Website creation

So.....loads of people have been asking me about where they can buy my bits, friends are asking if I can make something for them so decided to up my game and begin to think about this a bit more seriously. I have started to produce a website which is being tested as we speak by my friends and family. Its not really a full website yet but its allowing me to investigate with people.

My website is based around my two nicknames, Jojo being the oldest as my friends mum used to call me that in secondary school, the other being magpie, due to my attraction to anything red (I know magpies like shiny things, mines just red things lol)

You can view the test site here: Magpie by Jojo

If anyone does have any comments that would be great :) I hope to have the site fully up within 2 weeks.

Starting to think about my final piece...

So for my course qualification I have to create a final piece, this should combine different techniques and should be more than one really. I have been thinking a lot about this and doodling a lot. I really like the wire-work but in  practice I'm not sure how I could make this work as a piece and look good yet. I experimented with a few different shapes and then returned to other techniques, combining them again. I made this piece to match a bracelet I made previously but combined it with ribbon this time (was using cord before):

I then made a few more pieces. Some combine beads with ribbon and jump rings:

I used chain, beads, eyepin links and wrapped headpins to make this one, along with some leaf charms from a broken necklace:

A colour variation on the "driftwood" style:

First time I have combines tiger tail with chain, think it came out quite well:

Delving into wirework

So this week the lesson was about wirework jewellery, the most anticipated part of the course for me. I have been dying to learn how to do this properly, having tried with a previous piece I made. This time we used quite high gauge wire which means it should keep its shape a lot. I just need to gain a metal sheet and a rubber mat to be able to do some hammer designs (I like the appearance of flattened wire work). Well here are the pieces anyway :)

This network evolved from an experiment with different shapes. I was quite pleased with the outcome when I combined it with chain and beads. I keep looking at it as I'm very pleased with how the coiled eyepins came out, the neatest I have done yet I think!

The starter piece was actually the item below where all links were created in wire work, connected with jump rings. 

A little free time...

So I have has a little free time today, kind of unexpected as I was intending to do lots of marking but realised that I had left most of it at work. All ready for tomorrow so decided to make some jewellery instead. I bought some necklaces of the market yesterday, didn't like the combinations but liked the variety of beads so didn't feel bad about destroying them :)

It seems the more I am doing this the more I am working with pink - which is weird considering I don't even really like pink!!

I decided to start with using some cord as I was really pleased with one necklace I made which incorporated both chain and cord. I had some similar discs from the dismantled necklaces but this time they were gold so went for a more vibrant cord this time, paired with pink and blue beads.

So this was the first piece and I have to say was really pleased with it. I think the colours go very well together, kind of has an antique feel to it with the tarnished gold.

I then used beads from the same necklace along with some gold tiger tail making a 2 strand necklace. I am still unsure of this style even though I think it came out well. Probably because it only uses one technique and I seem to like the effect of combing them, cord with chain, eyepin links on their own and with chain, ribbon with beads....

Looking back over pieces I made before starting the course its nice to recognise my own development. I'm glad I was able to discover these other techniques as it really has developed my own designs.

Next lesson...

Its my next lesson this evening, looking forward to it as it makes Mondays that little bit more bearable. I have to get straight home after shopping to cook dinner and be out by 7 - no small feat.

Tonight I think we are going to be working with chain, eye/head pins and split rings. Hopefully this will mean I can get to grips with the technique I want to use in my bridesmaids jewellery.

In the mean time I was looking around for ideas and was doodling again. I quite like the idea of combining ribbon with chain so plan to take some along this evening. Be interesting to see how that comes out.

I also went mad on ebay and have ended up with 700 meters of tigertail - should keep me going for a while! :D

Driftwood

This was probably the piece I have been proudest of so far :D

This next one was another attempt to make a 2 strand cord necklace. I'm not sure whether its any good or not as I don't really like pink lol.

Indian Delight

I decided to keep going on the cord front, the only way I can find my style and improve was to keep going so I tried this time to make a two strand cord necklace. I love red and black so decided to use those colours, making use of beads from necklaces I had purchased and then broken up.

Green pendant cord necklace

As I didn't like the other one I decided straight away to give it another go, intending to improve the things that I didn't like. I had the pendant and wanted to create something with a subtle effect. I wanted to insert a bit more texture than I had with my first attempt and so decided to use spacer beads and bead surrounds in silver tone.

I much preferred this second attempt to create this style of necklace and I think its because of the use of the spacer beads to add texture. 

Pink cord necklace

So the next skill I have been learning is to work with waxed cord, leather and cotton. I already had the heart pendant in a stone and had decided to use this for my necklace alongside some larger beads I had set aside previously. I chose the pink leather cord as the beads were clear and I felt this would showcase the beads and cord quite nicely. 

I’m not too sure on the effect of this type of jewellery and I found it quite difficult to do. A couple of times I discovered I had made a mistake, once forgetting a knot and another with the distances being uneven, correcting these errors was more time consuming than with other techniques attempted so far. 

Dark Magic

I decided to use more than just beads in this piece, using some tibetan silver discs, I called it dark magic as it had a mysterious feel to it which I loved. This is only short and probably more of a collar necklace than a dangle length.