May Crafting

Well May was not very crafty at all. Lost my creative mojo a bit. I only made 5 pairs of cup studs (that's one day playing with silver and one day playing with resin). Here they all are.

 

 

I think I might keep the rainbow bead soup pair. I love making cup studs and finding little bits to put in but I've never kept a pair for myself yet. The ones on the left have pink sugar in them! I was going to make another pair with pressed forget me nots in but unfortunately I left my pressed flowers out in the sun by accident and they've gone brown. Must get on to picking and pressing some more soon... maybe this afternoon.

 

 

Still trying to decide what to do with my DamselflyGemma shop. My folksy shop is in holiday mode and I don't know whether I'm going to go back there or try somewhere else. Been pondering this for about 6 months now and just don't know! Now's not really the time to be getting into it though. June is going to be very busy. The maths GCSEs are in just over a week so I'm working the bank holiday and over the rest of half term as some tutees want last minute lessons. After the exams I'll be marking again although I do have the Laura McCabe beading workshop over at stitch'n'craft just inbetween the exams finishing and marking starting. Good timing there!

 

 

So with all that gong on in June, I don't think I'll be doing much creating this month (other than the workshop). Have a couple of bits I'd like to try and get done as pressents for people though so hopefully there will be a little more to show you next month even though I'll be busier!

 

 

Have a fab June everyone xxx

Edited to add: I did pop out and get some forget me nots so hopefully will be able to make forget me not studs in a couple of months :o)

April Crafting

Yes, I know, this blog post is a fair few days late. Not really been in a crafty/blogging mood recently. I did a little making in April though so here it all is!

I think this necklace was the first make of the month although it does feel like a loooooong time since I crocheted it. Its not on March's roundup post though so I guess it must have been! Very pleased with how this one came out. I was experimenting with beaded crochet to see what I could achieve.

I'm majorly behind on the earring challenge though I did make these. One pair to match the above necklace and one pair for a tutorial. They are basic right-angle-weave beaded beads and you can find the free tutorial for them in my previous post.

 

More beaded crochet. I made this bangle from the April issue of Beadwork magazine, designed by Linda Lehman. I did have a few difficulties (it kept coming out too small) but got there in the end. Linda produces gorgeous beaded crochet patterns and sells them in her Esty shop. Go see!

I also made five pairs of resin and silver cup studs. I feel its only fair to count one in the OTTBS earring challenge as only one includes beads. I do like making these studs though. It was great to get the silver and resin kit out as it'd been a while. The dark blue star pair were made for a prize in the OTTBS facebook group birthday celebration but the other pairs are available for purchase if anyone wants them. Haven't listed them anywhere yet (still trying to decide what to do with my Damselfly Gemma shop) but give me a shout if you're interested in any.

Hmmm....what else...oh yes, how couple I forget?! I FINALLY finished my skirt (with a lot of help from my lovely friend Jen and her Mummy). I started it before I moved into my current house and we've been living here for 4 years now. It has in fact been hung up in the far end of the lounge waiting to be finished for aaaaaaaaaaaaages. Haven't worn it out yet. Must do that soon :o)

I also made a couple of beaded sunflowers. I started out intending to make something for the OTTBS moodboard challenge but as I was beading it took me in this direction instead. I am planning on writing another blog tutorial for them at some point in the not too distant future so keep an eye out here if you're interested.

And that's it, I think. Looking back through this post makes me feel like I was all productive and stuff :o) Hopefully I'll be back making again soon or May's roundup post will be empty!

Have a fab May everyone, whatever you're up to.
xxx

RAW beaded bead earrings tutorial

I made these earrings earlier this month as part of the OTTBS earring challenge. I was just playing about embellishing right-angle-weave.When I posted them up in the facebook group someone asked about the pattern. I said I'd write it and put it on my blog at some point so here goes! They're easy peasy if you're familiar with the stitch. Hopefully not too tricky if its new to you.

