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.

Bespoke Earrings

I've been busy making earrings this morning - lots of them! Earrings are one of my favourite things to design; they're easy to undo if you don't like the result and great fun to experiment with.These earrings were designed for a friend to match a necklace of hers. The gemstones used are Rose Quartz and Aragonite. They are quite simple dangly earrings, but the overall effect of the colours when the earrings are worn with the necklace is very pleasing. For those interested in the meanings of the gemstones, Rose Quartz encourages love and Aragonite is a calming influence.


These earrings were for another necklace of the same friend and are made with gold-plated findings this time, and Aventurine gemstone chips. The biggest challenge in making these was finding the right chips to make the size change the same in both of them, but I'm pleased with the way they turned out. Aventurine is meant to promote luck and courage.

The Bridal Bracelet

This is the first of hopefully many bridal pieces to be aired on here. It's quite a simple bracelet, made from Swarovski crystal bicones and potato pearls (they have a more irregular shape than round pearls, but they're great fun to work with). The crystals are all blue, although the light caught some of them awkwardly, but I think I'll do a light pink and a clear crystal one as well and see which one photographs the best before I put it in the shop.

Launch of the online shop!

The jewellery shop is finally up and running to my satisfaction! It's taken a bit of time but I think I'm there. I've put a bit of everything on there to start with, so I can see how well the orders go before I put too much more on.
I'm hoping to do some wedding jewellery soon. I have a few pieces that I've already designed and made a prototype for, so now I have to get some feedback on them. I've made a bridal set for a friend to wear at her wedding in September, so no pictures of that until after the wedding - I couldn't spoil the surprise!

The Jewellery Blog

Welcome to my jewellery blog! Here I will be expanding on news of my shop, new features, jewellery tips and more, plus some pictures of my work.