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.

Stash busting, pearly dreams and festivals

Well, after a rather swift accumulation of Swarovski and shell pearls for pieces I will be creating for the craft fair I'm appearing at in July, I felt that I needed a good dose of stash busting (especially as I haven't been let off the norty step by my fellow beaders at Operation Tackle That Bead Stash for months!).
But what could I do? What could I make?

A few magazines and websites later, I decided to have a go at a piece of Cubic Right Angled Weave (CRAW). I must admit, I love the straight forward RAW, but had been a bit apprehensive about trying CRAW, especially as a lot of the written instructions I found a tad confusing. Then I saw a wonderful video how-to on beadmavens.blogspot.co.uk that was straight -forward and easy to use (go to beadmavens then look up the post from 9th September 2011).

My Mum was going to a wedding reception, and had a beautiful dress which obviously needed a new and beautiful necklace to go with it! Approximately 30g of size 8 seed beads later, a gorgeous rope had been created! The addition of a couple of little swags and a small slab of blue opal which I designed to simply fill the "V" in the neckline of aforementioned dress. I haven't taken enough photos of the full piece yet, but these will be up here very soon!!

Festival fashion has been thoroughly on my designing brain this month, and some beautiful and colourful clothes and jewellery have been released in time for the festival season. I'm no exception; again using my stash of dyed shell-strands, neon swarovski pearls and a beautiful strand of orange dyed shell pearl.

If you want to see a sneak peek, go to either etsy.com/shop/uk/bubblyduckbeads or my new facebook page facebook.com/bubblyduckbeads

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

Happy New Year! 2014...Here I come!!

I'm not one for New Year resolutions. I know I can't keep them, and would rather do things as a permanent lifestyle change for the better (eg, improve knowledge/skills, lose weight/get fitter). But after a rocky blogging end to 2013, I thought that I had better start my blogging in earnest.

I also promise more photographs!

So for now, a happy new year to you all! See you on the other side!

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!