Fixing Things... - Liz's Brooch

My friend Liz showed me her brooch yesterday and it was in a very sorry state. It had come with a cardigan and was pretty, or would have been if it had been made with more care. Lots of bits of very thin wire had been used and the ends not tidied off so they'd caught and eventually come loose.

There weren't many beads left so I added more. Liz wanted to use it with a brown, black and purple cardigan, so I used the beads that were still on the brooch (the large purple one, the golden ones, and the brown tigereye [?] ones) and added more: garnet, amethyst, red jade and plum coloured glass chips, the pink bead, the deep wine coloured freshwater pearls, plum coloured crackle and amethyst coloured faceted beads and a faceted peach vintage bead.

However, first I had to take it apart completely. Two of the three loops at the bottom of the pin fell off when I took the wire off... Not much left of it, but I had fun using 1 (!) string of deep purple wire to string all the beads on securely. To make sure the wire would stay in place and not move (because I did only have a single loop left to hold it in place), I used some super glue at the back.

Here's the result:

Orders

I got a few orders at the last party - either to add to an existing design or a new design entirely.
Here is what I made over the weekend.

The first one was a matching pair of earrings to the "Renaissance" necklace.

Here's the set.



This was a necklace to match the green/blue/purple shell bracelet, for which I'd already made some earrings a while back.


Here's a picture of the set.

Another purple spectacle chain:


Skull bracelet. This is another one - I'd made one with a tan leather thong and brown beads, this one has purple and black beads and the same little skull beads. The purple is slightly stronger in day light. For some reason the flash seems to "eat" purple and make it look slightly dull.
Two lovely bracelets for boys with wooden and glass beads, and Tibetan spacers. The glass bead on the blue bracelet is a recycled glass beads and looks wonderful in daylight - full of little blue specks and a lovely frosted look.

Second Party - More Vintage

With the last party and work and everything else there wasn't much time to play with my new stock, but with a few late nights I managed to have some fun anyway, here's the result:


Firefly



All vintage beads on a beautiful antique bronze chain with a vintage brass butterfly.


Sparkly Heart
All vintage beads with vintage charms on a silver plated chain with a beautiful heart shaped clasp.


Blue Butterfly

All vintage beads with vintage butterflies and a few bits of vintage chain (between the two butterflies either side and the centre one and on the centre butterfly) on silver plated chain with a gorgeous toggle clasp.

Eternal Winter

My personal favourite. Mostly new beads, apart from the frosted flower beads but the bracelet looks wonderful and really, really frosty.


Now I am off to do some more tidying and cleaning.... so much to do so little time....

More Fun for Little Girls

As the title says, I've been having more fun... :-) And I have! It is so much fun making these little bracelets, especially as they look so pretty when they're finished.

I've made five ready for the next party. The first one is red, with red and pink flowers and a cute little bunny charm. The seed beads and Magatama drops are glass, the feature beads are all good quality plastic beads to keep little girls safe.


Below is my beading mat with the beads ready for number 2, the pink bracelet. Only the flowers and butterflies are plastic, the rest are glass beads.

Here's the finished bracelet, all fluttery and lovely.

Another bracelet ready to be made, number 3, again, only the flowers and the bunny are plastic, the rest of the beads are glass.

Below is the finished article. This is probably my favourite. It looks absolutely gorgeous in real life (rather than a photo taken with a flash).

Below is number 4, the lovely blue one with little fishies and beads in blues and teal. This is all watery and cool. As before, the fishy things are all plastic, the rest glass.

Steve's favourite - green with orange flowers - like a Spring meadow.

The bracelets are £5 each, but you have to be quick to catch one!

More Frantic Beading - Girls Wanna Have Fun!

I sold all my children's (girls') bracelets at the last party, so I spent the weekend and today making more. I haven't finished yet, as I want to make some little wire bracelets as stocking fillers as well.

The first one I made is, admittedly, a bit Gothic, however it would be perfect for a teenager:

I've used very pretty black enamelled, and patterned silver plated hearts, mixed with purple iridescent and black glass hearts and a few glass beads in black and purple.


The second one is made with red enamelled and silver plated flowers, glass ladybirds and flowers, beautiful bright red Magatama beads and cute little butterfly charms:


The third one uses purple enamelled star charms and silver plated stars and a moon charm, and lovely shimmery purple Magatamas and other beads. This one has just been SOLD.


Number four is a fantastic mix of black enamelled butterflies and silver plated butterfly charms and lovely beads in different shades of pink - from pale rose to deep fuchsia. This is so much fun!


The final design is a set consisting of a bracelet and necklace with a centre piece of a mermaid each. Both are designed along a sea theme and have starfish, fish, shells and a wale charm (the necklace only has a large mermaid and 2 starfish charms). I then combined this with lots of beads in varying shades of blue. The effect is lovely and watery.

