Custom CD Cover Design

Here are just a few samples. I am happy to discuss details and prices. Just contact me through the contact link on the right-hand side.

Purple Magic Necklace

I wanted a necklace to go with my Purple Magic Bracelet (see bottom) so here it is....

Jewellery Party - Teasers - Part 3

Here are a few of the delicious items that will be for sale at the party tomorrow. I hope it gives you a good idea of what kind of jewellery I make - everything from vintage to modern, wire art to traditional, fibre, leather, sterling silver, copper, brass and lots of glass and semi precious beads.

Earrings

Isabella Earrings

Emmeline Earrings

Shell Circle Earrings

Necklaces

Summer in Nice Necklace

Snow Queen Necklace

 Vintage Amber Dragonfly

 

Copper Spring Necklace

Dandelion Necklace

Bracelets

Twilight Fibre Bracelet

Rose Red and Snow White Bracelet

Black Pearl Cuff Bracelet

Fire Flower Bracelet - copper

The Dragon's Heart - Set

There's something about dragons that just seems to fascinate me. I was going to makes something really feminine with those handmade beads with rose gold, but the design would just not come together, however, once I started to think dragon, it was all there. LOL Remember the Dragon's Tale necklace? I bought both sets of beads from the same supplier and I am so pleased I did, they're absolutely wonderful.

Dragon's Heart

Here is the necklace of the set.


I've used: handmade beads in pink and gold, oval garnet, red coral, pale rosy pink chalcedony, white turquoise, deep red mookaite, carved big and smooth small ebony beads, and finally a lovely vintage heart shaped copper wire cage.

I've made my own wire swirls to give the necklace texture, I cut, filed, shaped and sanded copper sheet into a dragon's tail complete with a scaly texture, I made my own clasp and jump rings. Each bead was wire wrapped with different gauges of copper wire.

Finally, the necklace was dipped in liver of sulphur, cleaned, and polished with olive oil.

Here's the dragon's heart in detail: a vintage wire cage attached to the chain with sterling silver wire and the heart made of garnet and coral.


Here's the pretty clasp. One lovely round hook and a round ring wrapped with thinner wire. You can also see one of the lovely handmade beads in detail.


Here is the dragon's tail in detail:


A selection of the wonderful beads. The ebony beads are from my supplier on Etsy e&e Bungalow - the same one I used for the Sea in a Nutshell necklace. The necklace is very long, but can be worn wrapped around the neck, or with a particularly slim neck three times wrapped around. :-)


Here is the matching bracelet although it's more versatile than that as is can either be wrapped three times around a medium sized wrist or worn as a necklace. The materials used are the same as for the necklace above, except, I used a small vintage copper wire cage rather than the large heart cage.


Here's the cool clasp I made - it's meant to look a bit like a curled up dragon.



Here's the bracelet when worn three times around the wrist. It looks all luscious and gorgeous with an abundance of beads.

Both available in my Etsy shop soon... Promise!

Bangle Magic - Roman Bangle and Wave Bangles

Had some fun with copper and cool blue or rather sea foam blue green beads:

Roman Bangle

This reminded me of Roman mosaics in a pool.



I started off with a heavy gauge copper wire and shaped and hammered it, filing and sanding any sharp bits.


I then started adding the beads with fine copper wire.


You can see below the beads I've used: amazonite cubes in shades of blue, pale green jade cubes and lovely pale blue aquamarine (rectangle) beads. I've finished it off with a 3 very, very pale green Magatama drops. It took me about half a day to wrap all the beads around, there are loads of them to achieve this lovely mosaic effect.



Wave Bangle: Copper

I really had fun with this, although my hands wouldn't agree.

This is my wave bangle:



I first cut it out of copper sheet, then filed and sanded it smooth.

Finally, I added some handmade hole to pull it together and hammered it some more over a bangle mandrel. I added some handmade jump rings, a handmade copper fish, a little handmade wire spiral and some lovely watery Magatama drops to finish it off.

