Jar full of beads

When people start to hear that you make jewellery you tend to get a mixture of responses, ranging from total disinterest, through mildly patronising to the more wonderful and surprising reactions. This is definitely one of the latter! One of the ladies at my sisters wedding, on hearing I make jewellery, said that she had a large jar of beads and bits of broken jewellery that she'd been keeping for years – would I be interested in taking them! She knew she'd never be able to do anything with them but couldn't bring herself to throw them out.

Expecting an old jam jar with a few broken necklaces and maybe an odd earring I jumped at the chance. You just never know what you might find in something like this. It's an exciting prospect, digging through looking for treasure!

When I actually saw what she had, I was amazed and very grateful! A large kilner jar just packed with beads, broken necklaces, tie pins, odd earrings and sequins as well as other bits and bobs. Going through this is going to take some time! The sequins were, in a way, the easiest to deal with – I know I won't use them so they got passed on to someone who will. But everything else........

Jar full of beads!

At first look there's a lot of glass and resin pearls in subtle shades of pink and gray. They range in size from tiny rice pearls to much larger focals. Some show the signs of time and wear, some don't. These are not colours I would often use, or beads that I would normally pick so it's going to be a fun challenge to work with them.

Bead spread

But there were some that instantly caught my eye as something I wanted to use! Some lovely little seashell shaped charms, a lone deep green glass faceted round. A really interesting collection of little blue stones in what looks like a broken clip-on earring. Some lovely rich amber coloured resin beads and an unusual metal cage spacer among others.

Old clip on earring

Rich green faceted round

Metal cage spacer

Resin beads

Cute seashell charms

For now the jar is sitting on my work bench as ideas tumble round in my head. I think it's going to be some time before I work my way through them all!

Flower rings

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I have been asked to create a large pink flower ring for a lady I know. It's always difficult to do a commission when the customer is unable to have a look through either examples of past work or a selection of beads to pick the ones they like. As a result of the limited time we had for her to discuss with me what she wanted, I decided to make a selection and give her a choice. So, I now have three large pink flower rings. I wonder which one she'll pick! To give you an idea of scale, the wire daisy has a diameter of 7cm (about 3 inches).

Large pink flower rings

Growing things

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With Christmas over and the snows falling I find myself longing for spring. This is reflected in the jewellery designs I most want to make. Flowers and leaves always feature a lot in my work, but at this time of year when I'm most craving to see the real world bloom they are particularly satisfying to make.

Leaf earrings

These leaf earrings may take a lot of concentration and time to make, despite being only 1.5cm long (plus hook), but are very satisfying for that part of me that wants winter to hurry up and go! And they look particularly good with the matching leaf necklace.

Leaf necklace

Of course, Silent Bob is just as eager for the warm weather to come and spends his time watching me work!

Silent Bob, watching me work

Etsy

There's something very personal about making jewellery and I feel very protective of my finished pieces. As a result, I have only sold my work face to face. However, I have been under increasing pressure to open up an on line shop. So, for all those people who want to own a twistedwhisker piece, but don't live close enough to come and visit me, I have opened my very own Etsy shop. My product photographer spent this afternoon working on my first batch of items and they are now available for you to buy. Thank you to all the lovely people who have asked for this. And yes, that is my neck and wrist modelling!

Product photographer at work!

Lampies

 

The wonderful multi-talented MagicFlying Boots over at The Other Fickle Pixie recently made a set of lamp work beads for me. They are a lovely set, made on a base of purple glass with light blue raised dots, the focal bead also has red raised dots. They have sat on my work bench for a good few weeks whilst I  tried to decide what to make with them. I wanted something that would show them off to their full potential and not drown them out in lots of fussy wirework or swamp them in other spacer beads.

Lampwork bead set

Eventually I decided on a simple S link chain, the lampies connected using wrapped loops. I found some lovely pony seed beads which change colour depending on hour the light hits them – ranging from purple to blue and just a hint of green to contrast the focal. The focal dangles from the chain on a spiral headpin and the chain continues, using simple S links and pony bead units, round to the back where it's fastened with a hook and loop. A lovely elegant necklace for some beautiful beads!

Finished necklace with lampwork beads

 

Stone charms

One of the lovely things that can happen when having a clear out is you find forgotten treasure. My lovely other half recently discovered some stones that he had polished years ago. He asked me if I though I could do anything with them – they aren't beads and so aren't drilled but I jumped at the chance!

The selection of polished stones

The stones are a wonderful mix of colours with a good depth to their shine. I thought they'd be perfect to make caged charms with. Starting with the quartz and the blue stones I made drop charms by caging them in 0.4 silver plate wire. When looking through my stash for a chain to hang them from I couldn't find anything that I thought looked right, so I broke out the jump rings and made a simple double link chain-mail bracelet. The drops were then hung from it using the same size jump rings. I'm very happy with the result.

The finished charm bracelet

Bird's nest

I love making wire bird's nests. There's something wonderfully creative about forming the shapes out of straight wire, then nestling you bead "eggs" in the centre. Once made they can be hung with jump rings from ear hooks or necklaces. My preference is to mount them on a ring or bracelet shank, a really extravagant option would be to make a bracelet just of bird's nests - each attached to the next with jump rings!

Bird's nest bracelet and ring, using silver plate wire and blue glass "eggs"