Handcrafted by Fleurione

This slowness is killing me

2008-02-04T21:23:00.000Z

I only have two pictures to share with you today, because a problem (most likely with BT than with the internet as a whole) with slowness means that I am having serious trouble uploading pictures, to both Flickr and Etsy. Maybe later I will have the patience to try one at a time :P

Anyway, the two creations are a pair of earrings and a bracelet. The earrings were fairly simple to make, just me experimenting with chainmaille weaves for cascading earrings. The charm bracelet is one I made back in July whey I started out on this jewellery-making endeavour, but with my new-found skillz and pliers I have neatened it up a lot; now the charms are even lengths, have nice rounded ends, and will not fall off! Both are up on Etsy, but the earrings currently only have one picture attached.

I'm quite upset that I'm having difficulty uploading, because I have also done two rather complex designs. One, a choker in chainmaille, a weave called the Butterfly weave. It took hours and I'm really proud of it. The second piece is a necklace I'd been thinking about for a while, essentially a garden. Copper chain with purple flowers and green leaves, intertwined with green wire. The intertwining didn't work out too well, but I'm fairly pleased with what I did instead. I also added tendrils with Swarovski crystals, they complement the colours used perfectly. I am considering re-attaching all the flowers and leaves, but without a picture of it in its current state I can't get any feedback :\

Here's hoping Flickr will work later!

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Listening to: Talking Heads - Slippery People (Extended Version)
via FoxyTunes

Fortune pig phone charms

2008-01-22T22:57:00.000Z

I've finally got around to photographing the charms I made out of the ceramic pigs I mentioned at the beginning of December. I've accented one with a light amethyst Swarovski crystal on a baby pink phone strap, and the other with green dyed jade, rose quartz, and another light amethyst crystal on a light green phone strap. Both pigs are pink, but the one on the pink strap is ever so slightly darker. Both are available on Etsy for £4/£4.25.

I've also got a photo of one of the stretch bracelets I made with the elastic I got at the same time as the pigs, and have listed it on Etsy for £6:

Ah yes! An update on my stone identification issue - it is green aventurine. :)

Identify me?

2008-01-16T19:12:00.001Z

So I haven't posted for a while.. haven't made much, but have sold some :D It's been fantastic!

Today I went out and bought a few things.. mostly pearls and supplies for a custom order, but I'd been playing earlier with a mixed bag of gemstones I've got, trying to identify things, and thought I'd identified one as labradorite. When I was in the bead store I saw some labradorite beads so I bought a few for comparison.. and now I'm pretty sure my mystery bead is not labradorite. It just doesn't have those fabulous iridescences. So I've taken a picture of it in the hopes that someone will shed some light on it! It's a greenish grey colour, and has darker green flecks in it. There is a band of brown across one side. It's fairly opaque. There's also a picture here of it next to my labradorite bead, in different light. Any ideas?

Next up is a picture of a piece I made out of wire (with my shiny new Christmas-present pliers - I really need a picture of them too, as they are awesome with black & white stripy handles!) I'm not entirely sure what to do with it - even after trying to harden it I'm not sure it would stand up to the stress of being free in part of a necklace, so I'm considering putting it between glass slides. Got to finalise that though as my previous attempts at doing things with glass slides didn't really look too good - it was the metal tape I used rather than solder, but I don't have a soldering iron or a place to use one.

Oh okay then I'll give you pictures of the earrings I made today too :) And one of my jellyfish pendants - adorable. Click for larger.

Until I make a longer post...

2008-01-04T08:23:00.001Z

Here are my newest items on Etsy:

Edit: bat charm and organza ribbon necklace now Sold!

Craft fair results

2007-12-10T16:30:00.000Z

Craft fair was fun. Two of my catalogue items went - Autumnal earrings and Hematite & pink phonecharm. Yay :)

Here's a pic of the massive collection of hoop earrings I created for the fair. Only one pair went, sadly, but that does mean I now have lots more for sale :)

Catalogue updated accordingly.

Love it when a plan comes together..