Here's the bangle just after cutting:

Here you can see close up how the shapes look before filing. You can only get so close to the design with a pair of tin snips!

It took me almost a day to finish this.



Wave Bangle: Fine Silver

This was made from Fine Silver sheet in the same way as the bangle above, although I freehand designed the wave pattern in each case rather than creating a template.


Here you can see the front (top) and back (bottom) of the bangle in more detail.


This is the bangle from the top. To get it this round you really need a bangle mandrel, especially with the little waves that just want to stick out until you hammer them into place.

Below you can also see the two little fish charms and jump rings (all handmade of course).


The Fine Silver Wave is not for sale, the other two bangles will be available from my Etsy shop soon.

Squares and cubes

Been playing some more with squares and this is the result. Going to make a bracelet and earrings to go with this necklace. So watch this space! :-)

I've used three types of metal: silverplated copper wire, bare copper wire, and bronze wire (+ antique gold enamelled copper wire). To add more interest I've also used findings in silver, copper and bronze, and Miyuki cubes in gold, copper and silver; AND I've managed to find a two-strand rectangular toggle clasp which I think adds the perfect finishing touch.


Here's a close-up of the links.

Gooseberries, hemp and more squares

We've been sorting out the garden yet again as everything is growing so quickly right now. I still found time to make another two bracelets. :-) I added some gooseberries to the pictures just for fun or maybe because the colours of the fist one are so edible! ;-)

The brown one is made with three different coloured hemp (two natural and one of a rusty rose colour), more square rings and some lovely wooden cube beads with an interesting pattern, silver plated findings and a ring of seeds and another teeny wooden bead to hold the ring in place. I've used simple half crochet to create the little hemp squares. I am pleased with how it turned out, looking modern and natural at the same time.


The second bracelet included some beautiful shells, teal and natural hemp, pale blue square catseye beads, and some pale blue rippled matte glass beads. I've used the same square rings and silver plated findings as in the brown bracelet. Neither of the two bracelets has a fastening but they slip quite happily over the hand onto the wrist.

More Square Rings - Black Daisy Set

I said I'd make some black square rings. Here's the set I designed with them.

Black Daisy:

I've used thicker black enamelled wire to create split rings - rather than the silver plated ones these are double rings because the wire was thinner and I wanted some extra stability.

I then made little square 'beads' using crochet. Each of the square beads is different, one (the one in the centre in the close-up picture below) even using a weaving technique. The gorgeous flat square Millefiori beads in black, deep yellow and white were added with eye pins and jump rings in black plated metal.

Here's the close-up showing the detail of the crochet and the Millefiori beads.

This is the necklace I made to go with the bracelet:

Again, all four squares are different and everything is held together with black plated findings. I am so pleased with the set. I think it's really special and modern without being sterile, organic and abstract at the same time.

Square Rings and a Thousand Flowers

Thanks to my friend David I now have a square rod to make square rings. :-) Which of course I used straight away to make a bracelet.

It wasn't quite as easy as I had imagined as the technique is the same as for jump rings, however, I pulled the wire a little too tight and then had no end of trouble and a big blister to get them off the square rod. In the end though I got them all off and bashed them a bit with the help of my son (who was very excited about being allowed to use a hammer) and my special gadget (the Bead Whacker or some such thing) which made the rings harder so they hopefully wouldn't loose their shape when I started the crochet.

The wire I've used is silver plated copper wire and bent perfectly in the square shape I wanted.

A little more silver plated copper wire (much thinner though) and some crochet and I had my links which I mixed with the most gorgeous clear and white square Millefiori beads. I am really pleased with the result as it's very different. The square rings give the crochet more stability and holds the square shape perfectly. It still looks organic but in a nice clean way.

Below is another close-up on a teal background which shows the lovely Millefiori beads better than the white background.


Got to make some more rings, in copper, black plated wire, and bronze to make more bracelets (and anything else that springs to mind at the time). Bought more square beads as well. AND I want to make a necklace to match the silver/white bracelet I finished today.