What to do in a Power Cut?

I had a busy day planned, catching up on ironing and vacuuming. Luckily someone somewhere had better plans for me and the power went off.  I started making jewellery, stopping only for cups of tea (made by boiling water on the stove) and chatting to workmen. I also did quite a lot of watching out of the window whilst some very cold men dug up my road.

So here is what I made:

My first tiara. I had wanted to have a go at a tiara for ages and not got around to it so this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I followed some instructions from a book (which is now back at the library) and the final result is pretty to look at.  I used glass and fluorite chips for the stones and I love the contrasting green and purple colours of the fluorite they make me think of a woodland glade in spring.  My daughters really like it but for an adult I think I should make the stalks bigger and cover a bit more of the band.

I also made a decorated hair comb using blue seed beads to make leaf shapes on stalks and covered the comb edge in tiny freshwater pearls. This has disappeared into the black hole that is my eldest daughters bedroom. If I ever find it again I will take a picture of it.

I also practised some more knotting for my current classes.  This resulted in two bracelets and a necklace.

The necklace is made from semi-precious stones, I can’t remember what they are called but they have beautiful green and white marbling. The clasp is a sliding knot and there knots between each bead so the necklace has no metal in it.

This bracelet has amber coloured glass beads connected with gold and green silken thread using an alternating half hitch knot.

I recycled some beads from a necklace for this bracelet. The picture is not very good but  the beads are purple faceted alternating with long black beads. The cord is the gold silken thread and as well as the sliding knot I have knotted between each bead.

Not bad for one days work – perhaps I should arrange for more power cuts.

Some More Knotting

I  have done  another class (or two) in my local beadshop. In the first class (pictures shown in knotting on 28th Jan) we did alternating knots, in the second we only knotted on one ‘side’ to create a lovely spiral. I used a beautiful pale blue cord and some ceramic beads to make a bracelet. I love the blue butterfly as a clasp and the pearlescence of the ceramic heart beads.

This is a six week course. In the third session we learnt the flat or square knot.  It definately made my head hurt to start with. Once you start going it is fine but I am still having problems with getting the start right.  The flat knot can be used both as a decorative knot or as a sliding knot instead of a clasp. This type of jewellery is wonderful for people who can’t wear metal jewellery.  My first bracelet using this technique:

I do have a bit of a ‘thing’ for yellows and greens together so this bracelet is definately for me. Most of my stuff is also ‘small and delicate’ looking. Occasionally I try to go for ‘big and bold’ but my version is always smaller and less bold than other peoples.

When I got home from the course I decided to practise the flat knot and if you need alot of practise what is the best thing to make?

A necklace.

This is about as big and bold as I get,  the clasp needs some work, but as a practise piece for the flat knot it works quite well.