Beachcomber bracelet

Forum challenge beads

Final bracelet

Quite some time ago I took part in a forum challenge, exchanging images to kick-start a new beadset idea. I was lucky enough to receive a beautiful photo of a harbour at night and made these. I hoarded them for ages before recently deciding to make a knotted bracelet out of some of them adding a stoneware and copper clasp, stoneware cogs and lampwork discs.

 I like to age my copper, but inadvertently used coated wire which refused to darken, lesson learned. As well as this pitfall, I decided I wasn't too fond of the grey cord, so decided to darken it with coffee. This would have done the trick if the cord didn't turn out to be man-made, grr. So I bit the...chocolate, and re-threaded it on darker cotton cording. After all that, I decided to keep it and have worn it frequently this summer. I'm planning to  make a few more along these lines for my shop (minus errors!).

Before alterations

Birth of a bracelet

I've been asked several times how I come up with ideas for jewellery made with my lampwork beads. I'm a believer in not being too tidy (my family would confirm that!) and will often let random beads lie around on my work bench. They get to know one another and then speak to me...well one or two of them will catch my eye so I put them together and start adding other toning or contrasting elements, including my ceramic beads and purchased semi-precious beads and silver or copper charms and other components. It all evolves as I add or subtract bits. Sometimes I'll make a wirework clasp or ring or in this case a spiral cage especially for the work in progress, sometimes I find them...lying around on the bead mat. Told you I was untidy! When I'm happy with the arrangement I join it all together with appropriate bead caps and spacers and so on, and I'll often give it a chemical bath to antique the metal. In this case I left some of my rings shiny as a contrast.What do you think of the end result?

A winning combination

I was lucky enough to win some lovely etched lampwork rainbow spacer beads in  Lindsey's (Punky Puppy) giveaway  recently and this is what I did with them - I paired them with my handmade copper links and a lentil bead which I made ages ago, and which is decorated with a rainbow twistie which I won from Jolene Wolfe. Told you I was lucky!!

This is what the bracelet looked like this morning when I attempted to age and darken the copper with chemicals.

Nothing happened to the clasp. Then I realised I'd made it with coated wire which will not darken with any amount of soaking...so I knuckled down and commenced to make another one.  If you want to get this effect, you need to check the description of the wire before purchase - look for "bare copper wire". The aging solution (liver of sulphur) is mighty smelly, but I prefer the look of the end result - I think it sets the beads off beautifully.

Once I'd mixed the LOS, I quickly made some more clasps and dunked them and some other bits into the mixture (waste-not-want-not!)








Now I'll be ready to make some more eclectic bracelets - watch this space...







PS I'm wearing the bracelet as I type - it's certainly brightened my day!

Work in progress

This bracelet has been sulking in my work-in-progress heap for an age. I finally put it together with copper beads and clasp and grey pearlised beads...couldn't find a copper wire guardian, so made do with silver, realised that just wouldn't do -  and flung it into a dark corner.

I got it out to reassess yesterday and thought that if I aged it with liver of sulphur, the silver would darken enough not to show up so blatantly. Then I noticed how badly the 'pearls' had fared (see yellow arrow) while the bracelet was feral. The coating had worn badly near the beadholes. So it's out with the snippers and on with a complete re-thread, minus pearly beads, plus antiquing. I'll show the results soon...soonish, anyway.

PS I've now got a 'follow' button up there in the margin. Little things make me smile.

Glass, clay and cake...

Okay, how does this work then...? It seems the right and proper time to start my first blog - and it will mainly be filled with my lampwork, fusing, jewellery-making and clay adventures. The handsome chappy up there is not glass or clay however, but delicious marzipan...

Please excuse any chocolate crumbs in my photos - and happy New Year to anyone who is reading!