08/12/2008 WigJig Newsletter on Jewelry Making, Jewelry Supplies, Beads and Wire

WigJig News -- AKA Boomer Sez:

Our Spokesdog: If an insurance company can have a gecko, we have decided that we can have a spokesdog. Boomer, shown at right, is our spokesdog. If you select Boomer's picture at right, you will be able to view Boomer at work.

How to Unsubscribe: If you signed up for our newsletter and then decided you don't want to receive it any more, the proper way to unsubscribe is to select the "Unsubscribe" link at the bottom of every newsletter e-mail or to follow our sign up link above. On that sign up page we also provide a way for people to unsubscribe.

Birthstone for August: The birthstone for August is the peridot. Peridot is one of the few gemstones that comes in only one basic color as peridot is found in many shades of green, but is always either lighter or darker green. Peridot is one of the softer gemstones and for this reason, is probably not a good choice for use in rings or bracelets. Peridot works best when used in earrings and necklaces which receive less abrasion. The ancient Hawaiians considered peridot to be the tears of the goddess Pele. This is because peridot is commonly found in lava flows from the islands volcanoes. You can view our selection of mined peridot and peridot colored cubic zirconia here.

New Items: We added many new types of silver-plated Bali-Style beads. These beads are in the Indian "Criss" style with many layers of silver plated onto a copper base bead. In general, these new Bali-Style beads are very high quality and quite an excellent choice. You can view some of these new beads below. Please select any picture to view that bead in our Internet store.

One Maker Afghan Women's Charity: In our past newsletters we have mentioned the One Maker charity dedicated to releasing Afghan women from poverty. Jana Harp, the founder of One Maker spends much of her time in Afghanistan working with 13 Afghan women helping them to make and sell jewelry. At right we show one of these 13 ladies making the King's Garden bracelet that One Maker sells on their web site. Jana was kind enough to share one of the 13 ladies stories below.

"Shakar*, like many Afghan women, has suffered much in her 27 years. At 11, she lost her father. A militant group then kidnapped her brother and forced him to fight. Her sister also died of cancer, leaving 2 children behind. As a widow, her mom found it difficult to financially support her so she arranged for her to be married at 14. Shakar had her first child at 15. When her husband’s father died, he left 7 children behind. Shakar and her husband are financially responsible to provide for his mother and her 7 children. With four children of their own, they provide for 11 children in total, a heavy responsibility. Even so, she considers all these children her own and, even though they sometimes eat only bread and tea for several days, she has persuaded her husband to wait to have the girls married until later. She knows from experience that life can be more difficult when a girl marries so young. She would like to send all of the children to school, but can’t afford to at this time. With her husband unemployed, she is the sole provider for 14 people. Shakar also struggles with health issues and, at present, needs a surgery." * = Shakar's name was changed to protect her identity.

You can visit the One Maker web site by selecting the picture above right, or at http://www.onemaker.com . Anyone who would like to donate can visit the web site or can contact Jana Harp at jana@swissmail.org.

Free Jewelry Design:
With every newsletter we provide a new jewelry design from WigJig University to spur the creative juices. The new design for this newsletter is the design for the Raindrop Jewelry Wire Earrings shown at right. These earrings are commonly seen made in sterling silver in high fashion magazines and on movie stars on television. They seem to be a current fashion trend. We provide instructions for making these earrings in three different sizes with several different sizes of wire. We strongly recommend that only advanced wire workers try making these earrings with 14 gauge wire. For beginners, you should use 18 gauge wire. At right you can view the difference in appearance. The difference in making the earrings is that 14 gauge wire is much stiffer and harder to work with.

These patterns can be made on any of our WigJig jewelry making tools and use a 3/4" Super Peg or a Spiral Maker to make the small size. They use a 1" Super Peg to make the medium size and a 1 1/2" Super Peg to make the large size.

To view our free instructions for how to make these Raindrop Jewelry wire Earrings select here, or select the picture above-right.

Past Techniques:
We maintain a techniques web page that provides links to the discussion of techniques in our prior newsletters. You can visit this web page here. Follow the links on that page to the discussion of the technique in that newsletter.

Jewelry Technique:
This week's jewelry making technique are some new instructions for making earrings from our Ax CZ Pendants. We show three techniques for making these earrings ranging in difficulty from the very easy using jump rings shown near-right, to the easy using a figure 8 connector shown center-right to the only slightly more difficult using a wrapped link shown far-right. The jump ring and figure 8 techniques are totally appropriate for beginners and allow you to make a pair of very nice earrings in 10 minutes. The wrapped link approach is suitable for advanced beginners and is slightly more permanent. If you want to make a quick, but striking pair of earrings, this project may be perfect. We have these Ax Cubic Zirconia Pendants available in olive, amethyst, golden yellow, lavender, pink, clear champagne and garnet colors. You can view our selection of the Ax CZ Pendants here and here.

Please select either picture above or select here to view our free instructions for making earrings using our AX CZ Pendants.

