2013, My highlights October to December

October
In October whilst knitting another bracelet, I came up with the idea of knitting some wire, bead and sari silk dresses, I also worked with freshwater pearls and semi-precious beads to make more necklace, and I also made a wire dragonfly brooch, which could be the start of something else entirely!
Knitted dresses 

I still have some of these dresses available from my etsy shop and if you quote Mistletoe13 you will receive a 15% discount when you buy before the 31st January

freshwater pearl and semi-precious necklaces

dragonfly brooch

November
In November I made more jewellery specifically with Christmas in mind, so I chose to make with Venetian glass necklaces and pendants, I also continued with my wire dragonfly idea and made my first attempts at wire sculptures, hares and dragonflies. Novemebr ended with a visit to Birmingham to spend a day with twitters #sbs winners and Theo Paphitis, the post though wasn't written about it until December, as I wanted to include some of the official photos from the sbs website.

Venetian glass necklaces and pendants

Wire Sculptures

Theo Paphitis and #sbs

Kim Thomas-Jones, Jude Robimson and myself, all wearing Angela Smith jewellery

December

In December I photographed a lot of my wedding jewellery again with the plan of putting it online to sell, hopefully this will happen sometime in 2014, I also made a selection of small earrings to take in to Gallery at 12 as stocking fillers and small Christmas gifts

wedding jewellery

Small earrings

So that is my review of 2013 in four brief posts, I have a few plans for 2014, but as always plans are made but other things happen, so I wait with excitement to see what will happen in 2014 I can't wait to share with you my new makes - 

Have a wonderful 2014  

Angela x

2013 My highlights July - September

July
July saw plenty more wildlife jewellery, and a splash of more sparkle with a stunner of a Swarovski crystal necklace along with some new Venetian glass beads.

Wildlife inspired jewellery

Swarovski crystal necklace

Venetian glass earrings

August 

In August I designed some new bracelets some three stranded, some with glass pearls and some with diamante beads, I also made some sunflower jewellery.

bracelets

sunflower jewellery

September

In September I worked a lot with wire, I coiled lots of  silver plate wire to make ear loops, necklaces and bracelets, I also started working with bronze wire, and I made some vintage inspired necklaces.

Coiled wire jewellery

Bronze wire jewellery

Vintage inspired jewellery

2013 My highlights April - June

My review of 2013 continues with
April which included birthday party, a pink knitted tiara, the introduction of tree of life pendants, and new ideas in blue.
Birthday parties I don't often blog about birthday parties, mainly because I very rarely have time to take any photographs, but in April I did have time, so a post was written, parties are something I really enjoy, it is great encouraging young people to develop their creativity even if it is just for a couple of hours, seeing the designs and colour combinations children choose to use is often a revelation.

knitted tiara and a pink one at that!

Tree of Life
I loved making these, and hopefully I will be asked to make more in 2014

Blues I used new blue glass beads in April along with some new fabric chain, which added a whole new dimension to my jewellery.

May saw me working with pearls again and one of my jewellery items was chosen as the  Beads Unlimited Blog Readers Flower Power winning design

Pearls 

Winning design

crocheted chrysanthemum brooch

June

In June I used silk to make some totally new pearl jewellery and I also introduced wildlife inspired pendants to my life and collection - 

pink silk and pearl jewellery

wildlife inspired jewellery

with more to come.........

2013 My highlights - January - March

What a year!!!!!
So much happened, I thought I would spend a few days in the run up to 2014 looking back over my achievements and makes.
January - a month of workshops, fairies, hearts and weddings.
Workshops
I introduced a series of jewellery making workshops in a local village shop, which were very well attended, despite the awful weather. These gave me encouragement to plan further ones for later in the year, again trying out different venues, some of which worked better than others, I have potentially three other venues to try out in 2014, so watch this space for more workshop news.

Fairies
I also chose to make a few smaller beaded fairies to add to my collection.

Hearts

I also made some sari silk wrapped wire and bead hearts ready for valentines day.

Weddings

More specifically tiaras, I introduced some double banded tiaras to my collection and even more diamante sparkle.

February

February was a month of trying out new ideas.

Product reviews I was approached by the Bead Shop in Manchester to review some of their beads, findings, and kits, so I found myself using beads I wouldn't ordinarily use which was interesting, some of which I then continued to use in my own jewellery making such as these 'beadalon' ear wires

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Blog shop I also re-opened my blog shop, with a few items of jewellery , some of the items have sold from there others inspired other commissioned orders, so it is something I am planning to continue with in 2014 

Beaded cards

Following on from the success of my beaded Christmas cards, I worked on a range of wire and beaded cards to sell in Gallery at 12 these have continued to sell throughout the year and is something I need to continue with in 2014 I have a few more designs in mind to work on.

March

March was the month I was introduced to 'velveteen' in tube form which could be used to cover nylon coated wire, this works especially well when using heavier beads than my normal small Swarovski crystals.