Busy as a Bee!

I've been busy lately, making new jewellery for testing, before it goes on to the shop. First up is a necklace, bracelet and earrings set made with gold stringing wire and peacock coloured freshwater pearls:

Next is a spiral rope bracelet with a gorgeous lampwork bead in the centre, made by Lorna - Pixie Willow Designs:

Now on to the polymer clay! :) There's a selection of pieces I have made, all with my own hand made beads too. First is a pair of earrings of half-and-half swirled lentils. I loved the colour combination, so I'm working on a spiral necklace with more of these beads on it to match:

Next are two green swirled lentil bracelets. The first consist of lentils joined together by headpin links:
The second has three green swirly lentils on Byzantine chainmaille links. I'm not sure about the proportions of this one. I'm considering using smaller rings for the chainmaille and larger lentils:
That's is for now! :)

Swirly Beads!

I've been playing with polymer clay recently (and having a lot of fun!) and have made some swirly lentil beads. Luckily I had enough to make into a bracelet (the picture is clickable):

I might have to look in to doing some one-offs to put in my shop. I can never make the beads exactly the same, but it would be nice to buy a completely individual bracelet :).

Beadweaving Breakthrough

I'd never really tried beadweaving before, thinking I didn't have the patience for it, but recently I've started experimenting with simple patterns and I'm really pleased with the results. I've become quite comfortable with peyote stitch (something I never thought I'd say!) and even went as far as to make some beaded beads and use them for a pair of earrings:

I also made a simple peyote stitch ring, but I have a vague idea for a different one, so if it works I'll post it up :).

Bead Crochet Article

My article on crochet with wire and beads is out in the June/July issue of Bead magazine, which comes out on 21st May. I'm getting quite excited about it now; it's the first thing I've had published in Bead magazine. I've also got a bracelet pattern scheduled for the October/November issue.
Pearl Waves:

I've also made this bracelt wth blue Cat's Eye beads, which looks very funky :).

Rose Quartz Dreams

Here's another new piece I finished earlier; a simple bracelet in Rose Quartz and silver. I thought the colour of the Rose Quartz needed something fairly simple to bring it out, rather than a busy design that would bury it, and the silver contrasts nicely.

Rainbow Chainmaille!

This Easter weekend my aunt and uncle came for a visit with their grandchildren. My aunt ordered a custom Swarovski necklace with a matching pair of flowers earrings in gold-plate. The picture isn't great as I had to do it last minute before they left, but you can see the general design.
I was quite pleased with how it turned out. In the bad light you can't see very well, but the middle circle of Swarovski's is a lighter blue that matches the Swarovski pendant and the lighter flowers on the earrings (they have been bleached white by the flash). The basic template of the necklace was published in Bead magazine a few months ago and she took a liking to it.

The best part was my two cousins (the grandchildren) who are eleven and nine, sat with me and made two fantastic chainmaille necklaces. I had to post them on here because I was so impressed with how well they did it with hardly any help at all.
The first necklace, made by James, 11, is a repeating chain pattern:

The second, by Thomas, 9, has a random chain pattern and a centre 'doctor who'-style pendant:

Wirework Pendants

Just a simple one today, as it's a Sunday. A silver wire-wrapped piece of rose quartz hung from a double strand of lilac suade. I'm especially pleased with this one because the rose quartz is from the first batch of quartz I tumbled and polished myself. The wire-wrap is very simple, so the lovely colour of the stone shows through. I gave the pendant quite a long 'neck' too, to distance it from the suade slightly so that it doesn't get lost in it.