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! 

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!