DIY Jewelry: Wire Wrapping Button Rings

Combine your jewelry making skills and learn how to wire wrap buttons. Design button rings, bracelets, and earrings by wrapping or coiling wire. Watch the Youtube video below for an easy step by step tutorial:

 

Click here for step by step tutorials: 

Tutorial #1 - Button Ring

Tutorial #2 - Button Necklace

DIY Jewelry Blog: Unusual Craft Tutorials

We found some great DIY jewelry projects and tutorial for artists interested in learning how to create unusual jewelry. Check out these strange do it yourself jewelry crafts. Choose from a variety of crafts including paper or fabric necklaces, necklaces made from matches, jewelry made from ponytail holders, and pom pom ball rings made out of duct tape. Interested in making these projects? See the jewelry tutorial links below. 

DIY Jewelry Tutorial #1

DIY Jewelry Tutorial #2

Ickynicks Jewelry is an online handmade shop for men and women. We design gold hoop earrings, sterling silver and stainless steel fashion jewelry.We provide links to tips and tricks for jewelry making.

Jewelry Finds at Goodwill Online

Do you make, or have you  considered making fashion jewelry, vintage jewelry, wire wrapping or beaded jewelry projects? 

1. Do you go to JoAnn's, Michael's or Hobby Lobby to purchase all of your supplies?
2. Is your average yearly cost of jewelry supplies over $300? 
3. Have you ever thought about shopping at pawn shops or thrift stores for charms, pendants, or beads?

Thrift stores are great resources for finding jewelry supplies, more than you may realize. Salvation Army, Goodwill and Volunteers of America often sell jewelry for a very reasonable and inexpensive price. Looking for a pair of matching beads, or a fun random bead assortment, or vintage charms and pendants? You can even find loose gemstones, rhinestones and pearls (if you look closely enough). Just take apart pieces of the necklace,or bracelet that you don't want and add to it. Shop Goodwill online for jewelry.

 

Jewelry finds at Goodwill online

Ickynicks Jewelry is an online handmade shop for men and women. Ickynicks designs gold hoop earrings, sterling silver and stainless steel hoop earrings. We provide links to tips and tricks for jewelry making.

DIY Jewelry: Button Necklaces, Rings, and Bracelets

Make jewelry from vintage buttons, brooches, or charms. Head to the thrift store to find old sewing buttons, or loose buttons in bags. Create a blue button necklace, stylish rings, or pink bracelets. Or add buttons as a pendant onto a necklace or leather bracelet. Get creative and find new ways of making fashion jewelry. Watch the Youtube video and follow the step by step tutorial on button jewelry making:

DIY Jewelry Supplies: Mixed Media

Do you know the basics of jewelry making? Are you interested in getting more creative? How about making bracelets out of buttons? Necklaces out of coins (pennies, dimes, quarters)? Rings from forks and spoons? Many jewelry designers prefer ‘traditional’ styles such as weaving beads or wire wrapping pendants. But why not think outside the box and get creative.

For your next jewelry project, grab objects that you wouldn’t often think of using. Most likely you can find these objects around your home or at the thrift store.  Here’s a list to get you started: buttons, coins, dice, puzzle pieces, board game pieces, dominoes, legos, keys, rocks, bottle caps, corkscrew, silverware, magnets, zippers, broken watches, broken CD's, records, camera parts, computer keyboard or typewriter keys. Then decide how you want to use these objects to create a necklace or bracelet.

Ickynicks Jewelry is an online handmade shop for men and women. Ickynicks designs gold hoop earrings, sterling silver and stainless steel hoop earrings. We provide links to tips and tricks for jewelry making.

Queen Cleopatra: Ancient Jewelry of Egypt

Cleopatra was the last pharaoh of Egypt. She ruled alongside her brother between 51-30 B.C. after their father's death. Egyptian tradition required Cleopatra to marry her younger brother to keep status of ruler. Over the course of her reign, she was believed to be one of the most powerful female pharaohs in the Egyptian patriarchal society. She engaged in a relationship Julius Caesar and had a son, then with Marc Anthony and bore three children.

To the left is a gold box ring


On the right is a gold bracelet featuring two serpents that symbolizes protection.

