Folksy Friday...recent favourites

Haven't had the time to do a Folksy Friday post for a few weeks. I've decided to do one today by having a look at the things I've been adding to my favourites recently. Hope you enjoy my picks!








1.) Sherlock Holmes pendant by Emma Turpin - I just love the whole concept of this necklace...the magnifying glass shaped pendant with the silhouette cut out detail = Fab!

2.) Dancing Fox ring by Sarah Birt - some more silver loveliness here with a wonderfully cute fox shaped ring

3.) Yellow tulip earrings by April Is Forever - I'm not one for yellow usually, but these beadwoven earrings are so delicate and just right for Spring being (hopefully!) just around the corner

4.) Wee Blue Flower Brooch by Pats Paraphernalia - there are some talented polymer clay people out there and I am in awe of people who can make such detailed canes as these butterfly wing influenced ones

5.) Silver Disc Earrings with Green Jasper by Cinnamon Jewellery - the jasper beads in these beautiful earrings are a fabulous bright contrast against the silver metal

6.) Organic Peacock lampwork bead set by Kilo Lemur Lampwork - I have way too many lampies in my bead stash already but I am finding it hard to resist this gorgeous set which have a peacock-feather like pattern on them

Hope you enjoyed the picks...hopefully I will have some beady bits of my own to show you after the weekend as I have (a very rare) whole Saturday to myself tomorrow to use creatively.

N
XOXO

Knitted socks and metal piercing!

Sorry for the gap in blog updates...there's no beadwork to show as I've been working on bridal jewellery for a fantastic friend who gets married in July. Whilst I think it's very unlikely her husband to be will read this blog, I still feel I should keep it a secret until the big day - you can see photos afterwards I promise! I can tell you that the necklace I am making for her involves a lovely slinky twisted herringbone rope, which is a stitch I rarely use but am enjoying immensely.

I have been knitting though, and finally finished my first pair of socks, knitted on 2 circular needles. I picked up the funky self striping Regia yarn at the Knitting & Stitching Show in October and started off on a different pattern but the instructions were very confusing and not designed for 2 circulars, so that got frogged and I instead turned to Ravelry and found this pattern called Eleanor.

So here they are all finished!!

So what's next for my knitting needles? Well, I recently bought a book about toe up sock knitting which has some gorgeous patterns in. It's called Socks from the toe up by Wendy D Johnson - find it here, and after much thought I have decided to knit the very sweet hearts and flowers socks, using my gorgeous new sock yarn from Wharfdale Woolworks.

So here is everything gathered together ready to go into my bag for some knitting on the bus to work.

And a close up of the yarn, just because it's fab!

Now I mentioned metal piercing in this blog post title, so I also have a little peak at what I got up to on Saturday afternoon armed with my piercing saw and a practice sheet of aluminium. I've had an idea for a pendant (although it will require soldering and I don't currently own a torch) so I wanted to try out one of the components...it's a little bigger than I'd want it to be in the real thing, but I wanted to have a play with using my saw blade to 'draw' some detail in as it were. 

Can you guess who inspired this? It hasn't been finished off - the edge could definitely do with filing (I await the arrival of a set of needle files for this) and I'm not sure about the eyes (I think they look a bit zombie scary!) but I am happy with it as a trial run. I have another prototype ready to pierce for real, i.e. out of silver (eek) that I hope I can use to enter some beading competitions this year, but I'm not sure when I'll next get a spot of free time to get the saw out again.

Hope you've enjoyed my little show and tell.

N

xoxo

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

A Weekend of Ups and Downs

I realised I haven't blogged for almost a fortnight now, so I thought I would write a little update about the ups and downs of my weekend.

 On Saturday, with my bag laden with lots of mini kits of seed beads and crystals, pliers, needles and thread and a wad of printed instruction sheets, I headed off to the Chelsea Town Hall for the We Make Fair where I was due to be running a beadwoven snowflake workshop.

After getting off the tube at Sloane Square, just as I spotted the hall up ahead, I reached round to take my phone out to check the time as I'd not put my watch on that morning...only to find the zipper pocket on my rucksack undone and my mobile phone nowhere to be seen! In a fluster I marched back along the Kings Road as quickly as possible scanning the ground in case I had somehow managed to drop it and asked at the tube station if anyone had handed it in to no avail. I headed back to the fair, all of a fluster and quite upset at the thought that someone had probably opened my bag on purpose and stolen the phone.

Thankfully, there are some nice people out there, and Mary, one of the We Make organisers was very kind and helped me try ringing my phone and then get in touch with my mobile phone company to get the sim card and phone blocked so noone could run up a huge bill on my contract. However, I was still really rather upset and so most people passed by the sad and distracted looking girl sitting at the workshop table. I had a few people compliment me on the snowflakes, but no interest in anyone wanting to make their own. I think this was down to a combination of me not being in the best frame of mind to be drumming up interest, plus that people were either at the fair merely to browse or to purchase something ready made for themselves or as a Christmas gift. I am still grateful for Mary at We Make for giving me the chance to do the workshop, but I think Saturday was just not my day! Fortunately I have phone insurance and should have a new one on its way very soon.

But, on a more positive note, my Folksy shop has been having a flurry of sales in the last few days. Two Dazzling Daisy necklaces have been snapped up and my Ice Queen bracelet has also found a new home and is off to be a Christmas gift. Plus an extended family member was told about my website by my mum (who needs Twitter/Facebook etc to promote when you have your mum to tell everyone your work is lovely?!) and bought my Heart's Desire bracelet as a present for a friend.

There's still plenty of time to have a look at my shop and pick out a handmade Christmas gift for someone special. I have several more Dazzling Daisy necklaces listed (and I am always willing to make up a custom pendant in a colourway of your choice) and plenty of earrings which make perfect stocking filler gifts - all earrings in my shop are currently part of a special pre-Christmas offer of 3 pairs for £10.

                                         

                                         Dazzling Daisy pendant in the rainbow crystal colourway

                                           'In Bloom' bracelet in deep metallic blue

                      
                                          Frosted silver flower burst earrings

                      
                                           Jet Black 'Falling Star' earrings

Hope everyone is doing alright with their Christmas shopping...I still have a fair bit to do, plus several gifts to handmake.

TTFN

Nicole x

Beadwoven Snowflake Workshop Announcement!

I have been very excited about this opportunity, but have been refraining from announcing it in case anything went awry. Now, the information has been official posted I am happy to announce that I will be teaching a beadweaving workshop at the We Make London Christmas Fair!

Between 1pm and 3pm I will be teaching you how to make gorgeous beadwoven snowflakes - which can either be used as Christmas tree decorations, or worn as a festive necklace pendant.

I'm really excited about this workshop - they make look intricate, but these snowflakes are really rather simple to make. All materials, tools and a handout with helpful diagrams will be provided, but I will be on hand to help you create your snowflake too.

So if you are looking for something Christmassy to do on the 4th December in London, please come along. The fair is open from 11-5pm and as well as workshops there will also be lots of stalls selling gorgeous handmade items (perfect for giving as gifts!) and even a live choir to really get you into the festive spirit.

For more details about the event, go check out the We Make London blog here.


I have also been gradually adding lots of new jewellery pieces to my Folksy shop, and there are still more to come (plus I am always willing to do custom orders) so if you've started your Christmas shopping (or want to treat yourself ;-) ) then head over to my shop here. Below are just a few of the new pieces I've been busily listing.

N

XOXO