Communion tiara's

Over the last few evenings I have been working on a couple of tiara's. My niece is making her first holy communion in May and I want to make a couple of designs to go with her dress.  Although these are supposed to be children's head bands I really think that they would still be suitable for the more slightly built bride!

The dress she is wearing is asymetrical, it comes up in a ruffle at one side, so I wanted to try to balance this by creating a design that is asymetrical to the opposite side. So far I have created two designs with this in mind, but I will probably work on a couple more over the next couple of days (got a few holidays this week!) as I'm not entirely sure that this "balancing" will work with the dress.

She's a character my wee neice, like my own wee one, they could almost be sisters, they look so alike!

So here's a look at the pic's of the latest creations!

The first tiara is made using Lucite flowers, swarovski crystals and pearls. On a solid tiara band, I have woven the crystals pearls and lucite and added ab coated czech glass leaves, it's quite a romantic design, probably more suitable for a bridal party, but sure you never know!

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The second tiara is very simple in design, a star shaped flower made with czech glass ab coated drops, 4mm swarovski crystals create the "buds", 4mm swarovski pears adorn the band.

The Beaders Color Palette Margie Deeb

Colour..... hmmm..... I'm always a bit of a "black girl" mainly due to my figure, I tend to stick to muted colours for my own outfits... but I want to actually sell the pieces I make, so black isn't really an ideal selling colour.

A while ago I bought The Beaders Color Pallette by Margie Deeb as I felt that colour was a bit of an issue with me, I wasn't sure how to use it to the best effect....


I hadn't had time to actually look at it properly, but recently I had a bit of "me" time and decided to take a deeper look into the book. 

The book begins by explaining how to read the colour pallete, which was invaluable for me, Margie refrences the Delicia bead by number which she has chosen to correspond with the palette, whilst engaging you to choose your own accent beads in whichever material you feel fits in with the palette.

There are some fabulous projects to complete, although I still have to actually make any of them, they are inspirational in themselves as the use of colour and texture has changed my creative thinking process.  I was particularly inspired by "This Gorgeous Planet" section I love the colours in the "Celestial Combinations" section, full of beautiful pinks, purples and heather colours.

Near the end of the book there is also basic information on stitches and basic techniques.


You can see more about Margie Deeb Here

Mojo anyone???

Well I hate to admit it I have for a little bit of time lost my mojo!!

What is mojo?? To me mojo is the creative spark, the actual WANT to make something I have lost this mojo thingamigig recently! ... it's funny how life can affect this creativity.

I've been suffering from the most almighty cough and flu since January... my friend who is a nurse was visiting from Scotland. was quite concerned over this, me being me brushed it off.. but it definately made me feel uninterested in my jewellery making.... until today, I finally decided to go to the doctor.... he told me I had a problem with the medication I was taking for my blood pressure and that sometimes this can exasperate flu symptoms....... so finally I know why the hell I am coughing so much! And can actually do something about it.... he signed me off of my day job for a week so now I feel so much better that I have time to recouperate and get better.... I don't know if it's this or having looked at www.mydailybead.blogspot.com that has rejuvinated the lost mojo..... but since looking at it early this evening I have since made 6 pairs of earings 3 pendants and a necklace (photo's will follow soon!).

I hope to feel refreshed after my bit of time off!

Woo hoo, hope it's back for good!!!

Been a while!

I knew I would do it, totally forget to blog.... but I'm gonna try and make an effort to blog at least once a week...

Well here's some of my most recent "makes" the top pic is of a bridal bracelet, using 6mm Swarovski pearls and AB crystals... hope to add it to my etsy, but want a better pic.

Second one is a necklace made using my own polymer clay beads and 14mm glass pearls, I love those beads...

Third one is my play on a necklace I saw at the Big Bead Show in Sandown racecourse last year, the original design just used all 14mm pearls, but I added some glass and a little metal, I love the chunkiness of this piece....

I've been on a buying ban for a while now, so I am trying to use up what I have, so the last piece is made using another of my own polymer clay beads as a focal, a mixture of hematite and czech glass makes this asymetrical necklace..

Bridesmaid jewellery

Just a wee quick one for this evening, this late year has thrown up a few late bride's tying the knot in the later months of the year!

I have been working on a set for a bride, who has 4 bridesmaids, being a cash concious girl (which is understandable in this climate) she asked me to create a bit of bling without the heavy price tag!!

This is what I came up with for her featuring swarovski and pearl accents

Beaded Bead tutorial

I've always wanted to know how to cover wooden beads with seed's thus making the beaded bead, this is I feel a very useful skill to have when working with seed beads as they can add a lot of interest to a piece in addition you can make them however you like, meaning they can become a focal bead for your work.

Having had those wooden beads in my stash for ages I decided to scour the net for a tutorial on beaded beads, I have often admired other seed beaders work and wondered "how do they do that?" so after looking around on my favourite site for information and general chit chat about beads UK BEADERS forum and admiring work from a talented seed bead artist Liz Reed, I had a look at her website The Crimson Moon beaded jewellery. Liz has some very beautiful and interesting work along with some fab tutorials. I purchased her colossal beaded bead tutorial, this is the first tutorial I've ever actually paid for (usually I'm a skin flint, unless I buy a book I never usually pay online for the tutorials) but the beads looked so well made I just had to have a go.

After a couple of shaky starts, which mostly were due to me having no ink in my printer and having to keep getting up to look at the pc, I finally produced some pretty decent beaded beads (if I do say so myself!). The tutorial is very good, very easy to follow, the pictures are great, I'm rubbish at working out and calculating things, so even though I am pretty alright at peyote stitch I would never in a month of Sundays have been able to make these beads without this tutorial......highly recommended!

I've added a pic of my efforts.