Jewelry from the Cleopatra museum exhibit

Blue portrait print of Cleopatra VII

 Resources:

Historical Life of Cleopatra

Early Life of Cleopatra

Women's History: Cleopatra

Jewelry Lessons and Tutorials: Jewelrylessons.com

JewelryLessons.com is a great resource for crafters who are interested in advancing their skills in jewelry making.  An entire section on the website is devoted to DIY tutorials and patterns. You can search for specific tutorials based on the level of difficulty, type of jewelry you want to design, rating level, or jewelry techniques below:

• Wire wrapping
• Hand hammering (silversmith)
• Bead weaving with thread or wire 
• Polymer or metal clay
• Polishing or finishing stones, charms, or rings 
• Surface embellishment with pendants, bracelets, or rings
• Using string and fiber
• Metalsmith
• Men's Jewelry

Women's History: Ancient Egyptian Jewelry of Queen Hatshepsut - First Female Pharaoh

The first female pharaoh of Egypt was Hatshepsut, who reigned between 1473 - 1458 B. C during the New Kingdom, 18th dynasty. She was the longest running female pharaoh in the Egyptian Empire.

 

Ring with name inscription of Hatshepsut and her nephew, Thutmose III. They reigned together during the early 18th Dynasty, 1472 - 1458 B.C.

 




Scarab Pin

  

  

Above are amulets made of copper, steatite, alabaster and amethyst (crystal known for spirituality and gaining psychic awareness)

This ear artifact is an amulet, similar to a charm or pendant. It was known as a 'hearing ear' because Egyptians believe that their gods and goddesses could ear and reply to their prayers. 

Resources:

Global Egyptian Museum

Queen Hatshepsut

Archive of Queen Hatshepsut

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Alien Jewelry: Earrings, Pendants, Charms

Jewelry, Aliens, and UFO's. Never thought those words could be connected? Well we found a niche online made up of a small group of jewelry artisans who seem to love designing these beings. These artisans handcraft alien eyes, bodies, and UFO spaceships out of wire or polymer clay. There seems to be a market for it, especially on Etsy.com

Often when we think of 'alien' we picture green 'dudes,' however these artists present their jewelry as gray beings, or gold and brown. Do we really know the true skin color of alien beings? Or is there more than one? If humans have multiple skin colors, what do aliens have? 

Here's a list of Handmade Alien Earrings, Necklaces, Charms, Pendants:

1. Necklace: UFO Silver Pendant

2. Pendant: Alien Face Pendant for Necklace

3. Charms: Alien Body in Sterling Silver

4. Earrings: Blue and Silver UFO

 

6. Earrings: Black and Gold Alien Body Earrings 

5. Pendant and Charm: Silver Alien Head and Black Eyes 

 

 

 Do you know any Alien Artisan Designers? 

Is Jewelry Gendered?

Is Jewelry 'gender specific'? What Type of Men Wear Jewelry? For What Purpose? 

Men and women both wore jewelry in prehistoric times for symbolic reasons. Men, especially rulers and wealthy folk, wore jewelry to emphasize control, money, power, and honor. Handcrafted pieces were constructed differently for each gender and crafted from multiple fabrics, metals, and ornaments (charms, pendants). 

Wearing certain pieces of jewelry reflected an individual's social rank and class status. In this case, warriors and rulers wore head dresses, special garments, and jewelry to emphasize 'male honor.' 

 

Currently, there are many native societies around the world where both men and women wear jewelry to reflect their traditional rituals (puberty, passage into adulthood).  Warriors within the Naga culture of India wear large necklaces to symbolize honor in killing, or 'headhunting'. Necklaces are constructed of animal skulls, fur, brass rings, and feathers. Other native cultures in Indonesia and the Philippines dress themselves with rings and large 'red hornbill' earrings.

In this modern era, is hyper-masculinity causing men to rethink about wearing large hoops, earrings, and bracelets?

Further Reading:

"Jewelry and Gender," Thesis Paper by Rebecca Ross Russell

Ancient Jewelry Discovery Prehistoric Rings

What is History of Jewelry? 

Where did it come from? Who wore it and did it have a special meaning? Did ancient civilizations mold their own beads? What tools did they use? How did ancient cultures like the Egyptians, Aztecs, or the Byzantine Empire handcraft their jewelry pieces? Whatever happened to these pieces? 

In 2013, a group of archaeologists from Tel- Aviv University uncovered several ancient jewelry pieces from a prehistoric site near Apollonia-Arsuf in the Middle East. Pieces included coins, gold jewelry, and small bronze rings.

The items were initially 'thrown out' by the prehistoric natives who tossed them in large dump pits. The reason for this is unknown. 

Archaeologists dated these pieces to the 5th and 7th centuries C.E. Is there any special meaning to this jewelry? 

Interestingly enough, one of the bronze rings that was discovered has an inscription on it that translates to: "Adonai is his name." The article suggests that this particular bronze ring is an unusual finding and quite rare indeed!

Further Reading:

Article Link