More New Designs and a Christmas Craft Fair

Apologies once again for a long gap in between blogs - I've recently started a jewellery making diploma course at an academy in Hatton Garden and that, beading and working on my thesis corrections are swallowing up so much time right now, I so do not know where the last month has gone!

I promised another blog post about new designs after showing my Athena glass spike jewellery, so here are a few of the most recent additions to my online shops.

As another part of my 'Tiny Sparkler' range, I have added a few of these crystal flower necklaces. Made using an 8mm Swarovski crystal chaton stone, each features a bezelled and embellished crystal petalled flower and its own tiny beaded leaf. A few draped chain tassels and some more crystals add movement to the pendants. 

 

These little flowers really are tiny - the flower head measures just 2.5cm across; the entire pendant from top to bottom measures in at around 6.5cm, perfect if you want a necklace with some glitter but that you can wear both day-to-day and of an evening. I think I will have to make myself one of these - I have some purple chatons left so I think my flower will have one of those as a centre...although I do now need more tiny silver seed beads as I've used them up really quickly of late!

Inspired by the tiny leaves in these necklaces, I decided to try something using the same motif in cubic right angle weave, but bigger. I also wanted a design which would use up some of the many gorgeous Czech pressed glass flower beads that I seem to have built up in my bead stash! This leaf and flower cluster necklace was what I came up with; two beadwoven leaves and a central chain packed with glass flowers, pearls and crystals.

I've so far beaded this teal version, with emerald green leaves on a silver chain and also just finished a purple version with antique gold findings. There are plenty more flowers in my bead box so I am sure there are a few more of these necklaces to come!

 

All the beading I have been doing of late has been in preparation for the craft fair I am doing this Saturday (24th November). I did the same market last year and it was brilliantly organised, in a wonderful venue and I had a great day of talking to people about my work and sent a fair amount of sparkles off to new homes. I am hoping that this year will be just as good, if not better. 

 

The fair is the Made-It Market, being held at the Cambridge Guildhall. You can find all the details on their website here. A perfect place to start your Xmas shopping (or treat yourself!) - there are a whole host of stalls filled to the brim with fantastic handmade work. Perhaps I will see you there on Saturday!

Nicole

xoxo

Beading Book Love - Sabine Lippert's Beaded Fantasies

Having been beadweaving for about 5 years now, I have managed to accumulate my fair share of beading books. But if I asked myself of these books, how many of the projects within them I've actually sat down and beaded, well, the answer would be a number rather smaller than the number of books on my shelf! Not that I don't love these books - they've provided me with heaps of inspiration over the years, but often when there was the choice between following a project and trying to create something new myself, I have tended to go for the latter.

My recent book purchase of Sabine Lippert's hotly anticipated 'Beaded Fantasies' book has made me think about using some of my book collection to further my beady education. There are so many wonderful projects in Sabine's book it's hard to know where to start. Eventually, thought, I couldn't help but kick things off with the very popular 'Granada' brooch. I had to order a few supplies - for some reason I owned virtually no 6mm round beads (something which I have now ammended!), but then I was ready to get started. 

The thing about my own beading is that I often like to start flat - I find thinking in 3D in terms of beading difficult to get my head around. If my beadwork designs end up 3D, it is 9 times out of 10, a pure accident of the combination of beads I have used. Sabine's book has really helped me to start thinking more 3D and about layers too. When I was beading the Granada brooch I found a gap on one part that made me question if I was following the instructions right, only to realise that in the very next step, the beads added would come in to fill the gap. If I'd been trying to do that sort of thing by myself, I'd have seen the gap and though 'no, I'm on the wrong track here.' This is the good thing about working from the tutorials/instructions of someone else, it pushes your ideas and opens you up to new approaches.

So here's my version of the Granada brooch, beaded in my favourite 'Metallica' colourway as I have come to think of it. 

I am in love with this piece and Sabine's design - I can definitely see me making more of these (I'm sure if my Mum sees it she'll be wanting one!). 

The other project from the book that I've completed is the Scherezade pendant - a fab combination of RAW and netting. Again, this piece tested my ideas about construction and layers in 3D beading, and I love the result. 

I've worn this piece a few times - I've had it on a long chain with the chain just looped through the pendant with a larks head knot. It is very sparkly thanks to the silver and half coat vitrail firepolished crystals I used. I could see me making this design again, but perhaps a little smaller - you can see from my hand in this photo that this pendant is fairly big, and it definitely has some weight to it too.

I'm sure I'll be making many more things from this book and I'll of course share finished pictures here when I do. Next on my list are some of the designs which use 8mm Swarovski chatons!

Nicole

xoxo