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Angela xx

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:

First attempt at Kumihimo braiding

I received my beginners Kumihimo braiding kit the other day and have created my first braid, in a surprisingly quick amount of time. Once you start braiding it's actually pretty easy and quick to do. It might take a while before I can make pieces like the one in my previous post, but I can't wait to try it with beads and some nicer colours. The colours of threads in the starter kit weren't really to my liking!

Here is the foam disk with the thread set up for braiding. A cord, or group of cords placed in a notch on the braiding board is called a warp. This project was for an 8 warp braid.

This is part way through. It reminds me of French Knitting:

 

On completion it looked like this, before fixing the ends:

The kit included some end caps, a toggle and jump rings, as well as some strong glue. You have to tie some thread around the ends before trimming them. Then you can glue them into the end cap:

Now it's just ready for a pendant to be attached:

Kumihimo

I'm currently toying with the idea of buying this Kumihimo starter kit: http://www.beadsdirect.co.uk/beadsmith-kumihimo-starter-kit/ST121/

Kumihimo is a Japanese form of braiding and looks like it has so many possibilities. Just take a look at some of these gorgeous bracelets I found that were made using this technique:


http://www.teenytbg.bigcartel.com/product/kumihimo-rainbow-promise-bracelet-kit-beads-only

http://magpiesroughnuggets.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/kumihimo-magatama-bead-bracelet-11-0051.html
 
I was considering having a go at Shamballa jewellery but it's everywhere at the moment and I want to do something really different. They look amazing, so I think I'm going to go for it and buy the kit!

More starry stuff!

I recently had a go at making these earrings, based on a project in Linda Jones' 'Making beautiful bead and wire jewellery'. The tutorial used different types of beads from the ones I have used here, but the effect is very similar. The hardest bit is getting the hoops to stay round. I still haven't worked this one out but I think maybe they need hammering to make them harder. I suppose not being perfectly round gives them a more handmade look!

Starry stuff

My lovely husband went to Hobbycraft yesterday and bought me some interesting beads, including little plastic stars. I've mixed them with pearl beads to create some starry earrings:

Some more bracelets

Had a fun weekend watching Avengers at the cinema and then a day out to Battersea Park followed by a sausage bap with some Pimms. Yum!  Managed to fit in some beading using some charms I ordered from http://www.beadsunlimited.co.uk/.

I made this first bracelet by threading elastic through a chain. It's based on the following project: http://www.beadsunlimited.co.uk/projects/tweeting-birds-bracelet/151
I'm pleased with how it turned out, although my first go at making the elastic chain didn't work so well as it snapped when I tried to tie it together.

The second one has a musical theme:

Beadtastic

Here are a couple of things I made on Sunday. I plan to make the dragonfly into a brooch for my Grandma (It's from a design by Linda Jones in 'Making Beautiful Bead and Wire Jewelry). The other one is a wire wrapping experimentation on one of my resin pieces.

Resin shapes

So today I learnt lesson number three...use mold release or Vaseline before you pour the mixture into the molds. It was pretty difficult getting the shapes out, but here they are:

Now I have to buy a file to sand the edges and some findings or a pillar drill to make them into jewellery. Or I could put that off and just keep making lots and lots of shapes!

First attempt at resin

Today I had my first attempt at creating resin shapes at home, using EasyCast resin and PearlEx colour pigments. 

First lesson learnt - buy a plastic sheet. If you have a spillage it's not going to be absorbed by paper and cloths very easily!! Nearly ended up with a bright blue kitchen table.

Second lesson learnt -make sure the bottles of resin and hardner are warm. It turns out if they're not the mixture becomes very cloudy and full of bubbles. This happened with my pink heart shapes.

Here are my shapes. Fingers crossed they'll pop out of the molds when they're hardened.