Showing posts with label Toggle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Toggle. Show all posts

Monday, April 7, 2014

Oh Lovely Things Came Today

I ordered some things from Beads Unlimited last week using the £25 voucher I received from Beads and Beyond Magazine when they printed my picture last month, and today they arrived. 

I'm so happy with everything and always love the quality of Beads Unlimited products. My favourites have to be the ceramic owl beads. I have no idea how I'm going to use them yet but when I saw them I had to add them to my basket. The teapot clasps are fun looking and the toggle bar is a spoon. I did get some basics, glass beads and glass pearls but also got some new things I hadn't ever tried working with before like the large wooden heart pendants. I have a bit of an idea for those already so hopefully you will be seeing pictures of them again soon. 

I think I'm going to have a bit of fun playing with all of this today.




Friday, December 6, 2013

A Little Bit Black And White

I decided it was time to go through some boxes of beads and organise everything and see exactly what I have. About 10 minutes in I had come across black and white glass pearls and some wire and a new toggle clasp I had bought a while ago but hadnt used yet so I gave up on organising the boxes and started to make this bracelet. Im blaming the lack of colour on the horrible windy wet weather when I was making it. Had I had some grey beads Im sure they would have gone in too.

I used my wire coiler to make the black wire coils and silver plated wire to attach all the beads. I love the black toggle clasp. I ordered a few of these in all available colours from Beads Direct a while ago but havent tried using any until now. Im going to have to get more. I love the chunky-ness of them.


Friday, May 10, 2013

Diamond Pattern Friendship Bracelet Tutorial


I can't remember where I got the pattern for this bracelet I've tried out quite a few and then tweaked them a little to make them easier to remember and explain in this tutorial. The tutorial is broken down into three parts - the left triangle, the right triangle and the diamond.

I would recommend you try my tutorials for the Simple Friendship Bracelet or the Chevron Pattern Friendship Bracelet before trying this one to get a bit of practice doing the forward and backwards knots.

Always remember a forward knot always ends up to the left of the string you are knotting over and a backwards knot always ends up to the right of the string you are knotting over.


What You Need:

3 x different colours of emboirdery thread

A clasp

2 x fold-over type cord ends

2 x 4mm jump rings (not pictured)








To start you need to cut 4 lengths of each colour measuring 35 inches each. Tie a knot close to the top to hold all the strings together.












Now you need to lay out the colours in the right order. There will be 6 to the left and 6 to the right. In this order the white is the surround of the diamond, the black is the background colour and the green is the diamond colour.








Working with the left 6 stands first take the first (white) strand on the left and knot across until it ends up in the middle. Remember each knot is actually a double knot.












Now working with the right 6 strands take the first (white) strand on the far right and knot across until you reach the middle. Now you knot the two white strands in the middle together to join the sides. You have a chevron now as a start to the pattern.










Left Triangle:

Working with only the left 6 strings take the first strand (black) and double knot across the row. On the final string (white) do one forward knot and one backwards knot so you now have the order from left to right seen in the picture.











You now take the first (black) string  and double knot over the next 2 strands and on the 3rd strand (green) do a forward knot and a backwards knot. You now have this order of strings.











Taking the first strand (white) make a forward and backwards knot over the green string next to it. All the strings are still in the same order now.













Take the 3rd string (black) and do backwards knots towards the left so your order is now black, white, green, green, black and white.













Take the 5th string (black) and do backwards knots towards the left. You should now have the order that is shown in the photo on the right. This is your left triangle done.





Right Triangle:
The right triangle is a mirror image of the left.

Take the first string (black) double knot across doing a backwards and forwards knot on the last string.

Take the first string (black) and knot across the next 2 strings and on the third do a backwards and forwards knot.

Take the first string (white) and make a backwards and forwards knot over the next string.

Take the 3rd string (black) and forward knot to the right.

Take the 5th string (black) and forward knot to the right.



Now join the middle two strings (white).

Take the middle string to the left side and working left knot across until the last string (black) and do a backwards forwards knot.

Take the middle string to the right (white) and knot across to the right until the last string (black) and do a forwards backwards knot.

This is now the start of the surround of the diamond.







Join the two middle strings (green) together.

Take the middle string (green) to the left and knot towards the left over the next 2 strings and on the third make a backwards forwards knot.

Take the middle string (green) to the right and knot towards the right over the next 2 strings and on the third make forwards  backwards knot.








Join the middle strings (green) together.

Take the middle string (green) to the left and knot across the next string to the left.

Take the middle string (green) to the right and knot across the next string to the right.










Join the middle two strings (green).

Take the 4th string in from the left and knot over the next 2 strings towards the middle.

Take the 4th string in from the right and knot over the next 2 strings towards the middle.

Join the middle two strings (green).









Take the second string (white) from the left and knot over each string towards the middle.

Take the second string (white) from the right and knot over each string towards the middle.

Join the middle two strings together (white).






The pattern now continues from the Left Triangle heading above until you have the desired length. Remove the knot at the top of the bracelet and attach the fold over cord ends to either end of the bracelet. See my tutorial for the Diamond Knotted Cord Bracelet for how to attach the fold over cord ends.

Attach your clasp using a jump ring on either end and you are done!

As always I would love to hear if you have found this tutorial helpful and if you have made this bracelet.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Diamond Patterned Friendship Bracelet



I have been working on this one for ages. Its not to complicated a pattern and I cant wait to try it out in different colours. I also decided on this one to use a toggle clasp as a closing rather than the traditional plating and tying the ends around my wrist. I like this option as I think its a little more sophisticated and grown up.





I'm really looking forward to wearing this stacked with a few of the other style bracelet like he chevron pattern and the simple four coloured ones from previous posts.

Monday, January 7, 2013

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.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Competition Entry

Ive entered this piece into the "Design of the Week" competition on Cookson Gold Facebook page today. This week the prize is a texture hammer that could come in very handy in the workshop!! There are some fantastic pieces entered already so fingers crossed!!



See the album of entries here:          Design of the Week

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Byzantine Bracelets

I made these bracelets as Christmas gifts using the Byzantine Weave. I really like this weave it can be a bit time consuming but isn't as hard as it looks at first. Some of the jump rings I used I bought ready made but the purple ones I made myself using wire I already had. Every bracelet looks different depending on the colour of the jump rings used. I used toggle clasps on my bracelets but any type of clasp can be used to give the bracelet a different look.