Venetian glass earrings

With Christmas fast approaching, I always make sure to have a new supply of Venetian glass beads to work with. My first order of beads arrived yesterday and so this morning I set too and made these four pairs of earrings before popping them over to Gallery at 12 as I had arranged to meet a client there today.
I have plenty of other beads to use which will be incorporated into necklaces or pendants later- but for now here are the earrings

handmade jewellery by Angela Smith

wire dragonfly

Again I decided to experiment with another new idea this afternoon and with dragonflies very much on my mind this week I chose to make this silver plate wire dragonfly. Although I could have chosen to make it as a pendant or even just as a hanging decoration I opted to make it into a brooch.

I think this could well be the first of many, although there are other wildlife subjects I want to try too

handmade jewellery by Angela Smith

knitting and crocheting with wool - shock horror!

Yes I can be normal sometimes! except I still have to add my wire and beads into the mix, just so they are slightly different to everyone else's.
I made these knitted and crocheted brooches today and I will be taking them into Newport shortly along with a few of the knitted dresses I made earlier this week, they will be for sale in the Pop Up Shop, Newport, Shropshire

crocheted brooch with wool, wire and beads

knitted brooch with wool, wire and beads

 handmade jewellery by Angela Smith

knitted dresses in miniature

How on earth did I come up with this idea????
As I was knitting my last bracelet in Gallery at 12 on Saturday I just happened to hold it up a third of the way through and think 'actually that looks as though it could be a dress' shortly after thinking that in walks a customer and we start talking about the bracelet and I mention the idea of knitting a dress, she suggested hanging it on a coat hanger, Liking the idea I decided to give it a try, so after completing the bracelet I went straight on to knitting my first dress in the same wire, ribbon and beads as the bracelet as that was all I had with me,
This one!

 The following day, having slept on it I decided it was worth pursuing, so I spent a lot of my Sunday knitting a collection of dresses, after selecting some other brightly coloured sari silk ribbons.  Once all the dresses were made I then made the coat hangers and attached the dresses to them and then I finished off by making the coat stand as a prop to display before taking the photographs!!!

Do you think I might have watched too much Strictly?????
These can be hung wherever you want, on your dressing table mirror, in your car, on your Christmas tree, in your window!!!!

handmade by Angela Smith 

coiled wire earrings in miniature

Last month I was asked if I could make coiled wire earrings smaller than my ones I made in the summer .
As it wasn't a definite order, I waited until I had some free time, so yesterday I finally got around to having a play. It turns out that it is possible,  these earrings are half the size of the previous earrings.
I started by making a singled coiled pair with silver plate wire,

and then I went on to make this double coiled pair

handmade jewellery by Angela Smith

A new addition to my knitted bracelet designs

Turquoise sari silk ribbon, green enameled wire, and tiny green glass beads, knitted together to create another new bracelet design.

to view some of my previous knitted bracelet designs why not visit my facebook album knitted bracelets

handmade jewellery by Angela Smith 

Another new item for my display ..... possibly!!!!

Walking past a flower shop last month, I saw a decorative cream bird cage, I'm sure you must know the sort of thing I mean. My immediate thought was - shame that isn't black, I might have been able to use it as a display prop on my stall. next thought was, well I could paint it! I decided to think about it before rushing in to buy it. The following week I had a sales event and once my display was set up the idea of a bird cage  appealed even more than before, I just couldn't shake the idea away and then it occurred to me that may be, just may be I could make one. Never having attempted anything like this before, I sourced some black wire - black iron and I started planning in my mind how I would go about it, the plans changed as I went along and so did the finished product.

Tutorial - this is how I made my very first bird cage
Firstly I coiled 12 lengths of wire around a knitting needle, the coil needed to be large enough to slip over the thicker wire, so I tried several needles before starting, in hindsight I should have gone for an even larger sized needle to accommodate two lengths of the thicker wire, but I coped with the opted size.

next I twisted two long lengths of wire together and then at fairly even distances I attached wires to form the uprights.

Unlike most bird cages I needed some horizontal wires to hang earrings on if I want to, so to make sure these were all at the same approximate height I cut the coiled wire into equal lengths and slipped one over each upright before working on the horizontal wires. I chose to loop the horizontal, again so the earrings could hang as pairs and not encroach on it's neighbouring pair.

I worked on each row with the cage still flat, as it made it easier, I didn't join the ends together to form a round until all three horizontal wires were completed, I finished the top horizontal with another pair of twisted wires and then a shorter length of twisted wires helped to bring the verticals in at the top. Then it was just a case of taking all the wires to a centre point and joining them all together making a loop at the top to help carry it
The finished item

The wire had to be thick enough to keep its shape but still thin enough for me to wrap and twist, so the cage isn't the quite the rigid uniform item I had in mind at the beginning, but I like the quirky shape I have ended up with and it could work. My only concern is, will it be okay to hang earrings on the black iron - any one out there know if the earrings will react? I have thought about painting clear nail varnish on the black iron loops to protect the ear hooks, but I don't know if I need to or if it will help!

handmade by Angela Smith

Freshwater pearls with Swarovski crystal pearls

Although this necklace earring set was only made recently I no longer have it in my collection and it will not be replicated exactly either, but it deserved a showing and  this will serve as a record of yet another of my unique necklace designs.

handmade jewellery by Angela Smith

clinging on to summer

Having been so spoilt this year with our glorious summer I am not totally ready to give way to Autumn, so yesterday I sat down and made this oh so cute summer inspired necklace, bracelet earring set, and not just one pair of earrings - three pairs of earrings.
made with small colourful fimo flower beads and fuchsia acrylic beads - guaranteed to brighten up the dullest of days!

handmade jewellery by Angela Smith 

Old friends re-visited - Paua shell

I have been making necklaces with paua shell beads off and on, ever since my holiday in New Zealand ten years ago, while out there I bought some beads from a bead shop and I have, on occasions, ordered more from there in the following years, this afternoon I found a bag of them, so I then spent half an hour rummaging through them to find beads that hang in a similar way with similar tones too, before threading them onto some tiger tail. The first necklace I made ten years ago, I kept for myself and is still one I wear often.
Hopefully some-one will be wearing this one for many years to come too

handmade jewellery by Angela Smith

Fossil and Rhodonite

Any one who makes things will tell you if they are not feeling 100 percent, creative inspiration is hard to come by, well I have had a cold for a week and I have definitely been lacking any desire to be creative for a few days now but this morning I decided that enough was enough and went back into my work room, after having a good look through all my beads, I decided to work with some that I haven't used for a while and came up with this simple set, nothing too adventurous for now, just a gentle morning of making.
Fossil and Rhodonite

handmade jewellery by Angela Smith