Blue Forest Jewellery's blog

Handmade Monday: Going round in circles

2012-02-13T11:18:00.001Z

These spiral earrings really sum up what it feels like to be going round in circles - maybe that's why I love making spirals! Thought I'd share how to do these little connectors with a dimple at the base. Sorry about the blurry photos - camera was also in a bit of a tizz!

Bamboo peach agate earrings

You'll need:
Round nose pliers
Chain nose pliers
Nylon coated pliers
Wire - practise with 0.6mm, make up in the gauge of your choice.

Spirals are easy but take a bit of practice. The main issue is marring the wire, which is where the nylon coated pliers come in, but you can work just with bare pliers. Thicker wire, and wire coated with a coloured finish, like this antique bronze wire, are the easiest to mark. Sterling wire will mark too, but the marring won't be as noticeable as the silver should be the same colour all the way through.

Step 1: Make a hook at the end of your wire with either the round nose or chain nose pliers. I like the look of a spiral with an 'open' middle, so often use the round nose. If you want the spiral to start off closed, use the chain nose pliers and flatten the hook onto itself.

Step 2: Continue the spiral by clamping the hook with the pliers and pushing the wire gently around to form the start of the spiral. This is the point at which it is hardest to manipulate the wire, and there's the most danger of marking it. So nylon coated pliers are the ideal to use, although it is much harder to grip with them. This is where practice makes nearly perfect, but you'll still have times where you mark the wire. At which point, you can give up and start again (perfectionist route) or regard the marks as evidence of the delightful and quirky nature of handmade items and carry on spiralling (the optimist route!)

Step 3: Continue your spiral until it is at the size you want. Move the wire as much as possible, and your pliers as little as possible. One tutorial I read said carry on until you feel you've lost control - this means of the wire, I think, rather than any other aspect of your life!

Step 4: When the spiral is done, make a right angle at the end by gently opening the end of the spiral, inserting the chain nose pliers and then bending the wire back towards the pliers. Trying to do this with my fingers never works for me.

Step 5: Form the first part of the dimple using your round nose pliers to manipulate the wire, form the central loop and then bring the wire round and make the second indent of the dimple. A bit fiddly!

Step 6: Bring the end of the wire around the spiral to the top, trim to around a quarter of an inch and gently fold back with your round nose pliers to form the top loop. You're done.

Tigers eye wire work earrings

Here's the link to see what other crafty folk have been making this week.

Flower corsages

2012-02-09T18:00:00.000Z

These flower corsage/pins/brooches are new in my Etsy shop. Made on a flower loom with a selection of wools and embroidery silks.

Flower corsage brooches

Hope you like them!
Alison x

Passed!

2012-02-08T10:50:00.001Z

Just got confirmation that Lucca passed his Pets as Therapy assessment. We have a certificate and everything! Can't wait to start visiting.

Lucca looks a bit surprised in this photo. His breakfast was slightly delayed by the arrival of the confirmation and that always worries him a little!

Handmade Monday: Brooches and pins

2012-02-06T11:12:00.001Z

Inspired by some beautiful shawl/scarf/fibula brooches/pins this week, I've been having a go myself. Mine are pretty amateur by comparison with some that I've collected here on Pinterest. I wonder why there are so many different names for them?

Blue moonstone and crystal

Amethyst and purple jades

The trouble with being inspired by others is that you start to worry about whether you are unconsciously copying ideas. At least, I do, as I'm a champion worrier! So I've stopped looking now and am waiting for a bit more inspiration to come.

Coffee agate beads

These brooches are made with 1.2 mm wire (18 gauge) which is thicker than I've worked with before. Like everything, I'd avoided using the lower gauges and then once I was working it, couldn't see why I'd done so, as provided I was quite firm with it and ensured it was warmed in my fingers first, it was quite pliant. It was snowing heavily outside, so quite cool. The sort of weather when any self respecting Roman lady needs a glamorous fibula to fasten her cloak with....

Red creek jasper beads

I also need to file down the ends to a point that will go through knitwear but not be sharp enough to kill anyone. That's a judgement call, so I'll need a bit of practice before any go in the shops! What with that and the needle felting/stabbing stuff, I seem to be edging towards the more 'extreme' end of crafting. Honestly, I would love a blow torch, but for someone without the necessary hand/eye coordination to pass a driving test, it is just too risky.

