String Bracelet Video Tutorial

Have you noticed how popular these string bracelets are becoming with both young and older people today? Well, if not, now is the time to start looking and making.

My apologies on Youtube's behalf. They seem to have cropped the edges of the video. It does play properly though.

You can get the string and buttons at Craft Fairy

http://www.craftfairy.co.uk/thread-and-monofilament-483-c.asp

 I'll put an image here so that you can see it if the YouTube image does not display properly.

Happy stringing.

Plum and Gold, Luxury Colours for a Ribbon Flower

Do you have trouble finding stamens?

Do you have trouble attaching stems to your ribbon flowers.

Well today, I hope to solve both of those problems in one fell swoop.

I've created this ribbon flower with a single stem from a bunch of 12 flower spikes. 

I chose satin as it has a fabulous sheen that brings the flowers to life. So for today's project I decided to use this luxurious plum satin ribbon as my treat. 

You need a length of ribbon
Plum Double Faced Satin Ribbon 3m x 23mm
A needle
some thread







Don't be afraid that this is a lot of difficult sewing. All you need to do is thread the needle and sew a running stitch along three edges.

When you 've done this, pull the thread to gather up the ribbon.

Put the stem in the center of the gather and pull the the ribbon tight around it.

Secure the ribbon with a few tight stitches and a knot or two.

If you can manage it sew through the wider part of the stem at the base of the spikes as this will really secure the ribboon in place. Turn around and admire your work.

How about a bunch of these flowers in a minature vase?

Textured pearl bracelet.

There's no denying that pearls are beautiful beads. They have a beautiful lustered shine that has been the object of many a wonan's desire since the time that jewellery making began. Can this be improved upon? Of course it can. With the new style textured pearl you retain the good of the old with the striking qualities of the new.

So, for this bracelet I've used textured pearls and smooth pearls to creat something modern but with a distinctly vintage feel.

The pearls that I used are:
Pearlized Glass Beads Strands, Matte, Round, Dyed, Barely Plum, 8mm 
4mm glass pearl strand, approx 220 pearls, White
I also used:
Purple 12/0 Glass Seed Beads, Transparent Colours, about 1.9mm - 6cm tube
Tibetan Silver Toggle & Bar, Lead Free and Cadmium Free
Monofilament 0.35mm
Wire Guardians, Silver colour
Silver Colour Crimp Beads
20g Assorted Silver Jumprings, 1.5mm thick wire

To make the bracelet you will need to cut 1 metre of monofilament. Thread it rhrough the guardian and centre it at the half way point. Now thread both strands through a crimp and squash the crimp.

You will need to use both ends of the monofilament. Pass both ends through a 4mm pearl. The thread 2 pearls on to the right hand thread and one onto the other. Now pass the left hand thread through the last pearl on the right hand one. You should now have a pearl with thread coming out of each side. See the illustration.

Step 1. On each end string an 8mm and a 12/0 bead. String each end in opposite directions through the 8mm pearl.

Step 2. With the filament coming out of the bottom end of the pearl, string a 4mm an 8mm and a 4mm pearl. With the top filament string a 12/0 seed bead and then pass both filaments on opposite directions through the 8mm pearl.

With the top filament string a 4mm an 8mm and a 4mm pearl, withe bottom end string 12/0 seed bead and then pass both filaments on opposite directions through the 8mm pearl.

Repeat the above 2 steps until you have 2.5cm of your finished length and then repeat Step 2.

With the bottom end string a 4mm and an 8mm, with the top end string an 8mm. Then string both ends in opposite directions through a 4mm.

Now string a 4mm on each end and then both ends in opposite directions through a 4mm pearl.

String both ends through a crimp bead, then string both ends in opposite direstions through and over the guardian.  Pass back through the crimp bead. Pull the filament fairly firmly so that it does not slip off the guardian and squash the crimp. Trim the monofilament close to the crimp.

Attach the clasps with jump rings.

Cube Beads Rock

Well, Christmas is over and my mind is already turning to spring and lighter colours. So, today, these new in cube beads took my fancy and I decided that I wanted to make something light and airy. This is the result.

I got out the trusty teapot to take the photograph as it hasn't had an airing for a while and I thought that the necklace would look good against the white of the pot.

The necklace is a breeze to make and cheap too. It only took 1 strand of these beads

6mm Cube, Crackle Glass Beads, Strands, Pink 32 pieces

Some white beads that I had spare.

100 metres of Monofilament 0.35mm

 Calottes, Silver Colour, 9mm long, 3mm wide, hole: about 1.5mm

15 Zinc Alloy Lobster Claw Clasps, Bright Silver Color, Size: 10mm long,

So, you can make on in no time.

