keeping with the blues!!!

As often happens, one design leads to another! After making my navy necklace yesterday I chose to make this one today. I have used a smaller version of the same navy bead as in yesterdays design, but I used montana grey and clear Swarovski crystals instead of the garnet I also embellished it with a navy fabric chain. I then played around with different ways of making earrings - should I have the chain above the beads or below, how many links should I use, how many beads should I use etc  eventually though I decided on the ones shown.

handmade jewellery by Angela Smith

A necklace in navy

Today I made this necklace using large glass beads and Swarovski crystal. The glass beads have a look of navy when light is not able to pass through, but as soon as they are held in the light it becomes apparent that in fact they are grey blue or 'montana'. I hope the photos below illustrate this. I have chosen to add garnet Swarovski crystals to the design - I think they work very well together.

handmade jewelley by Angela Smith

Two summer pretty's

Today I have been thinking about summer and as I have just acquired some new fimo beads which shout out summer what more of an excuse do I need! I grabbed a tray, filled it with my selected beads and took it outside where I sat in the sunshine and started threading.
Here are the finished items

handmade jewellery by Angela Smith

simple elegance of earrings

This morning I have been working on a new range of earrings, after my product review of these beadalon ear hooks and the positive feedback I received as a result of posting the photos of the finished items, I decided I should introduce a range of earrings made with the hooks. I opted to use the ear hooks with Swarovski crystal pearls to produce these simple elegant earrings.
Here is my collection

 I can currently make them in white, cream, pale mauve, olive green and burgundy and come in two sizes of pearl - small and medium.

 and below are some of the pairs of earrings displayed hanging . I have only selected a few of them.

 

 - these will be available from my blog shop in the next few days but in the meantime please contact me for further details

handmade jewellery by Angela Smith

Bethany's birthday party

I am often invited to provide  jewellery making birthday parties, where I take some of my beads along to a venue, this could be a home or a hall where the birthday party is taking place and provide a two hour jewellery making session.
Today I took my beads along to Bethany's home for two hours of creative fun.
I arrived before the party was due to start, so I had time to set up. I always stress that I need enough table space for the boxes of beads as well as room to sit and make! Sometimes I think that may be I have too many beads!

At some parties the attendees are all peers of the person celebrating the birthday so all similar ages, sometimes there is a mixture of ages as friends of family are also invited to join in, today we had a mixture.
The first item to be made is the necklace - this can either be a floating necklace or one on leather. So after a quick introduction explaining the basics I stand back while the beads are chosen, this can take some time - too many beads to chose from!

Once the beads have been selected  and during the planning stages I will provide everyone with their choice of threading material so they are then ready to thread their beads. Then I will assist with the attaching of clasps and hey presto the finished articles!

After a short break if needed, the guests return to the beads to make either a bracelet or a pair of earrings.
Here are a few of the finished items.

Hopefully everyone is really pleased with their finished pieces and proud of what they have achieved.

Happy birthday Bethany - It was a real pleasure and thank you for allowing me to take a few photos too! I hope you enjoyed the rest of your day- If this cake is anything to go by I am sure you did x

For further information about my parties please visit my birthday party page

beads with velveteen - a winning combination

As my previous bead and velveteen necklaces were such a success, I have had to make a few more, some will be going to Gallery at 12, but a couple will be available from my blog shop too.

foiled glass beads, lustre glass beads and black velveteen with a silver plate clasp

Foiled glass beads and olive velveteen with a silver plate clasp

 foiled glass beads, lustre glass beads and black velveteen with a silver plate clasp

Turquoise and glass beads, black velveteen, silver plate clasp

 foiled glass beads and black velveteen with a silver plate clasp

 

foiled glass beads and black velveteen with a silver plate clasp

 

 

handmade jewellery by Angela Smith

Knitted tiaras come in pink too

Are you planning a pink wedding, wearing a pink prom dress, attending a pink charity ball or just love pink and love tiaras, whatever the excuse here is the tiara.
Knitted on silver coloured wire with pink glass beads and freshwater pearls.

All the beads were threaded onto the wire in a random order - so this can never be repeated exactly

And of course I can also knit other items to match - such as this knitted bracelet

handmade jewellery by Angela Smith

Tree of life with Malachite

I have  received so much positive feedback after sharing my first  'Tree of Life;  pendant last week it has been quite amazing - I also recieved  a request to make another using malachite which I made yesterday - and here it is -

 

 

Handmade bespoke jewellery by Angela Smith

because I can

This morning I woke up with the urge to make a tree of life pendant - for no other reason than I wanted to prove that I can make them, I have seen so many pictures of these on places such as Etsy and pinterest and having never made one myself I was itching to have a go - so after much thought about the various ways they could be made I finally decided on a method to use when making mine.
Basically I made a double ring of wire for the frame and then with slightly finer wire I threaded on a selection of amethyst chips  which I then wire wrapped as I formed my tree. When I completed my third branch I was very tempted to finish my tree as that looked really quite pretty, but as that wasn't my initial plan  I continued until my tree reached the size I originally had in mind. Then it was just a case of wire wrapping the ring frame with finer wire.
I think it worked out well.

handmade jewellery by Angela Smith