Christmas Presents

Here is a selection of Christmas presents I made.

The first one is a set with green hearts framed in copper - which I have also used in the bracelet Fhiona bought. The set includes vintage copper chain, green fresh water pearls, and gorgeous two-tone faceted and a few vintage beads.

Here's a picture of the set:



A close-up of the 'pendant':



A close-up of the bracelet:


A close-up of the earrings:


Another set I made for Erja - my big sis! (Sorry, insider joke.) The set is mostly made with vintage findings and beads. The centre jewel in the 'pendant' is a pale green vintage faceted glass cabochon wrapped in a brass filigree with a vintage butterfly charm hanging from it. I've also used the same faceted pale green vintage beads throughout the set. The vintage brass butterflies on the earrings are slightly smaller than the one on the necklace. The ear wires are antiqued brass (new), the chain is a vintage brass chain with a lovely patina.

Here's the whole set (necklace and earrings):



The 'pendant':

The earrings:

And here is the bracelet I made for another friend. I've used purple shells, purple fresh water pearls, purple crackle beads, purple leaves and gorgeous tiny Magatama beads (which are much more beautiful in real life than they are on my picture):

Here's a close-up:

I also made a scarf based on a new design - imagine sea weed and you get the idea. Here are a few close-ups. Promise I will post a better picture of the one I made for myself just as soon as I've taken the pictures:

Thank you!

Thank you to all of you (you know who you are) who supported me and sent me e-mails to enquire how I am and why I am not blogging and posting on the various mailing lists. It was much appreciated and made me feel much, much better. :-)

As a little thank you, here's the Titania dress I designed a little while ago, dedicated to all of you:

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: