Stash busting photos!

I cannot believe how long its been since I last posted! I am so sorry!

This isnt really much of a post today. Just putting up some photos!

Two tone CRAW rope with swags and a small blue opal slab

 Shell and swarovski pearl headband perfect for bridesmaids!

Analternative to the traditional buttoniere or button hole flower, made from shell and swarovski pearl, plus swarovski crystals

Top 5 Gems

I saw a blog challenge on Jewellery Maker TV's website the other day, asking jewellery makers to name their top 5 favourite gemstones, and why or how they are used. I thought this was going to be a bit hard for me; how wrong I was!

I know straight off my top 2 are Opal and Rose Quartz.

Opal is my birthstone, and I love every version of it. I must admit though, I have a soft spot/magpie eye for Fire Opal. The colour change which can happen depending on the light it is in and the iridescence that can also happen always catches my eye.

I'm a sucker for vintage things. Proper vintage that's pre-1950's and 1950's too. Rose Quartz has the ability to create a vintage look and also a modern look with very little effort. Last year I bought some carved Rose Quartz from Jewellery Maker TV, in the shape of a Rose - I couldn't help myself, they were beautiful - I used them to make classic pieces within a couple of days after I received them! Versatile is an over used word, but with Rose Quartz it's too true.

Rose Quartz rose and leaves with pink banded agate and dyed purple Jasper

Rose Quartz leaves with purple dyed jasper

close up of the Roze Quartz rose and leaves

 These are available as unique pieces at my Etsy shop, BubblyDuck Beads


 The next 3 of my favourite gemstones are in no particular order.

Like me, Snowflake Obsidian is perfectly imperfect. The natural inclusions which make the "snowflakes" are why I love it so much! It makes classic black and white or black and red jewellery zing with that added dimension which the snowflake provides with no effort or gaudiness. I have lots of strands of this, and generally will team it up with dyed, ethically sourced coral or blue goldstone for that starry night piece.

Snowflake Obsidian with dyed coral and metallic silver beads, also available on Etsy

As I said on my previous post, I love pearls and pearly things. I love Swarovski pearls for the colours they provide, and I love shell pearl for sheer availability and affordability. Real pearls are for when I have a little bit saved up, or I get them in a bundle or kit. Always classic, evoking vintage era designs for fashion and jewellery, pearls are an evocative gem. English Poet Laureate  Carol Ann Duffy even wrote a poem about pearls. Look it up, it's beautiful and captivating, just as a pearl should be.

Not real - re-purposed glass pearl necklace given to my cousin as a present, she too loves anything vintage

 Haematite (also known as Iron Ore Stone) is one of my basics. I find it in almost any shape I can imagine, and often pay no more than a couple of pounds for an 18" strand of fancy shapes. I recently purchased some "mystic coated" haematite double holed spacers which I re-dubbed "disco coating" because it reminded me of dance floor lights, sparkly shoes, dancing around my handbag and rock music fashion (don't ask me why about the latter - I just thought they would look good as an edgy rock-chic piece). It also does pretty good for jewellery that pays homage to Art Deco & Art Nouveau styles and periods,

My favourite earrings - haematite chevrons and milky glass diamonds

Inspired? I hope you've enjoyed this little look into how I tick. If you want a little more inspiration, you can always go onto the following links via Jewellery Maker TV!

http://www.jewellerymaker.com/en-gb/product.aspx?c=airu72&d=100cts-blue-opal-graduated-plain-slabs-approx-from-10x6-to-26x7mm,-20cm-strand.
http://www.jewellerymaker.com/en-gb/product.aspx?c=szru73&d=70cts-fire-opal-graduated-medium-nuggets-approx-from-6x1-to-11x4mm,-18cm-strand.
http://www.jewellerymaker.com/en-gb/product.aspx?c=cbgp36&d=90cts-rose-quartz-carved-flowers-approx-12mm
http://www.jewellerymaker.com/en-gb/product.aspx?c=awpo61&d=white-straight-drilled-baroque-cultured-pearls-approx-9x8mm
http://www.jewellerymaker.com/en-gb/product.aspx?c=xagp84&d=rose-pink-shell-pearl-plain-rounds-approx-10mm
http://www.jewellerymaker.com/en-gb/product.aspx?c=afgp74&d=220cts-snowflake-obsidian-puffy-ovals-approx-18x13mm
http://www.jewellerymaker.com/en-gb/product.aspx?c=bejk33&d=675cts-mystic-colour-coated-haematite-faceted-rounds-approx-11mm
http://www.jewellerymaker.com/en-gb/product.aspx?c=fdgk46&d=425cts-haematite-faceted-rounds-approx-10mm,-36cm-strand.

