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

Treasure bottles

 I made a series of four decorative ocean-themed bottle shaped focals at this time last year and thought I'd make another batch now that summer is on the way (supposedly!). These four are the latest ones and this is the story behind them: 


"Could these bottles have been thrown overboard by a drunken pirate centuries ago, sinking to the ocean bed where they gathered barnacles, seaweed, netting, sand, anemones, and were then washed up onto a sandy shore? Well if they were, mermaids must have magically miniaturised them, which is lucky for jewellery fans..."









I've loved making these - each one is different, and the possibilities are probably endless. I'm keeping the last one for now - I just adore this tealy green glass and I'm not sure if I can get any more. I'd love to see what other jewellery makers do with these. 






 



Oh, I kept another one of the
prototypes and quickly 
wire-wrapped it with one of my 
soldered rings. I can dream of the sea!

Too much fun with metal

I'm having lots of fun playing with copper, forming rings and clasps and headpins.

It's so nice to be able to make most of the components in my jewellery.

Here are some 15mm jumprings with blobs of easy solder waiting for a bit of a heat with my butane torch. The first one I tried didn't work, but a bit of internet checking told me the problem - they needed extra cleaning with a green scrubbie, then it worked a treat.

Then they got into a pickle with a warm salt and vinegar solution to clean them up a bit.

Pretty shiny, just needed a bit more elbow grease, but as I intended to antique them in liver of sulphur, I didn't go mad.

I was quietly pleased to use them in the next bracelet I made.

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?

Tipsy earrings - vintage and modern mix

I bought an old metal  necklace to plunder ages ago and finally made myself a pair of earrings with some of the links. Made some copper earwires and antiqued (darkened) them. As each bunch of grapes is identical, I opted to hang them in opposite directions - I think makes them quite jaunty, even tipsy (how appropriate!) Cheers.

Preparing for my new studio

The bottom of our garden was a fairytale thicket

 

 After a couple of days of hacking back we have enough material for a bonfire. Hmm, what would the neighbours think. Much as I used to love a blazing fire, it isn't environmentally friendly, so we'll probably hire a shredder or skip.

So now we are part-way ready for my new studio (*excited!*).

We've still got some tenacious stumps to get out, but they will wait for another day.

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!