Pearl and crystal bracelet

This is a quick post for inspiration only. I made this bracelet using:

Rhinestone Beads silver 
10mm glass pearl strand 8" strand Purple
6mm Silver Color, Iron Jump Rings
Tibetan Silver Toggle & Bar, Lead Free and Cadmium Free
100 Eyepins, Plated Silver Color, Nickel Free 30mm long, 0. 7mm thick,

Spend a little make a lot, Seed Bead Necklace

Spend a little make a lot is my motto for this post as I've made a necklace that uses only £1 worth of beads.

You all know what I mean when I say that I'm drawn to packs of beads with lots and lots of colours in them. They shine and seduce and when you get them home you wonder what on earth to do with them. Well, this is what I've come up with. I'm in the process of doing the Video clip but for now I'll content myself with showing you the piccies.

I used
20g 6/0 Glass Seed Beads, Dyed Colors, Round, Mixed Colors, about 4mm 1 pack
6 Alloy Chandelier Components, Lead and Cadmium Free, Antique Silver Color, 34mm just 2 of these
Tibetan Silver Toggle & Bar, Lead Free and Cadmium Free, x 6 sets just 1 set

100 metres of Monofilament 0.35mm I used less than 4 metres.

12 crimps

2 jump rings

Here's the video to explain how to do it.

Tropical Orange Necklace

I made this today with some of the beautiful beads in our vibrant orenge selection of big beads. Although I tend to wear a lot of silver I love gold and I teamed it with these oranges to make this statement necklace.

If you want to make one you will need: You will not need the whole pack of any of them.

Spray Painted Acrylic Beads, Oval, Orange, Size: about 25mm long, x 8 for £1.20

Spray Painted Acrylic Beads, Tube, Orange, Size: about 19mm long, 12mm wide, x 6 for£1.00

Orange Handmade Lampwork Beads, with Stripes, Heart shaped x 5 for £2.00

Golden Color, Metal Bead Spacers, 4mm x 100 for £1

1 Metres Side Twist Chain, Lead Free & Nickel Free, Golden Color Size: Links: about 5mm long, 4mm wide, 0.9mm thick. £1

Tibetan Style Toggle & T Bar Antique Golden, pack of 4 sets £1

Tigertail 

Golden jump rings I used some from this pack:

20g assorted Golden, Jump Rings, £1

Golden Colour Brass Crimp Beads, Nickel Free, Barrel, approx 200 crimps £1

Spend less than £10 and you will have enough left to make another necklace. Perhaps not an identical one but a similar one.

Statement Necklace

I've been looking at the necklaces in the shops recently and I've noticed that big, statement, necklaces are all the rage. With this in mind I decided that I was going to design some from the fabulous beads that I have in my stash. You all know the sort that I mean. The ones that you buy because you can'r resist them. Now I have the inspiration I decided that 'resistance is futile'.

This is my necklace:

It is fabulous shades of golden olive. The findings are metal and the necklace has a good weight.
It is for sale on Craft Fairy.

Fair at Margam Orangery

Last weekend, together with tow of my beading buddies I had a table at the Glamorgan WI Craft Bonanza.

Lest you get confused that's not me in the photo but one of my buddies. I was behind the lens as usual and not in the photos.

We decided to go for a white theme this time as we have discovered that the cloths supplied by the WI are a dark green that kills the colour of the beads. These cloths are old ones that I inherited from my late mother so they have been well used and were perfect for our backdrop. One of the other advantages of using old tablecloths is that they tend to be big enough to cover the large tables that are used in the fairs. Big families needed big tables and hence big cloths.

A bit of a close up of the table.

We also decided that this time we would go for a colour theme. In the past we've put our own jewellery in sections but in the spirit of harmony and the fact that we know our own pieces we went for colour co-ordination where possible and I believe that the table looked better for it too.

My only bug with this table is that the cloth was not straight at the front. I thought that it was before we started but as we moved more and more things away from the front of the table we could see that it was slightly skew. Unfortunately, short of taking everything off the table it had to stay as it was. Lesson learnt. Next time have noting in front of the table when we decide if the cloth is straight.

Montersino Rules for Bread. Whoops this should be on my Food Blog!!!

These may well be 'Montersino Rules for Bread' but for me Montersino really does rule over the kitchen. So when I was watching one of his Accademia Montersiono programmes on Alive TV
( Italian language only) I gleaned several things form him that I think are important to note down here before I forget them.

1. The longer the raising time the smaller the quantity of yeast needed.
2. A biga must be left to develop for 18 to 20 hours. 
3. Add the salt at the end of the kneading process as the salt crystals make the gluten strands rigid and inhibit their production.
4. The amount of salt in the mixture affects the time that the dough takes to prove. If you want to lengthen the proving time of the bread add extra salt. This has to be within reason. I didn't quite catch the rule so I'll watch the programme again to get the formula right.
5. Use a medium gluten content flour if you want to have a crisp crust. The protein in the flour absorbs humidity and makes even the crispiest crust go soft.
6. When making a high humidity bread add the water a bit at a time. This can take up to 10 minutes. (Yes really)
7. There are more so I'll add as I go along.