Stringing Spring 2007
Ruby's creations on pages 36, 47, and 56.
Stringing Fall 2006
Ruby's creations on pages 17, 32, 60, and 62.
Stringing Spring 2006
Ruby's creations on pages 17, 26, 42, and 61.
Stringing Fall 2005
Ruby's creations on pages 19, 24, 60, and 87.
~ Compliments ~
"Congratulations on having such gorgeous work published in Bead Stringing! I really like the cornucopia necklace. The jasper is beautiful! ... great job!" -- Tracy M., Alabama
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"Just wanted to say how much I love your "smoke on the water" design. Very elegant and simple." -- Nancy L., Morristown, NJ
~ Random Thoughts ~
My brother calls this one "Gothic." I just designed a necklace around a silver heart pendant that I've had for the longest time.
I added black seed beads, silver daisies, and deep red freshwater pearls. I was surprised at how a simple design could look very attractive.
The first day I wore it, I had to stop by a couple of stores for errands. The sales clerk at Barnes and Noble asked if I make my jewelry, adding that it looked "professional." The cashier at Michael's asked the same question and said it looks "very nice." With a broad smile, I nodded, handed out a business card, and said, "There's more at my website." Even if they don't come around at all, I sure had a blast receiving the compliments. Simple joys make my day.
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My copy of the Creative Jewelry Magazine 2011 finally arrived. I couldn’t wait to see how they presented my “Black As Night” necklace.
 "Black As Night" I’ve always liked this piece because of its simplicity — what the magazine editors asked for in this issue. The ring design is my original — I’ve used it with various color themes and in several special order pieces. In fact, my pair of earrings with this ring design was featured in a back issue of Stringing Magazine. I like this design because it’s so easy to make, yet it lends a hint of drama to the necklace and to the wearer.
 Creative Jewelry Magazine 2011 The magazine is available in physical and digital format at the Interweave website.
Here’s a snapshot of a section of the table of contents:
 Creative Jewelry Magazine 2011 Table of Contents
One of my favorite multi-strand bracelets was featured in the bracelet spread of Stringing Summer 2011. I strung chips of carnelian, sodalite, and yellow opal, and closed them with a copper fold-over clasp. Simple, colorful, textured. It’s on page 43.
 Tri-Color Chips Bracelet
 Stringing Summer 2011
I received this email yesterday:
Hello,
Just wanted to drop a note to thank you for the easy instructions on how to hang a crystal heart. Turned out very nicely!!
Denise Polgar / www.vixtria.com
Denise’s words inspired me to post this old tutorial I have at my RubyBayan Jewelry mini-site:
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My heart breaks every time I chip a crystal heart. I feel like I killed it. There are those fancy bails specifically used to hang crystals, but sometimes they don’t apply to the design I have in mind. There had to be some way to work with a crystal heart without killing it.
After a few “heartbreaking” attempts, I settled on a couple of very simple and super easy techniques that allowed me to hang several Swarovski AB hearts onto a chain bracelet with no breakage.
Let me share a simple how-to of the first technique (I made a pair of earrings so that I can take photos of the process). It’s followed by the second technique, and photos of the bracelet using both.
[I used 10mm Swarovski AB hearts and 24GA round half-hard 14K gold-filled wire.]
 Bend wire. Bend the wire (as shown) using your flatnose pliers.
Tip: To determine the distance between the two angles on the wire, check the depth of the heart’s hole, so that when you do the next steps, you have enough allowance to let the heart dangle freely. You don’t want to end up squeezing the crystal when you bring the vertical wire sections together.
 Slip heart in. Slip the heart in.
Tip: If the heart won’t slip in easily, don’t force it. Open the wire a little.
 Make triangle. Estimate where the wires will meet in a triangle above the crystal. Then bend the wires (one at a time) at that point.
 Slip bead. A bead holding the wires in place will minimize chipping that can be caused by the wrapping process. If you decide to do a wrap at this point, you will have to be very careful in holding the wires together without crushing the crystal.
Tip: Not all beads will let you thread two wires through, so you may want to take this into consideration before you finalize your design.
 Position bead. Slip the bead to secure the folded wire.
Tip: You may need to trim the short end of the wire so that it doesn’t stick out of the holding bead.
 Make wire wrap. Do the standard wrap.
 Done! And Voila!
My new, no-hearts-broken earrings.
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The regular bail technique using regular wire is also easy. Shape the wire into an open triangle, slip the heart in, and squeeze gently. Once the wire is in place, the heart won’t easily come off.
Tip: I can vouch only for gauges 24 and thicker for this technique. I haven’t tried it with a 26, which might be too fragile to hold up.
 Triangle bail.  Heart on triangle bail. Below is a close-up of the bracelet I created using both techniques.
 Crystal Hearts Bracelet And here’s the whole bracelet:
 Crystal Heart Bracelet .
I’ve always been curious about polymer clay. In fact I bought a starter kit many years back — the one with glow-in-the-dark clay with projects for kids. I tried it, baked a batch, burned it, and since then stashed the clay, hopefully for future use.
Years passed and then I found myself in an estate sale. The owner was a craftswoman! She had a box of polymer clay and some used sculpting tools. I walked away with 14 unopened packs of “Studio by Sculpey” clay (for $5) and a bundle of tools (for $1). I had re-discovered polymer clay!
 Polymer Clay "Studio by Sculpey" After a quick Google about the hobby, I headed on down to the nearest Michael’s store and grabbed a pasta maker (essential tool for conditioning clay), a few cutters (for template shapes), and a couple of other loose tools.
