Quiz fun

What Ice Cream Flavour are you?

Your Icecream Flavour is...Neopolitan!

You aren't satisfied with just one flavor. They say variety is the spice of life and this shines through in your Ice cream of choice! Just don't eat all the chocolate and leave the strawberry and vanilla behind!

What is your Icecream Flavour?

Find out at Go Quiz


Another one...

How many people fall in love with me?

Lets101 Quizzes - Myspace Quizzes For Fun

And another one:

What Do Your Stars Say About You?

Lets101 Quizzes - blog quizzes

Starry Night Brooch

This brooch is totally different from the Flower Garden brooch (previous post). It started off in a similar way but when I added the beads it more and more reminded me of a Victorian mourning brooch. Mourning brooches were often made from jet or from the hair of the deceased or were cameos or lockets designed to hold the hair like a 'relic'. This of course is far more fun and sparkly and cute.


The main part of the brooch is needle felted black merino wool with a border crocheted from dark blue silk over steel yarn and black lurex thread for extra sparkle. The beads are a gorgeous small purple/opalescent glass star, several alexandrite glass flower beads with sparkly lustred round beads in the centre, and teeny faceted glass beads with a special sparkly silver coating (the beads are a soft lavender with the coating covering most of the beads).

The brooch is 2" (5cm) in diameter, soft and sparkly all at the same time. The brooch needle is fine enough to go through thinner fabric without tearing it and it's light enough not to 'fall over'. However, I would not use it with silk or similarly precious fabric.

Little Flower Garden Brooch for City Dwellers

Always wanted a garden to grow flowers in? Now you can wear one as a brooch and it'll go with you wherever you go.

Here's my whimsical, totally cute Flower Garden Brooch, complete with grass and forget-me-nots.


The brooch has been made from needle felted merino wool in various shades of green (4 different shades!), little forget-me-not blue flower glass beads, Miyuki drops in various shades of blue and little bright yellow seed beads. The brooch sits on a round brooch back and is about the size of a 50 pence coin. Utterly sweet!

Felted Magic Flowers

I am so proud of this set as it is my first attempt at felting. :-)

The rope was wet felted - by sprinkling strands of roving in green and pink and pink silk strands with soapy water and rolling it in a sheet of bubble wrap.






The flowers are similar to those in my silk flower garlands as they've also been made from silk rods. However, I didn't use any cocoons this time but needle felted a green flower shape for the silk petals to sit on. The beads in the centre are carved mother of pearl three-petal flowers and creamy white glass pearls.

The necklace is a lariat design with a loop half hidden by the flower and two of the leaves feeding through the loop. The other leaf hangs separately.


The leaves were made with the needle felting method by laying out strands of roving in green and pink and stabbing it with felting needles to get the fibers to felt together. I added detail with two different greens and the rows of pale green seed beads.



The length of the bracelet is fixed and it slips over the hand and onto the wrist in the same way as a bangle. I have used fabric stiffener to ensure that it stays in shape nicely.


Below you can see the bracelet on my arm. It looks so pretty and delicate and it's lovely to wear because it so soft and light.


The flower on the bracelet and two of the leaves in detail:


A detail shot of the flower itself.
This set will be part of my new wedding collection. I think it would work really well with a traditional white, or pink wedding gown or even a deep dark red, a brown or a green one. Apparently, white is not necessarily the colour of choice for a wedding anymore. The set is organic and very, very delicate and pretty, although it's not fragile as I've made sure that everything is sewn on properly and that it is sturdy enough to withstand the trials of a wedding day.

It would also look great with a prom or ball gown or at that special dinner.

Panda and Koala Necklaces

I had a nice commission to make one of my Panda necklaces. I had run out of the panda pendants and whilst ordering another one, I found a little cute koala, so made a necklace out of that, too. :-)

They're both nice simple little necklaces with silky rat tail cords, glass beads, and in the case of the koala necklace some wooden beads as well.


Panda Necklace

This was made with Japanese Miyuki and Toho beads and some black Indian round glass beads and very dark red melon beads.







Koala Necklace

This was made with lovely wooden and green lustre and Japanese large seed beads. The leaf at the end of the dangle is glass, too.





The Koala necklace will go in my Etsy shop today. These necklaces perfect for every day and kids love them too. I have many other pendants available - like a cute little yellow duck, a fox, a black cat, a shark and a whale. If you'd like to order one, they're £5 each plus P&P (dependent on where you are).

