Best of 2012

This is what I expect to be part one of my Best of 2012 videos. I have already posted this onto my YouTube  channel and its been viewed quite a few times already. Ive tried to put at least one of each style of jewellery I have done from rosary beads to earrings and bookmarks. Hopefully you will like the pieces in the video.

Knotted Cord / Macreme Bracelets

I have made quite a few of these bracelets using varies types of beads and in a lot of different colours. They are very popular at the moment and look great stacked up or mixed with a few other bracelets.

I generally use 100% cotton cord thats comes dyed in a variety of colours and is anywhere from 1mm to 3mm thick. 

I hope to have a tutorial up on how to knot this bracelet very soon so check back or leave a comment below. 

Gossip Girl Inspired Necklace

So my sister loves the show Gossip Girl and the jewellery in the show is always amazing so she came to me with a picture one day of a necklace worn in an episode by one of the characters and said I want that please.  

This started 2 months of finding the right pearls, in the right sizes, the clasp she wanted, the bead caps she wanted. Eventually we got the pearls from China they are Akoya Shell pearls in a lovely gold colour, the clasp is 24kt gold plated from America, The bead caps and crimps I ordered from England and the spacer bars for the bracelet came from Asia through eBay. 

By the time it all arrived she had been talking about it for months. Eventually this is what I handed over and she loves it. 

She wore it recently to a family Christening and eveyone thought it was beautiful. To me its quite a simple 3 strand slightly embelleshed necklace but it is quite stunning when the light catches it. So here are the pictures:

 This is the detail at the back of the necklace.

This is the bracelet I made to match which was made out of the left over beads from the necklace.

How to Make a Wire Coil

These are used in a lot of things to dress up plain wire or add a little extra and can be made in a lot of different wire colours and sizes.

What you need:
Wire cutters
Flat nose Pliers - just to help with the final piece around the nail
A Nail - or anything that is the size of the Jump Rings you want to make
A length of wire - I use 0.8mm Silver plated Copper here

Step 1:

Wrap the wire around the nail until all the wire is used up. Wrap it as tightly together as possible as gaps result in oval and mis-shapen rings.

Step 2:

Remove the coil from the nail.

You can not place this over a plain piece of wire or beading thread in-between beads to add somethings different. 

Click here to view a video of this tutorial.

How to Make a Loop

Loops are needed to secure beads on headpins or to connect beads together like I have in my previous post for Rosary Beads. They are simple to do like I show here:

What you need:
Wire cutters
Round Nose Pliers
Wire or Headpin

Step 1:
Making sure you give yourself enough room for the loop bend the wire at a 90 degree angle after you have added your beads to the headpin.

Step 2:
Now you need to make a loop by putting your round nose pliers at the end of the wire and rolling back on itself to give a loop.

You should now have a simple loop that can be opened and closed to attach to chain or other loops or findings.

The more you do of these the better you get and they become second nature without you even having to look at what your doing.

Click here to view a video of this tutorial.

Vintage Pearl Necklace

This is a necklace I made a while ago inspired by vintage pearl style wedding jewellery. I used white pearls and clear crystals. It looks simple and elegant and not over powering on the neck.

Rosary Beads

I'm asked to make a lot of Rosary beads as gifts for a lot of different occassions. I started making them about 12 years ago and use a variety of different materials. I tend to stick to coloured glass beads or pearls for most of them.


I made this blue pair recently as a christening gift.

This pair was made using Swarovski Crysals