Pretty Little Rocks

At the weekend I helped (well I think I helped!) my friend Lea Young over at Pretty Little Rocks while she taught a workshop to 19 lovely ladies over in Girton.

Lea's specialty is wire work with gem stones and we made this beautiful dragonfly pendant above.
Below is just a small sample of some of her work, all pieces are unique and she is happy to take commissions for a more personal touch.

Wire Work Earrings

I just wanted to share these earrings that my friend Lea Young made for me while we were at scrap club. She does lots of wire work and it is truly stunning stuff. She takes commissions and is also teaching various workshops from a beginners class to full wire work.
Here are the links if you fancy taking a class Tree of Life, Macrame, Tiaras and Fascinators, Wrappijng Undrilled Stones.

A Different Challenge

I undertook a different challenge whilst at a local beading club. All members were given the same kit of beads, ribbon and findings all together in an organza bag.

The challenge as a group was to make a piece of jewellery and we would then look and see how different or similar each piece was. The range was quite amazing and no two pieces were similar.

As beading is something I 'play' at I found it difficult to focus on jewellery in the traditional sense. So I decided to join two crafts together and painted a mannequin body white and made a petticoat from blue spotty Washi tape. I then made a bracelet (thus completing the jewellery bit!) as a skirt and used the organza bag for a bikini style top, I finished this off with a necklace made from ribbon and a flower charm and put the felt flower at the top of the mannequin.

Viking Knit

I was rather intrigued when my friend Lea said she has learnt how to make the chain 'Viking Knit'. When I saw what she meant I immediately knew it was something I wanted to learn how to do too.So for my Christmas present Lea bought me all the tools necessary and gave me a lesson too. Below is my first piece which I am really please with. It is a simple technique but one that is very effective.

Narcissus in December?

One of the birth flowers for December is the Narcissus. Your challenge is to take inspiration from this picture - be it the flowers, the colours or something else.

You can take part in this months challenge HERE

I was really surprised to see that Narcissus was the birth flower for December as I always associated them with spring. As I was looking forward to making something Christmassy for this months challenge I decided to still do that so made a snowflake tree decoration using the colours of Narcissus. This is actually two snowflake frames, one stuck onto of the other to give a fuller look. This challenge spurred me on to make a few more in other colours which I have posted below.

Every Girl NEEDS a Handbag!

This is another Tando product I couldn't resist, after all every girl needs a handbag!

The board was painted with a 'Hazelnut' dabber from Ranger, and a chocolate coloured ink pad for the Indigoblu stamp 'Sarah's Choice' to given a hessian look. A Dylusions stamp was used for the flower design in black.

The I-Spy image is from the Indigoblu Grand Tour range, this is much smaller than the indiviual stamp of the same image. The oval clasp is covered in Crushed Glass Glitter with a coating of Glossy Accents.

Finally I made a handbag charm clip using Tando cogs, painted with acrylic and covered in Glossy Accenst, pearl glass beads and using the same Dylusions stamp as on the hand bag I stamped onto shrink plastic, coloured using Promarkers and using a Heat Gun shrunk to size.

Light as a Feather!

By Lea

 

I wanted to share these earrings with you that my friend Lea made. She makes all types of jewellery and specialises in metal work but I was very impressed with these Fimo feather earrings that she made.

Lea is happy to take commissions or you can purchase directly from her shop Pretty Little Rocks

 



 

The Craft Garden June Challenge

Junes challenge was an interesting one (full details here) a Jublilee project but only using one of the three 'royal' colours or none at all!

Now everyone who knows me is aware of my passion for handbags (especially my hubby who for some reason rolls his eyes everytime I buy a new one) So with this is mind and knowing that Liz also has a great range of bags herself I decided to make a handbag charm. I had some lovely red beads and decided to use this as the one colour out of the three I would use, however, when laying out the beads I chose turquoise beads and it didn't occur to me at first that turquoise was blue (derrrr) so I then had to rethink and found these smashing green and clear beads instead. I then looked for some charms to signify the royal connection and this also proved fairly difficult to source too but I eventually found these delightful crowns and added a heart too.

Felt Beads

These beads are so easy to make and make unique jewellery as each can be tailored to your exact requirements.

Amethyst

This beautiful pendant was made for me by my friend Lea. Lea has been designing and making jewellery for only a short time but has some great ideas and has been featured on Jewellery Maker on television on several occassions. Knowing my favourite colour is purple/lilac she made this stunning pendant for me from Amethyst.

Crystalline quartz in shades of purple, lilac or mauve is called amethyst, a stone traditionally worn to guard against drunkeness and to instill a sober mind. The word amethyst comes from the Greek meaning "without drunkenness" and amethyst is believed to protect one from poison.

It is used also as a dream stone and to help insomnia. It is said if you put an amethyst under your pillow it will bring about pleasant dreams, or if you rub it across your forehead it offers relief from a headache. Ancient Egyptians used the amethyst to guard against guilty and fearful feelings.

More information about Lea can be found here

Necklace Frenzy

Over Easter I had a bit of a necklace making frenzy! I made 5, three of which are pictured above (the other two made their way into my Mam's handbag!) My 10 year old niece also made one along with a pair of earrings and my nephews wife made two bookmarks. It was a fun experience sitting altogether on the lounge floor playing with beads and one I hope to repeat soon.

Green Beads

This necklace is made with large green beads and tiny glass pearls. The large beads are wooden beads covered with thread, I have also used a magnetic clasp on this.

Felt Brooch

I really have developed a love of all things felt and so I made this fun and funky spotty heart brooch. Below are the different stages of formation from wooltops to finished shape.

Continue to decorate with wool and beads.

Steampunk Charm

This beautiful handbag charm was made by Lea Young, who as well as being a good friend of mine is also a very talented jewellery maker. She has some beautiful pieces for sale but much prefers to make bespoke items tailoring  to your every need. She has some super photographs on her blog, so if you are in need of a sparkling tiara or a funky necklace feel free to check it out. You can find her Etsy shop here.

Charmed I'm Sure

 I used alcohol inks to brighten up the silver bracelet below. I also inked some metal leaves, a heart charm, philosphy tag, some shrink plastic (which I then stamped on) and a bird cage. I added these along with some beads to complete it.