Lampwork beadmaker Sandy Kelly recently bought a bracelet and a matching pair of earrings from my Etsy shop. She then asked if I would make her a bracelet using some of her own lovely lampwork beads ~ of course I said yes!
As you can see Sandy's beads are a pretty mix of colours in a stripy design which I teamed with Sterling Silver "S" links.
See more of Sandy's lampwork beads on her website FlowerJasper
It's gorgeous. Your wrapping is so neat. I have managed some small spirals for a bracelet I 'planned' last summer, (i've done about 3 beads and keep getting sidetracked), but not managed to wrap around the edge of a bead yet. It'll come when I stop trying. LOL!
Your comments and questions are very welcome! If you would prefer to contact me directly please use the contact form on my "get in touch" page. Any comments containing links will be deleted so please don't waste your time.....
At the end of last summer, after an incredibly busy few months jewellery-wise, I decided to take a break and repaint my shed. I'd painted it a pale green colour when I first got it and it was starting to look a bit faded and sad. So I did what I expect most people do and started looking online at what wonderful colour I could repaint it. There are lots of great colours out there by Cuprinol and Ronseal and the DIY stores own brands. I took a long time deciding on a colour then got in the car to go and buy the paint. That's when I discovered that B&Q and Homebase only carry a limited selection of shed paint colours {8 if you're lucky} and if you then find something in stock you do like they quite often don't have it in the size pot you need! So the colour I bought was a bit of "Oh buggar it, that'll have to do". Luckily it turned out to be similar to what I'd originally wanted by the time I'd finished the third coat - yes it took three coat...
I decided recently that etching is one of my favourite things to do with metal. I read about it online quite a while ago and immediately thought it looked cool but the thought of using an "acid" and having to find somewhere to store it (a perennial problem when you don't have a workroom) put me off. So instead I admired etched copper from afar. Until I got a bee in my bonnet about it again and bought Lexi Erikson's copper etching dvd. Lexi Erikson is very good at explaining jewellery techniques and making them seem much more straightforward than they first appear. I already knew that ferric chloride was a salt and not an acid so wouldn't eat my flesh through to the bone if I accidently spilled some on my hand. The dvd made me feel much more comfortable about having a go so I ordered some ferric chloride from ebay and bought some stamps and StazOn ink from a local craft shop. My first attempt went ok but for some reason I left the copper to etch for an hou...
Buying a kiln recently has given me the chance to experiment with enamelling on larger pieces of copper and to produce some really cool effects. These effects happen when you combine different types of enamel. I usually use smaller flat pieces of copper for making enamelled earrings and have had some of these effects happen when firing with a torch but they are much more obvious when you use larger pieces. I made a few practice pieces which you can see in the photos below. This was flux {a transparent enamel not to be confused with soldering flux!} applied straight onto copper and fired until the copper was a bright golden colour. Then I added a layer of liquid enamel in green and red over the flux and fired again. The lines and spots form when the enamel becomes hot enough to start moving and in this case the transparent pushes through the liquid enamel layer forming these cool lines and spots. The effect is better in the green liquid enamel than the red. N...
Beautiful! The silver works wonderfully with the gorgeous beads. x
ReplyDeleteIt's gorgeous. Your wrapping is so neat. I have managed some small spirals for a bracelet I 'planned' last summer, (i've done about 3 beads and keep getting sidetracked), but not managed to wrap around the edge of a bead yet. It'll come when I stop trying. LOL!
ReplyDeleteDon't give up, it will come!
ReplyDeletegorgeous blog, love your jewellery, too!
ReplyDeleteThanks Rachel!
ReplyDeleteThat is stunning, I really really love it :)
ReplyDeletei love it too! i have been wearing it non-stop ;-)
ReplyDeleteit is really beautiful, thank you tracy,
sandy x
Thanks Sandy, I'm really glad you like it!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous - as is all your work!
ReplyDelete