I'll be Bach...

I've been doing lots of little bits of bead organizing over the last few weekends, stripping old bits of jewellery for parts etc so I haven't made a whole lot of stuff hence my silence on the blogging front. But I'm back! I've mostly been making for others lately, I figure there's nothing like a wee little bit of jewellery to brighten up ones week!

I've been listening to new music lately, some nice chill out stuff like a bit of Bat for Lashes care of my friend Jess, some of my cheesy pop like Nicki Minaj, and nice classics like Fred Astaire and Tony Bennett. Gotta love the oldies.

Anyway, back to business, bracelets!

My gorgeous buddy who made sure I will go to the ball this year got this one...

I've made a list of peoples names, and colours I think of based on what they wear, their colouring etc. I just thought RED when I tried to figure out what to make for Katie. The beads actually look slightly purple in the picture, but in reality they're quite a gutsy crimson. 

I actually made a necklace for Jess a few weeks ago, but as I hadn't given the gift I decided to keep the pics under wraps. They're not great pics either, I will have to invest in a camera rather than using the rubbish one on my phone, but for now they'll do!

The necklace is quite long, but just right for the wearer. The heavy white bead is from a FairTrade bracelet I shortened for her!

All this jewellery making is really chilling me out and just seems to make third year a little less awful. Despite the sore neck aspect, just sitting over a box of beads for a few hours is making me look forward to the weekends. I must actually go to a bead shop this week, I've got a few projects in mind for the next few weeks. 

I was in Penneys on Friday night, loitering while waiting for a lift to a houseparty. A heavy charm bracelet with a brassy gold chain crunched up with elastic caught my eye. I loved the colour scheme of the beads attached, but I felt it was far too clunky for my personal tastes. Unfortunately I ripped it to pieces before I thought to take a Before picture, but I might as well show off the results so far!

This one's another gift, hopefully she won't see it before it's given to her!

The last two have a few of the coral/rose coloured beads from the original bracelet. I'm really loving these sort of neutral colours at the moment, and I felt the wooden beads I already had fitted the colour scheme well.

I'd best be off, there's a room that needs to be tidied, some clothes that need washing and a hell of a lot of study to be doing! Let me know what you think of course...  :-)

Live long and prosper??

All weekend long baby...

So, I've had my first quiet weekend at home in the country for a while... With all the Christmas madness there was rarely a quiet moment. So I spent my Saturday and Sunday watching the end of cycle 15 of ANTM and messing with beads. I think my papa's getting a little worried, I was hunched over my bead board for two straight days.

Now, while I can't show everything I've made (some of it is to be a gift! i can't ruin the surprise!), I can post pics of my new necklace and bracelet... I'm not entirely happy with the necklace, there's a chance I'll shorten it cos long necklaces just don't tend to suit me well I don't think, but sure here's a look anyway...

I wanted it to be asymetrical, with the beads being so sparkly and pretty it could have turned into a boring chain. As I said, I might still shorten it to about an inch or so beneath my collarbone. 

And then there's the bracelet. I'm actually in love with it. I think it's the beads, I found them in a small bead shop in Delft on my trip to Holland in September. I've been looking at them since then! They're just gorgeous, dark, but not heavy, and beautifully sparkly. In a word, perfect!! I also had a bit of chunky chain left over from a bracelet I shortened last week. So, this was the end result...

I don't think I've ever liked anything I've made this much before... I'd like to wear it to work tomorrow, but I worry that the beads would slow down my typing... The beads are a little under a centimeter in diameter... Gorgeous tho, non?? 

I'm really excited to go and find some new beads, my deadly friend K has promised that she'll take me to a bead shop in Dublin that I haven't seen before... I'm really excited, I feel like I have some really stunning big statement beads, and I have loads of small ones, but I don't have anything in between. Also, this experiment with the chunky chain has made me want to explore other materials too. 

Seeing as it's late and I'm super tired I'm going to finish this post abruptly by telling you guys that it snowed this weekend... It came as fast as it went, but I managed to grab a few fuzzy pics on Friday evening. 

Hasta la vista babez...

Late night modelings...

Between yesterday and today I've had a bit of an ANTM marathon... Not a major one, just a few episodes here and there. To let everyone know in advance, this post will lean towards the girlie. Anyway, all that modeling blah blah etc got me in a creative mood so I decided to crack out my pliers and beads! The bf (<3) got me some super cool stuff for Christmas - a proper pliers, a bead board for planning stuff out, some catches, and a great box to put everything in!!

Bead box FULL of goodies :-)

So, all this intention to make stuff got me wanting to take photos of the pretty stuff, which lead me to want to share pics, but no one wants me posting loads of pics of crappy homemade jewellery on fb, so that's what I'll use my supa-mega-wicked-cool blog for... Showing people what I'm making and doing! As a result, don't expect to see much of me...

I mostly make stuff (jewellery, cards, cakes etc) for people, either for presents or just because I feel like giving them something! Homemade jewellery served as excellent going away gifts for two friends over Christmas... Sorted! I was always a little bit of a maker, but never a very good one... If I tried hard enough I could be kinda good though, just have to finish this silly engineering degree first. 

Anyway, I resized a few bracelets for people, and then I was looking at my beads, the small bit of nylon I had left over from a dissembled piece, and I decided I just wanted a few small, dainty, simple bracelets. 

I ended up with three - one was part of an old necklace, it was a bit heavy and black before but the small strand of it works quite well. It's a small bit too big on my wrist which I like. The other two are the same idea, just with different beads. 

They're hardly masterpieces, but I figure they'll cheer me up when I'm sitting tap-tapping at my desk at work tomorrow! Want to know what else is cheering me up these days? (not that I need cheering up, sure what have I to be down about?)

The bag that accompanies this coin purse is just as epic as this coin purse...

It's got owls on it for crying out loud!! :-)

I still don't know how to sign off this blog business... It seems a bit rude to stop typing without acknowledging that I've stopped typing, no? 

Good hustle?