Here's the link to see what other crafty folk have been making this week.

Wordless Wednesday: One minute it's bag charms, the next it's brooches...

2012-02-01T18:40:00.000Z

Handmade Monday: Really productive week

2012-01-30T13:59:00.001Z

It's been a bit of a craft crazy week here - don't know why but some weeks there seems to be a lot of creativity in the air. The weather got better with more sunshine and frost and less cloud and rain and that always has a positive effect on me.

Bag or purse charms have been really popular in my Etsy shop recently - I think it's because it is much easier to get noticed outside of the jewellery category which is always so crowded. Folksy sales are still not happening so my main venues now are Etsy and Storebeez - a fantastic little startup with amazing SEO, getting some of my items on the front page of google searches. Now all I need is for folk to have the confidence to buy from a new and relatively unknown site....

As well as the charms, I was tempted by the lovely Rachel Norris, an amazingly talented jewellery maker, to have a go at twisting wire. The only DIY tool we posses is a power drill, so having located it gathering dust in the bottom of a cupboard, it got its first proper use twisting some bronze wire to make these hoop earrings. They were shown on Jewellery Maker TV this week so now I'm officially 'famous' for using a power drill. Who would have thought that? Lucky you can't do much damage with a power drill.

And, I've been messing with my flower loom and created some lovely little flowers which I'm making into bag charms, key rings and brooches. Flower looming is relatively easy once you get the hang of the loom, and unlike some other sewing and embroidery projects that I've tried in the past, you can hold the loom up so it doesn't aggrivate my neck problems. At the moment I'm using embroidery cottons for the flowers which give great vibrant colours, but I'm a bit worried about their durability. Chris from Chrissys for Cards has kindly offered to 'road test' one for me, so hers is on it's way to the test site at this moment! Wool and ribbon are the next mediums to try.

Not content with just that, I decided to try out needle felting, something I've been interested in for a while. As some of you know, I am a complete disaster area in the field of hand/eye coordination, clumsiness and being generally 'kift' as my husband describes it, so starting a hobby that involves repeatedly stabbing small objects with a barbed needle probably doesn't sound like the best option! Nothing to show so far, but thankfully a really thick glove of hubbie's has protected me from serious wounding. Hopefully my needle felting might progress quickly, and as soon as it looks less the finger painting of a toddler, I be showing it off to you!

Here's the link to find out what others have been making this week.

Wordless Wednesday: Flower loom bag charms

2012-01-25T12:32:00.001Z

Coming soon to an Etsy or Folksy shop near you!

Fanatical Friday: Bronze bag charms

2012-01-20T16:06:00.001Z

Somehow I can't stop making these bronze steampunk-style bag or purse charms! Is it a recognised illness? Can I get treatment?!

Wordless Wednesday: The dog's blog: What I did mostly on holiday

2012-01-18T13:09:00.001Z

Handmade Monday: How to make a Danish love knot

2012-01-16T12:15:00.000Z

So, Valentines Day is creeping up on us, but whether you like to celebrate that festival or not, you might find these Danish love knots attractive! I saw a tutorial for making them a while ago, then lost it, and struggled to find it again so I thought I might do one of my own. They are easy to make and I think pretty effective.

You will need:

Some wire - I used 20 gauge, 0.8mm antique bronze wire but you could experiment with different thicknesses
A mandrel or object to wind the wire round

Step 1

Cutting pliers
Cup burr (optional)
About 15 minutes

Step 1: Start to wind your wire around the mandrel or cylindrical object. You can work off the spool for this project which means there is virtually no wastage. Can you see what I've used here? Actually, it's a chopstick! At about 6mm diameter, I've found it the perfect size to use with this thickness of wire and the fact that it's wood makes it a bit easier to grip than something metal or plastic, especially early on when you need to be firm with the wire.

Step 2

Make enough winds so that the whole thing can be divided equally into three parts. I've used four full rounds for each of my three coils, so I needed to wind 12 times round the chop stick for each love knot. If you use a different thickness of wire and/or diameter of mandrel, you may need more or fewer rounds in each coil - you'll need to experiment a bit to find out what is the best choice.