You will need (for 2 earrings- halve them if you only want 1!):

2 x earwires

2 x jumprings (I used 6mm)

12 x 6mm fire polished crystals

6 x 6mm corrugated/fluted metal beads

12 x size 8 seed beads

A sprinkle of size 11 seed beads (I can't be bothered to count how many! As it turns out, a tiny sprinkle more than in the photo below)

Preferred beading thread, thread conditioner, needle

The earrings above are made with AB coated montana blue fire polished crystals, SP corrugated beads and galvanised silver seedies. In the tutorial I am using purple iris fire polish, SP corrugated beads and gunmetal seedies.

Cut and condition some thread. A wingspan of thread should be enough to do both beaded beads although this will depend on how thoroughly you weave in your ends and how long your wingspan is!
Thread one fire polish, one corrugated, one fire polish and one corrugated. Tie into a ring leaving a long enough thread to weave in at the end and then pass the needle through the first two beads you added.

Thread one fire polish, one corrugated and one fire polish. Pass the needle back through the corrugated bead in your first loop that the thread was exiting from in the picture above, to create two rings.

Pass the needle through the first and second beads you added in the step above. Add one fire polish, pass the needle through the 4th bead you added in the first ring (the corrugated one at the end of your row) and add another fire polish.

Pass the needle through the 3rd corrugated bead you added. Basically you have three loops in a triangle.

Pass the needle through the top three fire polished beads, back through a corrugated bead then round the bottom three fire polished beads to strengthen them. Pass the needle through the nearest corrugated bead and add nine size 11s, then through the next corrugated bead in the direction shown. 

Repeat twice more so you have lines of beads between each of the corrugated beads so it looks like this.

Add four beads and pack through the 5th bead in the last set of  nine 11s you just added.

Add four more size 11s and pass the needle through the next corrugated bead to make a cross. Do this twice more to get three crosses around the bead.

You are now going to add the beads on the top and bottom, around the fire polished beads. Thread one size 8, eight size 11s and one size 8. Pass the needle through the next corrugated bead so that the seedies you just added form a semi circle.

Repeat the above step on the other size of the bead but make sure that the bead corrugated you stitch  in is not linked to the semi circle on the other side.

Add one size 8 and four size 11s. Loop the thread round the middle of the semi circle and back through the five beads you just added and the corrugated bead.

The corrugated bead you just passed the needle through will already be linked to a semi circle of seedies on the other side. Pass the needle through the first 8 and the next four size 11s. Add four 11s and an 8 and through the corrugated bead that isn't linked up.

 Basically you're done! Just weave in the ends, tying a few knots as you go. You can go around the thread path to strengthen it if necessary, depending on your tension. Then you just need to add a jumpring and make another.

Here's mine!

Hope this all makes sense (I have a feeling I've waffled a bit!!) and  have fun! I'd love to see what you make with this tutorial! Pop me a link below.

Gemxxx

As far as tutorial use goes, you are more than welcome to sell what you make using these instructions but please do not copy this tutorial to redistribute/teach without contacting me. If you wish to share my tutorial, then thanks muchly, but please link people to this post. You have my permission to use an image for the purposes of linking to this tutorial only. For any other use, please contact me.  

March Crafting

Hello lovely readers. Hope you all had a fab March.

Mine was busy with GCSE marking so I didn't get a huge amount of crafting done. Here's what I did make though.

If you read my last post, this will be familiar. I completed my finish-along project by adding 8s to the edges and taking out some of the short rows to change it into a tightly fitting bracelet with a clasp. This makes it much harder for the rows to slip under each other. Thanks everyone for all their suggestions as to how to solve this problem. I'll hopefully make some earrings soon to match with the beads I took out. I'm calling it 'Twinsmaille' and I will prob write a blog tutorial at some point if you're interested in how its made.

Continuing with my beaded crochet I made this rhodonite chip bracelet. This one has a clasp. I made it a bit tight by accident so may see about changing the clasp to one slightly bigger or adding some domed copper ends or something. Not sure.

I also made these earrings. The design is by Tracey Crystal Gwilliams. Tracey offered it for free on her facebook page for March (there's a new freebie for April) but you can buy it over on her website here. They are for week 10 of the earring challenge and I also submitted them for the OTTBS moodboard challenge....and super exciting....I won!!! I got these great beads form Rachel of RB Beads.

