It's Oh So Quiet!

I like to do my jewellery making at night, I enjoy the piece and quiet and I'm able to get on with my creating, without any interruptions. I'm lucky enough to work from home, so when, the twins and partner are off to school and work, my day is filled with housework, nipping to the shops or the post office, to post orders, then it's working on my websites, taking pictures, which I love doing, one day I'm going to take a photography course, then editing, ordering stock and working on my Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook accounts, which are all very addictive, I can quite easily get lost in Pinterest for hours and hours.

I made this bridal comb late one night. I started round 11pm by the time and finished at 1.30am. the only one's awake was myself and my cat Bobby, who normally sleeps next to the radiator, who can blame him with the awful weather we have been having. Today he has sneaked up onto my bed, grrrr..

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I chose to add some red Swarovski crystal bicone beads and made them into beaded flowers, as red is one of the hottest bridal colours this year! I made the bead and crystal bead sprays first, using 0.4mm silver plated beading wire. When I felt I'd made enough, I laid them against the comb and played around with them, till I was happy with the layout. Then I began to attach each spray, one at a time. I'm very happy with the result.

 

 

I don't stay up every night, only a couple of nights a week. In the early days, I was staying up till 2 am in morning, then getting up at 6am, to get the boys ready for school and I felt tired all day, but now I don't do that anymore, well I try not to, lol.

When do you do your crafting, are you a night person like me, or you can craft anytime of the day?

If you would like to see my handmade bridal  jewellery, pop over to  www.michelleshandcraftedjewellery.com

What to do with leftover beads?

I've got a plastic bead container on my workdesk and whenever I finish a project, I pop the leftover beads into it. Sometimes I buy beads in bulk, it all depends on what I'm making, but generally I buy only the beads I need. I hate to waste things, so unless you've planned to make several projects with your stash of beads, those leftover beads are just going to sit there.

Well, last weekend was my mother-in laws 70th birthday lunch. I had the outfit, black dress, jacket and heels. I wanted to make a necklace with a bit of colour and sparkle, to brighten up my outfit.

I went to my spare bead container and choose a selection of yellow glass beads, blue AB faceted beads and also added some gold filigree beads and some gold plated chain. I always think the colour gold is a strong contrast against the colour black.

I got to work, I wanted to make a statement necklace, I had an idea how I wanted it to look and I'm pleased to say, it turned out exactly how I thought it would.

 

Here is the statement necklace I made. 



 

 

 

 

 

 



 

My necklace received lots of compliments and I love the way it drapes when I am wearing it.

 

I've talked about my leftover beads, but I know all you crafters out there must have leftover supplies from a project you have completed, whether it be fabric, card e.t.c.

 

Drop me a line and let me know how you made use of what you had spare, I'd love to know.

 

If you would like to see some more of my necklaces, do check out my website at www.michelleshandcraftedjewellery.com 

 

x

   

Bead Woven Earrings

I mentioned previously that I was going try my hand at making a pair of bead woven earrings, well instead of making one pair, I made two pairs of earrings.

The first pair was made with 6mm gold glass pearl beads and also green and clear seed beeds. I used a nylon thread to sew the beads into this bead wreath pattern.

 

 

 

I made the second pair of earrings below, using what is called the right angle weave beading technique, as the beads lie at a right angle to each other. I used 4mm Swarovski Red Siam bicone beads and clear seed beads, again I used a nylon thread. Once I made one earring, the next one was fairly easy to make.  

 

 

 

Both of these earrings were not as hard to make as I thought they would be. I will be attemping to try other designs, as I've really enjoyed making these and bead woven jewellery, is something I'd like to continue making in the future.

 If you would like to see some more of my earrings, do visit my website at www.michelleshandcraftedjewellery.com

Cross Weave Bracelet

I like to read beading maginzes in my spare time, which is not very often. They always have jewellery designs that you can try and make yourself and some of the designs are truly amazing.

I'm always looking for my next project to work on, at the moment,  I'm fascinated by bead weaving.
If your not sure about what beadweaving is, it's creating jewellery, using small seed beads, small beads, thread or nylon cord.

 

I'm hoping to go to a beadclub not far from where I live, after Easter. In the mean time I thought I'd try a to make a bracelet, using seed beads and pearls, I'm not ready for the tiny seed beads projects like the ones above yet. 

 

Here is the result.

 

 

 

 

 It's made with pale blue 6 mm glass pearl beads, clear seed beads, which you can see inbetween the pearls and on the ends. A clear illusion cord was used for the weaving. It took me roughly about an hour to make, it was a bit fiddly to get the hang of the pattern, sequence and tiny beads at first, but ok afterwards.

 

Hoping to make something else soon, maybe a pair of earrings, you'll have to wait and see.

 

What new projects have you started recently and did it turn out how you thought it would?   

 

If yu would like to see some more of my bracelets, do visit my website at www.michelleshandcraftedjewellery.com

I won a Valentine's Day giveaway competition!

On Monday 11th February, I was the lucky winner of the Valentines Day giveaway competion, organised on Twitter by the lovely Jan of Stems Floral Design.. To participate, all you had to do was follow and retweet, the tweet that Jan had sent out.

I was already following  Stems Floral Design and retweeting was something I always did for Jan and vice versa. I woke up the next day, to a message from Jan to say I'd won the competition, yay!!!!!

The flowers were delivered on Wednesday morning and all I could say when I got them was wow, they were just gorgeous. I love receiving flowers, but these I have to say were one of the best floral arrangements I'd ever seen.

So next time your on Twitter and you come across a tweet from Stems Floral Design, telling you there is a giveaway competion, you'd be silly not to enter, you might be lucky enough to receive a floral arrangement just like the one I won.

 

If your looking to send someone flowers or would like to see some more of Jan's work, check out her website at www.stemsfloraldesign.com

 





My first Tiara

Last summer I bought some tiara bands and bridal combs, with the intention of making tiaras and bridal combs for my online shop. In the end I decided to delay in making them till the spring, so they were put them away, I was already busy at the time, making a new range of bridesmaid jewellery sets. Then I was designing and creating jewellery for the Christmas season, which can be manic, but fun.

After Christmas came and went, I got my tiara bands and combs back out and thought about what colours and designs I wanted to make. I ordered some new bead supplies and got to work. I made three bridal combs, which you can see in my previous blog and I started on the tiara.  Did I want to go simple and elegant or dramatic and colourful for the tiara, well as this was my first tiara creation, I went for the former.

I used 6 mm white glass pearls and  clear crystal bicone beads. I threaded on each bead and attached them to the band, using wire wrapping techniques and using 2 feet of 0.4mm silver plated wire, in stages.

I've just finished adding the bead stalks.

Once the stalks had been added, I started adding 4mm white glass pearl beads to the band.

 

 

Here is the completed tiara, I think I did a good job on my first attempt in making a tiara. I'm looking forward to making the next one, not sure of the style or colour theme, but I'm working on it.

This tiara will be added to the wedding and bridal section of my shop at www.michelleshandcraftedjewellery.com in March, together with the new bridal combs, that I have already made. If you would like to see the other bridal items and my handmade jewellery and accessories on my website, click the link above.

I'm off to do some sketches, bye for now.

Michelle x

Happy Valentines Day!

 Valentine's Day is less than 2 weeks away, it's the day when you give the person you love or secretly admire a card, with maybe a gift, declaring how much you love them. Personally I don't think you need Valentine's Day to give you the push to do this, you should be able to tell someone you love them, any day of the week!

If there are any fellas out there, who need some pointers as to what to buy, jewellery is always a good choice, I would say that wouldn't I, lol.  All my jewellery is designed and created by yours truly.

In my website at www.michelleshandcraftedjewellery.com you may notice a common theme of heart shaped jewellery, I have always been drawn to making heart shaped jewellery, maybe I'm just a romantic fool at heart, sorry no pun intended.

Ladies, why don't you indulge yourself with something new, no need to wait for Valentines Day, which comes around once a year, you can treat yourself any day of the week.

Swarovki Heart Crystal Earrings

 

 

 

 

Or maybe a Silver Heart Necklace

 

 

Here are some more great gift ideas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 







 

 

If  you would like to see some more gifts, click on the link  www.michelleshandcraftedjewellery.com to it my website.

 

Have fun on Valentine's Day.

 

Michelle x