Jade Ladder Bracelet

Well, it's not Jade and it's not a ladder, 

but that's what I'm calling this bracelet I made

at this week's jewellery class -

Jade Ladder Braclet.

This was rather time consuming and a bit fiddly,

so I finished it off at home.

It started off with two lengths of chain 

(measuring around the wrist plus 3cm)

The two lengths were attached to a

jump ring and clasp.

Some wirework was involved - creating a little

coil at the end of some silver wire (16 gauge)

the wire was then threaded through one of the links

of one of the chains, beads added, threaded through

the other chain and another coil made to finished that 'step'

of the 'ladder' off.

As you can see, I found it a little difficult

lining up the two sides of the chain so each step

looks a bit on the wonky side!

When it's on though, it does look ok (I think!)

Here's the finished article.

Practice makes perfect, so I'll keep at it!

Thanks for looking :)

Jewellery Classes - the good and the bad!

Well, I'm exaggerating about 'the bad', but this

is what I made at last week's jewellery class

and it's my least favourite piece to date.

I don't wear much jewellery at all and this pendant

is something I definitely wouldn't wear.

That doesn't mean to say I don't like it, it's just

not what I'd wear.

On the plus side, I did enjoy making it -

it's a real shell (so I didn't make that - lol),

but I put together the beads on some cotton

and attached it to the shell (which had been pre-drilled

by the tutor) with jump rings.

I also attached the wire to the end of the leather thong

and attached the lobster clasp.

Now onto the good ....

This is what I made at this week's class and I think

it's something I would actually wear.

I didn't make the chain - that was given to us

fully formed (thank goodness!).

We had the choice of making a short necklace or a bracelet,

so I opted for the latter.

We had to prepare all the beads first - by attaching

them to 1.8 wire, forming loops and shapes and 

wire wrapping some of them, 

whichever and however we wanted.

  My shapes are a bit odd, but at least they're

all like it, so that's ok - lol!

All the beads were then attached to the chain -

 I used jump rings for them all although we were 

supposed to have formed the loops and shapes so they

could fit onto the chain without jump rings - oops!!

 

The finished bracelet is quite heavy and I love

the jingly sound of it!

Thanks for looking :)

 

Glow Girl Glow!

Yesterday we were going to a Golden Wedding Anniversary

celebration which didn't start until 4pm and on the way we

had to pass Bluewater - and what should be going on there

at the 'Glow' arena, but a craft show!

 

Prima Homemade - The Creative Stitches & Hobbycrafts Show

Well, it really would have been rude not to pop in

and have a look - don't you agree!

So a couple of hours later out I came with the following goodies!

 Some wooden buttons 

('decorative laser cut embellishments)

from Button-It.

 Craft Pelmet Vilene and some sheets

of 'Tyvek'

from Kim Thittichai

Stamps, paints and tissue paper from

PaperArtsy

and as the show wasn't crowded I watched

a demo by Leandra all by myself -

Usually at AllyPally there is a huge crowd around her

so I was very lucky indeed.

  

 I also stocked up on some glues, ribbons

embossing folders, embellishments and stamps 

from the Portobello Road range by Papermania -

well I had to becase they were reduced and kept

calling me as I walked past - lol!

 Oh, a couple of packs of dried flowers

from the lovely ladies of the

The Pressed Flower Guild

Well, that's my birthday pressies from John sorted out

anyway - now I just need to find the time to play with them!

A Necklace .... well sort of!

I ventured along to this week's jewellery class alone (and survived!!!)

We made the above necklace - well part of it, I had to finish

it off at home as I run out of time.

I really like the look of it, but you may be able to see from

the photo that the links are not all the same size and some

are a bit on the wonky side too!  Well, I am a novice at all this,

so hopefully in time I'll improve.

The only materials needed were some 1.8 wire and jump rings.

I haven't yet mastered the skill of opening and closing jump rings 

using the tools so consequently have worn my fingernails down quite a bit!

I'm showing below step by step notes of how I made

the necklace, only because in a few days time I'll have forgotten!

We cut 32 pieces of the silver l.8 wire - each piece 

measuring 4cm long (in my case approx 4cm long!)

We then bent the wire around a small bead bottle to

give it the curved shape.

We took five of the pieces are hammered them flat

leaving a little bit at the end to make a loop with

the round nosed pliers.

They were then all threaded onto one jump ring.

This is the pendant for the necklace.

With the remaining 4cm long pieces of curved wire,

each end had to be looped

 (again with the long nosed pliers)

 These two pieces were then joined together with jump rings

at each end.

 All that needed doing then was joining each link

together with more jump rings and attaching the pendant

in the middle.

We made a 'S' shaped hook for the opening which you

may be able to see at the top of the photo.

All that I need to need to do now is to try and pick

the necklace up from my desk and hope it doesn't fall apart!

Thanks for looking :)

Craft for the boys - but the girls helped too!

 

Last weekend me and hubby helped Aaron, my nephew make a 

play surface / layout for him to use with his toy soliders / warriors.

I'm not sure what they are exactly, but they're called Warhammers

and everything associated with them is so expensive, so we

decided to have a go at making something ourselves. 

My hubby provided the base board, he'd made several years

ago for a railway layout, but which he'd never used.

The first step was to shape some polystyrene into hillside shapes.

 

The hills then needed to be glued into place -

expertly done by big sister Chloe.

Then the best bit - covering the whole lot with Plaster Cloth.

Once finished this is what it looked like.

 

Once dry, the entire board was painted with some old emulsion

paint from our garage.

The following day, the finishing touches were added.

PVA glue and sprinkles of sand

 

 Then scenic scatter materials

(again from hubby's model railway stash)

It looks a little unfinished to me but Aaron liked

the sand-scape look of it.

Here's a closer shot

Aaron's now happy to have somewhere to fight his battles

(or whatever the Warhammers do!)

.... it didn't cost a fortune and was enjoyable for us to all help make.

Result all around!