One success and one failure!

Evening,

I hope everyone enjoyed the sun over the weekend. I had a lovely time at the caravan and am pleased to say that my partners Nanna loved her bracelet and put it on straight away. She said it was perfect for her as she struggles with clasps, but bangles without clasps dont fit over her wrist easily, so the fact the bracelet wrapped around her wrist was perfect for her. This is something I hadnt even considered but it is worth remembering when making gifts for people, as alot of the older generation (and the much younger generation!) would struggle with fiddly clasps.

I had a couple of spare hours last night so whilst watching Britains Got Talent I thought I would get my jewellery making kit out. I had two coils of memory wire left from my first purchase with my eBay points so thought I would use these up.

At first I was using the selection of pink/purple/white beads I have, however after stringing a few onto the coil I wasnt pleased with how it was looking so scrapped this idea and started again! My previous two bracelets have been random so I thought I would try doing a pattern for a change. I stuck with the purple and white beads with tibetan silver spacers and purple seed beads. I really like how the bracelet turned out and I finished it off with a charm off a bracelet I had broken up to use for beads.




When I bought beads at the car boot last bank holiday I splashed out a whole £1 on a brand new necklace (traders stall) as it was made from some lovely light blue beads. I thought I would use these on the final bracelet, mixed with some white beads, again in a set pattern.



Once I finished the bracelet and put it on to see what it looked like I realised that the beads were far too heavy for the wire and it was beginning to dangle away from the wrist so I am going to have to undo this bracelet and start again. I also realised that I was that happy with the pattern anyway. I still love the beads but think they need to be more of a feature in the bracelet, so I am going to buy some smaller white/matching blue beads and some seed beads too and remake the bracelet. I might even save a few beads to make some matching earrings!.... Although that might be me getting carried away!


Lily Loves...
x

First Makes

I have decided to start on one type of jewellery and then move onto others as my confidence and ability grows, rather than try and do everything at once and confuse myself! Memory wire bracelets seem to be the simplest so I thought these were ideal for a first make. At the minute I dont have enough spare cash to put in a big order for beads etc so I used my ebay plus points to purchase some round nose pliers, memory wire, a pink bead mix and some silver spacers. My Dad then donated some of his old pliers to me to use to cut the memory wire (I remembered the various warnings that trying to use other jewellery pliers rather than the specified memory wire cutters would just damage them as its tougher than you think!). I also went to a large carboot twice over bank holiday weekend and used to oppertunity to purchase quite a few necklaces with beads on that I could cut up to use, spending in total £5.50. The advantage in this was that I ended up with a large variety of beads and also had some really unusual beads in the mix as well.

As it is my Aunties birthday coming up at the end of the month I decided to make a bracelet to give to her as a gift. This became my first make and is shown in the picture below.




I was quite happy with my first make, although I did have a little difficulty with curling the ends as I didnt feel very happy with them and had a few gos. I posted the picture on the MSE jewellery thread and recieved some lovely supportive and encouraging replies (Thanks Ladies!) and that has given me the courage to give the bracelet as a gift :D


This evening I was itching to have another go. This weekend myself and my partner have been invited to go and stay at his Grandparents caravan with them so I thought it would be a nice gesture to make his Nanna a bracelet also. I had lots of the brown beads left over and initially I was going to make myself a bracelet but I thought this was a better cause :D. As you can see in the picture below I added a charm to this bracelet and I must admit I do think they look better with a little charm on the end. Unfortuantly I only had one suitable charm but I will definately be purchasing lots for future makes. I also made more use of the seed beads I had on this make, which I also think was a wise choice and something I will bear in mind in future makes.




If you have any suggestions or comments on my makes please feel free to comment. As Im very much learning I welcome any tips!


Lily Loves...
x x x

Lily Loves....Blogs

Hi everyone,

As I have decided to start making jewellery I thought I would start a blog to document my trials and tribulations as I learn and experiment in the art of making beaded jewellery.

I made the decision to try my hand at making beaded jewellery after reading a thread on the MSE website and being inspired by their creations. I have always loved being creative but this love has taken a backseat over the last few years as I have been completing a Maths degree then a masters in Statistics! You dont get much chance to be creative in Mathematics!

My main reason for making the jewellery is to be able to make gifts for family and friends. I love Christmas and love buying gifts for people, however this can get expensive and difficult (I have quite a large family and run out of ideas!) so I thought if I was to start now hopefully by Christmas I would have a nice stash of good quality jewellery to give them.

Ive never had a blog before so you may need to bear with me whilst I get to grips with it all!

Lily Loves... x x x