2007-12-03T18:51:00.000Z

Today seems to be one of those days when things come together, at least crafting-wise. True the new bead store that's opened near me was closed when I went past, but a nice delivery of beads and bits was waiting for me when I got home so I still had new things to play with :)
One packet was a mix of small gemstone shapes, including a heart in what looks like the same stone as a set of beads I had identified as Russian Amazonite. Suddenly I knew what to do with these beads that had been clamoring to be used, but with no inspiration. Yay!

My sodalite has arrived too which is great, I can finally do two of my custom orders.

Thursday I went shopping, exploring the local bead stores, and came away with so much great stuff. As well as a new pair of pliers and a jig for shaping wire, I got two cute ceramic pig charms with flowers and the Chinese symbols for 'fortune' painted on them. Utterly adorable. Also some velveteen and organza ribbon for a necklace idea I have, and some of that stretchy bead wire for bracelets. I was hoping to have quite a large number of them by Saturday (craft fair, yay!) but am having real trouble getting the knots to hold - they just seem to spring undone. May have to use superglue :\

Still, I'm churning out keyrings and phone charms like my life depends on it, I have my organza pouches and paper bags for the fair, and my reprinted Moo cards arrived, so I seem to be on track :) Pictures soon.

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Listening to: Iron Maiden - The Clansman
via FoxyTunes

New photos, new items, new group :)

2007-11-28T02:09:00.000Z

Two updates today:
1) Users of Facebook, feel free to jointhe Handcrafted by Fleurione group and invite your friends. Am taking custom orders for Christmas, and will provide info on the craft fairs I'm attending.

2) I've dug out a pure white sheet from my cupboard and some boxes to create a photographing station in my kitchen. I think the plain background works so much better than my previous use of mulberry paper, and allows for much easier white-correction whilst keeping the colours correct. Here, demonstrating my new photography style, is a stunning bracelet I made last night:

Much improved, yes? Bracelet is purchasable here on Etsy for £18.

Along with that bracelet I've made another memory-wire beaded bracelet in yellow, and a new range of key/phone charms using Hemalyke (man-made hematite substitute) animal totems. Check my flickr for most of those pics: www.flickr.com/photos/fleurione.

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Listening to: The Search - She Lives Near a Garden
via FoxyTunes

Craft Fair and tonight's creations

2007-11-20T00:24:00.000Z

Just to let anyone local know that I will have a table at the ShelterSoc Christmas Craft Fair on Saturday 8th December. It will be running between 2-4pm in Teviot Mezzanine.
It's free entry to the fair and there'll be buckets circulating - donations welcome. The table fees and buckets will go to Shelter Scotland, and at the end of the day I'll hopefully have sold enough to make a percentage donation myself.

I'm sure I'll get nervous when we get closer, but for now I'm just happily planning how to display my items, how many business cards to print, what colour cloth I should use... *bounce*

I've made/finished seven new items this evening and am pleased with all of them! No proper pictures yet, but here are group shots to tease you:

Left: Two-tone glass squares and Swarovski crystals on silver
Right: Dyed mother-of-pearl in green, pearls.

Left: Swarovski crystals and silver spacers. Crystals available in many colours.
Middle and Right: Amethyst glass nuggets on silver and chain.

Left: Pewter bat, red and black glass beads, anodized aluminum jump ring, silver chain
Right: Faceted green glass, Peridot Swarovski crystals, peridot enamel copper jump rings, silver chain

I rewarded myself with hot chocolate and marshmallows :>

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Listening to: Aerosmith - Dream On
via FoxyTunes

Moo reprint

2007-11-15T23:10:00.000Z

So after emailing Moo to let them know that some of my cards had misprinted margins, they emailed me back to say that they are running the print again free of charge. More importantly they haven't asked for the spoiled batch back, so I essentially have 60 cards free :)
I've sent some of this currently lot to my mother, and will send her more from the new set, to be handed out around school. *fingers crossed for results*

And I got my stickerbooks today. They are all kinds of awesome! I'm resisting the urge to cover everything I own in stickers..

