step nine, but had to stop. If you look at the picture below, you would see that only one side of the pendant becomes a tube shape, making it look like half a bagel. I also had to do some quick damage control and wing a way of adding on a jump ring instead of the beaded loop shown later in the tutorial. Another problem was that I used a “tension bead” that the instructions mentioned instead of my cute miniature clothespins, so I didn’t notice that I was pulling it closer and closer to the end of the thread until it was too late…I only had about two inches to make a knot with, so I had to use my tweezers to loop it into a simple knot.

For the chain, I decided to make a spiral rope. The tutorial was very easy to understand, and even though I didn’t have the right beads at all, I adjusted the number of beads needed based on how much they differed in size from the given example (I used a 2:5 ratio instead of a 3:5 ratio). Since it was going to be a necklace, and I knew that it would take a lot of thread, I decided to use all of the thread I had left over, which was slightly over five feet (seriously, when I stood up and held it to my height, it was taller than me…). However, I didn’t have enough thread (or beads) to make a necklace, so I had to change plans into a bracelet; when I ran out of the clear bicone beads I was using, I tried to change to using all seed beads to make the rest of the necklace (and changing it to a 4:5 ratio this time) but it was incredibly tedious and confusing, as I couldn’t differentiate which line of beads I was supposed to reloop into, and decided to settle on a bracelet and call it a day...it took a total of about 7 hours, I think, but  not all at once!!

this is the side without the tubular part

this is the side with the tubular part

Good, Good, Now we’re Making Some Progress

For my second iteration, I decided to make a pair of earrings. Since I had made a beaded chain in my first iteration, I thought that making a pendant next is the ideal progression. For simplicity’s sake, I chose a pendant pattern (for radial symmetry). I purchased a set of beading needles for this (and the next) project, and it made the job so much easier…but a surprising source of help were my tweezers! They were invaluable for jamming my needle into the beads when the space became too tight, grasping at the tiny bit of needle that made it in to pull it all the way out, grabbing and threading tiny little seed beads, and so on. As you can see from the first earring, I made several mistakes—none of which were particularly major by themselves, but little mistakes that added up to a very malformed result. For example, in the first one, I made a mistake in the number of “bicone” beads (the blue ones) which have been corrected in the second one. That in result messed up the placement of the seed beads (the little white ones), which changed the shape of the outline, and that changed the placement of where the earring finding (the part that goes into your ear) hangs. Lastly, on the first one I threaded the beads too loosely, whereas on the second one, I threaded it too tight. Also, the instructions called for a yard (or three feet) of thread each earring…which means that six feet of thread was used in total! It also took 5+ hours (in chunks)

Note: I skipped one step in the instructions (step five) because otherwise the beads did not have a large enough opening to hold all the multiple reloops. I don’t know how much this would affect the overall stability of the earring, especially because I didn’t use the same thread that the instructions called for, but I also used slightly different beads, so oh well!

P.S. I'm very sorry for posting this so late! For the past few days, my family has been in the process of moving so it was packing/loading/unpacking/cleaning/etc. :(((

the magical wonderful beading needle!!!

making the first one :(((

the second one is so much nicer!! Look at the needle though!

Here's what they originally looked like

a side by side comparison

Back to the Streets Where We Began…

Jewellery making is a practice that has existed all over the world for thousands of years. It is seen as a “distinct marker of social status”, such as your class; your marital status; sometimes it was used to commemorate certain events, such as “memorializing loved ones”; and in later years, when jewellery became more of a decorative object, it was “personalized…to tell its story” with the use of engravings or inscriptions (Wees).

Jewellery has been worn since the prehistoric times, when it was crudely made from shell, stones, and bones.  In the medieval times, jewelry was made with various metals, with gold and silver being worn by the upper class, and simpler metals such as copper and pewter were worn by the lower class (“Ancient”). Gems were polished rather than cut due to the simpler technology, and they were also believed to have special protective properties depending on their type and colour (“Ancient”). Jewellery continued to be used as a symbol of status and power well into the Renaissance era and onwards, where improved techniques in cutting and engraving led to the use of religious symbolism, mythological figures, and portraits become more common (“Ancient”).

The nineteenth century was filled with several new developments such as the invention of Vulcanite, which was used as a “durable and practical substitute for imported tortoiseshell”; the California Gold Rush of 1849; and the rising popularity of diamond jewellery (Wees). Finally, the twentieth century saw the Art Nouveau and the Arts and Crafts movement, which saw a move towards “natural and asymmetrical forms” and a “revive of handcraftmanship” (Wees)

Works Cited

Wees, Beth Carver. "Nineteenth-Century American Jewelry". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. Web. 1 June 2014.

“History of Jewellery: Ancient World Jewellery”. Victoria and Albert Museum. n.p. n.d. Web. 1 June 2014.

