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  1. Last year I spoke about wanting to work more with wire in my jewellery making and expand into wire work jewellery. Well, I have being doing so, I've been experimenting over the past couple of week, when I've got a spare couple of hours and just sitting at my desk, with a my tools and a roll of inexpensive wire. To make the most basic, to the most intricate designs, it only requires confidence in the tools you use and your imagination.

    tools picture

    At first I started with a piece of shiny brown aluminium craft wire, that caught my eye in a local craft shop. Aluminium craft wire is a soft a malleable wire, that can easily bent with your fingers and is available in many colours. It also can be rigid enough to hold it's shape.

    At first I made into an oval shape, then I added some tiny turquoise blue seed beads, that I found in my bead stash, which I have wanted to use for a while time, because they are soo pretty. I strung them onto a piece of 0.4 mm silver wire and then started wrapping around the oval frame.

    Sea Urchin pendant

     

    This is what I ended up with, yes I know it looks strange, it reminds me of something you'd find in the ocean, some sort of sea creäture. The fringe bits at the bottom, were made from uneven strips of wire, that I just bent and curved around a round nose pliers.

    After I made this, I thought this would make an interesting pendant, but I've not got around to making it into a necklace, I'm not even sure I will make it into one, it's one of the most unusual pieces I've ever made. If there is anyone out there that can suggest a suitable stringing material, I would love to hear from them. 

    After making this pendant, I wanted to make a pair of earrings, I did not have a design in my head, I just bent the wire around into a circle, then a spiral shape and grabbed some blue Czech glass beads and added these to create some movement and these are the earrings I created. 

     

    alumium circle earrings

     

    Again, they are an unusual  design, but that's what I love about making jewellery, things don't always turn out how you expect them to turn out, there are no hard and fast rules about jewellery making, just the freedom of creating whatever your tools, hands and imagination lets you create.

    Most of my handmade jewellery is one-off pieces, if you would like to see my work, then have a browse through my website.

    Bye for now.

    x

     

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  2. I'm back! It's been a few months since I posted a blog, the reason being is that I've been busy with my websites, designing new jewellery, getting orders made for customers and enjoying family life. I'm going try and get back into blogging,

    I have to say I have missed it and I'm going to try and blog weekly and not beat myself up about it, if I miss a week or two. If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you might of noticed that I've been posting a few 'work in progress' pictures of my flower girl bracelets, they have been proving quite popular with customers.

     

    work in progress

    They have been on my website and in my Etsy shop for several months now,  I already have a range of bridal jewellery available to purchase on these venues, but I did not want to leave out the flower girls. They deserve an extra special gift to say thank you for taking part in the happy couple's wedding and also they would make a nice memento of the day. They all can be made in petite sizes from the ages of 3 - 13 years of age and are available in a range of colours.

    This pink flower bracelet is made with 6 mm pink glass pearl beads and 6 mm pink crystal beads. There is a 1.5 inch long extender chain a silver heart shaped charm, with the words ' Flower Girl' engraved on it.

    pink flower girl bracelet

    Another popular bracelet chosen by many brides this year is this one, made with white and blue 6 mm glass pearl beads. To give my customers more of a choice, I now offer the option of choosing up to 17 other pearl colours, which can be matched to a brides wedding colour scheme. 

     

     blue and white flower girl bracelet
     

    Now, this bracelet is a little bit different from the others, instead of a flower girl charm, there is an initial charm. Initial jewellery is more personalised, so if your your flower girl is called Sophie, you would choose the letter S and also you can pick from 9 crystal colours to add to the bracelet. 

     

    initial bracelet

     

    This bracelet has a simple design, it's made with ivory pearls, a smoky grey crystal bead, small silver beads, a flower girl charm and a singular pearl dangle.  

     

    ivory pearl bracelet

    This bracelet has a simple design, it's made with ivory pearls, a smoky grey crystal bead, small silver beads, a flower girl charm and a singular pearl dangle.  

     

    I know brides sometimes struggle to think of a thoughtful gift for members of their wedding party, just to say thank you for making their big day so special. These bracelets would be ideal, they are made with pearls and pearls never go out of style and the flower girls can treasure their own bracelet as a keepsake gift, forever.

    If you would like a closer look at these bracelets, you can see them on my website at www.michelleshandcraftedjewellery.com

    Also if you like to see what I'm up to on Instagram and feel to follow me on instagram.com/michelleshandcraftedjewellery 

     

    Bye for now

    x

     

     

     

     

  3. autumn scene

    Which is your favourite season? I always look forward to the spring, because the evenings start to get lighter and I know that summer is not far behind. Last year our summer was a complete wash out, it literally did not stop raining the whole summer. This year we had a glorious summer, I hope we have the same next year.

    Now that were easing out of summer and heading for the cool autumn/winter months, not only will we will be changing the type of clothes we will be wearing,  I like to wear big chunky jumpers, I always feel the cold, lol, some of us will switch to a different colour palette for our jewellery, like warm browns, reds, oranges and greens. 

    To compliment the autumn colours,  I have created some new jewellery pieces and also incorporated some of my existing creations into a new section on my website called 'Autumn Inspired Jewellery'. You only have to look outside your window to see the changing colour of the leaves on the trees and on the ground, which signal that autumn is on it's way.

    Autumn Jewellery

    autumn collage

    If you would like to see some more of my autumn jewellery, head over to my website. Also before I forget, there is 50% off clearance sale on all the ankle bracelets on my website. If you would like to see the various designs and purchase one for next summer.

     Bye for now 

    x