Beginnings and Progress So Far

So, as I stated in a previous blog post I am getting some incredible lessons in the jewelry design online class i'm taking and I thought i'd show a little bit of what i've learned so far.  (you can check out the class in the button on the left) Using a found object I began a necklace for my sister.  She is like me when it comes to blingy and flashy and trashy even.

I have used one of the objects I found at an antique mall.  I thought it would make an interesting focal for a necklace.   It had some beads attached which I took off.  It has kind of a southwest flair but that's not how I am using it.  As you can see below it has some type of white stone thingy embedded in it.

I'm using it with glass crystal beads in black and clear.  And, I decided that instead of a Dremel tool that I would buy myself a flex shaft.  It wasn't necessarily suggested by the instructor but if I want to continue in this endeavor I decided to go ahead and buy it.  For those who don't know, when you use found objects in your pieces they don't always have a hole to attach them.  So you need a drill. I went to shop for a Dremel at Lowe's and it just seemed too big to drill small objects to me.

I looked at the flex shafts and the hand piece fits right into your hand.  It's smaller.  You can buy a hand piece for your Dremel but you still have to buy the Dremel tool first.  That's just my own rationale along with my hubby's.

I looked on the Fordeham site (a brand of flex shaft) and the one my instructor did say she used and I was not about to fork over more than $300.00!!  So as I always do I checked the Amazon site.  And they had the model I was interested in for about $100.00 less.   So that is where I  bought it.  It does have a 2 year manufacturer's warranty so I feel a bit better about the purchase.  I can't wait to get it.

I also ordered the mini drill bits for metal and I ordered some diamond bits that are used to drill stone, pearls and shell.  Apparently it's very bad for your health to breath in the dust from those materials.

So now, I removed the beads from my object and plan on drilling holes for my crystal chains to attach.

Here's a little lay-out of how I plan to put this necklace together:

I know this is a bad photo but it's been so cloudy!  This is what I have so far.  The large black focal bead is just a black faceted glass stone.

But I think you can kind of tell where I need to drill the holes.  I think that metal focal piece is a tin material.  I will drill the holes soon when my flex shaft arrives this week.  I can't wait to get started and hope it turns out okay.  That's all I have so far.

As always comments are welcomed.  Thanks for visiting and wish me luck.