Step 2: Slip the whole coil of wire off your mandrel. Then snip the wire three times at the appropriate points to make three equally sized coils.Try to snip so that the two cut ends are at the same place on the coil - this makes it much easier to hide the cut ends neatly at the end of the work. You can tidy the ends with a cup burr at this stage if you want to.

Step 3

Step 3: Take two of your coils and hook one onto the other at right angles as in the diagram. You are going to start winding them together. It's the same action as putting your keys onto a slider keyring, except it is easier and you won't necessarily break any finger nails!

Step 4

Step 4: When you've wound them both together, they'll look like this.

Step 5

Step 5: Now take your third coil and begin to wind it on to one of the joined coils in exactly the same way as Step 3.


Step 6

Step 6: When the three coils are all joined to together they look like this.

Step 7

Step 7: The only thing left to do is to join two of the coils in the middle of the third. This is a tiny bit fiddly, but easier if you hold the coils as in the picture and start to wind them together just as you did to get the first two together. Be careful not to allow the end of the coil to be unwinding itself at the same time as you are winding it forward. It is really just like when you are putting that second key on the slider keyring and you have to keep checking that the first one is not slipping off as you do so.

If there isn't room to manoeuvre the coils like this then you may have used a thickness of wire or size of mandrel that is inappropriate for this project. It's a bit like chain maille in that you don't know if it will work until you get a bit further on in the weave.

Step 8

Step 8: Here's this final wind about half way through.

Step 9

Step 9: Actually, you've finished and the knot should look a bit like this. At this point you can gently ease out the coils a bit, which will make the knot a little firmer. Try to tuck the ends inside the knot so they can't be seen too.

Step 10

Step 10: The finished knot can be mounted on a wire or threaded directly on beading thread. Heck, it's your bead so you can do whatever you want with it now. There's a right way to put the wire or thread in the bead so that it sits properly - it's too complicated to explain in words, but you'll see what I mean as you try it out.

I like them on wire with a bead cap or spacer on each end to cover the hole and give stability.

These ones in antique bronze wire are probably destined to become a bracelet.

I love these bronze earrings with red creek jasper beads too.

Look on the web and you'll see some stunning examples of folk making these in semi precious wires and then threading one on a chain as a stunning, understated necklace.

Why are they 'Danish' love knots? I've no idea. Some folk just call them love knots. But I like the idea of them being Danish - it's so trendy at the moment with The Killing and Borgen providing our Saturday night entertainment! You can't make them at the same time as watching, though, unless your Danish is so good that you don't really need the subtitles.

Hope you've enjoyed the tutorial. Here's a link to what my other handmade friends have been up to this week.

Handmade Monday: Viking weave

2011-12-19T11:30:00.001Z

Just because it's nearly Christmas doesn't mean I don't keep having mad ideas. So this week, while everyone else was getting sorted wrapping presents and decorating trees, I decided to learn Viking weave! Luckily it's very easy to do, but it is quite time consuming, leading me to reflect that the Viking folk must have had plenty of long, dark evenings to fill with no TV distractions!

Fragments of the chain have apparently been found in Viking graves and were sometimes used as currency. This little bracelet in copper wire is the only finished piece so far. The findings were all hand made too, so don't look too closely!

It's great fun because as you weave the wire looks quite messy and you think you've made a mess of it, but once you start pulling it through the drawplate, a bit of magic happens and it all comes together quite nicely. Hoping to post a tutorial in the New Year when I've had more practice. Currently having a go at double knit which is going well considering how awful I was at real knitting ;-)

A couple more makes from this week picture here too. Hope you like them. The watermelon tourmaline is a new gemstone for me and I love the range of colours.

So now I'm off to catch up on some of those non-crafty Christmas tasks. Merry Christmas everyone!

And here's the link to find out what other crafty people have been up to this week.

Wordless Wednesday: New makes and new shops

2011-12-07T13:03:00.001Z

And new online stores at:

http://www.storebeez.com/stores/blue-forest-jewellery/

http://www.wowthankyou.co.uk/blue-forest-jewellery/products/

Handmade Monday: recent jewellery creations

2011-11-28T11:52:00.001Z

Hi all,
Have been neglecting this little blog recently - poor thing! But now I'm over my little op and back into the crafting mode, I thought I'd share a couple of recent makes with you.

