lovely and beautiful: necklace

Showing posts with label necklace. Show all posts

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Crochet Cutie Necklaces

So…it has been two months since I last posted anything (I just can’t believe it!). The rest of February and then March just vanished in a blur of activity and here we are…already well into April with the Easter holidays just over.

I’ve been a very busy little bee during the past months. Making and then exhibiting my handmade jewellery at a ladies creativity morning, came first. Then I received a last minute invitation to exhibit at a new arts and craft market, which caused me to immediately start producing for that so that I would have a full table of goodies to show. There really wasn’t enough time to do and make all that I would have wanted to for the market, because in the middle of everything, I left for a week away at the coast (a holiday invitation received from friends weeks before when there was nothing on my calendar yet). Between making more jewellery, some new paintings and pretty lanterns AND preparing for and going on my holiday…there simply wasn’t any time to blog. But I do intend on making up for it. A lot of picture-taking happened during this time to document all of my activities, so I now have many lovely & beautiful things to post about. Not only that, last week I received another invitation to exhibit at a market that forms part of a festival in May. It means, that in between having to catch up on blogging, filing away the growing heap of papers on my desk, some graphic design projects that is due and preparing for the next market…phew, I’m going to be a very busy lady during April as well. Here’s hoping everything on my To Do List gets done!

Ok…all the blah blah blah about why I haven’t been around is over. Now for the good stuff...

I found out that I like to crochet. Then I found out that you could crochet jewellery, and I like to make jewellery. The next natural step was to download a few free patterns and try them out with left over yarn. Results...ta-da!

When I received the invitation to exhibit at the arts and craft market, 'mass producing' a few of these cuties was at the top of my list. I went to a yarn store and bought what I deem to be shabby chic coloured yarns in 100 % cotton and 100 % bamboo. Bamboo yarn is such a revelation to me...SO soft everybody. Silky soft compared to the cotton yarn. It was just so much fun to make these necklaces and so satisfying seeing the end result.

The pattern for the big flower necklace above, can be found here: http://becreativewithamy.wordpress.com/2011/02/14/wicked-crochet-flower/

The pattern for these budding beauties came from: http://creativeyarn.blogspot.com/2008/08/white-flower-necklace.html

We're in the thick of Autumn here in South Africa...the weather is changing quickly and Winter will be here before we're really prepared for it. Wearing something as pretty as one of these dainty crochet necklaces, will brighten and warm up the coldest and most grey of days.

Blessings!

Surita

Friday, January 27, 2012

Lovely Little Trinkets

Hello Friday! Spent a wonderful morning photographing some of the lovely little trinkets that I've been working on since the end of 2011. After the photo session, which took up half the morning, it was time to start up my CorelDRAW Graphics Suite program and make collages of the different pieces.

Here goes...

1. White 'Milk Jug Plastic' Flower Necklace with Earrings (needs a prettier name?)

Moi is very happy with this little set...its 'belle belle!'. The flower pendant is made of milk jug plastic and a few crystal clear beads. Pretty cute hey? In keeping with the floral theme, different sized flower shaped beads were incorporated into the design.

Here I'm wearing said lovely creation...still can't believe a milk jug can be turned into something so beautiful. I plan on making lots more of them and do my part in keeping the earth green.

2. Pink&Pearl 'Soda Can' Blossom Necklace and Earrings

Making this necklace and the matching earrings was a whole day affair. Lots of cutting, sanding, embossing. My fingers were sore, back ached and eyes were crossed by the end of the day...but the result was absolutely worth it. An intricate, feather light, pretty and feminine piece of jewelry. Again, who would have thought a soda can could redeem itself and go to heaven...no rusty death at a garbage dump for this one!

3. Recycled Hardware 'Pink Blossom' Pendant Necklace

This little project has been brewing in my head for a long time, then last week everything came together. METHOD: Take one big washer looking toolbox find; give it a good sanding with some fine sandpaper; clean with a soft cloth; cut small flowers in 3 sizes out of a soda can; sand that clean on both sides and mold it a little so that it will hold a small amount of resin; paint the inside of the flowers with a pink pearl coloured nail polish; let dry; instead of dropping small amounts of resin inside the blossoms, I used a clear strong adhesive (Pratley Quickset Clear, me thinks it's basically resin) which I bought for gluing things permanently in the jewelry making process; let dry completely; then mix another very small blob of the adhesive and very quickly glue the blossoms in place on the washer looking thing (this adhesive dries in 3 minutes and sets permanently within 24 hours); mix yet another even smaller amount of adhesive to glue rhinestones in the centre of each blossom...bling! (didn't have a third tiny rhinestone for the smallest blossom so used a small blob of silver glitter glue)...and 'ta-da!' you have a very stylish pendant. All it needs is a suitable chain. Mine is made of two strings of pink and clear seed beads. Très chic, no?

4. Salmon Pink Peyote Tube Bead Necklace with Flower

There's a trend here...pink...and floral. Something new I learned this week...making Peyote Tube Beads with seed beads! I found a great tutorial here: <http://inspirationalbeading.blogspot.com/2011/01/beading-tutorials-peyote-tube-beads.html> , after seeing the merveilleuse creations Emma from http://fredbeansnook.com/blog/ makes.

I guess that's all for today, but I can't log off without sharing something very cute and very sweet...

http://www.etsy.com/shop/allthatsassdesigns

Blessings!

Surita

Better late than never...

This is my very first post! Yeah! I wanted to start blogging on the 1st of January, but life happens and then some...so here I am, better late than never. I'm still not sure I like the look of my blog but it will have to do for now. Hopefully in the days and weeks and months to come I will fill this blog with all the lovely & beautiful things I plan to make this year. Not forgetting lots and lots of lovely inspirational pictures I find on the net...I'm a serious serial image googler:)

So to start off with, I'm in love with 'shabby chic' and have been using up my internet bytes googling shabby chic blogs and downloading loads and loads of chicness to inspire me for making everything from jewelry to recycled 'tin food can lanterns'. There is just sooooooo many ideas out there. I've also been hoarding a mountain of 'junk' to up cycle and turn into art...food cans, soda cans, glass jars, egg cartons, plastic milk jugs, those bread-bag-tie-thingies, etc. In the last week though I've been re-learning to crochet...so imagine the big bulging file of free patterns that's been downloaded, everything from basic crochet stitches and easy crochet flowers for beginners to things I've never heard of...cowls & cloches...which turned out to be a kind of scarf and a hat. Learning new things all the time people!

So here goes some inspiration: