Another Card

I bought another set of papers from Basic Grey on Friday and the last two blogged cards have been made from those.

Ahem (Blush) - My Craft Space...

Another blogger posted how untidy her workspace is and I realised that mine is even WORSE! Here it is in all its glory...

Thanks Mum

See my earlier post for the reasons.

The Thursday Night Project - 6 November

This is the beginnings of the pearl (glass!) bracelet that I wanted to make. The design was going to be a two row, right angle weave cuff with additional embellishment. The right angle weave was made with large and small pearls and then the hole created was filled with a medium pearl surrounded by two seed beads.



And the above two photos are the finished article.

New Bracelet - My Own Design

This bracelet has been designed by me from start to finish! I have used a bead mix called 'Misty', from the Bead Merchant, which my friend gave me for my birthday. Each strand is linked to one other with one bead and this gives a 'crazy paving' effect. It also makes the bracelet sit more like a cuff.

At each end, I added tubular peyote to hide the crimps and I think this works really well. All in all, I am really satisfied with my design and intend to note it down as a pattern, so anyone could work the piece up.

Finished Bracelet

Love, love, love these colours and the clasp goes so well.

Big Thanks to My Mum

I wanted to sign up for the Level Two City and Guilds course, because I really need the design training more than the beading training. The second level makes the student do more of their own jewellery designing and takes every aspect that step further than Level One has so far. However, the course is four times as long and will cost quite alot of money. I told my mum this and said that I had decided not to ask Mark (my husband) for the money as I no longer work and I don't contribute financially to the household.

Yesterday, my mum offered me a quarter of the course cost with no strings attached. She said that she really wanted me to do the course as she thinks I would be good. This gave me the courage to ask Mark for the balance of the money. He agreed that I could have it as my 40th present (I will be 40 next October - before the course finishes). So, I booked up today and am really excited to be doing it!

Big thanks to my mum - without her really generous offer, I would not have mentioned the course to Mark and would have missed out. I love beading!!!

Week 7 - C and G Course

This week we needed to make ear-rings with 5 rows of 4 bugles, with a specified minimum length for the ear-wire dropper loop. We all followed a pattern that we were given and mine came out like this...

I rather like it actually. The twisted bugles give a lovely 'wrought iron' look (plagarised from my class tutor!) and there is also a snake/water look, depending on how you see things.

My take on the 'Cordoba' bracelet.

This is by no means finished obviously, but I wanted to show the beginnings of the second bracelet, using my own colour scheme. I think that turquoise and brown look lovely together and the hint of gold ties in nicely.

Bead Show Kit - Finished

This is one of the kits I bought yesterday, from this shop. I bought three more kits from them, which are all lovely. Although the instructions could have been slightly clearer and the beads better quality, I bought the kits for the pattern - so I could use them time and time again, with my own colour schemes. I don't think the LARGE glass of wine I had helped me with the instructions last night either! Once I understood what the instructions were telling me to do, it was easy enough to continue without referring to the pattern. I will more than likely make many more of these bracelets (called 'Cordoba' by the way) because I think the final piece is really striking.