Preparing for Christmas...

2007-11-13T23:36:00.000Z

Well I've made my first Christmas-themed item! A memory-wire bracelet:

I'm trying another memory-wire bracelet currently with gold and brown seed and bugle beads, silver spacers and brown and gold lampwork beads. It's going well so far, I just need to get more of my seed beads.. the only problem is the memory wire itself I think :\ I'm finding that it's very small (the loops only have an inner diameter of 5cm) and doesn't fit comfortably on my wrist... the one I gave my mother is a little tight but she seems to like it.. maybe I just like looser bracelets? I have another wire-wrap bracelet given as a present which has an inner diameter of 6cm. One centimeter, but it really does seem to make a difference. But it's the only wire my main bead store does! Ack. Looks like I may need to actually start traveling farther afield than my back door for local supplies!

My other big news is that yesterday I helped create a team of Etsy sellers called Creative Crafters Discounts (CCD) who have a discount promotion. For every transaction at one of the participating stores you get a coupon for 15% off a transaction at one of the other stores. One of the members had a few sales yesterday to go out, so we already have I think 5 coupons in circulation.. I'm hoping I can drum up some sales for Christmas and get some coupons out too :)
For more info on this, please check our community info: http://cc_discount.livejournal.com. You can also search for items on etsy with the tag 'ccd'.

Lastly I got my Moo cards delivered (but not my stickerbooks.. though I did get an advert card about them!) and I'm actually disappointed. About a third of them have been cut badly so that the image contains a strip of another image on one side. Not very professional-looking for promotion cards. I'm obviously going to have to send them back and get them reprinted (and they'd better be free!) but I don't know if I can start using the ones that are okay or if the whole batch will need to be returned. It's frustrating because there's a few sellers on Etsy at the moment gathering promo material from members to give out at shows they're doing soon.
Some of my images too haven't come out so well when professionally printed; I really should set aside some time for making a light box.

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Listening to: Bauhaus - Third Uncle
via FoxyTunes

New phone charms + MOO promotion

2007-11-06T18:06:00.000Z

Firstly, a MOO promotion: Buy 2 StickerBooks and get a 3rd free! Add 3 StickerBooks to your cart, then enter the promo code 5DZZ85 when checking out.

I've just ordered 3 sets of StickerBooks - two of jewellery photos for promotion and decorating orders when I send them out, and one set of my favourite photos for personal use. I've made Moo cards before and think they're awesome, so I'm seriously looking forward to these arriving!

Secondly, some new phone charm designs. I'm hoping to sell quite a few of these as stocking fillers for Christmas; my mother's already drumming up enthusiasm amongst the parents at school (thanks Mum!)

I've updated these photos after playing with the white balance on my camera, and choosing a not-so-yellow background!

A competition, and two new stores

2007-10-29T18:31:00.000Z

I've submitted three of my pieces in a Faceoff on Bix. It gives you two submissions and asks you to choose your favourite. Vote for me, and check out the other fantastic designs: Go to this contest on Bix

I'm also investigating a few different online stores:
- Etsy.com: Handcrafters of the world unite! Prices in USD $
- DaWanda.com: a European store; prices are in Euros €
- Myshopify.com: Allows currency in GBP £ but lacks the feeling of community of the other two!

So far only my multiple items (eg dice earrings) are available on the last two.

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Listening to: Pink Floyd - Interstellar Overdrive
via FoxyTunes

Amethyst and coloured jumprings

2007-10-18T16:50:00.000+01:00

I finally have pictures of my previously-mentioned Amethyst heart earrings. They are also now up for sale at Etsy for $18 here.

What else have I been up to? Well, in between ignoring Uni assignments, I've been playing with all the colourful jump rings that have been arriving over the past few days. One design, many colours!
[Large rings: Green, black] [Small rings: blue, hot pink, light purple, peridot, silver] [Medium rings: dark purple, silver]

Also up on Etsy now is my first guardian angel charm. With a head of amethyst she would be perfect for Aquarians and the February-born, amethyst being their birthstone.