 

You know what's fantastic about the OTTBS moodboard challenge? It doesn't matter how experienced you are at beading, everyone has an equal chance of winning (or slightly better chance if you include the twist). Fancy entering this month- check out the moodboard for this month.

And that's the lot, for March. I'm now 4 weeks behind on the earring challenge, oooops! I want to make matching earrings to both the above bracelets and I'm also planning on joining in the finish-a-long again with a bangle from beadwork that I started a few months ago.

Happy April creating everyone!

xxx

OTTBS finish-a-long

Following last month's OTTBS finish-a-long sucess, I thought I'd join in again this month. I have a bracelet that I started a month or so ago. It came about after getting some free twin beads from the facebook page of Preciosa. I decided that I wanted to join the twins with jumprings and finally settled on a design similar to 6 in 1 chainmaille. The twin beads take the place of the smaller 6 rings. Here's how it looked. (Please excuse the slightly goose pimple arms! Its a little chilly today and I don't put the heating on if its only me in unless it gets majorly freezing)

Now I like this look but the problem is, its not very stable. The twins flip and the rings slip under each other. A bit of a shake sometimes rights it but not always. I decided to live with it for a bit but it got on my nerves so I decided I would have to do something about it. Then I didn't!

So that brings me to this month's finish along project.... sort out this bracelet. I picked up some delica drops and size 8s thinking that popping some on the edges would solve my problem. I've started but am not sure. The drops weren't working so I've been adding 4 size 8s to the outer rings. It has not completely solved the stability issue, but it has greatly improved it and it might be even better if I carry on. The look is quite different though, much less open. Here's the bit I've done so far.

What do you think? I'd appreciate any thoughts or ideas. I'm torn at the mo. Do I: carry on with it and live with it a bit; try and find another way of sorting it; or just frog it and do something else with the beads?

xxx

EDITED to add this picture so you can get a better idea of what's going wrong with the whole stability issue!
PS. Its really tricky to take a picture of your right arm with your left hand when you're right haded. Soemone didn't think that through properly!!

February Crafting

Hello all and welcome to March! Hope your February was fun filled.

My February has been busy. There are maths exams tomorrow and over the next few days so I've done a load of tutoring recently. Crafting wise, its all been beading/jewellery making.

Here's a roundup of everything I made in February.

I finally caught up with the OTTBS earring challenge. Here are weeks four through nine:

Week four: These star earrings are made from a fab pattern by Jean Power. If you want to make your own beaded stars, you can get the pattern from Jean's website.

Week five: Crytal hoop earrings. I made these for me using 3mm fire polished crystals. I also wrote a free tutorial for these. It's here if you missed it.

Week six: I made these for a friend's birthday. They are made with dyed purple freshwater pearls and sterling silver wire in a herringbone weave.

Week seven: A quick little make as I'd gotten a few weeks behind again. These are lava rock and sterling silver. I'll probably list them in my Folksy shop at some point in the near future so if you want them, give me a shout.

Week eight: Another fairly quick make to catch up. These are facetted red aventurine drops and sterling silver. I decided to oxidise these. Again, these will probably end up in my shop soon.

Week nine: I made these to match my OTTBS beadalong project (see below). I used the same beads as in the bracelet but used abalone rounds instead of chips. Sorry for the not so brilliant photography! Too lazy this morning to set everything up properly! 

I finally finished my anemone cuff (based on a BWG project by Stephanie Burnham). Thanks to the OTTBS beadalong I felt compelled to actually finish off all that fringing. I used press studs as a fastening to give it an almost invisable join.



Really chuffed to have finally finished it but not sure when I'll actually wear it! Although I have got the earrings to match now too....

All my other beading this month has been curtesy of Gillian Lamb's beaded crotchet workshop I went to at Stitch'n'craft. It was my first time a their studio and I had a fun day. It was a little over an hour away but not a complicated drive. Becs of Bead by Becs fame was also there. It was great to meet a fellow OTTBSer. By the end of the day we had both gotten the hang of it and had two crotched ropes on the way. I finished off both of mine over the weekend.

The top one was the first I started at the workshop and is a necklace made using 3mm toho cube beads. The bottom is a bracelet made with three different colours of size 8s and delica drops.

