Monday 18 April 2011

Jewellery #1

I've been feeling pretty crafty recently, and my jewellery making box has been out quite a few times. The aim here is to do a series based on different jewellery making areas. I'm going to do about 3 posts, two of which are purely different examples of jewellery I've made or customised, then the 3rd will be a how-to guide with step-by-step instructions and lots of pictures because trust me, it's fiddly business! :) There are quite a few pictures, and I'm going to apologise in advance for how awful the Blogger border is...

Today's topic is my absolute favourite...jewellery :)
I love to make my own jewellery, I've done it for a good few years now, and I've slowly built up my ability over time. At first, I used to make tiny little beaded bracelets, but now I'm working mainly with actual chains, rings/ringbacks and charm bracelets. Since the new ID card system was introduced at my college where we all have to wear our ID cards every day now, I haven't really been able to wear necklaces to college at all - they get caught around the lanyard, bash against the ID card all day, get tangled around the badges on the lanyard, the list could go on. So, I sat down on Saturday(?) with my pendants and chains and tried to come up with something simple yet pretty that I could wear to college everyday that would a) look good and b) be practical (i.e. not get stuck around my lanyard!)

The necklace on the left is, pretty obviously, not intended for college wear (it's too long, booo!) - the gorgeous charm on it was actually originally on a charm bracelet my lovely friend Keyana bought me for my birthday from Claire's Accessories. The charm bracelet was so pretty, but it was too heavy and chunky for my wrist :( So, because it would've been stupid to waste the charms, I saved the bracelet itself (I may be able to use it for a friend who can wear heavier bracelets) and took all the charms off. One of them went on a bracelet I made for my awesome friend Fern. Anyway, this little metal tassel was on the bracelet and now makes this pretty little necklace.

Onto the second one, this is the one I wanted that I can wear every day. It fits the specification I set myself perfectly, I wanted something pretty understated but also a little glam. The red bead is actually a real Swarovski Crystal bead, they can be bought for decent prices in craft shops etc, but I got mine from Yum Yum Beads in Leeds (they also have a shop somewhere in France, I believe...further searching has just shown that it's also SO in the same place as where I'm going this summer...yes!). I bought a few colours, actually, but red is one of my favourite colours so I went for that. The chain is actually very short, so it sits nicely around my neck (I'll try and get some shots of them on to demonstrate). I'm looking forward to showing this one off :)

Next up: my charm bracelet. It hasn't had anything added to it or taken off it since about August, which is actually quite good for me. I think I've finally got it to the 'standard' I want it at, a lot of it means something to me, but some things on it were just put on for their beauty :) Haha. The bracelet was originally an Accessorize one, I think, it was a pretty horrible bracelet overall although the middle charm ('Believe' in a circle) was on it...the only decent charm on it unfortunately. There was a tacky, fake engagement ring...yuck.

Starting from the left hand side... the coin you can see is a Greek coin I believe. This was also purchased in Yum Yum Beads. They had these bronze/copper ones and some silver ones as well, I bought two of each. I'm glad I did, they don't sell them anymore :( Anyway, when I purchased them I was trying to learn Greek. One of the silver ones makes up one of my favourite necklaces, something that will also go in another post if I can do that. The colourful charm second in from the left is a 'Día de los Muertos' style skull, I took this from a cheap necklace in an Accessorize sale - it's mainly on there for the colour. Third in is a little fish charm, I put this on because at the time, I was studying for my GCSE Food Tech exam that was all about fish. It always reminds me of my friend, Fern, because we were in that class together and Food Tech was kind of like 'our thing' that we did together in school. Next up we have an Eiffel Tower charm, just because it has obvious travel connotations. Then, we have a globe, also taken from an Accessorize bracelet. After that we have another Yum Yum Beads (from now on known as YYB) purchase, a cute little hand saying 'Hand Made'. The middle charm was mainly put on because it always reminds me of Dima Bilan's winning ESC entry, Believe. At the time, the lyrics of that really inspired me and I only wanted the bracelet it came from originally for that charm. After that we have some little other 'Día de los Muertos' themed charms in a bunch, again, just for the colour. Next, we have a fake 'Ceska Republika' coin, it's plastic, but I have a thing for foreign currency, I genuinely collect it. This is followed by a little YYB key, it has personal reasons, again linked to my friend Fern. Finally we have the most special charm of all - it was, bizarrely, taken from an Accessorize straw hat. It was on the hat I took to Croatia last year and the hat was in such a bad state when I got home that we had to throw it away :( We took the charms off and I got two little hearts - one of which is on this :) The rest of the charms are on something else that's pretty special and will definitely be going in the next jewellery post I do.

So, there we have it, what I call 'proper' jewellery. Next time, I'll be showing you rings, a few other necklaces (don't worry, it'll be shorter than this post!) and how to have fun with beads :)

Besos
Rachel 

No comments:

Post a Comment