Mmm Chocolate

Who doesn’t like chocolate? Not me that’s for sure! Here’s a new mini book thong I’ve made, with delicious chocolate brown beaded beads and blue Swarovski crystals. You can find it in my Etsy shop and on my website.

 

Some bits and pieces

Before I show you a few bits and pieces I’ve made over the past week, I’d just like to wish everyone a very happy Yule/Christmas!

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Here’s what I’ve been up to bead-wise. This is another of my Fairground Attraction pendants, inspired by the phrase ‘Eye of the Storm’. I love watching those ‘freaky weather’ programs on TV and I remember someone once saying that they looked up once the first wave of the storm had passed and saw a circle of blue sky. Now I don’t know if this is true or not but I thought it would make a great pendant!

These type of earrings are very fashionable at the moment so I thought I’d make my own version using beaded beads. I love this first pair a lot, they’re made using Toho metallic silver seed beads and silver plated findings. These are for sale in my Etsy shop along with a tutorial to make your own beaded beads just like these.

And for these I’ve used my favourite shade of seed beads, metallic abalone iris. These are gorgeous and have a multi-coloured effect without being too gaudy. I used mostly matt beads and then did a couple of rows in the middle with shiny beads in the same colour. You can just about make out the little bit of shiny in the photo!  And I think the antique-gold plated chain goes nicely with these beads : ) These should be in my Etsy shop very soon.

Difference between seed beads

Quite a few people have asked me how can you tell the difference between the types of seed beads – Japanese, Czech and Indian – so I’ve decided to make up a sampler and post it here for reference. Sorry the photo’s not too great, the light’s very poor here at the moment!

Pink Revolver

Although I make my own jewellery and very rarely buy any, it doesn’t mean that I don’t drool over massed produced jewellery! In fact I very often get inspiration from what I see in the shops and online. While I never copy anything directly, I can be inspired by shapes and colours. For instance, I fell in love with this gorgeous ring from New Look…

…it instantly reminded me of my Fairground Attraction pendants and I thought the gunmetal and pink would be a great colour combination to try! So here’s Pink Revolver, available on my website and in my Etsy shop : )

Birthday Blog Candy!

It’s my birthday today and to celebrate I’m giving away not one but two blog candy prizes! For my fellow beaders I have a set of five 14mm beaded beads in gorgeous shades of blues and white, which I lovingly handmade myself…

And for non-beaders there’s a fab mini book thong in shades of zesty orange and turquoise…

 

All you have to do to win one of these prizes is to leave me a comment (link’s at the top of the post) and let me know if you would prefer ‘Beads’ or ‘Book Thong’ if you are one of the lucky winners. I’ll draw the winner next Saturday evening (12th) and the candy’s open to everyone, wherever you are in the world : )

Dark Twist

Here’s a little something I made for myself. Although I don’t think ‘little’ is the right word to describe it, this is quite a chunky piece! The original project was designed by Cindy Cohn and can be found in Jewelry Designs with Art Glass Beads, a one-off magazine from the makers of Bead & Button.

For my version I’ve replaced the art glass bead with a lava bead lentil and used my favourite black & grey colour scheme for the Cellini spiral. I finished it off with lengths of faux suede thonging and black chain. I tried to inject lots of different textures and bead finishes into this piece and I’m really happy with how it turned out. I’m going to enjoy wearing this : )