Don't you just love being a jewellery maker?

Well, the title says it all quite frankly, and no more have I found this than the last fortnight.

A couple weekends ago, a good friend of mine came to visit friends in Liverpool. On her birthday. 

Typically, as the good friend I am, I had totally forgotten!

So a quick dash home for my purse (I was meeting her in the pub) and a fast birthday present was needed. 

I'd been busy making a stack of necklaces from a beautiful set of bright green birds by Blueberri Beads, and knew that one particular would be perfect for her! Sadly in my rush, I didn't manage to get a photo!! If I can, I'll get my friend to send me one and then I will put it up here!

Then, at the weekend, me and my parents were visiting some long-time friends, and both mum and I decided we needed some new necklaces. A few hours later and two new necklaces,  a air of earrings and a bracelet were ready! 

We got quite a few compliments from our friends and from their friends in turn. 

It's a good feeling, after all the work that is put in, that you can "pull off" something quick!

A double strand necklace made from Swarovski pearls and seed beads

A long a-symmetric necklace made from a selection of agate and blue goldstone the main focal is a glass coin that I picked up at the April BeadsUpNorth event

Another focal bead from Blueberri Beads with agate, all on silver coloured coated wire

Hope this post has inspired you to make a few "emergency" makes!

Bad days, Good days and holidays

In April, I had a bit of a "funny turn" in work, which made me feel unwell for quite a few days. I'm still under investigation, but when it happened, it led to a couple of really stressful and unsure weeks for me. So I decided one Wednesday, to visit the guys at The Bead Shop Liverpool and do a class. As I'm working full time, and have rather busy weekday evenings, I simply give Vicky at the shop a ring to see if there's space, and I will then just turn up!

So that's what I did, not caring what I would do, and if I've done it before, but wanting some lovely beady time.

Olygalala (sorry for the spelling) bracelet. I tried desperately to steer clear of the colours I usually gravitate to (blues and greens) and went for a lovely red and white.

Here's the result

pretty isn't it? The first time my naturally tight tension has worked in my favour! I had a few issues with thread snapping (crystal + tight tension + friction = snapped thread) but eventually, I got there.
Here's a tip for this kind of bracelet: don't wear it every spare minute you get, or regularly with sleeves. If you do, it might end up like this...

In a sandwich bag, given to me when I visited my cousin the week before last. It snapped very discretely, very quietly on the train, and began raining little red seed beads on my Metro newspaper. A sad moment.


But that didn't matter, I was going up to The Lake District with my cousin Emma (from emazbeadz.blogspot.com) for a few days, and then I was joining her at her jewellery making class at the end of the week, doing silversmithing.

The Lake District is a wonderful place for inspiration, whether it is in the crafty sense, or literary sense (I also write poetry and short stories). There are loads of small independent craft and designer-maker shops, galleries and stalls in Windermere, Grasmere and Ambleside alone!

As I said, I learned some silversmithing techniques from Deliah at The Jewellery Maker, Lancaster.
I was lucky, as normally I would need to learn the basics before doing the stone setting. This includes soldering, shaping and firing. The nearest I've ever been to these, is sawing and soldering copper pipe for my dad a few years back.

Well, with help and support from my fellow learners, and the wonderful tutelage of  Deliah. I completed a beautiful pendant!

 I've got the bug now, but with silversmithing courses in Liverpool too rare and prohibitively priced for me, more Lancaster trips for me, me thinks!

It's been quite a while

I have no explanation or excuse (well not good ones anyway) for why I've been away for so long. I do, however, have pictures about what I've been doing in the meantime!

Well, firstly, I've turned my "lounge" into a more crafty place....

Pretty good eh?
I live with my parents still, and have my own "lounge" area, which I decided to turn into a place where I could create, store and keep my makes.
I'm naturally not a very organised person, and need something where I can put my hand immediately on what I want and know where exactly it is.
My seed bead stash is in the blue boxes, which were found in a skip!! Seriously folks, found in a skip, given a good wash and new lease of life.

Secondly, I've been getting ready to put some creations on Etsy, by getting my Dad, an amateur photographer to take the pictures. He's a natural talent of the whole "use what you have in the house to create what you need" and DIY-ness in general. This is what I found the other week when he had been photographing....

A bench clamp, an old mop pole...

with a camera mount

and easel - sorry, I cant seem to get it the right way up!

 All put together so pictures like this

can be taken without any camera wobble, and with a basic DSLR lens!

So yes, this means I am now on Etsy! Find me on http://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/BubblyDuckBeads

back blogging and beading!!

The reason I disappeared off the bloggersphere for a few weeks was because of family parties, holidays and fancy-dress costume-making. I did pop into The Beadshop Liverpool for a bit of beady respite, but didn't have time to blog-until now.

So, what have I been doing??

Well, I've been experimenting with superduo beads making a heart design to accompany one of the aforementioned costumes, making pieces to enter into blog competitions over at The bead shop Liverpool and Operation Tackle that Bead Stash. Due to lack of time, I didn't get a chance to enter OTTBS...

I wandered down to The Beadshop today to spend the afternoon beading preparing for September's monthly competition http://www.thebeadshopliverpool.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/indian-summer-monthly-challenge.html I have so many ideas running through my head for this, I have decided to make almost all of them, before deciding which one to enter!
Vicky had a new delivery of beautiful seed beads which were sprawled all over the table as I walked in! I bought a few new size 15's in luminous colours, extra needles (word to the wise - you can NEVER have too many needles) and put aside a cabochon for my foray into bead embroidery!

I'll add all the pictures I took today in another post, as they're on my phone, and this post is from my PC!! In the meantime, I'll leave you with my design for the Fairytale theme blog competition in August http://www.thebeadshopliverpool.blogspot.co.uk/2013_08_01_archive.html

Peyote, so many ways...!

I love beading with Peyote stitch. When i first get them, I look through my beading/jewellery making magazines to find all the Peyote patterns/projects and lodge them in the 'to try later' file in my brain. One such technique is flat (even count) peyote. For most people, this will be the first peyote they will learn. Not me. 

From a request to make a small extension bar-clasp for my mum's bracelet, and needing something that could be made with size 15 seed beads, be pretty and substantial. 

So I turned to this months edition of the US mag Bead & Button where a good little 'tutorial' for flat Peyote is in the back -along with a quick and clear explanation of 'zipping up' the work. A few minutes later, and I had a little flat piece of peyote even stitch ready to make into a tiny tube for the extension. It was so easy to do, I want to do more!!!

Instead, I concentrated on creating my design piece for this months competition on the new sparkly blog for The Bead Shop Liverpool (thebeadshopliverpool.blogsopt.co.uk). I think I'm going to add a bit of flat peyote to the piece now I know I can do it!

Beading/jewellery making is contagious

It might have been a few weeks since I last posted, but I haven't been slacking-not at all! In fact, I have been spreading the love of beading & general jewellery making to my family. 

Last week, my fab cousin Emma came to stay and we made jewellery and learned to do Nepal Stitch at my usual place, The Bead Shop Liverpool. 

Emma has been learning silversmithing techniques over the past couple of months, and is continuing in September. As a result of all this inspiration and bead-fuelled excitement, I convinced her to start a blog about her learning experience and exploits as a jewellery maker! I will put links to her site once she has put her project photos up. 

Add to this my parents. Both are creative people in very different and wonderful ways, and I can usually find them sitting around the dining table with me surrounded by real gemstones and other non-gem beads asking where the head pins are, if I have any odd-coloured findings, and if I can get a tube of copper seed beads for spacer beads!! I came home tonight from my beading class to find them hard at work!

Soon I will put our makes up for sale online. And try and get to a couple of craft fairs. In the meantime, please ogle our display of earrings!

Like it? I got the basket from a charity shop for under £2, the material, foam insert & dowels are all our own! Marvellous eh? The credit must go to my dad though for making it look so good, all I did was buy it!

So, what have I been making in my last two beading classes? I've learned Nepal Stitch and spiral stitch. Aren't they pretty?

I might have found a new favourite stitch!!

And so, this months inspiration? I think I might have gone into overdrive on the project ideas...

I can't decide where to start!!

I'm also trying to find some inspiration/knowledge about steam punk jewellery and the genre in general. I love vintage style anything up until the 1960's

and I love the writing of most kinds of fiction but I'm fascinated by the wonderful combinations that steam punk brings. So if there's anyone out there can can give me a hand to point me in the right direction there, give me a shout!!

