Nature Theme - Moon Flower, More Leafy Blue and Stargazer Lily Necklace

Busy weekend, but I managed a few new creations. Just can't keep my fingers still!


Moon Flower Necklace

This happened by accident. I'd made the centre piece to go with the Stargazer Lily necklace (at the bottom of this entry) but when I attached it I didn't like it. It was just too much, so I decided to make it into a pendant.



I've used a lovely vintage opaline bead in the centre which reminded me of the moon, so I cut out a crescent shape from copper sheet, shaped it, filed it, sanded it and then played with the pencil torch until I had a lovely deep red colour with lots of texture and a few highlights.


Below you can see the wonderful fire of the vintage opaline bead.


Here's a the crescent in detail.

Another close up of the opaline bead. I love the way it reflects the light and reflects it back onto the copper.

A simple chain and a handmade clasp finished the design.



Leafy Blue Bangle

Another labour of love. This bangle took me two days off and on. It's to go with the leafy blue earrings, but all three items (earrings, necklace and bangle) will be sold separately in my Etsy shop.



I started off with drawing the shape on copper sheet, then cutting it out as well as I cut with my tin snips. After a LOT of filing and sanding I finally had the shape I was after. I sanded the surface on both sides, then brushed it to give it a soft texture.


To make the bracelet (which at this point was quite delicate) easier to put on and take off, I decided to change the design from the wave bangles to a cuff bangle by adding a thick gauge copper wire frame to the inside, which I attached to the leaf design with wire, adding little blue topaz beads as I went along.



The final touch were the five aquamarine briolettes I added to the front of the bangle.

The bangle now slips easily on and off and due to the design it can also be worn at the top of the arm (if you happen to have a slim arm).




Leafy Blue Necklace

Here is the matching necklace. It was cut from copper sheet, then adorned with blue topaz and aquamarine beads.

A simple chain and a lovely handmade clasp finish it off. The necklace is quite short so it sits flat and looks beautiful with a higher neckline as well as a low neckline.


Here's a closeup of the centre of the necklace with the three aquamarine beads and a cluster of blue topaz beads.


Here is a closeup of the side wher the copper leaf design is attached to the chain.

Here are the links that Alison posted in the comments section. She's right they do look like something much, much older:

Head dress 1
Head dress 2
Head dress 3
Head dress 4


Stargazer Lily Necklace

Finally, here's the necklace that matches the earrings I made a while back.

I made three little flowers cut from copper sheet, filed, sanded and then torched. This time I was a bit more experimental and achieved a beautiful raspberry red colour plus some apricot highlights. I was very pleased with that. :-) I added two different sizes of vintage opaline beads to the flowers to complete them.

Thick copper wire was turned into a 'stick' to attach the flowers to. This was also shaped, filed, sanded and then torched to the same deep raspberry colour.


I used the most gorgeous copper vintage chain to attach the pendant to.


Finally, I made a clasp and a little dangle (a copper leaf with a centre line cut out, a dangle made with a wire wrapped opaline bead and a couple of Miyuki drop beads) to finish off the design. I like the organic feel of the design.

Below you can see the detail of the patina on the copper leaf.

A little bit of fun and a cool website

I am a Snapdragon What Flower Are You?

Just did this quiz and thought it was good fun.

I found it on this blog. Jill also has a cool website (well, cool, if you make jewellery) and an Etsy shop where I just bought a whole load of stuff. Can't wait for it to arrive. You'll see when it has soon enough as I'll have to make something with it straight away! :-)

Latest commissions

I've had some more commissions recently. They are for designs from my website that had been sold already.

I don't make the same piece twice, but I create new designs based on a particular design. It's very important to me that each design is unique. There is so much mass produced stuff around and it just has no soul. It's okay for every day things, but with jewellery I feel it's important that it is an extension of yourself. Quite often it's not possible to create the same design again because I either use things like seaglass in my designs where each piece is unique anyway, and also because I only buy small quantities of beads, so often don't have more than just a few of the same bead (especially feature beads, rather than seed beads) to make the same design again.

White Charm Ring

The original ring design can be see on my website.

This is lovely charm ring. I've hung up little glass flower beads (three different types) from one loop, then added a tiny dragonfly charm and wrapped a double ivy leaf around the loop for texture. This looks lovely on. I am very pleased with it.


Lizard Mobile Phone Charm

This little charm is based on another charm with a lizard on my website.

I like the natural feel of it with the lizard charm at the end and the leaves and star flower.

Here's a close-up of the charms:


Rainbow Daisy Chain Necklace

I love the idea of daisy chains. I remember making them when I was a kid. Using all the colours of the rainbow in this necklace makes it even more fun though, than if I'd used just white flowers. AND it goes with everything. All of the flowers are glass and I used good quality seed beads, frosted glass leaves and little lustred Miyuki drops in pale green to make the chain. Everything is threaded on pale green tiger tail and the findings (clasp, jump rings, cord ends) are all silver plated.

Here's a view of the necklace hanging down, so you get an idea how it would look like when worn.


Please feel free to contact me for commissions. Either through my website or my Etsy Shop.

Note: I am just in the process of uploading new designs to my Etsy shop. However, I will showcase all the items here.

