As Time Flies By

Well I can't believe its been so long since I last posted on here. Have been so busy, with the craft fair, then Halloween and Bonfire night, it seems time has just flown past. I have also reached 100 followers on Craftsy, and have introduced a competion on my Facebook page.

I'm giving this handmade wire wrapped ring, made with Swarovski crystals and Czech seed beads, away to one lucky liker! To be in with a chance of winning, all you have to do is click here to go to my Facebook page and click like on the page. Once there are 50 likes I will chose a winner to recieve the ring, free of charges!

This is a Dragonfly pendant, thats been floating around in my head for a few weeks. Finally got around to starting it after I ordered the wrong size wire. I have had the coloured wire a while so decided to make the most of my mistake.

It was inspired by the hundreds of bright blue dragonflys we saw in spring on one of my walks along the canal with my three boys. The body is made of blue metallic size 8 seed beads with rows of metallic brown size 15 beads inbetween on the wider part. The wings are made using purple navy and pale blue 0.5mm coloured wire.

Cold Heart

This has to be one of my favourite pendants so far. Unfortunately, I didnt have time to take a better photo as my mum spotted it and instantly claimed it as a present for my aunt. It took about 4 attempts to get it to look like I wanted it to but at least it kept me busy!!

And Something Different

The main things I create are wire wrapped, but recently I felt like having a bit of a change. I'd bought some Agate tubes and saw a picture of some agate rounds with turquoise, and I loved the way the black brought out the bright blue out. So thats how my turquoise and agate set was inspired.

The set was made using 7 strand beading wire, 10x5mm black agate tubes and 6mm turquoise beads with 2.5mm silver plated spacer beads and silver plated clasp & earwires.







In my next blog I plan on talking about what inspires me, the different ways I get ideas and the people who's work I adore xx

Spiral Earring Tutorial

Ok, this is my first ever tutorial, so I'm hoping you'll please bear with me!! I've based these on some rather pretty earrings I saw while out shopping a few weeks ago. I can't wear earrings myself, which is disappointing as I'm rather pleased with how these turned out.

Here's a list of the components I used:

Two 5" lengths of 18 awg/1mm silver-plated copper wire (or thicker than 21awg/0.71mm)
Two headpins 0.7mm x 60mm
Two 6mm jump rings
Ten 2.5mm silver-plated spacer beads
Ten 4mm beads (I used Czech Fire Polished)
Two hook ear wires

As well as these, you'll also need round and flat nose pliers, cutters, a needle file and a 8mm knitting needle or something of a similar width.

Start by threading the 4mm and spacer beads alternately on to the headpins. Then make an wrapped loop to hold beads

Next, file both ends of the 5" wire, then form a wrapped loop on each, ensuring one wrap starts from the left of the wire, the other the right as shown below.

 Now twist the wire around the 8mm knitting needle to form the spirals, starting withe the loop flat against the needle. Remember that the pieces will have to bent in the opposite directions if you want symetrical spirals! Wrap the wire so it is approximately as long as inner drops.

Take the spirals off the needle and using the flat nosed pliers, bend the loop into the center of the spiral. Make a small loop in the bottom of the spiral wire and flatten slightly to neaten up the wire.

Now you need to insert the bead drop up into the spiral and use the jump rings to fasten the loops together. If the drop is longer than the spiral, carefully pull the spiral til around the same length. Finally attach the ear wire to the spiral loop (again make sure the bends at the loop are pointing in opposite directions!) and there you have your earrings complete!


Well I hope you enjoyed reading the tut, and hopefully you'll have a go at making them. If you do, I'd appreciate any constructive criticism or comments on how I did!

Lucky me, oops!?

Happy times
Well what a mixture last week turned out to be, certainly one I hope some parts will never be repeated! It began so well, on Tuesday I got an e-mail informing me I'd won a competion and the prize was a polymer clay kit. I've been toying with the idea of trying clay out for a while so really pleased! The kit arrived on Thursday and I've had a sneaky peek, but I've decided to get a few ideas together before I start instead of diving straight in like I usually do. I'm thinking about trying a few designs in the boys Play-doh before, as it's been a while since I last used any sort of clay.

Panicking? Me? Never!!
I've also bitten the bullet booked my first craft fair. I'm so nervous, but really looking forward to it too. I spent the day after I booked frantically going through all the pieces I've already made, doing any final finishes, adding cords and bagging and listing everything. I have absolutely no idea of how to price it all or just how I'm going to display everything. So I'm also trying to sort all the practical things out at the same time as making more jewellery. I'm convinced my stall's going to look bare compared to all the rest.  I've only two and a half weeks, I think I'll struggle sort it all out, fingers crossed X!

Oh Dear
Finally, after being so pleased with how the week had been, Sunday I crashed my car. I say crashed, what I mean is, I rolled my car straight into the back of another. So unimpressed with myself. Six years and not a thing (if you ignore the time I took my wing mirror off!!) and I ruin it!! By somehow, from a total standstill in a queue of traffic, rolling it forward??  and poking a neat little hole through the bumper of some-one elses pride and joy with the screw from my numberplate. He'd moved forward, I was so sure, but apparently not. Ohhh the shame!!! At least the insurance companies are happy...

So I'll leave you now with a pic of my fav creation of the week. All the links are made by my own fair hands. Well they were fair, but after filing all the rings they're a bit tatty now! Still, I love the end result so it was worth it....

Have a break...

Last weeks 'big' idea!

After a few hectic days, and then feeling uninspired and totally unable to move past my mental block, I've finally started to make some progress in my latest piece. I've had a black agate heart for a few weeks and totally fell in love with it. I knew what I wanted it to look like, but after 3 failed attempts it was beginning to stress me a lil bit!!

So I decided to put down the pliers, before I threw them, and do some something useful. I dug out all my beading and jewellery mags, the glue stick and a old folder and started my own inspration scrapbook. I think the magazines are brilliant, but there's more adverts than useful pics. Most times I have a good look through them, then they're put away with the rest and I quickly forget about them. So now I've got loads of ideas to set me off and none of the annoying bits, plus I've no piles of mags clutter!

Hello from Angel

I'm Becki, a stay-at-home mom, with 3 boys. I'm mad about all things crafty, the latest being Jewellery making, with some crochet, knitting and other weird and wonderful ideas (I'm still contemplating the 'sticky back plasticing' my car one?!). On this blog, I'll be sharing my creations and how I went about them (if you like them enough to wish to make them) and there'll probably be a few rants and cheers about the boys and their antics, as well as the odd opinion on events thrown in too.