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Listening to: Depeche Mode - Enjoy the Silence
via FoxyTunes

Sunflower necklace

2007-10-15T18:21:00.000+01:00

Here's a necklace I made for a friend. She asked for a sunflower necklace, so I've used green and yellow glass seed beads and silver dragonflies as well as a pewter sunflower.

Closeup of a dragonfly - there are four of them in total

There was meant to be a post today for Blog Action Day with a necklace I'd made from recycled materials, only I haven't finished it yet. Oops.

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Listening to: New Model Army - Frightened
via FoxyTunes

Autumn Earrings

2007-10-08T23:55:00.000+01:00

Haven't been up to much crafty recently - too much Uni work!

I have however finally got the pictures of a gorgeous pair of olive-coloured earrings I made last week. They're made from large glass coins, with small olivine(?) crystals and small red beads that shimmer with gold. The olive coins are shimmery reflective too. Totally Autumn colours!

I will be listing them shortly.

I've received a few of my supply orders (the others are delayed due to postal strikes - boo) and with the new toggles I received, I've re-worked my blue Always the Sun bracelet. Am yet to take pictures, but it's now significantly smaller (minus the two beads on the right hand side) and fastens with these lovely toggles from yadanabeads. Now that it fits me better, I'm a whole lot more pleased with it!

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Listening to: Little Green Machine - King & The Pig
via FoxyTunes

Sudden burst of creativity..

2007-10-02T01:50:00.000+01:00

I've been rather busy this evening! Possibly too busy, as all I've done is play with beads, but I'm thrilled with the things I've managed to create.

First up was a bracelet for my mother's birthday. She had asked for a memory-wire bangle in green so I created this:

Despite one half of the bracelet appearing darker than the other because the beads didn't line up as intended, I'm pretty pleased with it for a first attempt. Hopefully it'll be liked!
For anyone interested, I have the striated (stripy) beads in blues, red, pink, purple and black/grey, and leaves in pink and blue :)

I'm also extraordinarily pleased with these Hallowe'en-feel earrings:

In addition to these, I've photographed a couple of pieces I've made in the last few days. First up are a pair of circular earrings with silver beads and brown sequins. I'd originally just threaded the silver and brown onto a pin for, well, I don't really know why. It was only when I was fiddling with them absentmindedly that I bent them.. and realised I could finally use them. They remind me of pine-cones:

Second is a new favourite of mine (well, it's black and red, so it has to be!) A bracelet in red and silver with black accents:

Last but not least are a pair of amethyst and rose quartz earrings (two amethyst rounds - larger, darker at the top with the smaller, lighter in the middle - and then small quartz hearts at the bottom). Unfortunately no pictures as these really need daylight to do them justice..

Listing will commence shortly!
More photos in my Flickr photostream.

Edit: Circular and Halloween earrings now listed on etsy and added to the catalogue.

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Listening to: Goldfrapp - Fly Me Away
via FoxyTunes

Welcome & Catalogue

2007-09-27T22:46:00.000+01:00

Hi, welcome to the blog for Handcrafted by Fleurione!

I've just placed a couple of supply orders, so within the next few weeks I'll be getting new assortments of beads and charms, coloured jump rings, and new clasps and toggles. Since starting to make jewellery back in July I've learned a few things, and so will be reworking some of my older items to make them a little less amateurish! I'll also be taking advantage of the sunlight before we reach winter to re-photograph my items - it's always good when your pictures accurately reflect the item being sold...

For the moment though, here is a list of my current catalogue linked to their Etsy pages for purchasing. Includes items not yet listed. Enjoy!

