Birthday surprise...shhhhh!

Also from the back of last week, I made a pressie for my best friends Mum's birthday which is on the 28th June. It was based on the Vintage Rainbow bracelet that is on my blog but I have used softer colours and used wire work rather than stringing. Its gorgeous! I so want to keep it! Its so light and fresh and summery! I might have to make myself one!

I have used 8mm Czech glass faceted beads in clear AB and a range of 4mm Swarovski bicones spaced with silver seed beads. These were mounted on headpins and linked by jump rings. Will have to get it posted now.

Think pink....gothic pink!!!

Last week I had visitors and I had two new comissions from this.

My best mate from Hull asked me to make her a necklace, earrings and bracelet in the same style as I hadmade her a necklace a few years ago. The previous necklace was in green and black and in plastic so I thought I'd up grade this time as my tastes have matured into more expensive ranges since that!

So...I made a pink and black, simply strung in black and pink. The black beads are 8mm and 6mm czech glass and the pink beads are hot pink 6mm czech glass spaced with black seed beads.

They are certainly striking!!! And quite heavy! So...hope she likes them.

Give it away and more will come!

Just had a gathering at my house this weekend. I love it when people come over as it gives me a chance for them to have a raid of my jewellery box! I don't believe in foisting my jewellery onto people, heaven forbid, but if they ask, then they can have a look and take what they want. I'd rather it be worn than be sat in a box!





Anyway my bezzie mate from Hull had a raid and decided she would like... my chain of czech glass mixed beads and the matching bracelet.

I love this necklace, one of my faves, as it looked like mixed sweets and was very eclecitic but light! She also now wants me to make her a necklace in pink and black like one I made her before, just simple stringing and a necklace for her Mum's birthday which is based on my vintage rainbow bracelet. How cool!! :)

Also, she asked if she could have a pair of my earrings - a 6mm black swarovski bead and a flower clear AB Swarovski bead on two chain dangles. I only had one...as I hadn't finished the pair so I said I'd make the other one as I had my beads out for extending the necklace a little for her. As I was making her earrings one of my other friends turned up too so I ended up making her a pair of earrings in the same vain with a flower and a red and black 6mm bicone too! Its like...turn up to my flat....have a new pair of earrings on arrival! :)

My SIL came home from honeymoon too last week and brought with her a pressie of an enamelled M and Ms charm! So, will get round to taking a photo of that and then will get onto making it into a key ring for my keys....keep your eyes peeled!

Simply strung Swarovski

Oh I'm on fire with making jewellery at the moment! Haha!

Unfortunately the big O rang school last week so I have not had time to finish my wire creation for UK beaders yet but I have got around to doing some comissions for a very special customer...my Mum! She came to my flat about three weeks ago now and asked me to make two butterfly bracelets for a gift for two little girls who are being christaned in girly colours. She had also seen my 'purple haze' bracelet on my blog and asked if I could do her a necklace in the same style as she had just bought a new top which it would go well with...well..I can't keep a SPECIAL customer waiting can I so....here we are...

Hope you like them Mum! xx and don't feel left out Dad and Rich....I can make you one too if you like!!! Or knit you something....or possibly some cross stitch to adorn your walls!?!!! xx

Uk-Beaders charms

Ok...wire necklace for the Uk Beaders monthly challenge aside for one day I decided to focus on doing something else.




For the third aniversary of UK-Beaders and the 2nd anviversary of the forum Kitch kitty (lucy) the administrator and owner of Uk Beaders is running a charm bracelet competition. We are asked to create charms to go onto a charm bracelet and then the charm bracelet will be raffled off to one of us on Uk-beaders.





Anyway....here are my contiributions. The theme is Silver and blue or Bronze.

The first, from the left to the right, is an 8mm cats eye bead topped and tailed by 2 4mm swarovski bicones in opal. The next two are charms made of swarovski bicones. They are beaded beads from Issue 5 of Bead magazine. I love these charms and want to make a whole set (necklace etc.) with them at some point. The other two are bronze glass beads - one flat oval and the other round, both 8mm topped and tailed with 4mm swarovski beads in bronze.

I hope they are liked!

The great wire mystery....solved!