Firstly, this woven bracelet and earrings set. You might have seen the bracelet before as I made a prototype in the rubies and one in the emeralds and couldn't decide which I liked best. Blog followers voted for the rubies, so I kept the emeralds for myself! Then decided to do earrings to match. One thing I learned was that it's probably best not to attempt a weaving design where you need to get left and right as mirror opposites when you've recently had a general anaesthetic and lots of morphine afterwards! I had several failures before eventually cracking these ;-)

It's getting to feel a lot like Christmas is creeping up around here, so I've resurrected and remade these snowmen earrings. I think they should really be called 'snowpeople' but there you go!

These amethyst beaded bead earrings are a variation on the carnelian ones I did for Comic Relief. The basis ball of beads was made in the same way as this tutorial. They are really purple but look blue somehow in all the photos.

That's probably enough for now. Back soon!

Here's the link to see what others handmade crafters have been doing this week.

Handmade Monday: Wire and some handmade finds

2011-11-07T12:16:00.001Z

This week I've mostly been coiling - again! This bracelet and earrings set incorporate green peridot and bronzite gemstones with the coiled wire.

Feeling a little dispirited crafting-wise as sales are non-existent at the moment. Hoping it will pick up soon and be a good Christmas for us online sellers. I now have some minor surgery booked in a couple of weeks, so worried that I might miss the busiest time.

While I've been promoting my shops, I've found lots of lovely handmade things that are going on my Christmas list. This brooch is just one of them:

It's from Ruth Charlton Ceramics on Etsy. Ruth is based in the Lake District and specialises in faces and people. Good, isn't it?

Inspired by this find, I did a treasury of faces on Etsy. Never ceases to amaze me what talented people there are out there.

And I'm not ignoring Christmas completely - started a Pinterest board with some great deer - one of my favourite animal + Christmas themes.

Here's the link to see what others handmade crafters have been doing this week.

Handmade Monday: Poppies, gizmos and more wire work

2011-10-31T11:46:00.002Z

Are you bored with the wire work yet? I know I keep posting about it but I can't get enough of it. This week I finished this set where each bead is caged in twisted wire. I hand twisted the wire (me and power tools would be a dangerous combination!) and the spirals so the set literally took hours. Decided not to sell them as the time they took would make them so expensive, and there's always a chance that the twisted wire might snap on knitwear - I wouldn't want to be responsible for ruining someones warm woollen sweater! Those are just excuses because I want to wear the set myself ;-) I did make an extra pair of earrings - they'll be going in the shop soon.

Also this week, I invested in a wire coiling gizmo machine. What an excellent toy! I can now waste hours at the table turning the handle until I'm mesmerised! The first real results are these earrings. I thought the coiled wire looked a bit festive, so I added ruby and green chrysocolla rondelles. What do you think?

I always like to support the poppy appeal, but at the moment haven't ventured into brooches. So thinking outside the box, I had a go at some poppy earrings in ruby red jade, onyx and emerald. They don't lie flat - naughty little gemstones! - but that does give them a quirky little 3D feel! There's a donation to the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal with each purchase too, so you can wear these poppies with pride. Why have one poppy when you can have two?!

Quite a busy week, and I managed to fit in a project management exam as well. Actually most of these makes were a diversion from revising for that exam if I'm honest. So if I haven't passed, at least I have something to show for it!!!

Here's the link to see what others handmade crafters have been doing this week.

Wordless Wednesday: Pink or Green?

2011-10-19T10:14:00.000+01:00

Just can't decide! Can you help, please?

Handmade Monday: Beaded stars and flowers

2011-10-17T13:19:00.000+01:00

This week I decided it was time to take on board the fact that it will soon be Christmas - I've been in denial for a while! This star or flower could be a little bit festive, so I thought I'd post a little tutorial in case you want to make your own.

You will need:

25 beads for each star or flower
Monofilament or beading thread
Jewellery glue (optional)

I used 6mm beads which make quite a chunky star about 4.5cm across. I've used two colours of beads in this example just to show how you are basically creating a circle and five little triangles and to make the explanation easier. The two colours could be an interesting effect though!