And here I am, like a child again. Now I can make my own beads!
 Clay, pencils, pasta machine, and other tools.  Clay balls.  Colorful clay balls!  My first try with the millefiore cane method.  Glow-in-the-Dark hearts and beads.  A big batch of experimental beads and forms.  Polymer clay on sterling silver findings.
When a single string of small beads turn out to be too slim for the necklace I have in mind, I employ multi-strands of these small beads to build volume.
On this project, I worked with freshwater rice pearls from 3 to 5mm in size strung through two and five strands of gold beading wire.
 "String of Promises" Necklace A couple of 8mm potato pearls served as connection stations. And another one as the ball in the ball-and-loop clasp. The focal point is a reddish-brown ceramic heart that I picked up at a quaint bead store at Saint Augustine, Florida.
Here’s how I put it all together.
Materials:
1 red 29x26mm ceramic heart
3 peacock 8mm freshwater potato pearl
24 amber 6mm Czech cathedral rounds
30 copper 6/0 seed beads
60 assorted peacock/copper 4-6 mm freshwater potato pearls
12 amber 8/0 seed beads
1 metallic brown 11/0 seed bead
6 gold-filled 2mm crimp tubes
4″ of gold-filled 14k 24-gauge wire
71″ of gold .01 beading wire
Instructions:
- Cut the beading wire into 9 strands of 9-inch lengths.
- Using 2 inches of 24-gauge wire, form a wrapped loop. String 1 copper seed, 1 peacock 8mm pearl, and 1 copper seed. Close with a wrapped loop. Repeat to make two pearl stations.
- Pick up 2 beading wire strands and string 1 crimp tube, 2 bronze seeds, 1 peacock 8mm pearl, and 1 metallic brown 11/0 seed. Restring both strands back into the pearl, copper seeds and crimp tube. Crimp to create the ball of the ball-and-loop clasp. String (1 cathedral, 1 copper seed, 1 cathedral, 1 pearl on one strand and 2 pearls on the other strand), five times. String 1 copper seed, 1 cathedral, and 1 copper seed. Use a crimp tube to attach the wires to one end of a pearl station from Step 2.
- Pick up 5 beading wire strands. Use a crimp tube to attach the wires to the other end of the pearl station in Step 3.
- Using all 5 strands, string 1 copper seed, 1 cathedral, and 1 copper seed. Separate the strands and on each one string 1 peacock pearl.
- Repeat Step 5 twice. String 1 copper seed and the ceramic heart. Repeat Step 5 three times. Gather the 5 strands and string 1 copper seed, 1 cathedral, 1 copper seed. Use a crimp tube to attach the wires to one end of the other pearl station from Step 2.
- Pick up 2 beading wire strands and use a crimp tube to attach to the other end of the pearl station from Step 6. String (1 copper seed, 1 cathedral, 1 copper seed, 1 peacock pearl on one strand, 2 peacock pearls on the second strand, and 1 cathedral) five times. String 1 copper seed, 1 cathedral, 1 crimp tube, and 12 amber seeds. Loop back and insert the wires into the first amber seed and crimp tube to create the loop of the ball-and-loop clasp. Crimp to secure and trim off excess wires.
I chanced upon an artist sidewalk show at the “antique district” of downtown Orlando yesterday. A number of jewelry artists displayed their fabulous work. It was a difficult decision but I chose to pick up a Mondrian pendant from Jan Tunnell (first time I met her). I plan to use her pendant in my next necklace design.
 Jan Tunnell Pendant Meanwhile, check out her website for all her beautiful creations: jantunnellcreations.com
I started making jewelry back in 2004. In 2005, using a point-and-shoot digital camera (Fuji Finepix A205), I taught myself how to style and shoot photos of my jewelry. All by trial and error.
My jewelry photography setup back then was very simple. I put a TV tray next to the window and propped up white poster boards as a backdrop and reflector. My main (and only!) light source was the natural light streaming through the window. I used the mini-blinds to control the brightness. Of course, I only shot photos in the daytime.
In styling the shots, I used whatever I could find around our house and garden. So my jewelry would be among ribbons, knick knacks, fresh flowers, potpourri, fruits, even coffee filters. I have a photo of a hematite bracelet on a saucer with peppercorns.
Here are some of the jewelry I styled and shot five years ago.
 Blue and White  Colored Beads with Colored Pens  Hematite Hearts and Peppercorns  Millefiore Hearts and Anthurium Bud  Rainbow Crystals with a Strawberry (bracelet featured in Stringing Mag)  A Hint of Hearts
 Earrings on a Halfshell  Earrings on Coffee Filters  Pink Leaves and Flowers  Pearls Necklace with Ampalaya Leaves Lately, I’ve been trying to shoot seamless white, or what they call “isolated.” I find it a little boring. I should go back to my style-and-shoot system — a lot more challenging and certainly more creative.
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Welcome to RubyBeads! This is the blog home of the jewelry section of OurSimpleJoys.com, my profile website.
One of my many passions is beading jewelry, which started back in 2004. I discovered that beading was not just therapy for my carpal tunnel syndrome (all healed, by the way), but also an outlet for the handcrafty fingers I inherited from my mother. So, here I share my beading stories and latest creations. Be sure to let me know if you stumble on something interesting!
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Ruby's Jewelry
are available as eProjects at the Interweave Store.
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