Pink Grapefruit Set

... and because it was so much fun to make felted beads... I made some more. LOL
Here's my Pink Grapefruit set. I love pink grapefruits and it's one of my favourite juices to drink in the morning. The colour combination of pink and orange has always fascinated me. I love the combination of the two colours, but I know a lot of people don't like it, although it's used widely in India and other Asian countries.

Pink Grapefruit Set

I've used the felted beads I made, but this time I used vintage brass bead caps that almost look like flames or the green tops you get on tomatoes. Very organic. For the smaller beads I've used vintage bead caps shaped like little flower petals, again brass. All the chain and other findings are brass too. The clasps are handmade as per usual.

The beads I've used are soft pink chalcedony, pale pink rose quartz, lovely lemony citrine and deep orange carnelian.

The stars of the show are of course Paul's fabulous Tangerine Dream 3 beads (Firedance Beads) on both the necklace and the bracelet.

The large felted beads are three-tone: palest pink, bright golden yellow, and deep orange. The smaller ones also have teeny threads of pink silk felted into it - the same kind of effect as you get in handmade paper that has rose petals included.

Earrings

I am really proud of these as they are so unusual. They are feather light and easy to wear and they are great on their own.


I've dangled the pink chalcedony, pale lemon citrine and bright orange carnelian from the bottom of the earring.


Bracelet

The bracelet is made with two different vintage brass chains and more fuzzy grapefruit balls and the lovely Tangerine Dreams 3 beads. For the centre bead, because it's smaller than the other two, I've used different vintage brass bead caps. On either side of the big fuzzy beads are chalcedony beads in lovely soft pink and deep orange carnelians.




Necklace

The necklace is made with three of the large orange fuzzy felt beads, two more of the Tangerine Dream 3 beads and a mix of chalcedony, citrine, pale rose quartz and carnelian. I've again used the same two vintage chains to make sure the chain will hang nicely and to add a little texture. There's a small little fuzzy bead hanging from the clasp as a little dangle.




I am really pleased with the set, but I think it's a 'love it or hate it' set as it's so unusual - the colours as well as the design. However, I really like all the different textures - the fuzzy soft felt against the smooth glossiness of the handmade glass beads and the precious glow of the semi precious beads against the dark patina of the aged brass. I also love the fact that it mixes old and new and the colours are so soft and yummy. The necklace reminds me of high summer and a party at the beach.

This set, like the two bracelets from the previous post, will soon appear in my Etsy shop. :-)

Funky Fuzzy Felts

Here are my first two experiments with wet felting. This is something I've never done before, so I am really proud of them.

Kingfisher Bracelet


The felted beads are two-tone and so are the square glass beads: bright green and teal. I love greens and blues together, but the shades have to be just right. All the findings are sterling silver including the funky silver bead caps. There's a little flower dangle made from a teal lustre flower bead and a teeny tiny bright green frosted Toho bead.


The bracelet is a little longer than my normal medium sized ones, but if required can be shortened, although, saying that, because of the size of the beads it is more comfortable if it is a little larger than you would normal wear it.






Raspberries and Blueberries



This bracelet has also been made with two-tone felt beads, this time in purple and pink. All findings are sterling silver and the beads I used are sugilite and purple jade. I love the deep purple of sugilite, which I'd never seen before I'd bought it.






I have to say wet felting was great fun and I've got some other experiments on the boil including a necklace and bracelet set made completely from felt and silk. I am also about to embark on some needle felting. LOL I can't wait!

Dragonfly Flying Over a Pond Necklace

This is my baby sister's birthday present. It's her birthday on Saturday and I still have to send this... So don't go telling her!

She loves blues, especially turquoise.

A while back, when she came visiting she wanted me to show her how I do my jewellery and make some with me with the idea of making some herself. However, she found it all took far too long and was far more difficult than it looked. LOL Just as well I think it's fun. :-) We made a bracelet in blues together and the necklace should hopefully match it.

The necklace started off with the blue and turquoise beads. I wanted to make a versatile necklace so I made it long and added the vintage Art Nouveau dragonfly, this is a very rare silver plated one as most of the vintage ones are brass. The clasp is right next to it so it's easy to open when doubled up.



This shows what the necklace will look like doubled up. Unlike the Safari necklace this one has no order to it, but the beads are randomly strung.

All the beads are glass, there is everything from size 6 seed beads to Miyuki cubes to lustered beads to Indian lampwork beads to catseye beads and many more.



Here I've pushed the beads together in a little nest to show why and how I came up with the name. :-)


Here you can see the design of the dragonfly and the clasp right next to it.



Another close-up of the lovely detail on the dragonfly.