Necklaces

Red glass beads and silver stars on silver chain
Purple stone flip-flop with rose quartz and amethyst on silver chain
Hand-carved African face and tribal beads made from bone on linen
Striated (stripy) fluorite with purple glass beads on thin silver chain
Green glass and amber chips on silver chain
~~Russian Amazonite and white metal chain necklace with heart~~
Faceted green glass oval with peridot Swarovski on chain
Shell fish charms and blue glass beads on silver chain
Light blue glass beads and silver stars on silver chain
Turquoise moss agate slice on black nylon with blue & turquoise accent beads
~~Foil-lined gold glass bead with stripy amber glass beads and gold-tone stars on silver chain~~

Chokers
Shell fish charm and blue glass beads on steel wire
Hematite chips with red and black glass beads on wire
Hand-made terracotta beads with wood and glass on silver wire
Green glass chips and brown cubical glass beads on silver wire
Brown and clear cubical glass beads on plaited black nylon

Bracelets
Silver hearts and snowflake obsidian chips
Chunky glass beads in shades of blue with bali silver spacers on silver wire
Chunky glass beads in fiery shades with bali silver spacers and glass beads on tiger-tail wire
Memory wire dual-band bracelet in brown and silver
Memory-wire bracelet in green & red Christmas beads
Silver rounds and red glass beads with black Czech glass leaves and faceted beads
Stretch bracelet dual-band pink beads and hematite spacers
Memory-wire dual band bracelet yellow with dried flower & resin focal
Stretch bracelet purple & blue cats eyes (fibre optic beads) and glass flowers
Hematite and garnet chips with red and black glass beads on steel wire
Shell fish charms and blue glass beads on silver chain

Earrings
Foil-lined aqua glass beads on silver chain
Foil-lined clear glass beads with black glass leaves and Swarovski crystal on silver chain
Stripey amber glass beads with gold-tone stars
Round silver beads and golden-brown sequins in a circle
Pale blue and aqua square glass beads with matching Swarovski crystals
Orange, black and green trick-or-treat bucket Hallowe'en earrings
Plastic dice in pink, purple, aqua and cream with silver spacers
Two amethyst rounds and a rose quartz heart dangles
Hematite hearts and pink stone rounds on silver ear wires
Hematite chips with red and black glass beads
Rose quartz chips and silver spacer bead - two pairs
Clear and brown cubical glass beads on silver
Purple nuggets on silver chain
Swarovski crystal and Bali-style spacers - many colours
Chainmaille flowers on hoops earrings - many colours
Green mother-of-pearl discs earrings
~~Green mother-of-pearl discs and faux pearl earrings~~
~~Olive-coloured glass disks with red/gold glass beads and olivine (?) Swarovski crystals~~

Pendants
~~Heart-shaped fluorite wrapped in silver wire~~
Amethyst wrapped in silver wire
Hand-made polymer clay rainbow swirl pendant on nylon cord
Chrysocolla in quartz semi-precious gemstone in silver spiral cage

Keychains & Phone charms (fittings are interchangeable)
Foil-lined gold glass bead with tigers eye chip
Dark and light blue, gold and red glass beads with dual-tone carnelian chip
Cluster of purple and pink glass flowers and leaves phone charm
Green glass speckled beads cluster phonecharm
'Fortune' Chinese pig with Swarovski
'Fortune' Chinese pig with gemstones and Swarovski
Hematite and tigers eye tortoise phone charm
Hematite and carnelian owl bag clip
Faceted green glass bead with clear glass chip
Light green glass chips and warm brown glass beads
~~Pewter bat and glass blood drop bag clip~~
Black leaves and cream beads on chain bag or zipper clip
~~Hematite chips and pink-lined glass beads~~

Stitch markers
White ceramic beads with traditional Chinese pattern in blue with blue and white glass beads - set of 6

Jellyfish (pendants or charms)
Quartz and hematite with silver chain

Guardian Angels/Faeries & Dragonflies (pendants or charms)
White glass bead angel with amethyst head and pink glass leaf wings
Red and gold glass bead Christmas angel with tigers eye head, goldstone halo and green glass leaf wings
Brown and clear glass bead dragonfly with black glass leaf wings

Last updated: 16 Jan 08

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Listening to: Dick Dangerous & The LoveBastards - Song for Idiots
via FoxyTunes