(note: sorry for posting so late! I was focused on my third entry and forgot about posting it!)

For Diamonds Do Appear to Be Just Like Broken Glass to Me

Jewellery making involves a massive variety of options depending on the end result. Ideally, I would use findings and wire of a high quality metal such as sterling silver, or for something fancier, gold or silver plated (Jayne, Jacquie). The beads could be glass crystals, such as Swarovski, or semi-precious to precious gems. This makes for an exquisite result that is timeless, beautiful, and lasts for a long time. The major drawback to this is the cost: quality beads and materials made of expensive material would come with the hole into your pocket. In addition, these types of projects would require a careful precision and specialty tools, which themselves are quite costly if you chose quality ones.

A more economic option would be to use cheaper materials such as wire made of copper, aluminum, steel, nylon, hemp, etc.; and beads made of plastic, clay, resin, acrylic, or found objects, which leads to endless possibilities. This opens up a lot more room for creativity, but the downfall to this is that cheaper materials may yield lower quality results. Another limitation is that there are less hypoallergenic options available, as commonly found choices will often contain some type of allergenic metal, and even stainless steel can contain up to 12% nickel (Polly).

After much consideration, I chose to use the clear beading cord for all of my projects. This allows me the chance to learn to work with it properly, instead of learning to use a new material each time; the clear beading cord is also more forgiving, as it is easy to untie and retie, manipulate, and hide mistakes. I have also purchased fine point beading needles, which will eliminate the difficulty of multiple loops in the beads that I am using; my project will still follow my original plan of ending with a necklace that combines the techniques that I used for the first two projects.

Works Cited

Jayne, Jacquie. “All About Jewellery Wire.” The Bead’s Knees. n.d. Web. 31 May 2014.

Polly. “Surgical Steel and Hypoallergenic Metals.” Rings and Things. Wordpress. 3 June 2013. Web. 31 May 2014.

There's Nothing Wrong With Just a Taste of What You Paid For

My first attempt at creating something was a complete disaster. I forgot to purchase earring hooks so I just decided to bead a bracelet, using some stretchy clear beading cord I bought at Urban Source. There, I bought various types of stringing materials (the stretchy cord, metal jewelry wire, and hemp cord) as well as a bag of assorted beads; in addition, I bought other random items such as miniature clothespins to use as bead stops (they're very useful). Then at Michael's, I bought a little assorted tin of lobster clasps, jump rings, and crimp beads, as well as a small set of pliers that has three uses: roundnose pliers, wire gripping, and wire cutting.

They were all I could get in my immediate budget, and the quality shows: I have not gotten around to using the pliers yet, but as I test it out in my hand, it feels quite flimsy. The beads have uneven ends, with one side sometimes being partially closed over. This made it incredibly difficult to do second, third, and sometimes fourth loops...in fact, most of the beads didn't have big enough holes to do all the relooping found in the beading patterns I looked at. A lot of the tutorials seem to be using special needles that make it easy to string your cord through beads, but since I could not find them, I just had to use my fingers. As you can imagine, this took up quite a bit of time.

Next was to look at beading patterns, but every tutorial I found and attempted ended up being too confusing, as the written instructions were either too vague, not even given, or written in a different language. Finally, I found one that seemed slightly doable (at least the first part), even though the written instructions were in French (I felt my way through it with the pictures).

I set to work, but do to my shaky fingers, multiple mistakes that forced me to start over, and forgetting to cut a piece of cord long enough to make up for all the reloops, I ended up with a bracelet that is so small it would only fit a baby...but at least I got the pattern down. P.S. this took nearly three hours...

Added June 5:

beads bought (in bulk)

the rounded part at the top is ok, but notice how the wire cutting part does not completely close.

comparison of the "bracelet" to my hand

simple lobster clas/jump ring is used

Laid out flat...the blue part is supposed to be flowers, but the middle one for some reason is flipped to the other side.

Here is a picture of the bracelet flipped over.

Introducing...

Hi everyone! This is Ji Eun! For my project, I am planning on doing jewelry making...I have never done jewelry making before, and by the end of it, maybe I'll have the initiative to continue, and sell them. I don't quite have the expenses for precious gems of course, but I plan on experimenting with different materials.

For my first project, I plan on making a pair (or maybe a set of three) of earrings. Since they're a small object, I can focus more of my energy on manipulating the metal with pliers and such.

For my second project, I plan on making a bracelet, with the use of simple beading string (the type that is clear and elastic) and beads, and focusing more on creating interesting loops and patterns with the beads (similar to how there are various different "loops" for knitting...which I have also never done).

For my last project, I want to make a necklace, which will combine the things that I will have learnt with the first two, and I want to use some prettier materials (such as crystal beads) and really make it look fancy.

What do you think? Is it enough, or does it sound like I aimed too low? This is something I worry about often :(