Catching Up

I've been neglecting my blog lately in favour of making tons of great new things! But now it's time to catch up and give you tons of pictures :)
I'll start with some new kumihimo designs:

Mixed copper seed beads with a big flower accent.

A little mermaid inspiration!

Red, black and hematite beads.

A little fun and funky with pink and black!

Hematite saucers give kumihimo a different look.

And here's some new chainmaille work:

Byzantine bracelets made with glass donuts.

A busy byzantine masterpiece!

New weave called Dragonscale!

More glass donuts in necklaces.

Full persian in black and silver, with a nice silver rock!

Smaller orange glass donuts in a full set!

Small black donuts in a bracelet.

Seed beeds and jump rings make bubble bracelets!

Coloured chainmaille!

And some chainmaille worked into watches!!

Copper and silver.

All black!

Byzantine pocket watch.

Simple chain pocket watch.

Black and silver band. 

And, finally, here's a collection of necklaces:

Crochet with blue stones.

Crochet with yellow stones.

A little mix of black and clear!

Clear beads and gold, it goes with everything!

Long necklace with random green beads.

Inspired by New Years! Champagne and glitter!

Blue cubes and a butterfly for spring!

Chunky and tribal!

Orange beads wired into an eye-catching pendant!

Lime is so in this spring!

A full butterfly set in matte grey.

Gold and black for a night out!

A purple variation on a string of pearls!

Kumihimo Kraziness!

My latest obsession is kumihimo! Based on the traditional Japanese art of weaving silk into braids and ornaments, the jewellery world has tons of variations to offer using silk cord and beads to make some pretty cool stuff!

Check out these links to see the tools used and more samples of finished work:
http://www.weirdollsandcrafts.com/kumihimo/kumihimo.html
http://craftdesignonline.com/gallery/

Now check out my stuff!

My first braid... simple black and white swirl with a nice white bead.

Pink and black swirl with an Archimedes quote.

Two tone red in honour of that lovey dovey squishy day :)

Some green luck for the Irish.

Four shades of brown with a silver key.

Black and grey for my favourite elephant charm!

Here's where I started getting creative with beads.

These are glass pearls woven with a fine white cord.

I think it looks like grandmother's pearls with a 21st century twist!

Pink and clear cube beads, and it's surprisingly smooth on the neck!

I used blue cord and silver seed beads... it took so

long I quit once I had enough for a bracelet!

Teal and purple are so IN this season!

Another seed bead experiment in blue :)



Metal Bouquet

My biggest chainmaille piece yet!

And some other chainmaille work...



Pink and purple donuts with byzantine chain.

Semi-precious Unakite stone and peach glass beads.

More Chainmaille!

Here are a few more pieces I've worked on this month:

This is a wide cuff bracelet in the wedding knot weave,

done in black, silver, and gold.

This is a necklace of byzantine chainmaille and copper crystals.

This necklace is full persian with different sized rings.

Another necklace in full persian, with a Cruella DeVille flair :)

This is a 3-row crystal bracelet.

This bracelet has tiny pearls woven into a three row wedding knot weave.

This necklace was named "Nefertiti" by a friend for it's collar style.

Fancy Chainmaille!

I took some basic chainmaille weaves to new levels to create some sparkly and fancy pieces!

This necklace is done in full persian weave, in shiny copper and black nickel.

This bracelet and earring set are a variation of Japanese 6 in 1,

in silver and black, with silver crystals. 

Chainmaille

Over the holiday I experimented with some new chainmaille weaves:

This one has many names, wedding knot, helms weave,

parallel chain... but I just think it's pretty in black and gold!

This dainty one is called camelot, there are 26 rings per flower! 

This is the full persian weave in antique copper.

This is the wedding knot chain again, in black and silver and slightly larger rings.

Variations of the Japanese 6 in 1 weave, in black silver and gold.

This bracelet has scherzo weve (silver knots) with blue hematite crystals. 

This is known as bird in a cage, or pearl in a cage. 

This flat weave is called 6 in 1, or mermaid, and I used antique copper and black.  

This is full persian again, in black and silver, with black crystals.

And I made a nice long chain out of all of my random extra rings!

Little bit of everything

Here are a few samples of things I've been working on in the past month.

 Christmas tree earrings for the festive season!



Knitted cuff bracelets with stone chips.

More knitted bracelets.

Orange amber stones with black squares in a bracelet. 

Pearls and turqoise glass in a three row bracelet.

Wine charm sets, perfect for gift giving!

A long necklace with amber coloured crystals and silver chain. 

Bookmarks!