Memory wire - project six.

The final project from Cooksons was to make a beaded necklace using crimping, which I confess i haven't done yet and to make a memory wire bracelet.

I have made a few of these from the materials sent!

With beads from the kit sent and some blue sodalite

Banded agate and amethyst

Skull beads with haematite and some sparkly bits

Jasper hearts, haematite and a bit of  swarovski with flower charms

Dalmatian jasper and agate hearts


Most of the gem stones were from Jewellery Maker and I loved using them! I am getting into gemstone jewellery. 

So much to make, so little time!

I have been a busy little worker bee. Two kids, one husband, crazy cat and loads of jewellery made just no time to upload so I am going to do an overview of some little bits and then some more detailed info on some more complicated projects.

I am really getting into this now, I have had paid commissions and am looking to do a craft fair this spring. Unfortunately I am back at work in 6 weeks. Not unfortunate for my ability to buy jewellery making kit, but the time I need will be sadly lacking! I am going to try an get round this with a few visits to the Bead Hive in Leeds to sample some of their workshops.

I now have a facebook page which I regularly update with my designs and makes as I do them. It's called Sparkly Tree please pop by and have a look!

All in all, I face 2014 much happier, healthier and enjoying my little hobby very much!


So here are some highlights....


Potion charms 


Around Halloween time I made some little bottle charms with little "potions" in.  All the potions are food grade, as I live with little kids I was conscious of them potentially been ingested! So they have boiled water, food colouring, edible glitter and baking powder in them! There are a few seed beads and a piece of shell in one. The labels I got from My Tiny World which is a doll's house and minatures supplier. I love how they came out and have received compliments on their coolness :)

The Rose Statement Necklace

I made this for myself, specifically to go with an outfit for my friend's birthday party. I got the rose quartz long beads from Jewellery Maker but unfortunately when they arrived some were broken. Jewellery Maker were ace and sent me a whole new strand free of charge within a few days.

Because I am pale, the rose quartz alone was not enough so I added some rose shaped silver beads and some cool glass sparkly beads from Hobbycraft. I love wearing it, its quite heavy so I have had to make sure it has a strong clasp!

Chainmaille fun!

I continued making chainmaille things, and branched out into earrings.  in fact I am getting at bit earring obsessed at the moment :)

Purple Spiky Necklace

This was a kit from Creative Beadcraft, and as you know from previous posts, I get very annoyed with their kits! But this one came out good, even if it took a week! 

I will be posting some more complex projects soon, including a special make up mirror with silver clay and crystal clay,  silver clay cufflinks, some memory wire work, and earrings, lots of earrings!!

October project part 2 - charm bracelet complete!

I finally completed the charm bracelet just in time for the birthday of it's recipient! The bracelet itself is a silver plated stretch one from Kernowcraft.

I made some extra charms using the heart and star cutters and some different texture plates. 

I then added some chunky tourmaline beads with head pins as this is one of the birthstones for October, I liked the colours  and I don't like the beads I was supposed to use for this project :)  

I also didn't use the bracelet send for the project either as I thought the person it was for would prefer a stretchy bracelet rather than one with a clasp.  The letter A charm is for someone special in her life.  I hope she liked it! 

Squirrel silver clay pendant

I am so chuffed with this :)

I did most of the work on it at the same time as the charms I mentioned in my last post . The techique for making him was very similar to the owl and the hedgehog.

I used liver of sulphur again to give an aged appearance but then polished the majority of it off but less so for the actually squirrel, so he pops out of the design a little more.

To finish off I added a Tibetan silver acorn charm which dangles just above him.

I hope you like it as much as I do!

wet clay version

Finished pendant 

October project part 1 - charm bracelet experiments

I am skipping a post about my September project, partly because it isn't finished and partly because the playing about I did in this post kind of informs it and has changed my approach.

October's project is a charm bracelet using the beads from the August project and a new pack of silver clay to make silver charms for it.

I was supposed to use the circular cutter from the June project or some little card heart templates.  I of course chose neither. Instead I got some metal clay cutters from Jeweller Maker.

These are the charm bracelets I have to play with

I decided to use a mixture of cutters and textures. I used some texture plates from Kernowcraft, which I really liked and were easy to use with the clay. I also used some textured rubber stamps and some skeleton leaves and a letter stamp.  Really this was all about having a play and seeing what happened.  I only used leftover clay from other projects but i think it was a good use.

Here are the charms drying out with a rogue squirrel who will be discussed later.

Post firing 

After firing and polishing, I decided to experiment with some liver of sulphur, which is a solution that creates a patina on silver (an oxidation layer) and gives it an antique look. So some of them got dunked, they only need a few seconds.  The liver of sulphur stinks, you have to make a warm water solution but past experience with similar chemicals at work meant I wore latex gloves and used plastic tweezers throughout as this is nasty stuff!

After polishing but before dunking in liver of sulphur.  The liver of sulphur is in a stylish half pint mug. 

After dunking, all blackened

Leaf shapes detail

 After rinsing, I experimented with polishing the charms to see the effect of removing different levels of the patina. I am really pleased with the different effects. I love the heart one and the letter. I will be using skeleton leaves again as it was really effective. I am not sure about the flower shape, it might work better if I use a larger flower shape.

Finished charms!

Chainmaille gold flower necklace

My muse has returned from wherever she was sulking and the last 48 hours have been very very productive :)

I can't post a couple of projects because they are future birthday and Christmas presents but I have a few bits that I have completed in the last few days and am really happy with. This is the first one. 

This is an adaptation of the bracelet I did before with some round bits added at the front.  The jump rings are again from Creative Beadcraft who have lovely stuff but a crap record for actually posting it! Of the three orders I have placed with them now, I have had to chase two. :(

I am going on a rare night out next week so this might be a nice piece to wear, if I can find any clothes to wear with it.

Autumnal captured chain maille bracelet

I do love Pinterest it takes you all sorts of cool places and fires up all sorts of cool ideas. I was looking into chain maille techniques and came across this tutorial  from the good folks at Beadaholique, a website I can happily crawl inside with a hot cup of tea and a biscuit and not leave for some time. 

I had a beautiful leaf shaped clasp that I bought on my holidays from the fabulous little shop in Tenby. 

I had a bag of copper jump rings from some aborted ancient project and I had a load of Swarovski bicones left over from making my wedding jewellery (I really need to do a "what I made for my wedding post" soon, so you can see my true starting point in my jewellery making).  I decided to use an Autumnal theme and have green and orangey coloured crystals. 

Starting work on the bracelet

Here is the end result.  I have had a load of positive comments on it, I think it is perfect piece for this time of year.