Well, I have been making jewellery for around four years now and it's only taken me this long to work out where I've been going wrong with wire wrapping! Haha! I love...I repeat...LOVE wire work. I know a lot of people on the forums and sites I go on do beady stitching and that is fine but I really don't have the time or the focus to do this! I also think a little metal, be it silver, gold or bronze gives your work a really professional look, like someone has just walked out of a jewellers with it! Ok, I may be deluding myself a little here but hey ho...back to the original point. I adore Eni Oken's stuff - www.enioken.com and she is a pure genius and goddess and I have many of Linda Jones books. I have been dabbling in wire work for a while but wire wrapping has always deluded me! I have always found it really difficult to keep it neat and get it to go where I want! That is until a stroke of genius (note the sarcasm which I can't do on a computer!) hit me. I have been using 20 gauge wire to try and wrap with....and I should have been using 24 or 26 or even 28....People who know me will realise why this has taken so long for me to realise....I am not the kinda gal who sits down to read and follow instructuions to the letter...I am more of a hit and hope....have a go and muddle through...type!!

Anyway, at Christmas I invested in a 'Wire coiling gizmo'......droooollll! (I wish I got there first!!!) Its so simple but such a genius idea! Its 2 mandrels in different sizes and a three sided stand (see http://www.coilinggizmo.com/faq.htm ) which is used to create coils and make wire coiling and wrapping easier and quicker. I have been trying to think of what to use it on and how to adapt some of the more 'unwearable' designs into my style of simple and wearable jewellery and it is the UK Beaders challenge this month that inspired me. The challenge is called 'Spring has sprung'. You have to submit a piece for this challenge that involves the use of a spring or coil or spiral. A perfect opportunity for me to break open the wire and gizmo!

So....last night I sat down to make a necklace and earring set I had been cooking up for a while! I consists of a wire ball (not make by me...possibly sourced from Jem Junction I think!?!) focal bead with 5 hand wire wrapped (with 26 gauge!! wire) tassels with purple Swarovski bicones on the end. Oooh this hurt my fingers....I had been cleaning the flat before this and my fingers were dry..even to the point of one bleeding half way through (plasters ahoy!). The wire wrapping was very neat...even though I do say so myself and MUCH easier with thinner wire!! The 'chain'...when finished...will be 4 2 inch coils of 26 gauge wire with 2 purple swarovski bicones at either end mounted onto 20 gauge wire and finished with a turned loop at either end. These are fixed together with jump rings and a set of these are added at each side of the focal to create an 18 inch chain. The earrings are simply gonig to be 3 wire wrapped dangles on a jump ring and attached to an earring post.

I am around 3/4 of the way through the necklace with 5 of the chain bits to go but I am hopeful of finishing it today so piccies will follow and hopefully it will be entered into the UK beaders challenge.

Before signing off for this post I must just point out an ironic thing that has just occured to me! Last night I settled to read the beginning chapter of Derren Brown's book. I love Derren Brown! Growing up with a fabby magician in the house I have always been surrounded by magic and always watched magic programmes etc. and I think Derren Brown's magic is so fresh and really something to make you think. Anyway, I don't read much but the first chapter hits upon another of my loves, philosophy of religon. I am not religous but was brought up in a religous household and still hold a lay interest in philosophy and religion and how religion has become so big and all consuming in our society and why/how people believe so passionately. I got to the end of the first chapter...23 pages and sat musing over the points Derren had made and the way that he had managed to expand his points so elequently into 23 pages....thinking about how novelists and writers manage to write 1000s of words in their novels and how this was done and how I don't think I could do this.....

The irony.....

Ok, I've just written a rather long post on the fact you should use thin wire instead of thicker wire to wire wrap!!! Haha! Prehaps I should change jobs.....!!! :) :)

Laryngitis jewellery!!

Well, I am off school at the moment with laryngitis! I wouldn't even mind but I had a really nice start back after the hols, no major behaviour problems so not a lot of shouting went on on Monday and Tuesday. But, by the end of Tuesday I sounded like Mariella Frostdrop's northern sister and by Wednesday evening after 4 lessons I had NO VOICE! Nightmare for me. Anyway, after a quick drop in at the docs, he signed me off for a week with accute laryngitis.

Well...what can a girl do when she's off for two days....make jewellery!

So, I have been busy and made a blue charm bracelet.

I have made charm bracelets forever but have never caught onto how you get the 'fuller' look of a charm bracelet. This little ounce of knowledge was passed onto me in this months 'Bead and Beyond' and seems simple when you know how!! Anyway, there are around 70 beads on this bracelet - all mounted on headpins. Some were simply mounted with a turned loop and then the excess cut off. With the excess I curled the end to form a coil and mounted the other beads onto these and finished with a simple loop. These were then mounted onto jump rings and then onto either side of the chain and voila!!

Its very summery and fresh, I love it! I have used - 8mm cats eye beads, turquoise semi presious nuggets, blue freshwater pearls, 6mm blue and clear swarovski's, 4mm white cats eye beads, 5mm Millifiori beads and tibetian silver charms.