My Heart's Desire...new Valentine's themed braclet

Apologies for the lack of blog updates...I have been rather busy with my day job, and also been continually frustrated by the lack of decent daylight at the moment! I am only around for a short time in the morning before work, and at this time of year, the light at 9am on grey days just isn't good enough to get decent photos of my jewellery. My newest piece was actually finished a week ago, but had to wait another week until I could get pictures of it in afternoon daylight. 

I made a bracelet similar to this in shades of teal and turquoise with a silver-foil lined glass focal, and when I saw Julie Fountain of Lush Lampwork was making gorgeous lampwork frosted heart beads, I thought they'd work wonderfully as focal charms. It's taken me a while to get around to using one, and in the meantime I found some lovely pressed glass heart beads with an AB finish at the Big Bead Show in October which I thought would work well. So, with the knowledge that Valentine's day is only a few weeks away, I decided I should have something with heart theme in my Folksy shop, and thus, my latest piece of beadwork was born.

 

I was also nicely surprised to open up the February 2011 issue of Beads and Beyond magazine and see that my Glittering Gunmetal bracelet had been featured in their reader's gallery. Did you know that you can upload your handmade jewellery to their website and each month they pick their favourites to include in the magazine? Well you do now, so head over and upload something you've created and you too could get a pleasant surprise like me and see you work in print.

That's all for now...next in the pipeline for me is to start work on some bridal jewellery for a friend who gets married in July. 

Nicole

XOXO

First New Pieces of 2011

I have finally managed to a) finish and b) get half decent photographs of two new pieces I was working on over the Christmas/New Year holiday so that I could list them in my Folksy shop. I am a big lover of tactile jewellery...fringing, embellishment, dangles, charms and jangly bits - I am one of those people who can't help but play with whatever jewellery I'm wearing (this also comes in handy for testing the resilience of my work!).

I'd been gathering a little collection of semi-precious blue goldstone beads in my stash, and following the purchase of some gorgeous and in some cases, unusual, new crystals, I suddenly had an inkling of what sort of piece I could use my goldstone in. With the addition of seed beads in a lovely shade of metallic dark blue called 'Cosmos' I have ended up with this finished bracelet which I have named 'Twilight.'

This bracelet is now up for sale here in my Folksy shop.

After I'd completed 'Twilight,' I still had the urge to make a similar piece, in another colour scheme...and predictably, since it's my favourite colour and therefore I had a LOT of beads to choose from, I came up with a purple version.

This piece is yet to be named, so please feel free to post a comment if you have any ideas what it should be called. As well as the obligatory seed beads, this bracelet features Czech fire-polished rounds, Swarovski crystal bicones (my particular favourite are the purple velvet ab2x ones), glass flowers, dyed freshwater pearls and some wonderful dark purple semi-precious faceted agate beads.

I haven't listed this one on Folksy yet as I haven't gone through all the materials I've used so I can price it accordingly, once I've done that, it too will be up for sale in my shop.

Hope you've enjoyed a look at what I've been up to lately :)

N
XOXO

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2011 at Hollybird Beads!

Yes, I know it's been 2011 for a little while now, but I only returned from my extended Christmas break on Saturday, so forgive me for being a little late with the New Year well wishes.

I had a lovely 2 weeks off from my day job over the festive period, spending a week with my family in Essex before heading up to Scotland for another week staying with my boyfriend's family. I feel much refreshed, although coming back to work today has been a shock to the system...but hopefully the calm state of mind I have been cultivating over the last fortnight will not be dented for a little while yet. I have a lot ahead of me in terms of my studies - officially I am due to finish my PhD in October, so I shall be busily trying to get all of my work done in order to be able to start writing up my thesis ASAP. I don't want to go too much over my official finish date (because I won't be getting paid after then!), so if the blog gets a bit neglected, this may be the reason why.

But fear not, I shall be continuing to bead and sell my handmade jewellery in my Folksy shop. I have a few things I have been working on over the holidays to show you but I have not yet had the time to photograph them yet.

In the meantime, I would like to let you know that my Folksy Shop has now reopened, and I have put some items (See the images below for a few examples) for which the listings are due to expire rather soon into a mini January sale, with up to 20% off their original prices. Please head over and have a look...you may be able to bag yourself a beadwoven bargain!

That's it for now. Check back soon though to see what new pieces I've been working on recently.

N

XOXO