Commission

Sorry for not posting for a while. Things haven't been easy towards the end of the last year but now, with a new year just begun, things are looking up.

Here are some commissions I made last year. A lady at work gave me a whole load of beads and told me to get on with it... ;-) The beads were silver foiled copper coloured squares and octagonal wonderful hematite beads. The rest of the beads was supplied and matched by yours truly.

The first one is the simple necklace I made with the very large copper coloured squares. I felt that they were so big and bold the necklace had to be simple to work:


Here's a close-up of the copper clasp and the beads:

There were three long strings of hematite beads and I added a few more smaller beads (black Miyuki cubes and black faceted beads) to make them into a flapper necklace, a 3-tiered necklace and a very simple bracelet. The hematite beads were absolutely perfect and of a lovely quality. I had to go out (well, go on eBay) to buy myself some, but I haven't made anything with them yet.

The flapper (as shown below) took five attempts to get right. This is the first attempt, which I remade four (!) times. Hematite beads are very heavy and despite the fact that I used Tigertail it was very difficult. In the end I used a small clasp.

Here's a close-up of the feature bead I used in the first attempt and the wonderful hematite beads:

Here's the 3-tiered necklace which is absolutely wonderful when worn. The picture here does do it no justice at all. The beads sparkle and shimmer and are of such a deep dark charcoal grey. Sorry, I really DO like them. :-)

And here's a close-up of the necklace and clasp:

Finally, the bracelet - same beads, same clasp as the 3-tier necklace:

Black Daisy and Peach Blossom - Bracelets

My cold is finally gone and I had some leisure and energy to make some jewellery at the weekend. Here are the results:


Black Daisy
I recently bought some wonderful beads from EJR Beads. The lovely daisy beads in the bracelet below started the whole design. I could have gone with a white and gold theme but wanted something more interesting so I added topaz nuggets, hematite hearts, vintage faceted antique gold beads, and some Czech gunmetal beads to the design. To finish it off I used some wonderful gunmetal Magatama drops and some more Japanese seed beads (Toho and Miyuki). All is 'tied' together with the gunmetal chain and findings.


Here you can see all the wonderful beads in detail. The bracelet is now for sale in my Etsy shop.


Peach Blossom
This bracelet was inspired by the wonderful copper lined crystal cathedral beads. I added more copper lined beads and a few vintage peach copper coated faceted beads, frosted flowers, lots of Swarovski beads for extra glamour and Magatama and Miyuki drops for shimmer and texture. I love the contrast of the copper with the green/teal of the Swarovski and faceted green beads and the organic feel created by the Magatama/Miyuki beads.

The bracelet is now for sale in my Etsy shop.

Commissions

Isn't that typical, I am off this week to look after my lovely son, but, of course, I've got a nasty cold, and then I had two commissions of my website as well. However, the commissions were far more fun than the cold.

The first one was for a little girl called Lola who loves foxes. I had to order the little fox specially for her as I'd already sold the other fox necklace I'd made. To keep things unique I've also used different beads and combined it with red an orange beads this time and the same very thin leather thong.

The little fox is so cute and I just love his little face. The beads are ceramic, glass and wood all combined.


The second commission was a green spectacle chain. Just as well that I only buy small quantities of my beads so I never get tempted or accidentally use the same beads again.

I've used lots of different beads here from Indian lampwork to catseye to Japanese Miyuki cubes and Toho seedbeads to frosted glass and beads decorated with golden lines. The shapes are all different, too, from large flat squares to rice shaped to fat or flat ovals, to small and large rounds to little flying saucers, to cubes and potato shaped beads. The different shapes, colours and textures add a great deal to the overall look and make it far more interesting than using the same type of bead throughout.

Fimo, Magpies and Foxgloves

Been having fun today. I was off work and it seemed like a perfect day to get the Fimo out.

I am in the process of opening an Etsy shop and Ben suggested to make a special necklace for it - a Magpie Magic necklace. Like a real magpie I've been collecting bits and pieces for a couple of days now, some beads here, a charm there, special chain and everything that I thought might work. However, to pull it all together I wanted some feathers and so I made them.

Here's a picture of the beads I made today - the lot of them on the baking tray, fresh out of the oven.

Here are some of them - for the Magpie Magic necklace - in a close-up. I hope Toby won't mind that I nicked his idea for the round beads as I covered them in glitter, in just the way Penny explained it to me. Promise they won't all go together on a bracelet, but they're just so perfect for the Magpie Magic necklace...

And here are some more for the foxglove necklaces I made today. See further down.


Below are the finished necklaces:


This one is fuchsia with pink Czech faceted beads (not all of them as every single flower trumpet is different). Haven't quite decided if I can bear to part with this one.


Been wearing the black one ever since I finished it.
This one is a gorgeous bright red:


The final one is a deep burgundy red with glorious glittery bits - some were already in the Fimo, others I added to the inside of the flower trumpets.

Squares and Cubes - Earrings and Bracelet

Here's the rest of the set. Spent all evening till half past twelve at night to finish it.


Here's the bracelet in more detail. It looks so pretty and delicate in real life. For some reason it always look much heavier in the photo, however, these crochet wire creations are really light and delicate.


The earrings are quite long, but so light they're barely there. Lots of glam at very little weight.

Here are the earrings in a close-up shot.