Now, I have to go and design my August challenge for thebeadshopliverpool.blogspot.co.uk

Where shall I begin??

New beading stitch!

ItOoh ooh ooh! Looky looky! A brand new stitch! I learned this at my usual place (the bead shop Liverpool) today. I love it there so much I just booked myself on the class without checking what we were making! Hee Hee! Anyway, it was a lovely surprise to find that it was Basic Netting weave. It's so beautiful! 

It's made with size 11 seed beads and Swarovski crystals in 4mm. 

Now, I need an excuse to go out and wear it!

Until next time 

Happy Beading!

Sunshine, beads and ogling gem strands

It's not as weird as it sounds. A couple of weeks ago, I bought some semi-precious gems from Jewellery Maker (www.jewellerymaker.com) and they arrived last week! I got some gorgeous products, including my favourite, rose quartz. Although I now have decided that I need to have a mental "top 10" favourite gems, as I now have realised there are more out there than I originally knew about. So, in said top 10 are Opal (my birthstone and absolute fave!), Rose Quartz, Aquamarine, and Chalcedony to name a few. 

I've put all my purchases away, and as I did, I simply stared at them, wondering at their beauty and the possibilities of making jewellery with them! I've also got some Sterling Silver products to compliment the gems. 

Here is one make, made from multi-coloured shell and glass chill pepper beads, on rose gold coloured chain, made for myself. 

I've also completed one of my half-finished/do again projects that I talked about in my last post, and here it is!!!

I realise that there is a very unflattering reflection of me in the stand. Regardless of that, isn't the necklace pretty? And it's all with rose quartz on silver played copper. 

Plus, as a new piece, I've made this

Rose quartz and aquamarine bracelet with toggle clasp. 

Well, I hope you have enjoyed today's post, and have been inspired a little - even to finish off that lingering project!!!

Enjoy the sunshine and hot weather, all you UK readers!

Happy beading! 

New stitches, new goodies and...

...a new meaning to bits and BOB's! 

The capitalisation is deliberate. I have decided, just by looking at the mess that is in my craft drawers and my occasional dining-come-regular crafting table, that BOB's in my case means Boxes of Bits. The other bits in that phrase don't -as yet- have boxes, or anywhere to go.  I know, be more organised I hear you say, well it's easier said than done, as I am sure a lot of crafty people out there know and understand. 

As a result of this revelation, I have decided to challenge myself to finish at least one of the myriad projects I have unfinished. Here are a couple of my newest candidates

Sorry about the quality, taken on my phone with no flash and poor lighting.

These are two strands of coloured shell with glass chillies dotted through the strand. They will be bracelets/necklaces, but I have to finish some of my older projects first....

And so to finished projects and new stitches! I've been to two more beading classes at The Bead Shop Liverpool*

in which I have learned Right Angle Weave (my second fave stitch) and flat spiral weave (my newest and first fave stitch). Have a look at the flat spiral bracelet I made this week!!!

(The crystals are all Swarovski!)

Me thinks I'll be making a lot more of these!

I have also tried my hand at bead bezzling (embellishing large beads), of course I have used Swarovski rivoli's, but I love doing it so much! I made this set for my mum with sterling silver findings and chain (from Spoilt Rotten Beads)

(With genuine Amethyst round drop on the necklace central pendant) 

I've also bought some wonderful genuine 

gemstones from the lovely people at Jewellery Maker TV (with some compelling encouragement from my family) all I need to do is make a few things and figure out where/how to sell them! I will update you as and when about all that. 

Well, it's late, and I must go, so for now have a happy beading!

* The Bead Shop Liverpool has been mentioned as a supplier in this month's edition of Making Jewellery magazine on page 55! 

Weekend makes

Fair enough, I haven't posted here since my first entry some weeks back. That doesn't mean I haven't been beading though!

In the last few weeks, I have learned how to do triangle weave stitch, spiral Cellini stitch and circular peyote, all at the lovely Bead Shop Liverpool. 

This week has been mainly taken up by thinking out designs, watching tv for inspiration, and gaining ideas. 

Over today, I have made a few bits and pieces, including a necklace which I knocked up before going to church this morning!! Hope you like them! 

This morning's project!

Some wooden beading...

A necklace made for my lovely mum...

My triangle weave bracelet (turquoise) & Cellini spiral 'necklace' that I made into a bracelet (lime green).