Brooch Bonanza

I have been thinking about, tinkering with, making, and finishing brooches. Because that is what my friend, thewanderingbunny, wears the most so I thought I would get in some practice. I have never really made any brooches before. I like bracelets because they allow me to finish the piece in one night. I think my next batch will be earrings to get her to wear them more but I still don't like wire work that much. :) I have made 2 new brooches tonight. One is for Halloween and the other is in a more Victorian style that I have been meaning to try. I hope you guys like them. :)

Victorian style Butterfly Cameo Brooch

I had found and bought this butterfly cameo to make a brooch out of it, but it was a pendant. After racking my brain for a couple of days, I had 2-3 versions of this brooch in my mind. I was going to add tulle to the background to make the cameo pop more and to hide the pin finding because the finish does not match. But all of my tulle and fabric is in storage. Then I was going to dangle some beads like long icicles along the side and back. I really wanted to hang something from the bottom but this one is not made for it. So, I went online and looked at a lot of images of different brooches with hanging pendants or cameos. A lot of them had chain attached in layers with beads hanging down.

This is my version. This finding only has 1 loop from which I hung the cameo. I went through my stash of chain and found this nice star and rhinestone one in the right finish for the cameo. My mom bought it for me from Taiwan. I attached it to the ends with jump rings. I then added the purple crystals for color and to hide some of the wire. I wrapped the finding with wire strung with black seed beads to cover up the silver finish of the pin finding. This brooch was very frustrating because of all the wire work and the jump rings kept slipping but I am happy with how it turned out. I think it will be my one and only like it though. Too much work and fustration. :P

Here is my Halloween themed brooch. I started making it as a bracelet from this free pattern called Going Batty. I don't really do a lot of netting and I realized why when I was making the bracelet. Reading the pattern was making my eyes cross. I also did not really like the colors I used so I stopped and dropped the project. Well, one night I couldn't get to sleep and had a light bulb, ding! I took what I had made so far and zipped it up into a cylinder. That took so much work because I had filled in one bat but had to undo all the stitching to redo one area where a bat was going to be started. That was frustrating but I worked through it by thinking it as a puzzle to work out. When I finally got done, I had to figure out how to zip the two sides together. It was just trial and error, if I had a plan I could have added another bat.

Finished cylinder

It looks actually pretty cool as a ring too. This one was too small to wear that way. Next time. :) 

Added structure

I added wire to the top and threaded on clear seed beads. I was going to do the bottom as well but liked the look of the points. This was a pain to do but kept the cylinder open. I also added a string of seed beads with a red bell at the end.

I think this would also be really cute as a pendant. And if you like big earrings or could scale it down, it would be cute as earrings but without the bell. Hearing a bell everywhere would drive me nuts.  

Finished Brooch

I didn't want to make it too fancy like the Victorian brooch so I added it to the coiless safety pin. I had to add a drop of glue to the end of the seed beads to stop them from sliding down. It is my unique creation, thought up from my subconsciousness. I don't think I have ever seen a brooch or pendant like it for that matter. :) Patent pending. :)

Now I know I am not good at and need more practice working with wire. Hopefully, making more earrings with help. :) Never Give up! Go go go!!!