Birthdays

I've been busy with boring stuff like paperwork lately and not been making anything so I took time out last week to make birthday pressies for two friends. First up was EC's day and as she doesn't wear fashion jewellery often I decided to make a bag charm. I really like the plated gunmetal finish on the findings and the square, cut out piece fit perfectly on a chunky semi-precious bead pendant I've had for a while. All secured with silver wire wrapping and a vintage red bead with dangling leaf charms to finish.

LD's is a Leap Year birthday and so for her 9th(!) official birthday I again used laminated butterfly images, originally done for a recent step by step Making Jewellery Magazine article. L had admired that necklace and I promised to do something similar for her. This time I wanted to give the piece more weight and so used a recycled, antique gold finish chain (almost genuine Vintage..it was mine from the 80's!) interspersed with a selection of semi-precious beads and spacers. I chose three different butterflies in similar colours and used long head pins to attach to each other,  folded over at the back, looping around each other to form a rigid frame. This gives the pendant some weight and will keep the butterlies in place.

I'm very pleased with the finished pieces and hope the girls were happy. It's SE's birthday next in March and I already have a lovely quirky design in mind. April & May sees my two oldest friends (R&G)and I reach our milestone birthdays and so I will have to pull my sketch book out and get some new ideas flowing in readiness to produce something special for them both.

 I will be spending my big birthday week attending a course to enable me to teach jewellery making skills to students. I'm really looking forward to being able to offer workshops and welcome any suggestions or interest in what I can make available to those interested in making bead designs.