Nostalgia Corner:
This week's featured design in our Nostalgia Corner is the design for our Chain, Jewelry Wire and Gemstone Earrings shown at right. This may be our favorite earring design and is made with 10mm and 8mm gemstones and our low wall bezel findings. While this appears to be a complicated design, these earrings can be made by any intermediate wire worker. The secret to making the body of the earrings is that we combine two simple wire components to make the earring body rather than try to make one complex wire component. The combination allows the earrings to move where the two wire components connect and this motion adds to the striking effect of these earrings. Remember, they aren't as hard to make as it might appear and no one will guess that you made them yourself. Our niece keeps asking us to make more of these earrings because each of her friends wants their own pair.

Please select here, or select the picture at right to view our free instructions for making our Chain, Gemstones and Wire Earrings.

Warning! Joke Follows.
This is only a joke. We tell jokes because we are in favor of smiling, laughing and being happy. This does not mean that we are opposed to anyone or anything.

If you have ever in your entire life been offended by any joke -- please skip the below paragraphs. It is not our intention to offend anyone! We don't write these jokes, we only re-tell jokes that we have heard on the public radio, television or over the Internet.

Boomer Humor:

Several girl-friends decided to go out drinking after they had seen the new movie “Sex in the City”. They all had a great time drinking manhattans and at the end of the evening there were two ladies left to close the bar, and these two were very inebriated. Both ladies decided to walk home 1 mile through the cemetery rather than drive the 2 miles around it. In their walk, both ladies discovered that they needed to go to the bathroom. Obviously, there are no public facilities in a cemetery, so they both positioned themselves behind a bush and proceeded to do their business. Unfortunately, no job is finished until the paperwork is done, and the ladies did not have the appropriate paperwork. One lady decided to wipe herself with her panties and discarded the panties before proceeding home. The other lady found a ribbon on a wreath at a gravesite and used the ribbon to perform the necessary function. Both ladies got home and went immediately to sleep.

The next day, both husbands were talking while their wives were still asleep. One husband said, “I’m a little suspicious of this girl’s night out. My wife came home late last night with no underwear.” The other husband said “I’m very suspicious also. My wife came home with a ribbon in her underpants that said ‘We’ll never forget you! All the guys at Fire House 51’.”

Remember, no actual infidelity took place during the telling of this joke, and it is just that, only a joke.

Announcements:
Online Books. If you are looking for new and interesting jewelry projects -- try one of our Online Books. Our most detailed instructions are for sale online. Please select here to view our selection of online books. These books are delivered over the Internet and there are no shipping costs on an order with just online books.

Shipping Policy. We waive the shipping charge on orders over $60 shipped within the US (as long as these orders remain over $60). For International orders we ship via Global Priority Mail and charge $5 over the US Mail charge for this shipping service. Please select here to view our entire shipping policy.

WigJig University. We provide over 2,700 web pages of free information, tips, techniques and free jewelry making designs in WigJig University. We encourage everyone to view this information as a source for new ideas, projects, or a way to learn new techniques. We now have a page in WigJig University that shows our designs sorted by the WigJig tool used to make them. Please select here to view that information.

International Vendors. We do have vendors who sell our WigJig products outside the US. We encourage customers to contact these vendors in their home country. Please select here to view our list of overseas vendors. We are also happy to sell our WigJig tools to stores. Please send us an e-mail if you are interested in selling our WigJig tools.

Classes. We have a listing of various jewelry making classes using our WigJig tools that are offered by bead stores throughout the country. If you are interested in classes, please select here. If you know someone who has classes in using our WigJig tools, please ask them to send us an e-mail at custsrv@wigjig.com so that we can include them in these pages.

We are continuing to improve our newsletter, so please feel free to provide feedback at custsrv@wigjig.com.

SHIPPING WAIVED ON ORDERS OVER $60.00 SHIPPED TO USA - Customer Care - WigJig, PO Box 5124, Gaithersburg, MD 20882; (800) 579-WIRE (phone), (240) 597-2262 (fax), custsrv@wigjig.com (email). Privacy Policy. All content on this web site including jewelry and wire designs are copyrighted© by WigJig. WigJig® is a registered trademark. Last modified: 08/12/2008

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08/12/2008

Beads, Jewelry Tools & Jewelry Making Supplies by WigJig Jewelry Making Newsletter

6mm Swarovski Amethyst Bicone Beads Sale Priced $2.39 per package of 12	6mm Swarovski Bicone Topaz Beads Sale Priced $2.31 per package of 12 beads
Bali-Style Round Beads with Circles 13.2mm Diameter Sale Priced $3.51 per package of 5	Garnet CZ Ax Pendant with X-Large Jump Ring and Gold-filled Ear Clips All the items necessary to make Ax Pendant Earrings as described below!
Bali Style Round Beads w. Mirrors 9.5mm Diameter Sale Priced $2.87 per package of 10	18G Natural Silver Artistic Wire $3.64 for a 12' Spool (This wire has an anti-tarnish, enamel coating.)

Beads, Jewelry Wire, Tools & Jewelry Making Supplies by WigJig Newsletter 08/12/2008