To make the necklace "extra watery" I've included beautiful teeny Myuki and Magatama drops:

Aftermath

At the party I could have sold lots of spectacle chains, here is one I made to order:

Another lady asked me to shorten the Teal Flapper necklace for her as it was too long for her petite stature. I've shortened it and used the left-over section to create a bracelet and then made some earrings to match:

Above is the whole set together.


The bracelet in detail:
The earrings in detail:

It's the Party Season - One down, One to

The first party is over and it went very well. Big thank you to Sheila and Stan for providing the venue, refreshments, help, and all their friends. :-)

Although I find the selling bit quite hard, in the end it was more enjoyable than I expected, especially, since most people seemed to find that one piece of jewellery that was just for them. It's nice if that happens, because it makes it easier to let go. My kind of jewellery is like the pictures I draw, it has always a little bit of me in it, which makes it that much harder to part with it. However, if someone falls in love with a particular design, at least I know it will go to a good home.

Interestingly, people asked me about jewellery classes. I am a bit stumped regarding logistics, i.e. venue, what to teach, the materials I'd need to provide etc... Any ideas?

To show off my design skills I'd decided to wear "Lady of Shallot" - the star on my website at the moment. Unfortunately, I'd never had time to make a bracelet and earrings for it. So, in a design frenzy I made both yesterday so I could wear them with my lovely necklace at the party, where the whole set was admired greatly. :-)

Here are some pictures:

Frantic Frenzy - Indiana Turquoise, Corazon 2, and Purple Rose

I've been so busy over the weekend updating my website ready for the jewellery parties that I didn't have any time to do jewellery. However, yesterday enough was enough and I finally finished a necklace I'd started a week earlier and made a new bracelet for Fhiona. She fell in love with Corazon, but I'd already reserved it for a friend, so made her a new, similar but different one.

Indiana Turquoise


I love the colours in this - I've used the turquoise heart and drops I used in Corazon (which came all the way from China), added some beautiful connectors I got on Beads Needs UK, green, round turquoise and jade beads, and some very dark turquoise chips. All is held together by some wavy connectors and silver plated chain and findings. It reminded me of Native American jewellery so I called it Indiana Turquoise. :-)

This has now been SOLD.

Corazon, Too
Fhiona was so disappointed that Corazon had gone that I promised her a bracelet that had the feel and colours of Corazon, although it would not be identical. To this bracelet I've added beautiful turquoise shells and I've used teal Magatama drops instead of the red ones, although I've smuggled a few red ones into the design (with the shells). I probably like this even more than the original... which I was going to keep until Liz bent my arm....


Today was another day where I just couldn't face putting yet more price tags on my jewellery for the party, so I indulged myself in making a new bracelet and earrings with lots of vintage beads.

Purple Rose
I recently bought these gorgeous purple vintage lucite hearts together with the dark gold/bronze faceted beads and the fuchsia metal roses. The chain is also new and when it arrived everything finally clicked into place and Purple Rose was "born". The name comes as much from the little roses as the feel of the bracelet which reminded me of the famous Woody Allen film "Purple Rose of Cairo". It has a lovely romantic story that doesn't turn out quite as expected, which made me add the little bronze bird. :-)


To finish off the set I've added some very pretty little earrings. Below the charms are shown in detail.


This has now been SOLD.

Illusion Range

I might have mentioned this earlier, but I like unusal findings and beads... :-) I've recently found this gorgeous wavy tigertail wire and couldn't resist making something special with it. This particular item is not for sale however I will be making more of them soon... when I find some time... with all the preparations for the parties...

The necklace is made with the black wavy tigertail on one side and illusion thread on the other. When worn the left side of the necklace is not visible apart from the clear, silver line vintage seed beads I've used. The centre includes some plain black tigertail to create the oval shaped detail. I've used Czech faceted modern and vintage beads in black, some with lustre, some without and the tear drops (also faceted) in the centre.

It goes perfectly with my new dress, so it's just here to show the new range which will be coming soon. Promise. If you'd like me to make you one, feel free to contact me and let me know which colour combination you'd like.

Now for something different - Belt

I love experimenting and constantly buy interesting findings and beads to play with. One thing I've been meaning to do for some time is a belt and I've finally found a few (or more than that) spare minutes to work on it.

Here's the result:


It's made of silverplated chain, beautiful pewter art nouveau (style) connectors, 1mm black Indian leather thong, lots of wooden beads in black, brown and dark grey, and a few diamond shaped Tibetan silver spacer beads. The belt is adjustable and looks great with jeans or that little black dress.


If you really, really like it, contact me.