Cinnamon Jewellery

You know when you look at your shop frontpage and think there's something missing? Well my Folksy shop has been looking, well, a bit colourless recently. My item photos are quite colourful but my banner was a bit dull and needed some work. I remembered a pair of "traffic light" earrings I photographed last week made with colourful czech glass beads I bought from Lima Beads . I've been after the gorgeous pistachio green colour for a while and did see some on Etsy but thought I'd check at Lima Beads and they had the exact colour plus some lovely mustard yellow and an orangy-red in the czech glass so I bought them straight away! I loved the three colours together so made a pair of earrings with some copper discs and used one of the photos to whip up a new banner. Much more colourful! I took a lot of photos last week because we had sunshine in the UK - yes summer made a brief appearance again and now I just have to edit them all!

A new variation on my copper ball headpins - coloured balls! The headpins are made with a torch, pickled, trimmed, oxidised and cleaned up, tumbled and then the fun begins. I painted the ball ends with different coloured patina inks and sealed with a coat of varnish  Multicoloured - like mini balloons on sticks! I found a sponge pan scrubber very useful for sticking the headpins into to let them dry. I think they're really sweet and a great way to add a bit of colour. You could twirl them to make dangling tendrils or make a wrapped loop at the top to make little dangles or just use them as good old headpins! Available in turquoise, green, lilac, pink and mixed colours and currently being added to my Folksy and Etsy shops  .................now i just need to make some for myself :D

Since buying a Sizzix Bigshot recently for embossing metal I've suddenly discovered the world of dies. Dies are wonderful things you can use with your Bigshot, Cuttlebug, etc to cut out all sorts of lovely things including envelope templates. I also discovered the world of scrapbook paper. I love patterned paper and most things stationery. I used to love going into WH Smiths each year to buy my new pencil case, pens, rubbers and pencils for the start of the new school year (that was quite a long time ago!) and I still like buying stationery stuff even if I don't really need it! I thought I'd use my Bigshot to make some mini envelopes so after trawling the internet for a suitable die and picking up a scrapbooking pad from The Range I ventured into papercraft. I've got to say it was a nice change from metal and beads and really therapeutic to do. The folding and glueing is my favourite part and I loved seeing these cute little envelopes take shape. It then struck...

 I posted recently about practising using my Bigshot to emboss metal and now I have some finished earrings to show! The copper "pansy" earrings above started life as copper discs that I used a Vintaj Deco Etch folder on to create the pretty flower and petal effect. The end result with the etch folders gives a more stamped look than etched to be honest but I do like it and have bought a couple more of the etch folders since. The petals were created using a file then the flowers were sanded and domed and the bead and earwires added. I could've used my saw to cut out the petal shapes but decided to sit in the sun and file industriously for 15 minutes instead! Purple lampwork earrings with the same flower design Serpentine beads with copper teardrop earrings Embossed Copper Disc earrings That flower design again this time in stud form!                  ...

After taking up Folksy's offer of their Plus account recently I've decided it makes sense to combine my two Folksy shops and move my handmade findings into my jewellery shop . So..................after spending rather a long time (let's just say it was most of Saturday) copying and pasting descriptions from one shop to another, my new combined jewellery and findings shop is finished. I even relisted a load of jewellery too to get the front page of my shop looking like a jewellery shop again. I'm liking the Plus account very much! As for the tediousness of doing it all I know Folksy are working on speeding up the listing process but dear God! At the same time as listing my findings/waiting for pages to load, I managed to a) edit 25 photos, b) use my Bigshot to cut out a load of mini envelopes and c) fold and glue most of said mini envelopes together.

I must admit up until a few weeks ago I was vaguely familiar with the name Sizzix but as to what you actually did with a "Sizzix" I was completely in the dark! That was until I stumbled across a video from Vintaj showing how you could use their embossing folders with a Bigshot to create designs on metal ("metal" - my favourite word after chocolate!) I was really impressed and itching to have a go, I just needed a Bigshot........ I waited a few weeks then when the urge to possess one overcame me I went out debit card at the ready..............and the shop had sold out! So I trundled off to The Range on the off chance and came home clutching my own surprisingly heavy pink and black wonder machine. It sat on the dining room table for a couple of days while I waited for the embossing folders I'd ordered online to arrive then the time came to start playing! I started with some pre-cut 24g copper hearts and the Wildflower Vines and the Butterfly Swirls Deco ...

I felt like doing some torch enamelling recently so came up with these colourful pendants using sgraffito and enamel pens. Sgraffito involves scratching a design into the enamel, either the first layer to reveal the metal beneath or you can fire one colour, sift another contrasting colour on top then scratch out a design or just lines to reveal the first colour layer. I went for three different colours which involved using pieces of cardboard strategically placed whilst sifting! Fiddly but I love the effect. I used enamel pens to draw (I use the term loosely!) poppies onto pea green opaque enamel. After firing I added the brown dots to give the flowers a centre. More enamel pen circles and dots. I don't find enamel pens that easy to use, they can be a bit blobby and having to hold them perpendicular and squeeze quite hard at the same time is not condusive to drawing pretty designs! Circles and dots are fine though! I will be experimenting further and making s...