Get well soon card for my granddad

This is a card me and Mr T made for my granddad, who's in hospital with a broken hip (now mended and healing well). It's a kind of collage mounted on an off-white textured card. 

The 'plants' are cut and torn from lots of kinds of paper and card, including glittery, corrugated and hand-made (by me) paper. They're arranged to look vaguely like plants, with 'water' symbolised by the horizontal wavy lines. 

The fish is an image that Mr T drew ages ago, and he copied it and went over it in fineliner. Then I cut it out and stuck it over the top. The hardest part was deciding how to arrange the plants so that they looked best behind the fish (Mr T came up with the final arrangement). 

Inside are three 'bubbles' of handmade paper to contain the words 'get well soon'. I hope he likes it. 

Child's jewellery

I don't normally make jewellery for children. But I will make an exception for people I like, and a work colleague who I like asked me to make some for a child of her acquaintance. So I did. Said colleague has a necklace of mine which said child liked, and so this is her tiny little version all of her very own, with matching bracelet. I'm quite pleased with getting the two different kinds of hearts to match (I used different kinds because a necklace likes dangly beads but a bracelet likes non-dangly ones, specially for a kid who may catch it on stuff). Hope she likes it - the colours are quite muted but I didn't have any in really bright pink, which is what small girls like, I'm told.

Wire twisted stud earrings

I branched out recently. I had only ever made dangly earrings before, and I hadn't made findings apart from jump rings, but making these twisted wire studs was really easy. I got the idea from a book, though I can't remember which one now. Anyway, you start by just winding the wire into loops, round round-nose pliers is easiest, and when you've got a little bit left poke it through the middle to make the post. Add a butterfly back and you're done!

Kit necklace and earring set

This set is from a kit I've had for years, from France. The instructions were in French so I learnt something from it too.

Asymmetric front-fastening necklace

This necklace fastens at the front, making a feature of the toggle, and has asymmetric lengths of large oval chain either side of the focal beads. It's comfortable to wear and looks darn stylish.

Things for sale on Folksy!

There has been a rather long hiatus, for a number of reasons. First, I can’t blog about things I make in the run-up to Christmas in case their intended recipients see them and spoil the surprise. Second, my main computer died (and is yet to be fixed) so the photos of those things are currently inaccessible. And third, I’ve been insanely busy so I haven’t actually been doing very much in the way of jewellery making. I have been knitting and learning to crochet though, which I’ll write about soon, I promise – I’ve made a scarf inspired by Hugh Dennis. And if that’s not intriguing enough to make you want to learn more, I don’t know what is.

In the meantime, here are some things I have managed to make. First up, a bracelet made with larger size jump rings (I bought the bigger jump ring maker as I liked the little one so much). (Buy it here.)

I discovered that a flush cutter is essential – any other kind of cutter just doesn’t... well... cut it. Side cutters, wire cutters, all a no-no. Flush cutters are the only way to do it so the edge is nice and un-chewed, and you just have to stump up the cash. Mine cost £25. I suspect I was fleeced and they are available for less.

Next, a necklace made using some charm beads I was sent as part of a mixed pack – I think the subscription gift from Beads Unlimited. (Buy it here.)

These, as you might be able to see, are the metal-cored ‘charm’ beads everyone is going a bit mad for. Their large hole means you can do funky things like this with them, and thread them onto chain. The large bead at the bottom is a lampwork bead I’ve had for years. I cut the chain in half, and linked it back together above the beads so that they don’t slide about. It’s fastened with a chunky toggle.

Some earrings, made with black beads and my new-found chain maille technique. (Buy them here.)

And finally, some charms. They all follow the same basic design, a ribbon knotted to form a loop and adorned with whatever charms I could lay my hands on. Some are just joined on with a jump ring, others threaded onto headpins first. The fish in the blue one is jointed, and very cool. They make nice little trinkets, and could attach to a keyring (though not function as one themselves). (Buy the black one here, the blue one here, the green one here and the brown one here.)

Buy my stuff online!

I've just set up a Folksy shop. Folksy is a sort or marketplace for crafters, and you can buy all kinds of hand-made stuff there. I don't know how well it'll do, but we'll see. It's good to have the option, anyway. I've just got a couple of things on there at the moment but hope to put lots more on soon. I really need to improve my photography skills though!

Anyway, from now on, if anything I blog about is available to buy online, I'll link to it.

Items for sale on Folksy!

I went to Leeds at the weekend and bought lots of beads for making Xmas presents, but those will not appear on this blog till after Xmas. However, I also got some other things too, among which these nice bumpy beads. I made links by putting each on an eye pin and linked them together, then attached a length of Byzantine chain maille at each end, then a length of pale pink ribbon and fastened it with a toggle clasp. I've listed it for sale on my new shop on Folksy too.

And I listed this one - made with my jump ring maker out of turquoise and silver-plated wire linked in pairs with seed beads on alternate links.

Make Jewellery magazine

I bought the second issue of Make Jewellery magazine a few months back and liked it so much I've bought every issue since. There was one exception - I accidentally bought another title called Making Jewellery the following month and was dismayed to find it not as good as the previous one. Then I realised my mistake and am now careful to pick the right one!

I have since taken out a subscription as it's much cheaper that way, and it really is good every issue. (That's when I got the free starter kit I mentioned in a previous post, which was stuffed full of really useful findings and lovely beads - all of which I will be able to use.)

I like it because it's got a nice design, a good look about it. The instructions are very clear and the projects are just the right level of difficulty - they are different and interesting, but they don't involve specialist equipment or hours of labour. The photography is beautiful. It's also quite a young person's magazine, which makes a change from the usual craft magazines aimed at old people and housewives. It includes fashion and trends and so on. I've made loads of the projects and I'm really pleased with the results.

This is exactly what the market needed. When I first looked a few years ago there were only American beading magazines, and the adverts (which were obviously useless, being American companies) took up most of the pages. This is just what I wanted back then. It's an ideal resource for the established beader, but it would also be great for someone just starting out to learn techniques from, as there are varying levels of difficulty and all the basics are explained very clearly.

Handmade jump rings

I've been enjoying the chain maille, which takes a lot of jump rings. So when I saw this jump ring maker, I thought I'd splash out. It came today (from The Bead Shop Nottingham, £9.95) and it's great! I got some silver-plated wire in two thicknesses, and some turquoise wire to play with as well.

You choose one of the widths of mandrel and screw it into the base like this:

Then you put the wire through the little hole to hold it in place and wind the wire round the mandrel as many times as you want jump rings. You cut the wire and take the resulting spiral off the mandrel and you get something like this:
Then you just cut through the spiral with wire cutters and your perfect little jump rings are complete. Like these:
I made these ones with 1mm wire on the 4mm mandrel. I got 0.6mm wire too, which is fine for 4mm jump rings for attaching clasps and headpins and so on, but is a bit thin for much bigger. It's really easy to use, mine came out perfect the first time I tried it, and wire is cheap so I think it's definitely worth just making my own from now on instead of buying them.