1. To start, thread 3 beads on a long strand of monofilament.

2. Cross the two ends of the monofilament across a fourth bead...

3. ...pull the ends of the monofilament so the beads form a diamond shape

4. Add 5 more beads to one end of the monofilament (keep using the same end of the mono to thread the beads on from now on, but you will need to keep pulling the other end tight as you continue beading)

5. Put the end of the thread that you added the 5 beads onto back through the second of those 5 beads

6. Pull the monofilament so that it forms another diamond shape next to the first one, separated by one extra bead as shown in the diagram

7. Repeat steps 4-6 again to form another point of the star

8. Repeat steps 4-6 again twice to form the last two points of the star

9. You can see that the purple beads will form the inner circle, and you need one more to complete the design so thread on that additional bead by crossing the two end of the monofilament through it

10. When you pull the threads through, you'll see the star shape forming - nearly done!

11. The first thing you'll notice is that the star is quite floppy (!) and the two ends of the monofilament are not in the same place. Start to rectify this by threading one end of the monofilament through all the inner circle beads, then threading through each of the points of the star in order.

12. Once you've done all the extra threading, the monofilament ends should be in the same place and now you can knot them and glue the knot.

Your star or flower is now ready to use as you wish. Perhaps a necklace, bracelet or Christmas decoration? They look nice in neutral colours as well as the brights.

This one I've made into a simple necklace

Here's the link to see what others handmade crafters have been doing this week.

The dog's blog: An update on my assessment

2011-10-12T12:26:00.000+01:00

Hello again,
Lots of you were kind enough to wish me luck with my Pets as Therapy assessment last week (see this blog if you missed it) - thank you. Well, I'm happy to report it went really well - I got top marks in everything except that right at the start I pulled a bit, which I always do when I'm excited because I'm in a new place. Even when I was being brushed, I totally resisted the temptation to even try eating the brush!

Yawning!

Mummy and Daddy were so pleased with me that I was immediately taken to Pets at Home to get treats (and a little tug toy gift for my friend Buddy who kindly lent me his short lead for the assessment). Then we went to the park for a lunchtime walk where I met another three friends, the retired guide dogs, who are always great fun to run around with.

After all that activity, I was totally flaked for the afternoon!

Now the forms have to go back to the Pets as Therapy office where they decide whether I'm suitable, which could take three months. The whole thing was nearly off when Mummy discovered she had to include a photograph of herself with the application as she's totally phobic about having her photo taken. Anyway, she's decided she can always wear a balaclava during the visits so as not to scare the patients! Finding a photo of me was not a problem as the place is full of them. I chose this one where I think I look calm and serene :-)

See you soon,
Lucca x

Handmade Monday: clasps and flowers

2011-10-10T13:20:00.000+01:00

I've been messing around with wire again and begun a quest for my favourite handmade clasp! These are some of the contenders.

Some days, I like the more complex ones and other times, I'm really attracted to the simpler models. What do you think?

As well as these, I found a wonderful tutorial on how to make wire work flowers and now I'm getting a bit obsessed with making them!

Dinky, aren't they? So far, I've made them in every type of wire I have, so it's about time I started using them. Here's a pair of earrings which I think might be the most delicate that I've ever made, combined with my favourite beads at the moment, red and green Brazilian jade.

Want to see what everyone else is up to?
Here's the link to find out what other Handmade Monday folk have been making this week.

Folksy Friday: Walking

2011-10-07T11:38:00.001+01:00

A crisp Autumn day is the perfect time for a walk, in my humble opinion. Now the leaves are swirling down, and I have some time between jobs, the dog and I are making the most of it and having lots of long rambles.

Found these beautiful images on Folksy. Click on any of the pictures to be taken directly to the shops

1. Sunday papers by iolaire

2. Girl and scarf lino print by holly prints

3. Together fine art print by Bridget Wilkinson

1. Walking the Dales Way by John Robinson Photography

2. Walking the Dog by Paul Watson Photography

3. Small World #4 by Beanphoto

See more beautiful images on this Pinterest board

The dog's blog: In training

2011-10-05T20:11:00.000+01:00

This is me at the end of the Pennine Way in Scotland.

