Simple and sleek

I wear this all the time. It is so simple but very eye catching. Three strings of very dark red vintage glass bugle seed beads interrupted at the front with a block of silver seed beads.

There will be more of these coming in a number of different colours.

Strung out Bracelets

Above you have two very different bracelets of the same design. I made my first one of these out of the colourful crystal beads that came in my mixed pack, strung on yellow leather. I wore it all the time and loved the way the leather softened and crystals sparkled.

The first one above is made of cream coin pearls strung on a rich brown leather. The second is made with opaque cut glass beads with the odd silver flower all strung on blue leather.

I have a few more ideas for this style in my head so there will be more to come.

Green Green Green

Here is one of my classic designs. A heavy mix of everything green. There are fresh water pearls, Adventurine and Malachite chips, ceramic squares and glass seed beads all strung on green enamelled wire.

Chandelier Earrings

I've had a real love of feminine chandelier earrings lately and above are a few pairs that were created. These little silver fans remind me of the 30's and the art deco movement.

And now a ring

And from the scrap a ring starts to form. This picture shows the ring half finished. The band has been made like the copper band from an earlier picture and a little bezel cup has been created to hold the stone. Next week i hope to be able to show you the finished ring.

Scrap silver

You have here some of the bits a pieces for my next project. Silver bezel setting, silver sheets and silver band.

Twinkle Twinkle littel star

As the classes advanced we were taught piercing. This is where we cut shapes out of metal sheet with a little hand saw. We were instructed to cut circles but i soon grew bored of that and started on stars. They were too pretty to throw away so i wrapped them in silver wire and hung them from ear hooks. I now have a pair of twinkly little stars.

First steps in metal work

I needed to advance in jewellery making and it was frustrating not knowing all the secrets so i enrolled in a taster course. 10 weeks of soldering and cutting. Here is a picture of our first project - A copper ring.

It started its life as a piece of sheet metal which was cut, curved and soldered together. It was then shaped and polished. You can see the silver solder join.

I wanted to jazz mine up a little so with an etchant it now has a wave pattern around the band. I experimented at home with this and it didn't turn out exactly as i hoped but it is all a learning experience right?

How could you have a beautiful collar without the earrings to match? These little clusters are of wire wrapped crystals and pearls attached to a sterling silver chain and hanging below faceted rondell crystals on sterling silver ear hooks. simple but effective.

What was my Mother in laws response to the bracelet? She loved it and it came with a request for a single chain collar with drop charms to match. A single chain i thought? No, that wouldn't do. It would be much nicer to have crotchet silver wire. the problem i had was that i didn't know how to crotchet. Well, that was another skill i thought i'd better learn. Here you see the final creation. It was three steps to get to this stage. A very strange panel made of parcel string and then an practice piece made of brown enameled wire and brown pearls and glass beads that Lucky took a liking too and coveted. Finally you have what you see here, silver crotchet wire with a few lilac seed beads and drops of pearls and crystals.

What do you make a mother in law to really show you have put some thought into her present?
A sterling silver charm bracelet adorned with pearls and crystals and little picture discs displaying her grandchildren.
Now this was a challenge. I knew what i wanted to do but how did i make those little picture discs? I took the motto - try and try again to heart. Here you have the finished product but i do have a lovely set of what Dan calls my Giraffe beads - beads that were my first attempt. I'll have to dig them out to show my first steps in creating picture beads.

Everyone needs a pretty Laret. These printed wooden beads are scattered amongst little silver beads and a few pressed silver ingots.

Fly me to the Moon!!

What do you do with some little spaceships? Prepare them for take off! Shoot for the stars!

These adorable little beads were set in motion with some wire wrapping and some twinkly little silver stars.

Another signature piece. This one was created when i combined all of the fanciest czech glass beads in a rainbow of colour.

When you have a lovely piece of glass in the goodie box it sometimes speaks for itself. This little pendant has been teamed with a few strings of simple cotton thead.

This a a bit of an experimental piece. The blue sits beautifully next to the mother of pearl disc.

Another signature piece reminding me of snow and ice. This one was for Mary Ann.

Another on the signature style but this time in red. This was was created for Lou.

This is my signature piece and it was this style that got me interested in creating again.