There and back again....

It's been quite a couple of weeks! Along with everything else that's going on in my life - I decided to take the jewellery class again, and I finished up a bracelet that I was working on last year. It still needs to be polished, but I'm happy with the way that it turned out. I made all of the small beads, plus the 4 metal charms and the chain on the bracelet, so it ended up being quite a bit of work. On the other hand, I like the fact that I know how to make chain and clasps now.

Thanks for all of your kind comments on my blog - it's nice to know that I have some readers around, even if I post less than I would like too!

New Stuff

Beyond the piece that I completed for the door prize last week, I also beaded and finished a new necklace. Its been busy in my life at the moment, and sometimes even I dont know where all of the weeks go....

Where I am - Jewellery Class

Here are the two finished items from my jewellery class - the necklace, with pale blue beads, and the small chain necklace with the glass slider. I liked making both of the pieces, although both required a lot of soldering. I'm much more experienced at soldering now, and it's nice to see that the things I wasn't very good at a month or two ago I'm now getting more proficient at.

I'm behind in my jewelery class (again - not a surprise), and so I will likely spend the weekend working on projects for that. It's a long class (2 full university semesters), and the novelty of the class has long worn off. I still enjoy it, but no longer have the passion and enthusiasm that I once did.

Sometime between now and the end of class I have to:

1) Remake the beads in the purple necklace shown several posts ago. In my head, the beads were always a pale sea-glass coloured aqua, and I've now decided I can't live with the purple.

2) Solder metal jumprings on to the empty spaces between the beads. They were always supposed to be there, but I didn't get time to do them before the due date.

3) Make a bunch of beads and charms for a charm bracelet I'm working on as my final project. The bracelet's done, as are the pins to put the beads on, but, I just need to do beads and charms.

4) Finish the eternal chain necklace. Some how I thought it would be cute/delecate to create a 22 gauge necklace. It's not...I'm about 9 or 10 inches in, and it's now just taking a long time. Although it is looking pretty good.

5)Create the slides for the necklace. Because the necklace is so delicate, I don't think it will hold a pendant well, so I was thinking of creating slider beads for it - one in glass and one in peyote stitch.

Phew - I think that's all..... wish me luck in getting this all done.

New Jewellery

I've been so busy in the last couple of weeks that I forgot I was supposed to hand something in this week for my jewellery class. And so I spent most of the weekend working on a necklace - the beads are all actually a matte dark purple, and not the black that most of them look like in the picture. I made the rings, soldered the whole thing together and then created the clasp. I'm not sure I'll ever do another necklace again, but making the rings and clasp is something that I'm glad I have in my list of skills.

Jewellery Happy Dance

I'd been working on this ring since before Christmas, and I finally finished it up last week. The stone is a puddle of melted glass, which started out life as a bead, and ended up in the ring. I like the wide band on the ring - it really gives the ring some weight.

Merry Christmas to all.....

A few more things to share. I'm currently stitching on Russian Nights by Bestitched - I've got all of the cross-stitching done, and am working on the back stitching. There's a few more speciality stitches to go in before the whole thing is finished, and then it will be done! It's a pretty easy stitch, but I haven't picked it up in a while and it's been sadly neglected.

I also have a picture of the latest jewellery project - this is a ring I finished for the class I'm taking. The class is through the extended studies department of the local art college, but you can take the class for credit as well. so they assign marks for the class. Apparently I got an A- for the term, which isn't bad - I've been told they don't give "A"'s to first year students.

I also took a picture of all of the ornaments that went on the tree this year. After participating in the TWBB ornament exchanges, Needle and Thread BB ornament exchanges and now the SBEBB ornament exchanges, I've managed to get a good collection for the tree.

I think I'm back.....

It's been quite a month. I've been busy, and don't have a lot to show, other than this - the second project from the jewellery class.