Festive gifts

Recently I've been busy making some gifts for friends and family to wear. My mum has always liked pandas so when I found this porcelain panda bead online at The Bead Shop Manchester, I had to buy it: http://www.the-beadshop.co.uk/beads-c491/porcelain-beads-c190/porcelain-animal-bead-4-p1419

I added it to some silver plated chain and combined this with some Swarovski stars and Millefiori hearts and round beads.

All of the beads were attached to the chain with headpins. You can buy these from most jewellery supply shops: http://www.beadsunlimited.co.uk/Headpin-SP/bo4095?sid=2750#item2750. A headpin is basically a thin stick of metal with a flat end at the end to stop beads from falling off. You thread it with beads and then cut above the last bead and create a loop using round nosed pliers. then you can attach them to a chain or an earring finding.

While searching for animal beads I came across these cute ceramic fox beads from Eljo's Habedashery on Folksy: http://folksy.com/items/2549281-3-x-Ceramic-Fox-Beads.

A friend of mine really likes foxes, so I thought some fox based jewellery would be a perfect gift for her. I began by creating some beaded Kumihimo using seed beads. I used colours I thought would tone well with the foxes. I glued the ends of the Kumihimo to some end caps and attached these to a chain.

I then threaded a fox bead onto a headpin with a bead at the bottom, to stop the fox from sliding over the end of the headpin. I attached this to the necklace using some ordinary sewing thread and some glue.

To match the necklace I attached the remaining two fox beads to some earwires using headpins and added beads to match the beads in the necklace.

I also made this necklace and earring set using the same methods as for the fox set. This incorporates a longer stretch of beaded Kumihimo.

 

Wedding jewellery

I went on the Beginners Tiara Making course at the London Jewellery School today, taught by Gail Florio:

http://londonjewelleryschool.co.uk/beading-and-wire/beginners-tiara-making/ 

It was fun getting to play with all the Swarovski crystals and pearl beads. We learnt how to measure and make a tiara to fit, how to make and attach fans, trees and flowers, wire twisting, and decorating hair clips and combs. I also learnt a bit more about what you can do with wires of different thickness.

You can use the materials they have in the class and you can also bring along your own components to add to a tiara. The lady next to me was creating a tiara for a family member and had brought along a stunning brooch which was incorporated onto the side of the tiara along with diamantes.

I made a tiara, 2 hair combs, and a couple of hair grips:

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.

Some more things I made this weekend

Bracelet made with Czech glass beads

Bracelet made with eyepins, Japanese beads with Swarovski star and spiral clasp

Bracelet made with eyepins and Italian glass beads

Pendant made with Czech pearl beads