New Trees and Bracelets That Survive Glastonbury

A few posts ago I talked about my new bracelets that I would be creating. I did a few and gave them out to people who wanted them at work. One person was Lisa Martinelli, who very kindly wore it for the longest time I've seen anyone where my jewellery. She even took it to the Glastonbury Festival and put it through an ordeal for any item there. It went through showers, mud, grime and simple drunkenness, but it came out unharmed and looking like I had just given it to her.
Rather proud that my bracelets can survive Glastonbury. That has to be a new USP right?

The new bracelets can be found in my Etsy store below. You can have custom sizes and choose your own stones too:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/79520577/rose-quartz-garnet-bead-bracelet-plated
http://www.etsy.com/listing/79521540/custom-gemstone-bracelet-semi-precious

Now, for my favourite creations alongside my new bracelets are my gemstone trees. With 25 feet of copper wire, some gemstone chip beads and a good 2 hours work you can create a tree like these:

Rose Quartz Gemstone Tree

Peridot Gemstone Tree

A lot of effort but well worth it in the end. I'll be making more of these and hopefully if I can get a cheap stall in the near future, I'll be selling these there. For now you can purchase the only tree available (for now) on Etsy:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/79519158/peridot-gemstone-tree-embedded-in

Before I go, I thought I'd give a big thank you to SilverOrchidBeads.co.uk for providing great gemstones for me to create my jewellery and stuff with. Sharon at Silver Orchid has been a great help and I would recommend the site to anyone looking for good quality beads and equipment at affordable prices. I only pay £2 for any strand of gemstones at 36 inches per strand! Much better than some dealers who charge also based on the stone itself, and for peridot that can be a lot more.

In upcoming posts I'll be featuring new products including a tree of life pendant, and I want to share with you how I create my bracelets and trees in step by step tutorials, and maybe a video if I feel up to it.

Hopefully This Won't Be Too Vial

Finally! I've just posted a new product on Etsy. A small addition to what will hopefully be a massive rush of products soon.

Oh and I apologise for the awful headline pun.

Behold the mighty ickle bottle:

This little cylindrical bottle is filled with various gemstones (of very tiny proportions) and can be uncorked to fill with whatever the wearer can fit in there.
I have made the pendant with a black lace that suits the silver metal of the bail I use to hang the pendant from. The clasp system was also hand made.
An odd piece but I'm hoping that it could be a quirky compliment for someone to wear and be noticed.

Linky to the Etsy product is here.

As a special treat, I'm adding a coupon code on Etsy for all products that will give 30% off the price! So readers of my blog, which may not be many Etsy shoppers, will get a rather spiffing offer when doing me the pleasure of gracing my words.


The coupon code will be: BLOGFTW
EDIT: The above coupon code is no longer available. I shall be doing more promotions in future posts =).

Comments on this blog are now open for anyone, so feel free to leave your comments without logging in.

Just A Quickie

As the title suggests this post is just a short one to introduce my new carry box. Rather dull probably to some, however others may find it interesting to see all my stuff I use to make my jewellery.

It is a bit messy at the moment, but as soon as I stop being lazy I'll tidy it up. My favourite part is the tiers that fold out when you open up the lid.
And this box was only £7.20 at Fred Aldous! Bargain in my eyes. Follow this link if you'd like to see the box on the Aldous website.

Next post will be on a small pendant that I made from a tiny bottle (or vial). It's cute.

Back With A New Idea

Well it's good to be back after a small break. Unfortunately my Internet decided to go AWOL and then to much on and blah blah. Never mind, here's a new product that has come about from me - bracelets:

Blue Goldstone - Silver plated wire

Red Coral - Copper wire

These have come about purely by 'commission' by my good friends at MediaVest, however I enjoyed making these, and feel I should put these on the store eventually.
The clasp on both bracelets are my favourite part oddly. I felt that was the most crafty part.

I have also recently bought some more stock from Fred Aldous and Manchester Minerals including silver plated wire, and square sterling silver wire to create a very beautiful pendant called a tree of life. You can see what one looks like here. I have to get it perfect first time because silver isn't the cheapest =P

I'm going to be posting quite a few updates in the coming days, which I was going to post all today, but I thought I'd spread the love over a few days.

If you have any comments on the bracelets or any ideas or improvements, then please comment below.
You can now Like my Facebook page using the box on the right, or by following this link.

Merkaba: The Challenge

A Merkaba is a star tetrahedron consisting of two interpenetrating three-sided pyramids that form a three-dimensional star of David.

=D

I call it a fun pointy shape, and funnily enough it has been on my mind as to how to make it into a pendant, considering it has to be wire wrapped.

It also has to be pretty damn perfect because it was one of the most expensive stones I bought (in terms of size and quality) at the Rock, Gem 'n' Bead show at Event City in Manchester a couple of weeks ago.

Here's what I have so far:

I probably won't end up keeping it like this because I don't think the copper works very well with Amethyst and I did a scruffy job at twisting the loop.
If anyone reading this has any ideas then please let me know. This will be one of my luxury (aka expensive) items on my Etsy store when it is finished.

The Perfect Spiral

Hello!

It has been a few weeks but I have been working at various new ideas and getting some 'stock' together, including my industrial reel of 1000 ft copper wire.

Along with the purchase of the wire I also bought a wire spiral maker, to make those perfect coils you always wanted...Well I did anyway.

I first made the coils, and then coiled those coils to make, well Uber Coils. They can now be beaded to other stuff. Hopefully I'll find a use for them.

And here is the coiling tool:

Rather nifty when using it, not flimsy. That wooden shaft is very solid and hard.

Ahem, anyway, I'm hoping to get some new stuff on Etsy in the coming weeks as I think I need more pendants and variety of them to make them sell, because as of yet, no buyers =(.

Lots of commissions in work though, so thanks to all you guys!

My Cagey Idea

I have just created my first small batch of pendants that are 'caged' within brass craft wire. This is the best thing I can do so far that actually looks decent. I do hope to expand on these designs because otherwise I think too many spirals might get boring.

Medium-Speckled Snowflake Obsidian

I'm 86.7% happy with my first attempts, but as they are some of the simpler designs then this score isn't amazing.
Drilling into stones will be my next task, but I'll need to buy some supplied from Manchester Minerals in Stockport tomorrow. Fun times!

For now, I leave you with my main tool for the trade at the present time.

Pliers of Doom™