Just a quick blog from me - I've been in serious training since I got back from holiday for my assessment tomorrow and not had time to blog much. I've never had an assessment before and tomorrow someone will decide if I'm suitable to be a Pets as Therapy dog - there's a link there if you've not heard of the charity which arranges for dogs (and cats) to visit hospitals, hospices and care homes. Mum thinks I might be suitable, and that having a 'job' would be good stimulation for me. I don't mind at all, especially if it involves more fussing and petting and lots more people giving me treats.

So wish me luck. I've been practising the tasks really hard and the only one I'm really struggling with is not mouthing my brush. It would just be so much fun to get that brush in my mouth and run like the blazes away from mummy and have a really good chew of it...

Love Lucca x

Handmade Monday: Friendship bracelets

2011-09-26T12:44:00.000+01:00

This week I've been trying my hand at my own version of the friendship bracelets which are so much on trend at the moment. I wanted to do something with gemstones and have some really lovely coloured silky cords that I've never really used much. Not sure I've got the design right yet - here are a couple of prototypes.

What do you think? I've been wearing them more or less 24-7 to test out how robust they are, and so far (touch wood!) all of the knots and fastenings have survived intact. That means they've survived both the office, housework and dog walking, so I figure that's a pretty good test. The ones with the gemstones incorporated - rather than dangling as a charm - are better at staying the right way up on your wrist, so I think they might be the winners.

Hopefully I can decide on the design soon and maybe list them in one of my new shops - on GroovyCart and ToSouk. Opening two new shops in a week is a record for me!

Here's the link to find out what other Handmade Monday folk have been making this week.

Folksy Friday: Fruits of the Forest

2011-09-23T10:40:00.000+01:00

The woods and forests look pretty abundant at the moment, and I keep having to pick up the fallen apples, so why not a collection of non-edible fruits from Folksy sellers? Click on any of the pictures to go directly to the shops.

1. Fruity fridge magnets by Kettle of Fish
2. Fruit wreath by Cranberry Charms
3. Bowl of stained glass fruit by JTs Creative Glass

1. Apple pendant by Funky Art 2. Berry bookmark by Cinnamon Street 3. Pear door stop by Crabtree Lane

You can find more Folksy goodies on this fruity Pinterest board.
And you might like this treasury on the same theme on Etsy too.

Handmade Monday

2011-09-19T13:54:00.001+01:00

Well I've been away and missed a couple of Handmade Mondays, so I thought I'd come back with a tutorial on how to make a beaded bead. I know at least one person who wants the instructions! They are very simple when you get the hang of them.

You'll need:
15 beads
A headpin
Some glue
Thread - preferably monofilament

I'm using a thicker beading thread for the demo so you can see it, and different coloured beads to make it easier to follow.

Step 1

Thread 3 beads

Step 2

Thread a fourth bead by crossing both ends of the thread through the bead. Now you're weaving :-)

Step 3

Pull the ends of the thread right through the last bead until it is sitting on top of the other beads, forming a diamond shape.

Step 4

Thread one more bead onto each of the ends of the thread

Step 5

Thread the next bead by crossing the ends of the thread through the bead again

Step 6

Continue to thread a bead on to each side of the thread, then thread another bead by crossing the ends of the thread through, until you have a 'ladder' of 12 beads. The beads will start to curl up, but that's not a problem.

Step 7

Instead of adding another bead, thread the two ends of the beading thread through the bead at the bottom of the 'ladder'.

Step 8

Put a loose bead into the centre of the ladder

Step 9

Pull the threads tight and the round shaped beady bead will appear, as if by magic! To make the beady bead as sturdy as possible, weave the thread back through as many beads as possible then tie the two ends in a knot and apply some jewellery glue. When the glue is dry, snip the excess threads off.

Step 10

Thread one of the remaining beads on to the headpin and put the headpin through the drill hole in the loose bead that you put into the middle of the beady bead. Yours will look neater because you've snipped the threads.

Step 11

Put the final bead on the top of the headpin, make a wrapped loop and you're ready to use your beady bead. Simples!

They look nice as earrings

or in a necklace or bracelet

Happy weaving!

Here's the link to other lovely Handmade Monday posts.

Worldless Wednesday: Such a good holiday

2011-09-14T21:05:00.000+01:00

Here I am digging a moat for this great castle!