Dragonfly

Here's something I made earlier, inspired by a project in a new book Toby bought for me (Making Beautiful Bead & Wire Jewelry by Linda Jones). It could be used for a hairgrip, brooch, or necklace.

Red

Today I thought you might like to see a red necklace I made recently using red pearl beads and some red crafty bits I found in Hobbycraft. I made one of the red pearl beads the focal point by wrapping it with some red wire.

De-stressing designs!

Last week at work was particularly stressful so when it finally got to the weekend I had a go at making a few more pieces.  I made the first one for someone as a birthday present. The others are still in progress:

This one was going to be a bracelet but I think it might work better as a necklace so I'm going to add some more chain to it and see. I've used some swarovski crystals in amongst various other beads to add some sparkle:

 This is an almost finished memory wire bracelet using some glass beads and acrylic star shaped beads. It takes a while to thread them all on so I'll finish it off later.

Assorted necklaces

Here are some necklaces I made recently. This first one is made using glass heart shaped beads, small round glass beads and eyepins.

This one is made using plastic beads and eyepins:

This is another tassle necklace, using glass beads and tigertail beading wire:

Lastly, I posted a picture of a pendant I made a while ago. This necklace was made to suit the pendant:

I also made a bracelet and earrings for a friend using purple star shaped beads and some other assorted ones, but forgot to take a photo of them. I was pleased to hear that when she went out for a meal the waitress asked where she'd got them from!

Beginners Beading

Today I went to my Beginners Beading day course at London Jewellery School. It was a fun day where we made bracelets, earrings and necklaces. Some of the things we were taught I'd already had a go at myself, but there were some techniques I didn't know and I'll definitely be trying them out at home. The tutor was really enthusiastic and helpful, so I think I might go back for other courses.

The first thing we made was a bracelet using elastic. This isn't that exciting but I learnt how hide the joining knot inside a bead:

Then we made bracelets using memory wire. This always springs back into shape, a bit like a slinky. I like this technique, although next time I might use less wire to make fewer coils.

From this we moved on to earrings. I've made earrings before but had bought my own ear wires (the bits you put through your ear). We were taught how to make our own ear wires, which is surprisingly simple and you only need to use one set of pliers (the round nosed ones). You need to file the ends of the wire too, otherwise they'll be too sharp to go through your ears:

Lastly, we made necklaces. The first is called an illusion necklace, using a wire called Tigertail. This is a metal wire with a nyclon coating. We also used crimps, which  are tiny beads you squeeze together using crimp tools. They keep your beads in place and crimp covers can also be used at the ends of your jewellery to hide a crimp bead. I made the clasps, using a similar technique to the one you use to make ear wires:

This is a necklace I made with a tassel, also using crimp beads but with nylon wire instead of tiger tail: