All about jewellery making

This button necklace was very simple to make.  I found a good range of blue buttons lurking in my sewing box and decided to use their varying shades as a feature of my necklace.  Each button is connected to the next using jump rings that I made by wrapping wire around different size knitting needles (if you don’t know how to do this see my tutorial on making jump rings here).  For a bit of contrast I followed the pale blue buttons with white, finishing the necklace with a flower button.  The necklace is one long length, I wrapped it around my jewellery display bust to get a good photograph.

The focal is made from two buttons and wire.  It is really easy to do.  The central button has a shank at the back so I threaded my wire through one of the holes in the base button, up through the shank of the top button and down through the second hole of the base button again.  Then I pushed the remaining wire flush with the back of the base button so that I could make a wrapped loop at both the top and the bottom.  The top loop was used to connect the button focal to the main necklace and the loop at the bottom for a decorative bead dangle.

I found buttons lots of fun to work with and of course they are a recycled material too.  This encourages creativity as you have to work with what you have got.  I think the overall effect is quite retro and bohemian!

Lately I have been getting back into beadweaving and enjoying its therapeutic qualities.  Top of my list have been spiral ropes as I just love the final effect achieved by what is essentially a fairly simple stitch.  I couldn’t show them before because the blue one was a present for my Mum on Mother’s Day - the beautiful blue shades made quite a striking eyeglass leash.  Here is a picture of the whole piece:

It was difficult to gauge the appropriate finished length but Mum was very pleased and when she tried it on it fitted great.  Wasn’t sure if it was a bit too flamboyant but she loved it.  Watch this space for a tutorial on beaded spiral ropes coming soon!

Recently I have been working on this necklace.  It was to be a new piece to wear for the University concert last night but I did not finish it in time.  This was my first attempt at creating a necklace from the St Petersburg chain beadweaving stitch featured in the April 2007 edition of Bead and Button.  My version of this beadwoven chain is made up of fire-polished faceted beads and size 11/0 seed beads.  Although Bead and Button suggested using 3mm faceted beads I only had enough 4mm so I used those instead.  This worked out fine although the final beadwoven fabric might lay slightly flatter by using the smaller size.  The heart bead is Murano style foiled lined glass (from my shop) and completes the piece which was inspired by the rich golds that can be found incorporated in Venetian glass designs.  Ultimately I am pleased with the result and I will probably wear it for the next concert instead!

Today I am showing a necklace that I made for my Mum with stock from my bead shop.  I was very pleased with this combination of beads - the necklace includes quite a variety.  The pendant itself is russian jade and this particular example has very beautiful markings and colouration. 

The beads accompanying the pendant are green moss agate, hematite and freshwater pearl.  I used Bali silver bead caps and small Bali silver and hematite beads to create visual interest in terms of profile, shape and size.  The clasp is a Bali style pewter toggle. 

For this type of necklace I use bead stringing wire such as Acculon because it hold the beads nicely and is strong and I attached the pendant to the main body of the necklace by using a homemade headpin.  This type of headpin is very simple to make by forming a straightforward spiral at the end.  I used a wire-wrapped loop at the top for extra security.

I have just finished making this set of Christmas jewellery for myself to wear over the festive period.  The pattern is from the latest Bead and Button magazine on p.48 and is called ‘Crystal Showers’.  I made the earrings by completing just one unit of the design before attaching them to the ear hooks.  The technique is right angle weave and is quite easy once you get the hang of the pattern.
 
You can probably see from the picture that the crystals I used are rather uneven.  These are some I am using up as they were to be stock for my shop but I do not consider them good enough quality to sell.

I chose red and gold as my colour scheme as I think these are especially Christmassy colours and will add a bit of glitter to my outfit.

It is unlikely that I will get another opportunity to post here before Christmas so I hope you all have a fabulous holiday and a joyful new year.