Handmade rings

I have recently started a drawing and painting diploma which is taking up a lot of my spare time (hence the lack of posts in the last few weeks). I am hoping it will really help my artwork but I am finding it quite challenging. Yesterday I took a break from it to make some rings and here are the results:

Happy New Year

Here we are again, the start of a new year, how quickly time flies! 

2012 has been a very busy year and I have learnt so many new things. One of the most rewarding is making my own jewellery including this bracelet made from silver wire and glass beads

Hopefully this coming year will bring some new projects full of interesting things to try and skills to learn. Hope you all have a great 2013!!

Bubble jewellery

The beads in this necklace and bracelet set remind me of bubbles hence the title. There are so many ways to braid wire with beads and each one looks different which means with some very basic techniques you can make endless individual pieces. Here I have used a mixture of bead sizes, shapes and colours and intertwined silver wires (three for the necklace and four for the bracelet) to create a random pattern of spots - so pretty!

Bubble bracelet

Bubble set

Bubble necklace

Blue and green necklace

A new necklace made from silver wire and glass beads.

Silver necklace with autumnal beads

A new necklace made from loops of wire with beads hung from the joints. 

Plaited bracelets with beads

After the five and eight strand plaiting last month I thought I would settle with some "easy" three strand braid when I introduced beads. Experimenting with threading beads at different intervals in the plait produced some interesting and quite different results. I like the glass beads with the silver wire especially when the light is shining on them. Here are three variations:

Small round beads make a very tight, neat braid. Here the beads were threaded on every time a wire crossed another. 

Oval beads make a nice open design. The beads here were also threaded on every time a wire was crossed. 

In this case oval beads were only threaded on when the wire crossed to the right so all the beads point in the same direction. 

Crochet bracelet

One of the new skills I have learnt this year is the basic crochet stitch - I am not the most talented at this I have to say; it doesn't come naturally. After quite a lot of practice I managed to make this bracelet. It isn't as complicated as it looks I have simply chain stitched nine lengths of very thin jewellery wire and then plaited them. These three plaits have then been woven together with some beads added in for extra prettiness. The result is this beautiful bracelet that (as long as you don't sit on it accidentally) can be worn again and again. 

Plaited wire bangles

Until this week I had only ever plaited with three strands but found some instructions for 5 and 8 strand plaits. At first this seemed impossibly complicated but a little practice and it started to make sense and the results were some lovely silver bangles. 

They aren't perfect (as I'm sure you can see) but I am pleased considering it was a first try. I need to learn to size them better (both turned out huge!) and I need to find a better way to hold the two ends together when they are done. Getting an even plait also proved to be quite difficult particularly with the 5 strand plait. But otherwise I am there ;-)

Definitely some potential for these with considerably more practice!