My next crochet project was flourite chips. This was much fiddlier than the regular shaped beads but I love the result. Its a little big for me but I'm keeping it! I'll just have to be a little careful when wearing it!



And that's everything I made in February...well everything I completed. I did play about with some donut beads, as you may have read on my last post, intending to make something for the OTTBS February moodboard but it didn't go brilliantly so I didn't get round to entering this month. There were 36 fab entries though- you can see them here if you're interested. 

Creating aims for March? Well I'll be exam marking along with tutoring so not sure how much creating time I'll get. I want to keep up with the earring challenge plus I have a couple of UFOs I'd like to get done. I'd also like to sort out my Folksy shop. I've kinda taken a break from it and left it on its own for the past 2 to 3 months so I've got loads of delisted stock and, as I haven't been listing, I haven't had sales. Not sure if I'll get round to sorting that out though. We'll see.

Have a fun March everyone, whatever you're up to.

xxx 

Beaded donut frustration!

Yesterday I decided to have a go at making little beaded donut shapes. Its not somthing I've done before. I had a vague idea about how to go about it so decided to try and figure it out without instructions/diagrams. I don't tend to have any difficulties following tutorials but as I want to develop my beawork I thought it would be beneficial for me to experiment myself.

The first two I made were okish but I didn't find them too easy to zip up so I took a break for lunch and posted on the OTTBS facebook page that I'd been experimenting but was now going to look up how to do it properly. I knew there was some instructions in Laura McCabe's Creating Jewelry with Swarovski. Mary and Donna in OTTBS offered some very helpful comments so, after a slight detour to make a helicopter, sock puppet, playing cars and a lovely roast dinner with my nephew and inlaws, I spent the rest of the evening having another go. It did not go amazingly well.

Here are all 5 rings I made. OTTBSians may recognise the colours. I've been using 15s and 'delicas' (not actually sure they are delicas but a note about that later).

1. This one was made by stringing 40 delicas as the first 2 rows of a peyote strip. I then added 4 more rows of 15 and 2 of delicas. I joined the short ends of the strip together like brick stitch and then zipped the delicas together. It was a little tricky to zip up so I thought mabe I neede a bigger diameter. Plus I though I may as well work tubular.

2. This one was made by stringing 50 delicas and tying into a ring and working even peyote. Then 4 rows of 15 and 2 of delicas before zipping up. Ok ish but the symmetry is of (on this and no.1) Because I have an even number of rows of delicas and 15s, the wides point of the donut falls between rows and it would look better if it was on a row.

3. Mary suggested I work from the center and then alternate from side to side. Also she and Donna gave suggestions on starting numbers. This one was made by starting in the middle with 48 15s (and therefore giving 24 'up' beads). The final donut has 5 rows of 15s and 5 rows of delicas. Its not very ring like so I decided to decrease the starting amount of 15s and go back to 8 rows in total.

4. Very unring like! This one is 3 rows of 15s and 5 rows of delicas (started in the middle of the 15s). I initally strung 32 15s.

5. Probably the best so far. This one is 5 rows of 15s and 3 rows of delicas (again, starting in the middle of the 15s). I intially strung 48 15s.

Still not particulary happy. In Laura McCabe's book she uses charlottes, 15s and delicas and works from the centre of the biggest beads and zips up the smallest. I know its easier to zip up the larger beads so I'm going to stay doing that but maybe I should be using 3 different bead sizes? I don't actually own any tiny Czech charlottes so maybe I could use 15s, delicas and 11s?

I don't know. It was a frustrating evening making me think I really shouldn't have booked onto Laura's course in June after all.
:o(

But I WILL work on it and get there. I need to experiment more and possibly dig out more books to see if there's more instructions in them. Any hints or tips you have would be most appreciated.
:o)

xxx

_____________________________________________________________________

A note about cylinder beads: Are there rubblish quality cylinders in the same way as there are rubbish quality seedies? I assumed they were all good but the green ones I've been using are quite irregular in height. The cylinders I have that I know are definately delicas are pretty regular so I'm wondering if these no-named ones I've had in my stash for ages are actually something else. I can't remember when and wher I bought them. The blue aren't tooooo bad but I thought I got them at the same time!